Campspot Analytics: Validating Business Decisions and Delivering Peace of Mind

According to fictional mastermind Sherlock Holmes, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” We concur, and it doesn’t take much sleuthing for most business operators to deduce the same. Data is the guiding light for operations around the world, while a lack of meaningful and accessible data spells trouble for everyone—including campground operators.  

At Campspot, we have long recognized this importance and woven it into the framework of our platform through the Campspot Analytics tool and its newest Signals feature. 

Campspot Analytics is a collection of intelligent dashboards that provide clear-cut metrics and data visualizations to campground operators on demand. This real-time information is used to help inform impactful business decisions.

Campspot Signals, a suite of benchmarking dashboards, is the latest addition to the Campspot Analytics tool. Industrywide, it’s the first-of-its-kind tool for competitive benchmarking in the outdoor hospitality market. By aggregating anonymized metrics from thousands of parks across North America, Signals enables operators to compare their performance against a recommended competitive set, or comp set, of historical data. The metrics available include Average Daily Rate (ADR), Occupancy Rate (OR), Revenue per Available Site (RevPAS), and more. 

To illustrate how Campspot Analytics and Signals inform the decision-making of actual campground operators, we spoke with one multi-park executive about his experience. 

Hi, Mike, can you please introduce yourself and the properties you manage?

I’m Mike Harrison and I’m the Chief Operating Officer of CRR Hospitality. We own several large, upscale RV resorts, including Verde Ranch RV Resort, which won ARVC’s 2022 Large Park of the Year Award. We also have River Sands RV Resort, located on the Colorado River bordering California. True to its namesake, Coachella Lakes RV Resort is in the heart of Coachella Valley, California, and has five lakes onsite. Lastly, we have our newest Savannah Lakes RV Resort, which is cut right out of the forest and is a beautiful sanctuary of southern hospitality.

aerial view of Verde Ranch RV Resort
Verde Ranch RV Resort

How long has your company been using Campspot’s software to manage its RV resorts?

When we first entered this business in 2019, we chose Campspot to launch our resorts. We went through iterations of evaluating different park management softwares and what our business needed to get out of them. Speed to market for various features mattered a lot to us, which we have been pleased with from Campspot. 

During the demo phase, there were two things that struck us most. First, Campspot was able to calculate and show us how it would drive value and ultimately revenue for our enterprise. Between the Campspot Marketplace, site lock fees, dynamic pricing, and reservation grid optimization, we realized these four aspects of the platform were worth 5% of our total campground revenue, which was significant for our scale. Though there may have been other tradeoffs to consider, we couldn’t trade for this factor, and the other software options didn’t drive the same revenue for us as Campspot. 

The second reason why we chose Campspot was that we were clearly entering into a partnership. We feel that Campspot is a great partner in our success. The team actively listens to its customers and involves us in how to create the best deliverables for its customers. Our vision statement is “Evolve the industry to the modern world,” and I think Campspot takes that same approach. We want to be leading and cutting-edge, and I think Campspot rolled out the new Signals suite as a hallmark to that as well.

Before we discuss Signals specifically, how long have you been using Campspot Analytics and why?

We’ve been working with Analytics since it was unveiled within the platform. Before Analytics, we used to cobble together our own customer reports in Excel. Having an integrated data management tool in our software saves time and reduces error. We no longer have to worry about accidentally overriding a cell or importing an incorrect date time in our spreadsheets. 

In short, Analytics is what I as a corporate officer need to run the business. Our staff on the ground are in the software everyday. They are primarily focused on check-ins, add-ons, special requests—every task it takes to keep the park running. Often from this viewpoint, it’s hard to pause and take a critical look at the business from a 30,000-foot view. Although we have regular revenue meetings with our resort managers, their main focus is guest services and daily operations. So, the responsibility of revenue management lies mainly with the corporate folks, and we use Analytics in a number of different ways. 

