RVtravel.com RVers, we need your help. We received this letter from Amy earlier this week. We could’ve just replied and sent her our own advice, but what’s better than advice from 100,000 real RVers (you!).
Please read her letter, then leave a comment below.
Amy says…
Hi, there! My name is Amy. My husband and I recently purchased a 20-unit motel with 11 full-hookup RV sites in Osakis, MN.
The Motel & Motor Lodge was built in 2003 and was run poorly from day one. It eventually turned into long-term housing for a lot of questionable individuals. And then along comes us… high school sweethearts with two kids, ages 2 and under.
We spent our 20s flipping houses and two apartment buildings, and then for the grand finale (year 29), we bought The Motel, and we are partway through phase one of renovations and stumbling our way through the camper world…
You see, we’ve always been too busy working to take the time to go camping… so I’m looking for some guidance from experts. How the heck am I supposed to advertise RV spots? Is the camping world slowing down? What platforms do I need to be on?
It’s the week of the 4th of July, and we only have one RV reservation…
Here’s our website if you’d like to check us out and give us some guidance. Thank you!
Your turn to help
Okay, RVers, you know what to do. Help Amy and her family out. How do you find campgrounds or RV parks to book? Where should they advertise their sites? What else would you like to see that would draw your attention to them and make them stand out?
Oh, and if you’d like to book a site at Amy’s place, you can learn more and do so here.
MORE LETTERS TO OUR EDITOR:
- Solo travel is booming, but many RVers aren’t ready to go alone
- Balancing an RV life with family obligations back home
- Having to plan ahead for everything is not the RV life I signed up for!
- Why are campground check-in times so late?
RVT1269
You took the first step already in getting the questionable tenants off the property. Nobody wants to camp next to a decrepit, full time RV slum. Good work.
I look for campgrounds on RV Life first. I don’t see you listed, so I think its important for one or two of your guests to post a review (hopefully great!) which will start to give you some visibility.
Getting the questionable tenants off the property is the first good thing.
Getting on RV Life Campgrounds is the next thing I would do. Any RV Park we look at gets researched there. I’ve trusted that site way back when it was RV Park Reviews. Get listed on state camping literature (many states have a campground guide at rest areas), list attractions, fueling options and restaurants on your website.
Also, join some of the forums. RVforums.com. Rvforum.net. You want your Motor Lodge biz name to start to appear in internet searches. Also, rebranding the RV part of your location as “RV Motor Lodge”, as I would not expect Motor Lodge to mean RV campground.
I agree with Bob and Barbara. RV Life is my go to for finding where we’ll stay. When you do have guests encourage them to write reviews on RV Life and Google.
We always used Allstays. I see your town is next to Osakis Lake. What’s good about that lake? Is there a great old diner in Osaka’s? Is Osakis on the way to someplace people want to go? If there truly is no reason to go to or thru Osakis, start something yourself. Begin a pie day, or something fun. Advertise in Minneapolis papers. Give away a free Holiday weekend to a church. Find the closest RV dealer and make sure they have colored flyers promoting your campground. Don’t give up!
Allstays and Dyrt.
We have done 3 cross country RV trips where I was looking for a good overnight spot in your area! Definitely get on RV trip wizard. A few good reviews should really help get things going and as mentioned, you did great getting the riff raff out of there. Best of luck and see you in a couple years when we can again pass that way.
Ww look for RV Parks/Campgrounds with few amenities. My advice “keep it simple.” More amenities/infrastructure need to more maintenance/$$. Nice, fairly level sites with full hookups that work is our go to.
Good luck/God bless
I would have photos of each site available to see when someone is interested in booking a campsite. Trees and, especially, distance between sites is something we appreciate. We use RVLife Trip Wizard to start, as well. However, not every campground in an area is in there. So then I switch to a Google maps search.
What a great story! I wish you both the best. Is the former name of your place The Sportsman RV park? That’s how it looks on google. You need to get listed on RV Life campgrounds and The Dyrt under your new name so folks will see you.
Add your campground to RV Life Tripwizard. It is a simple web form you can fill out and be added to the campground list.
https://campgrounds.rvlife.com/parks/add
I did this today, hopefully will get the ball rolling.
Looking at your reservation page, the photo of the electrical box shows a 50amp outlet, but when you search sites it only indicates 30 amp electrical available. They all show a max of 8′. I’ve never seen this before. My rig is 8’6″ wide and with slides out about 11′ wide. Will I fit? Which site is which, the reservation software doesn’t indicate site number and location on property. You need a picture of each site for each site number. Also photos of everything completed. Just gravel and concrete pads are not inviting.
