The Shady Oaks Campground in Orland, Maine, has been hosting summer campers on Leaches Point Road since 1969, the Ellsworth American reported. The campground has five rental cabins and 70 sites for RVs, complete with Wi-Fi and electrical, water and sewer hook-ups.
Still, campground owners Marlene and David Greenlaw wanted to do something to bring in more campers every tourist season.
“We just were looking for something to make us stand out a little bit more,” said Marlene Greenlaw, who has owned the campground with David since 2014.
Earlier in May, they got that something: they became a franchisee of Kampgrounds of America Inc. (KOA), a network of 500 campgrounds across the U.S. and Canada that are all held to the same standards of safety, cleanliness and fun, the KOA website says.
“A lot of people who travel look for KOAs,” David said. “They know what to expect when they get to one.”
As part of the deal, the Greenlaws had to change the campground name from Shady Oaks to Bucksport/Fort Knox KOA. The couple hope that the brand will help attract weekday campers in particular. KOA has thousands of members who get special deals at member campgrounds during the week.
“We want to tap into their network of campers,” Greenlaw said.
Luckily, they didn’t have to do too much work to meet the KOA standards, since the Shady Oaks standards were already quite high.
“Things went a lot faster than we expected,” David said. “The reason why it was such a smooth transition is we were already up to spec with a lot of stuff anyways.”
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