I subscribe to certain reports that are automatically sent to me at whatever cadence I prefer. These include the Occupancy Report, Daily Report, Market Report, and Business Mix Analysis. The report I reference the most is the Occupancy Pace Report. It provides a solid “at a glance” snapshot of how the business is doing—you know, are you up or down, should you be nervous or happy, should you hit the panic button or not. 

pool table and lounge areas at Verde Ranch RV Resort
Verde Ranch RV Resort

As part of your data review routine, what metrics are you looking at on a longer time horizon, say monthly and semi-annually?

On a monthly basis, we need more data to confidently make trend decisions. So, we look at the Year-Over-Year Comparison Report by each month and sometimes by quarter. We also use the Business Mix Analysis to help guide our long-term versus short-term thinking. 

All of these reports help you ask the right questions along the lines of, “I wonder why,” “what if,” and “I’m curious about.”

Are we making the right rate decisions? Did we miss out on an opportunity? Do we need to adjust our promotions? Do we need to cap our seasonals? 

Especially now when the climate is so uncertain and there’s angst in the market, sometimes the data just provides peace of mind that we aren’t doing so bad comparatively even if we had a surprisingly rough first quarter, as we did this year. Semi-annually, we monitor what I like to call the cherry-on-top reports, including Cancellation Insights and Guest Driving Insights. 

How do you make use of the Campspot Value Report?

The Campspot Value Report is unique in that it shows you how much revenue the platform is driving for your park specifically, from performance in the Marketplace, to generation of site lock fees and incremental revenue generated from grid optimization.

If an operator were to only look at reservation fees in their profit/loss report, that line item would stick out. But when you look at the Campspot Value Report, it’s clear you’re often making five times the fee number from added value. 

This vantage point of ROI is another way of validating that we’re making the right decisions as a business, including the software provider we chose. 

pool and lodge at River Sands RV Resort
River Sands RV Resort

What is a surprising fact about your resorts that you have gleaned from exploring Campspot Analytics’ various reports and dashboards?

Last week, I looked at the Site Booking Report, which shows site nights reserved by month all the way back to 18 months ago. We have been down in reservations year over year, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that in August of 2023 we had the most site nights booked for future stays out of any other month in the last 18 months. It was our single busiest booking month by a long shot. 

Despite being slightly down overall, this datapoint shows us that our promotions and holistic strategy are working. It’s the type of calm encouragement I can take to our ownership and partners to validate our trajectory. 

mini golf course at Coachella Lakes RV Resort
Coachella Lakes RV Resort

Can you provide a specific example of how you have changed course in your business based on insights from an Analytics report?

The Business Mix Analysis shows the proportion of extended stays versus transient guests, and we’ve shaped an entirely new marketing plan with guidance from this report. 

The park relevant to this case is very transient-oriented as it’s near the Grand Canyon, and our optimal mix at this park is 60% transient and 40% long-term. Private parks across the country are suffering as people are returning to national parks for camping. Having an instant pulse on our business mix through this report showed us that we can no longer rely on nightlies and weeklies. When in the past we would have never considered advertising to traveling nurses and other niche extended-stayers, we now know to look at them as a viable market.  

With the introduction of our Signals dashboards, what value are you now able to derive from Signals that you weren’t able to from Analytics alone?

The number one difference is the market information and context. Before Signals, you were just able to understand your individual park’s or parks’ performance, but without larger context, it’s hard to know what it all means.

Signals lets you see how your resorts stack up against the market and your competition.

Through the Day of Week Performance Report, for example, you can visualize your market position week by week.  

Aside from macro-benchmarks, you can also compare ancillary income across comp sets to see how your property is performing in terms of add-ons: golf cart rentals, bags of ice sold, etc. You can see how revenue per available site stacks up, and if it’s double your comp set average, then you’re confidently driving enough revenue through ancillary means. 

golf carts parked in front of lodge at Savannah Lakes RV Resort
Savannah Lakes RV Resort

What has been your overall impression of Signals since the rollout?

Since Signals launched, it has really helped us frame up our positioning in the broader outdoor hospitality market. While you don’t know exactly who you’re compared to given the anonymity, you have much more valuable context than before. Much of the terminology and reporting within Signals was already familiar to our team given our hotel backgrounds; however, I can imagine operators who come from a strict campground operations background will deal with a learning curve in Signals at first. 