Agree that they need to post measurements and photos.
But there are different kinds of stays and travel. For overnight travel, a level pad with just electrical, at a lower cost than full hookup, can be fine. I don’t appreciate rolling in at 6 for an overnight while traveling, finding no showers because ‘you don’t need it, all our sites are full hookup’, and finding that full hookup means $50 a night. I don’t want to hook up 3 utilities for a 12 hour stay.
You have a great website and yours is the kind of place we like to stay but we most likely wouldn’t see it because our go to resource is Allstays. They show you on their map as “Sportsman’s Motel & RV Park” but it is not coded as an RV facility so it doesn’t show up in a filtered search. We wish you the best.
I think the biggest thing is to decide what kind of RV park you want to be. Overnighters? Short-stay (up to a week)? Or Long-stay (seasonal)? Each group has different needs. What does your local chamber or business group say about why people pass through? Is the town a rest-stop, a center for festivals, or is it a hub for fishers or hunters? Answers (always more than one) to those questions will help dictate your business plan and how you market it. And my second suggestion is to ask those questions separately for each side of your business – as though they are two businesses.
There are many kinds of campers! Become an expert in why people visit your area. A stop while traveling down the interstate? Fishing & Boating on the lake? Weekend from the city, or week+ vacation?
I find the best way to get good reviews (counter to advertising recommendations) is to under promise and over deliver. Post lots of photos and clear dimensions of the sites. Make sure the utilities can deliver as promised. This is the big switch the internet has brought small businesses. Make people happy they picked you rather than disappointed in the reality they find.
I wouldn’t stay there because of the parking lot feel. No barriers between sites, no shade, no views.
Very good comments here. I would add that your website name does not emphasize the RV park well enough for internet search engines. Also, when I clicked on “Camping”…the pictures are a major turn off. Very sterile like a dirt parking lot without showing space between sites, picnic tables, etc.. The overhead satellite shot is plain awful…appears like an industrial site. Focus on some appeal.
Suggestion: Go online to website such as Campendium, AllStays, RV Life, Road Trippers, RV Parky et al., and add your campground to their listings, many of them are completely free to do so. Furthermore, membership companies like Passport America, Good Sam et al., can increase the advertising reach but there is discount requirements or fees that may apply. My wife and I live full-time and travel in our, and would have stayed there just last week had we known your RV park existed. We instead stayed in Barnseville, Rockville, and Maple Grove.
As opposed to some others, we would love to stay (and have stayed may times) in an RV park like yours. But we would only find it if it is on RV Life Campgrounds or Campendium.com. We do not use any RV park listing service that requires a subscription. And we do look at photos, along with the reviews, before deciding where to stay.
We are “travelers” in a small Class C motorhome, not “campers”, so seldom stay in one location more than 1-3 days. RV park amenities like pools, golf, a bar, a store, etc., are not important. But a well-maintained site with reliable 30A electric and water is very important! We don’t need sewer at a site if there is an easily accesible common dump. Good luck!
I search Google for RV campgrounds in an area I want to visit. I also search using Good Sam Club reviews.
I think you should add your phone number and address to the bottom of every page.
I used to use RV park reviews, but now I normally just look on Google maps to find RV parks in the area where I want to stay, and then link to their website from there AFTER I look at a satellite view of the park. Your sites appear to have been designed by someone who knew very little about using RVs, as the water and electric are up by the road a long ways from where they need to be for most RVs. They are probably workable for most, but are in a vulnerable location where they’re likely to be hit by someone backing in or pulling out. On the reservation page the sites say pull-thru, but the FAQ says back in. Overnight prices are extremely good … I expected $40 or more. I wish you well
I second DLOYD’S recommendation to get on Campendium, AllStays, RV Life, Road Trippers, RV Parky et al. and submit your info. I mostly use Allstays, but the others get used sometime too.
There was a startup campground in northern Arizona a few years back that wrote a regular column here in RV travel about getting going. It was a fun read and I’m sure they drummed up guests from readers.
We use Google Maps and find an area that we would like to stay then use the search keyword of “campground.” I see this location doesn’t come up when I apply this search. However it does come up when I use the search keyword “RV.” Maybe it would help if you can determine how to get your location to come up when someone searches for “campground.” That said today I learned to use the search term “RV” to find a possible park.
As someone else mentioned our trailer is8’6” so we would need to confirm if that’s an issue.
Sent request through rv life trip wizard to add your campground.