7 ways RV Parks can manage campground amenities in 2022

RV park camping may be an age-old American tradition, but like most other forms of recreation, the RV park industry struggled with the rest of the world as people were forced indoors during the hard-hitting pandemic years. Picnic tables, RV sites, tent trailers, boating, hiking, fishing, bustling campsites took a seat in the backburner. That said, the post-vaccinated world looks brighter for RV parks and campgrounds worldwide, with people looking to get away from their homes for a change.

The ability to plan a trip in the picturesque outdoors and explore wide-open roads, a few quiet hours by the shorelines, desert living, for ‘workamping’ or glamping is beyond bounds. A 2020 article in the Wall Street Journal suggests RV vacations are the safest ways to travel, not to mention they provide the comfort of staying safe like at home while being outdoors.

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RV trips and camping activities require significant planning and execution on the part of campground host, owners, and managers. Starting from providing an excellent campsite to hosting visitors at their scheduled arrival at the camping spot, offering the best amenities from your site to improving campsite reservations, managing day-to-day camping site operations, collecting fees and funds, maintaining reports, or managing the camp staff, to name but a few - there are too many things to be taken care of!

So while the background work of a campground manager or RV park owner may seem daunting, it is worth investing the time and energy to reap huge profits at the end of the day. In fact, a successful RV park owner can make anywhere between $50,000-$90,000 a year with the right location, amenities, resources, and reputation. And, of course, smart management can give you an edge if you choose the right campground management software to streamline your services.

According to Businesswire Global market trajectory and Analytics Report, Global RV Parks and Campgrounds Market will likely reach $47.6 Billion by 2027. In this context of the burgeoning demand for RV vacations, it is only wise for RV park owners to strike the iron while it’s hot and claims their share of profits in this booming market. And to leverage and capture the best of this opportunity, ramping up by creating the best guest experience is the bottom line.

How to create the best RV parks experience?

There is an ever-increasing need for RV park owners and campground managers to stay on top of their game constantly! Being a good host is one of the most significant ways to start. For that, there are several good ways to create the best stay for Recreational Vehicles at your beautiful campground or camping site. These are the five ways in which you can get started -

1. Campground Amenities
2. Ease of Bookings
3. Membership Management
4. Staff Management
5. Integrate your favorite business tools
6. Equip yourself with widgets
7. Data tracking, analytics, and marketing tools

Starting from catering to essential utilities in running a campsite, to offering fabulous amenities, from interpersonal skills of your staff to resolving guest requests, from setting up a game-room to organizing a pool party, campground owners can get all creative with their stock of recreational amenities and guest experience. Let’s find out how some of these steps can make your RV park or campground a popular site for campers.

1. Campground Amenities

A campground or RV park with all the basic amenities and necessary utilities for a camper’s night stay or day out naturally means some thought being put in to become the best hospitality provider. But turning the game around would be when there are multiple fun and attractive amenities that wow your guests, families, or large groups and make their stay even more enjoyable! Several campgrounds install popular amenities like swimming pools, game rooms, yoga classes, horseback riding, communal campground kitchens, co-working spaces, fishing opportunities, and much more. The idea is to not just stop at what’s expected but to go beyond standard amenities and stand out as a campground. Something that is more than just restroom facilities, laundry facilities, showers, or a family picnic table!

Even though your campground has manifold amenities, taking care of daily bookings and time slots for each won’t be chaotic or arduous if an effective and comprehensive online reservation system is used. A smart, intuitive platform gives life to a self-managed system for campground owners, which will simplify reservations for amenities where your guests can easily schedule slots, rent facilities, and more from one user-friendly dashboard.‍

2. Ease of Bookings

Following point number one, ‘ease of bookings’ is a crucial aspect when your campground offers a variety of amenities to your guests who visit your camp. Considering an RV park staff has way too many things to take care of, an intuitive Online Reservation System can change the game for you by streamlining bookings and decluttering day-to-day operations. It significantly reduces the workload of your front desk staff and removes the chances of double bookings. It is a modern and intelligent alternative to answering phone calls, making reservations, collecting payments manually, and welcoming campers upon arrival seamlessly.

Wouldn’t it be nice for business owners to stop losing bookings even after work hours? Hence, adopting cloud-based campground management software is the simplest and most efficient way forward to meet your business demands. Ensure smooth check in options, automate communication with guests and staff, manage guests, track vaccination records, drive revenues and make a lasting impression of your campground or RV park, and inspire more and more people to visit you each year!‍

3. Membership Management

One way to shine brighter than other campgrounds or RV parks is by going the extra mile for your members. A better translation would be just providing the camp essentials - it means identifying the things that can add value to your member experience and delivering them effectively.

As you attract new members, you will have to innovate over time to satisfy their needs and identify what more you can do to make your campground experience better than the rest. Keep your eyes fixed on improving your member experience, and you will see greater engagement within your community.