We experienced a very tough May booking-wise. Our year-over-year performance was down double digits. When we looked at the Signals report, we thankfully saw our comp set had experienced the exact same revenue dip. Knowing this did not solve the problem, but it isolated whether our issue was unique or a broader market issue. Knowing this difference is invaluable to either change course or charge ahead.

Thank you, Mike, for sharing your perspective on Campspot Analytics and Signals!

To learn more about how Campspot Analytics and Signals are empowering campground operators through data, visit one of our articles below:

 

Haley Dalian is a lifelong Michigander who takes advantage of recreation throughout the state’s changing seasons—from snow skiing to scuba diving in the Great Lakes. A former Campspot marketing manager, Haley holds a B.A. degree in public policy from Michigan State University and an M.S. degree in sustainability from the University of Michigan. She is passionate about environmental stewardship, exploring the outdoors, and has never met a potato she didn’t like.

The 7 Most Popular Dashboards in Campspot Analytics

Campspot Analytics is an analytics and reporting tool for your campground. With Campspot Analytics, Campgrounds can access valuable data in visualized dashboards dedicated to tracking performance and quickly answer core business questions without needing to download a CSV. From checking arrivals and departures to monitoring occupancy trends at the park to doing deep dives on which features drive the most revenue, Campspot Analytics puts your park data at your fingertips.

All campgrounds on Campspot have access to our core suite of dashboards, including Signals—our suite of benchmarking dashboards. Below is a summary of some of the most popular ones among Campspot Analytics users.

1. Signals – Monthly Performance

The Monthly Performance report breaks down occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available site (RevPAS) month-by-month. Year-over-year percent change compares the last 365 days to the same 365 days from the previous year. The campsite category filter will filter all performance metrics to only include data for the selected campsite categories.

2. Signals – Day of the Week Performance

The Day of Week Performance report breaks down occupancy, average daily rate (ADR), and revenue per available site (RevPAS) by day of the week. This report can be filtered by a range of trailing stay dates and campsite categories.

3. Daily Manager Report

Campground owners and operators can get a critical overview of their campground’s recent, current, and upcoming activity with the Daily Manager Report dashboard. They can review yesterday’s transactions, check arrivals and departures for the current and next day, and monitor occupancy and cancellations for the next 14 days. There is also a section that shows remaining campsite availability for the day, by site type.

4. YoY Metric Comparison

This dashboard provides a high-level view of the park’s business health and performance year-over-year. Key metrics covered on this dashboard are occupancy, net site nights by month, net revenue by month, ADR, and RevPAS. All data on this dashboard uses end-of-the-month reporting to show performance against the previous year.

5. Park Overview

Owners and operators check the Park Overview dashboard for insights on net reservations booked by source and by category, reservation value by booking window, net reservations by campsite type, and net charges at the park. The top of the Park Overview dashboard also provides a snapshot of the day’s average booking window, average length of stay, and the status of several revenue-generating features at the park.

6. Campspot Value

The Campspot Value dashboard helps campground managers track which of Campspot’s revenue-generating features are working well for their park. This dashboard shows the status of each feature and displays the amount of revenue generated per feature over the last year. Parks can see revenue from Add-ons, Dynamic Pricing, Grid Optimization, Marketplace, and Lock Site.

7. Operations Summary

This dashboard helps campgrounds better understand what is happening at their park on a daily basis. It gives staff the ability to easily see how many arrivals and departures are expected for the day, as well as the number of Daily Add-ons. They can also see all charges and payments across all reservations for the day.

 

Campspot Analytics allows campgrounds to quickly answer core business questions and make data-informed decisions on the fly. The visual and customizable dashboards make it easy to watch park and portfolio trends, identify areas of growth opportunity, benchmark rates against comp sets, and more.

To learn more about Campspot Analytics visit one of the blogs below:

Or reach out to a sales rep to find out how Campspot can help grow your campground business.

