Editor’s Note: This blog posting was first published by Northgate Resorts.
It’s a Tuesday in mid-May. Twelve families are staying at a 100-site park. The pool is still covered, the camp store is closed, and the activities director doesn’t start for three weeks. The occupancy report shows midweek nights at 11%, and the first thought is obvious: our weekday rate is too high.
In most cases, that’s the wrong conclusion, and it’s one of the most common mistakes in campground occupancy management. Here’s why, and what to do instead.
Every Night Is a Different Product
Most approaches to campground booking and occupancy management come from the hotel world. If a night fills up, its price goes up next year. If it doesn’t, its price gets cut. That approach assumes every night is the same product.
At a seasonal campground, every night is not the same product. A night at your park is a bundle: the site plus everything open around it. A Tuesday in May might include a site and a bathhouse. A Saturday in July includes the pool, the water park, a full activities schedule, and a snack bar open until nine. The site is the same, but the product is very different. The July version also costs much more to deliver.
So start with your amenity calendar instead of your occupancy report.
Step 1: Build Your Amenity Calendar
Write down, by date, what’s open:
- Pool and water park dates and hours
- Weeks your activities staff is working
- Camp store and food service hours
- When programming starts and stops
You already have this information. It’s in your hiring plan and in the hours posted on the store door. It just rarely gets to whoever sets the rates. When we provide campground occupancy management services, this calendar is one of the first things we ask for.