Recognize the amenities your members enjoy the most and back yourself with analytics to pinpoint the improvements you can make to each activity, whether it’s changing up the timings or the number of classes offered in a week. Enable exclusive access to your amenities, set up exciting discounts, set up membership options, and conduct exclusive events for members only!

If you can make your members feel special at your campground, they will only reward you with their loyalty along with a healthy recurring revenue to shore up your business!

4. Staff Management

Human resources are indeed the backbone of any organization, and RV parks are no exception. As most of the job in campground management or managing RV parks depends on taking care of your guests and coming across different types of people, building a solid team and managing it is pivotal. Especially on the aspect of facilities management, where otherwise running a campground plus its amenities would have been a nightmare without a skilled team. How about using tools that adapt to your life of hustle and make it hassle-free? And why not? Even managing a vast team is additional work!

A booking system allows a seamless admin process to manage your staff or facility attendants. It provides a system where facility staff can coordinate better, from scheduling to team communication. A transparent system for members that can easily view open slots on the calendar, where team members also have access to each other’s schedules to check for any conflicts and clients enjoy a real-time booking experience.

An online booking system like Omnify allows admins to add as many teammates to your account, whereby the staff can get dashboard access, view client data and their upcoming schedules. The owner or admin can also ensure access management to restrict dashboard access and decide what level of access a trainer or team member gets. Moreover, smart auto-emails keep your staff well updated and notified of new bookings and cancellations on their services with auto-generated emails for confirmations or cancellations.

Instilling easy team communication and team spirit is the only way forward for any RV park or campground with many amenities to manage.

5. Integrate your favorite business tools 

Agreed that there are thousands of things to manage at your campground. Business automation tools can help you streamline a lot of that efficiently, smoothly, and in auto-pilot mode! So you can keep being the business owner or the manager at your campground like you always wanted to be and not get stuck as an accounts guy, the front desk guy, or the sales guy, probably.

Just by integrating Omnify with Zapier, campground managers can optimize business operations with the magic of workflow automation and do incredible things without even the required effort. For instance, there are many campground staff that uses common accounting tools such as Quickbooks or Xero. Now, with Omnify’s Zapier integration, you could speed up accounting in no time. Whenever a new booking happens in your Omnify account and a new transaction is initiated, a corresponding action of a new contact creation seamlessly occurs in your QuickBooks account. The payment information is automatically transferred via Zapier to Quickbooks for invoice generation or receipt. This eliminates the need for an accounting staff if you are a small business and allows easy handling of customer accounts during rush hours for a medium/big business.

Read How to Automate your business operations with Omnify and Zapier

6. Equip yourself with widgets

It’s an understandable conundrum. Do you host your own booking system on your website? Or do you use a separate booking system that makes visitors leave your website to complete bookings?

You would like your website to be the only place people can book your amenities, bringing the whole booking process down to a couple of taps. But setting up and maintaining your booking system will be a lot of work. This is where technology can be used to support your vision!

Find yourself an amenities reservation software that also allows you to embed its booking system on your website using an iframe widget. An iframe widget hosts your personalized booking store on your website, and people can easily complete their bookings without leaving the page!

The process becomes instantly more convenient and offers you all the added benefits of using a booking system - from the seamless synchronization of real-time data to the customizable communication you can maintain with your guests and members.

7. Data tracking, analytics, and marketing techniques

Campers that love you will get back to you again and again. But marketing your RV park or campground effectively will be key! Getting the right leads and capitalizing on a seasonal surge can be all it takes to boost your business. Social media marketing techniques, word-of-mouth referrals, fliers, and Google reviews are just a few ways that will help in presenting your RV park as the most sought-after.

Social media is a powerful tool and a two-way street to market your business. Try making your campsite social media-friendly with a social corner adorned with interesting posters where guests would be excited to click pictures and share them on their social media profiles. Naturally, your RV parks get the desired publicity. It humanizes your brand and builds trust among potential visitors to revisit your camp.

Enhance your online visibility with a business website representing your park well and making it easy for people to find you and know about your offerings. When people search for RV parks on the internet, they should find you, so make sure you appear right on top of the search results.

But before, improve your digital marketing and social media visibility using Omnify’s easy integration with leading Smart Marketing Analytics tools - Google Tag Manager (GTM) to give unprecedented access to conversion tracking, remarketing, and deploy tracking capabilities faster. Facebook Pixel helps your business grow in the right direction by making sure that your ads target the right people. Whereas integrating with Google Analytics will get you a live dashboard to help track your campaigns better and analyze and scale your operations. Omnify also allows businesses to add Meta Descriptions and get an SEO-optimized booking site, thus helping with traction.‍

Check how you can add custom code to your Omnify Service store in just 3 steps!‍

To Conclude

Keep all of these points in mind to level up your campground game. Elevate your member experience with amenities that they deserve, and they will keep returning to your awesome campground, of course, without spreading yourself too thin! Learn more about how Omnify is designed to support your campground needs, and start your FREE TRIAL today!

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