Introducing Signals: Gain a Competitive Edge With Campspot Analytics’ Newest Dashboard

We are excited to announce the launch of our newest feature, Signals, an innovative reporting dashboard within Campspot Analytics. Signals gives campgrounds access to comp sets and competitive benchmarking, providing valuable insights that can help you make data-driven decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

Why Did We Build the Signals Dashboard?

This first-of-its-kind tool helps fill a gap in the outdoor hospitality industry when it comes to competitive benchmarking. With the increasing popularity of unique camping experiences, and the expansion of multi-park portfolios, the competition within the industry is growing. In order to thrive in this dynamic landscape, operators need access to tools that can help them make informed and confident decisions when it comes to rates and occupancy targets.

We want to provide Campspot campgrounds a competitive edge that helps them grow their business and make informed decisions. By leveraging competitive benchmarking, campgrounds can gain valuable insights into their performance relative to parks with similar profiles.

How Does it Work?

By aggregating anonymized metrics from thousands of parks across North America, Campspot Analytics provides campground operators a way to compare their performance against a recommended comp set via the Signals dashboard.

The metrics available include Average Daily Rate (ADR), Occupancy Rate (OR), and Revenue per Available Site (RevPAS), as well as other data points like percentage of seasonal and transient stays, weekend versus weekday performance, and ancillary revenues per site.

Users will not have visibility into who is in their competitive set, and the data will be historical.

How is Signals Different From Other Benchmarking Tools?

Unlike other competitive benchmarking tools in the market, Signals is the only product with access to anonymized data for the outdoor hospitality industry at such a large scale.

Prepare to elevate your campground’s performance with Signals, the game-changing reporting dashboard from Campspot Analytics. Stay ahead of the competition, make confident pricing decisions, and unlock your campground’s full potential. Experience the power of Signals for yourself and gain the competitive edge today!

If you are interested in learning more about Campspot Analytics (and Signals), and how it can help your campground business, contact our sales team.

Safety First: How Campspot’s SOC 2 Certification Protects Your Campground

Campspot’s on a mission to make happy campers—which is why we’re committed to providing a secure solution for our campground owners and managers so that they can focus on delighting their guests. When it comes to prioritizing security for our customers (and their customers!), we believe in making the right investments, such as employing Campspot team members dedicated entirely to governance and compliance, and securing trusted third-party industry certifications for our product and services. We strive to follow industry best practices and opt for tools that adhere to industry guidelines in an effort to continuously improve our security. That’s where SOC 2 comes in!

What is SOC 2?

Pronounced “sock two,” SOC 2 stands for “service organization control 2.” Which might still sound a little confusing…. Essentially, it is a voluntary compliance standard that’s used to evaluate software-as-a-service organizations such as Campspot. The standards were formed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to help organizations manage customer data. The compliance standards assess five key areas:

  • Security
  • Availability 
  • Processing integrity 
  • Confidentiality
  • Privacy 

Why Is SOC 2 Important for my Campground Business?

To obtain SOC 2 Compliance, it means that a company has demonstrated that it maintains a high level of information security. This means that Campspot has rigorous controls and policies in place to protect our customers (and their customers) information.

What’s the Difference Between SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2?

According to the AICPA, a type 1 report includes “management’s description of a service organization’s system and the suitability of the design of controls,” and type 2 reports “on management’s description of a service organization’s system and the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of controls.”

Our VP of Finance & Governance, Jill Mast breaks it down in layperson’s terms:

SOC 2 Type 1

This is confirmation that we have controls and policies in place that adhere to the AICPA’s guidelines.

SOC 2 Type 2

This goes one step further where they audit the effectiveness of these controls and policies and tests to ensure that what is in place is being followed and is performing as intended.

What About SOX? What’s the Difference Between SOX and SOC?

SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) is more focused on financial controls, whereas SOC focuses more on organizational areas related to operations and compliance.

Which Types of Certification Does Campspot Have?

SOC certification is a long and rigorous process. As of June 30, 2022, Campspot became SOC 2 Type 1 certified.

