Even as booking windows become shorter, private park operators are generally expecting this fall’s camping season to be on par with last year’s figures.
Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA), Blue Water Development Corp., Northgate Resorts, The Jenkins Organization and other campground networks are generally expecting their business levels this fall to be close to last year’s figures.
Campspot, an online reservation service provider with a customer base of more than 2,600 parks, is also seeing momentum pick up across its platform, according to Errica Williams-Henke, Campspot’s marketing manager for content and communications.
“The outlook for fall is a good one: campground bookings are pacing slightly ahead of last year across the board,” Williams-Henke said in an emailed statement. “September is leading the way, up 2% year-over-year and sitting at 39% occupancy, with October, November and December each following close behind with steady 1% gains. It’s a strong signal that camper demand isn’t slowing down as the weather cools — it’s simply shifting into its next season.”
Regionally, Campspot is also seeing some noteworthy trends.
“We’re seeing real momentum build across the central U.S. and the Great Plains, with states like Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Louisiana posting some of the strongest growth in the country this September,” Williams-Henke said. “At the same time, a handful of markets that have historically leaned on Canadian visitation — including the Northeast (New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire) along with Nevada and Florida — are seeing softer numbers this fall. It’s a trend worth watching, but it isn’t dampening the overall picture: the industry is proving resilient, despite the headwinds faced earlier this year when gas prices impacted traveler behavior.”
All of this is important because over the past couple of decades, growing numbers of campground operators have transformed their September and October weekends into some of their busiest weekends of the year.
Labor Day may still mark the end of the summer camping season. But instead of transitioning into a dramatically slower and quieter fall shoulder season, growing numbers of campgrounds are packing their September and October weekends with a variety of fun, family-friendly activities. Many campgrounds have multiple Halloween-themed weekends that rival their busiest summer weekends.
“One of the biggest shifts we have seen over the last several years is that fall is no longer simply the period after summer. It has become a season of its own,” said Jessica Nichols, chief operating officer for Blue Water, which manages over 50 private parks across the U.S.
“September and October are increasingly important across many of our Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and mountain destinations,” Nichols said, adding, “Peak fall weekends can rival, and in some cases outperform, summer weekends. Summer demand tends to be spread more evenly throughout the week, while fall demand is heavily driven by weekends, leaf peepers, festivals, and special programming.”
Blue Water’s biggest Halloween events include “Frontfear Town” at Sun Outdoors Frontier Town in Berlin, Md. and “Scarystone” Sun Outdoors Cape Charles in Cape Charles, Va.
“Both properties transform for multiple Halloween-themed weekends throughout October, featuring costume contests, elaborate site decorating competitions, trick-or-treating, and a variety of family-focused activities,” Nichols said. “These events have developed such a loyal following that guests plan and book months in advance, with many families arriving as early as Thursday just to decorate their sites and prepare for the weekend festivities. ‘Frontfear Town’ and ‘Scarystone’ have become true fall traditions, creating experiences that families look forward to and return year after year.”
Blue Water is also challenging its management teams across its portfolio of parks to create new fall experiences and build partnerships with local attractions that give guests a reason to extend their travel beyond the traditional summer season.
“From Halloween and harvest weekends, hayrides, bonfires, and live entertainment to nearby hiking, sightseeing, wineries, breweries, and local festivals, these experiences can transform what was once an ordinary shoulder-season weekend into a true destination weekend,” Nichols said, adding that private park operators should no longer see Labor Day as the end of the camping season.
“For Blue Water, fall has become a meaningful opportunity to extend the season, drive incremental revenue, and create memorable experiences that give guests an entirely different reason to visit our properties,” she added.
Other companies with big private portfolios have similar perspectives.
“Our fall business is increasingly event-driven,” said Mitch Spence, chief commercial officer for Northgate Resorts, which owns and operates more than 35 private parks across the country, including Jellystone Park, Camp Fimfo and Camp Margaritaville locations as well as numerous independently branded parks. “Halloween weekends carry a lot of it, and at our larger destination parks we have been building out live music and weekend programming to give people a reason to travel in the shoulder season. Those weekends continue to book well.”
Fall is also a critically important season for The Jenkins Organization, which owns and operates several Jellystone Park locations as well as multiple parks that are branded as Great Escapes RV Resorts.
“The fall/Halloween season is very important to our business and continues to be the favorite time at the campgrounds for many staff and guests,” said Kelly Jones, Jenkins’ vice president of operations. “We consider these weekends to be a part of our ‘signature’ season, which is the same sunup-to-sundown fun that we provide all summer long. October weekends are generally just as busy as a summer weekend.”
“Our parks go all out for Halloween,” said Cherolyn Chiang, Jenkins’ director of marketing. “Several of our parks celebrate Halloween every weekend throughout October, with some offering five full Halloween weekends. Our northern parks typically wrap up a little earlier in October due to weather, but every October weekend they are open is a Halloween weekend.”
Activities at Great Escapes locations include trick-or-treating; glow rides; creepy cute crafts and themed games; pumpkin carving and painting; costume and campsite decorating contests; haunted attractions, including a trail of terror, Chiang said.
Halloween-themed weekends are also among the busiest of the year in the Jellystone Park network.
“Jellystone Park fall and Halloween weekends have been successful for many years. They’re a second season for our brand and many locations now offer six or more fall and Halloween-themed weekends — more than they did in the past,” said Trent Hershenson, vice president of marketing for Camp Jellystone.