As of June 2, 2023, Campspot is now SOC 2 Type 2 certified. By achieving this certification, Campspot is able to provide evidence that we are effective stewards of our customer’s private information, and have shown that our processes for handling data and system security work as intended. This certification also allows Campspot to work with a new range of service providers and customers who need strong safeguards around private data, including state and local governments.  

 We also maintain compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Compliance). 

What Does Campspot Do to Maintain that Certification?

Our dedication to safety and security doesn’t stop at certification. We’ll be reviewing our processes annually in order to ensure continued compliance.

“Campspot monitors, corrects, and improves its internal processes continuously to maintain our SOC 2 Type 2 status. Some of these processes include code reviews for production changes, auditing workflows from when code is committed to Campspot’s repositories to when it goes live on our production servers, and ensuring only authorized, authenticated personnel have access to customer data. 

We also perform additional disaster recovery and business continuity operations in order to validate that all of our customer data is accurate and correct across our backups and data centers. Additionally, we have stronger policies in place around removing customer data, both upon request and for those customers who no longer do business with Campspot.” – Aaren Twedt, Governance and Compliance Lead

What’s Next for Campspot’s Security?

Campspot’s next step is to continue maintaining our current certifications while we explore new opportunities and options for data security. Maintaining SOC 2 Type 2 is an ongoing effort and an audit will be performed annually going forward, testing a period of 12 months to ensure that our processes are effective throughout the entire year and not just at a particular point in time.

 

Want to learn more about how Campspot prioritizes security and makes happy campers? Request a demo below to chat with a campground reservations software expert. To request our SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance report for the full nitty-gritty details, reach out today!

Two-Way Text With SimpleTexting

Two-way text messaging is a feature that’s been at the top of our company’s and customers’ wish list, and it’s finally here. SimpleTexting takes advantage of the Campspot integration with Mailchimp to allow for open communication between campgrounds and their campers via text.

Why is this important? “Ninety percent of people open a text within three minutes, according to PCMag, and texts have a response rate of 45 percent compared to email’s 6 percent.” This makes it one of the fastest and more efficient forms of two-way communication.

Two-way text also gives you the chance to have closer communication with your guests, allowing you to get to know and understand them and their preferences more deeply, while giving them a more convenient way to get in touch with you. As campers are, by nature, highly mobile, they rely on their phones to stay in touch.

What are Some of the Reasons a Campground Would Need Two-Way Texting?

Whether you have a last-minute update for a guest or you want to seize a new opportunity to generate extra revenue, quick and easy two-way communication comes in handy for campground managers. You might need to…

  • Communicate an issue with a site 
  • Send a gate code (and give the camper a chance to write back if there’s a problem)
  • Offer a special promotion
  • Allow your guests to communicate with you without tying up the phone lines
  • Send messages to a set of your guests based on criteria you select
  • Send an individual guest a message for a one-on-one conversation

How the SimpleTexting Integration Works

SimpleTexting leverages Campspot’s integration with Mailchimp to make two-way texting available to parks. Campgrounds will need to set up Campspot + Mailchimp before setting up the integration with SimpleTexting.

SimpleTexting Announcement on Biteable.

How Do Guests Opt in or out of Two-Way Text?

Guests can opt in to receive text messages during booking check out. They can also opt in on the Reservation Summary page for all booked reservations. There is a link to the summary page from the reservation confirmation email.

To learn more about the Mailchimp or SimpleTexting integrations, visit our Knowledge Base.

Ready to Grow With Campspot?

4 Things We Learned From the Biggest Booking Week in Campspot History

Each year, Campspot observes substantial booking activity across our platform in March. It’s an exciting time of year as campers look ahead to the summer and fall and make campground reservations for their upcoming excursions. This year, to help campground owners generate even more revenue during this popular booking period, Campspot organized its first ever Biggest Booking Week campaign. This campaign asked campground owners to opt-in by creating a promotion that would run March 14 to March 19 using the code “BIGGEST23.” The results? Better than we could have hoped for! Read on for the results of the campaign and our top four takeaways.

Biggest Booking Week Results and Key Learnings

Nearly 300 Campspot campgrounds participated in Biggest Booking Week. That’s a heck of a lot of awesome camping deals!

Across the Campspot platform, the Biggest Booking Week campaign helped spur over 60,000 campground reservations. That’s equivalent to campers spending 2.3 million hours in the great outdoors!

1. Deals Attract New Customers

Ever been nervous to try something or waited to purchase in case it went on sale? It’s no secret that discounts drive spending behavior, but what’s most interesting for us was the amount of NEW customers that were driven to book trips because of the promotion period. During Biggest Booking Week, parks that participated in the promo code saw nearly a 50% jump in week-over-week bookings on the marketplace and 94% of these bookings were from new customers.

2. Having a Promo Also Drives Non-Promo Bookings

Of course, we were excited to see campers taking advantage of the BIGGEST23 promo code when checking out, but we also saw that non-promo code bookings increased 95% year-over-year for this particular week. A practice referred to as “breakage,” essentially this speaks to customers who are drawn in by the promotion but then end up booking a reservation for a non-promo trip. The lesson here? While you might be “taking a hit” when you promote a discount, you not only stand to gain a higher volume of reservations, but also possibly a boost to non-promo reservations as well.

3. Promos Drive Average Booking Value

Ironically, when campers save, it seems they tend to spend MORE to get the most bang for their buck! During the campaign, we observed the average booking value of a reservation made with BIGGEST23 to be 33% higher than those made without a code from the previous week.

Of course, the type of promotion a campground is offering can influence this behavior as well. Many parks offered a certain percentage off when campers booked a set number of nights. This is an example of a thoughtfully designed promotion that could lead to larger average booking value.

4. Campgrounds Experienced Week-Over-Week Growth Regardless of Participation—But Those Involved Grew More

Of all the bookings that took place on Campspot Marketplace over the campaign’s time period, 25% used the BIGGEST23 promo code. We also saw that participating campgrounds experienced a nearly 50% week-over-week growth in reservations from the week prior, and non-participating campgrounds still grew, too—23% week over week.

Rising tides lift all ships, right? Certainly, but in order to really ride the wave—it pays to play! While this campaign was the first of its kind, we hope to work with our partner campgrounds to create future opportunities just like this one that not only drive more revenue for campgrounds, but help campers discover new destinations, save money, and take more trips.

Thank you to all of our participating partner campgrounds involved in Biggest Booking Week. We’re so proud of what we could accomplish and learn together and we can’t wait to see what we can create together next. For more information on Campspot’s Biggest Booking Week, be sure to check out these reads:

Ready to Grow With Campspot?

Ellie Burke is the content & SEO manager at Campspot. Hailing from the Finger Lakes region of western New York, she lives for all things family, food, farming, and wide open spaces. Connect with her on Instagram @ellieburkebooks.

New Feature: Customizable Dashboards Now Available in Campspot Analytics

Users of Campspot Analytics now have the option to add an Explorer license which unlocks the ability to create custom reports and dashboards within the tool.

Campspot Analytics already contains core dashboards that visualize commonly requested data points among campground operators. These dashboards include a Park Overview, an Operations Summary, an Occupancy Pace Report, and more. Every park gets one free seat for Campspot Analytics with the option to purchase more.

While many metrics like Occupancy and Average Daily Rate are universal, the way they are represented and the level of granularity can vary from customer to customer.

Enter Explorer. Now you can build your own dashboards to reflect that level of specificity required of your individual park. This option is ideal for business owners, operators, and analysts who want more flexibility when it comes to data insights, visualizations, exporting reports, and multi-park reporting.

Explorer licenses also come with access to the Explorer Kit—a collection of pre-made insights for users who are newer to business insights tools. The cost of the license is $30 per month, per active user.

How Do I Get Access to Campspot Analytics?

When Campspot Analytics launched in 2022, all campgrounds should have received an email inviting them to set up their account and get access to their free seat. If you did not already sign up and would like to, you can do so via this sign-up form.

How Do I Get an Explorer License?

You can sign up for Campspot Analytics Explorer via the same signup form as above. Once you are in the form you can select whether you’re adding a Viewer, an Explorer or both!