He added: “The fun of trick-or-treating, costume contests, and site/cabin decorating is so universal that some Jellystone Park locations have recently introduced Halloween-themed weekends in the Spring or Summer to keep the Halloween fun going throughout the calendar year.”
The KOA franchise network, for its part, also offers a wide range of fall activities to keep its guests entertained. The Medina/Wild
wood Lake KOA in Medina, N.Y., for example, offers an Oktoberfest-themed weekend Sept. 11-13 at the park’s onsite winery/tavern, which will also have live music and a poker run open to all ages, followed by three Halloween-themed weekends.
Many independently owned and operated parks are also developing their own unique Halloween celebrations.
Firefly Hills, a family-owned and operated park in Beattyville, Ky., near the Red River Gorge, offers Halloween-themed events from Oct. 25 to Nov. 8, along with outdoor activities, including hiking, rock climbing, fishing and horseback riding. Halloween-themed activities include a murder mystery dinner, trick-or-treating and a high-energy Halloween dance party.
With so much business activity directly tied to Halloween and other fall-themed weekends, September and October have become increasingly important for campground operators from a business perspective.
But given the shortening booking windows, it’s also imperative that park operators promote their fall activities and special events far in advance, Mike Harrison, chief operating officer of CRR Hospitality, told WCM in an emailed statement.
“There is so much talk in the industry about the booking window and how it has shrunk, and that is generally true. We also (need to) focus on the ‘planning window’ and how far out a potential customer is looking at your property. Many times, it’s 180 days, then 90 days, and then again within that two-week booking window. So, it’s very important to provide these ‘shoppers’ with content and things to look at to help shape their decision — and to share with their friends and families.”
Harrison said CRR curates activities and special events across multiple weekends to boost its fall business.
“In general, it helps push full occupancy on all our lodging units, and escalated RV site occupancy — generally above 75% at all properties,” he said.
Many of CRR’s activities are unusual. At the company’s Coachella Lakes RV Resort in Coachella, Calif., for example, park staff will convert their 18-hole putting course into a scary, haunted journey.
“We also host fantastic Thanksgiving events all weekend long – for the humans and for the dogs. We make it very family-friendly, and every property hosts a potluck Thanksgiving lunch for those families that don’t have anyone to spend it with,” he noted.
The idea, Harrison said, is to give guests the ability to create fun memories and experiences and a spirit of “I want to be there” to help drive business. With so many activities being planned at campgrounds and RV resorts across the country, park operators are confident that business levels this fall will generally match last year’s figures.
Generally speaking, park operators anticipate business to be close to last year’s figures.
“Overall, we’re expecting fall to land in line with our budgets,” said Spence. “Some markets are softer; others are well ahead. A continuing trend is that guests are booking much closer to arrival than they used to, so we have less visibility this far out than we would have had a few years ago.”
Kimberly Wootteon, senior vice president of commercial strategy for KOA, which has over 500 franchisees across the U.S. and Canada, also anticipates a strong fall camping season, even as booking windows continue to tighten.
“KOA anticipates a healthy fall camping season, with business pacing slightly ahead of last year,” Wootteon said, citing KOA’s latest research, which found that
68% of campers plan to camp over Labor Day weekend, with many planning to extend the holiday into a longer getaway.
“Fall camping intent is also trending up,” Wootteon added, “but only 15% of campers who plan to camp this fall have made a reservation so far, presenting additional opportunities in the coming months.”
Blue Water is also upbeat.
“We remain optimistic about fall and generally expect business across our portfolio to be in line with or ahead of last year, although performance varies by market,” Nichols said. “Guests continue to be more value-conscious and are booking closer to arrival, with weather, special events, and the overall value of the experience playing a larger role in their travel decisions.”
Jones shares the same sentiments.
“Site nights for October are looking up year over year, over most of our portfolio and we expect those numbers to continue to grow as summer winds down and folks start to think about their fall plans. September is also seeing tremendous growth, but I expect that mostly has to do with where Labor day falls this year compared to last.”
Some park operators even anticipate that their fall business will exceed last year’s figures, including Advanced Outdoor Management (AOM), which manages more than 40 parks in 23 states.
“Across our portfolio, we’re up 4% over 2025 from October through December and running ahead of budget for this year, and I don’t think that’s isolated to us,” said Rachel Godbout, AOM’s chief operating officer. She said two structural changes are taking place in the fall campground business right now.
“The first is that the shoulder season has stopped being a discount and started being a product,” she added. “For years the industry treated September through December as leftover inventory to be cleared. Guests have caught up faster than operators have. They know fall rates are lower, and they’re planning around it deliberately, especially when there are holiday weekends or weekend events.
“The second is the increase in extended stays, and I’d argue this is the more important story right now,” Godbout continued. “A growing share of fall occupancy is due to guests staying longer. That fundamentally changes the shape of the season. Instead of a demand cliff after Labor Day, you get a base that carries into the fourth quarter.”
Texas-based Open Road Resorts, which has 12 parks in 10 states, is also seeing demand pick up for both overnight and extended-stay sites heading into September, October and beyond.
“Looking ahead to this fall, we expect business levels to be up year-over-year, supported by strong forward bookings and a recent uptick in demand,” said Open Road Resorts cofounder Jim Omstrom. “We’re optimistic about near- and mid-term trends across both transient and long-term stays.”