Additional Resources for Using Campspot Analytics

If you are interested in learning more about Campspot and whether it’s right for your campground business, contact our sales team. 

Ready to Grow With Campspot?

Celebrating the 2023 Campspot Award Winners

The day is finally here! We’re so excited to announce the 2023 Campspot Award winners. This year, we’ve announced winners in 12 categories to celebrate as many campgrounds as possible and help campers discover new adventures of every variety. Using proprietary platform data and input from the camping community itself, we’re proud to share that the winners of this year’s awards are shining examples of campground excellence.

See the 2023 Campspot Award Winners

The Best Campgrounds in America

Indian River RV Resort – Indian River, Michigan

Unlike our 11 other categories, the title of “best campgrounds in America” were awarded to campgrounds by camper popular vote! Using proprietary platform data for all bookings, reviews, and internal data, we created a shortlist that campers used to vote for their favorite campgrounds. At the top of the list? Indian River RV Resort!

See the Full List of the 2023 Campspot Award Winners – Best Campgrounds in America 

Best RV Campgrounds

Carolina Pines RV Resort – Conway, South Carolina

To determine the best RV campgrounds, we looked at reservation data, reviews, the quality of the campground listing, and also leveraged expert insight to make selections.

See the Full List of the Best RV Campgrounds 

Best Campgrounds in Canada

Moonlight Bay Tent & Trailer Park – Wilberforce, Ontario

To determine the awards for the best campgrounds in Canada, we reviewed reservation, sentiment, and survey data.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds in Canada

Best Tent Campgrounds

Lake Siskiyou Camp Resort – Mt. Shasta City, California

When it came to considering which campgrounds were the best tent campgrounds in North America, we looked at reservation data, the quality of the overall listing, as well as reviews. We also leveraged expert input to make the final selection.

See the Full List of the Best Tent Campgrounds

Best Glamping Campgrounds

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort: Golden Valley – Bostic, North Carolina

For the best glamping campgrounds in North America (or should we say, glampgrounds?) We considered reservation data, the quality of the overall listing, and also camper reviews. Expert insight was the final determining factor.

See the Full List of the Best Glamping Campgrounds

Best Campgrounds for Spontaneous Campers

Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort & Campground – San Dimas, California

To determine which campgrounds are the best for spontaneous campers, we looked at mobile app reservation data for reservations made “on the fly.” We provided our experts with a list of parks with super high same day reservations and they selected the final winners using listing information and camper reviews.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for Spontaneous Campers

Best Campgrounds for Families

Carolina Pines RV Resort – Conway, South Carolina

To find the most family-friendly campgrounds, we reviewed campgrounds with the most reservations with kiddos listed on the reservations. We also considered the park’s number of kid-pleasing amenities like pools and playgrounds. Combined with expert insight and a review of the quality of the listing page, we were able to surface the campgrounds sure to delight the entire family.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for Families 

Best Campgrounds for Couples

Lake Siskiyou Camp Resort – Mt. Shasta City, California

When it came to campgrounds for couples we checked our data for campgrounds with the most reservations for two adults. We then reviewed campground photography, the quality of the overall listing, and our experts weighed in to make the final calls.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for Couples 

Best Campgrounds for National Park Lovers

Aloha Beach RV Resort – Port Aransas, TX

To determine campgrounds most ideal for national park lovers, we reviewed campgrounds with the highest number of reservations near national parks. Top campgrounds had to have at least a 70% average occupancy and a minimum of a 4-star overall rating. Our experts then reviewed the overall quality of the campground’s listing to help make the final determination.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for National Park Lovers

Best Campgrounds for Weekenders

Sun Outdoors Paso Robles – Paso Robles, California

Campgrounds with the most Friday and Saturday reservations were the leading indicator for this category. Photography and overall listing information were also considered. Our experts then weighed in to help make the final selection of winners.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for Weekenders

Best Campgrounds for Pet Lovers

Canyon View RV Resort – Grand Junction, Colorado

Pets need award-winning campgrounds, too! For this category, we reviewed reservations made with pets and also considered if campgrounds had dog parks. Experts weighed in and helped us review photography, and the overall quality of the listing information as well.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for Pet Lovers

Best Campgrounds for 55+ Adventurers

Sun Outdoors Sarasota – Sarasota, Florida

To find the best campgrounds for 55+ campers, we started by reviewing our proprietary data for campgrounds with the most reservations made at parks that are 55+ only. We also considered each campground’s photography, quality of the overall listing information, and then asked our experts to weigh in to help make the final decisions.

See the Full List of the Best Campgrounds for 55+ Adventurers 

We hope you’ll take a moment to join us as we celebrate the 2023  Campspot Award winners and acknowledge the hard work of all of these campgrounds leading the industry. Congratulations to all! Thank you for all that you do to provide campers with exemplary experiences. Your campgrounds provide access to not only the outdoors, but to the camping community that we all hold so dear.

Feature Announcement: New OTA Integrations

Online marketplaces are an important discovery channel for campgrounds, and Campspot continues to make it easy for customers to market themselves on the travel sites that are most important to their parks. Campspot’s latest integration with two of the top travel OTAs expands those opportunities.

Campspot customers now have a variety of options when it comes to choosing an online travel agency (OTA) as part of their larger business and marketing strategy. In addition to exposure on our own camping-specific OTA, Campspot Marketplace, customers can choose from three of the most highly trafficked traditional travel marketplaces—Booking.com, Airbnb, and Vrbo—to list their lodging inventory.

“Online marketplaces are an important piece of the pie when it comes to marketing your campground,” says Campspot CEO Michael Scheinman. “Having a presence on OTAs can help you reach new customers that you wouldn’t find elsewhere. But, we know the real pain for a campground comes from the time and effort required to learn each platform and manage inventory from different places. Our goal at Campspot is not only to help campgrounds sell more site nights, but to also enable parks to manage their distribution channels with ease.”

As with all things, the right strategy is a balance of choosing the right marketing channels for your brand and aiming for a certain percentage of traffic to come from each one, without any one of them carrying too much of the weight.

How are the Airbnb and Vrbo Integrations Different From Booking.com?

Booking.com is a self-service integration where all reservations and communication with guests is handled by the campground. The Airbnb and Vrbo connections are managed by BnBerry—a concierge service that handles the listings for you, from content updates and optimizations to guest inquiries. They manage communication with the guest up until they arrive on-site.

How are Travel OTAs Different From Campspot.com?

Campspot.com is the largest camping-specific OTA with users who are intentional about finding and booking a campground. Marketplace listings are a direct reflection of what’s on the campground listings and can be managed within Campspot.

Travel OTAs will list your lodging sites alongside other more traditional lodging options and therefore can give you access to new campers who might not have specifically been looking for a campground but are open to new and unique travel experiences. In fact, Booking.com notes that “42% of nights booked are for properties other than hotels.”

Searchers are looking for unique experiences, or even just a place to stay near their preferred destination, but they might not have had a campground in mind when they started their research. Appearing on one of these OTAs can open up your campground to a new segment of guests.

Whether it’s a camping-specific or travel-focused, OTAs can help campgrounds reach new customers where they are already looking and planning their trips

How to Choose an OTA

Business strategy, marketing opportunity, and brand alignment are some of the things to consider when choosing an OTA. Think about which platform attracts the type of customer you are looking for, and how you want to leverage OTAs for your business. Are you looking to fill last-minute vacancies? Are you hoping to attract a new kind of guest?

In the end, however, the OTA should be a reflection of your brand, regardless of marketing channel. This includes the listing itself but also all the backend rules you have in place on your own website.

You can learn more about this in our blog titled How to Make OTAs a Part of Your Business Strategy.

And if you’d like to learn more about this latest travel OTAs integration, visit our support center where you can find answers to frequently asked questions and information about how to get started. Or contact our sales team directly to discuss this, along with other revenue-generating integrations.

Get Growing with Campspot

Learn how to identify areas of growth opportunity for your campground like travel OTAs and more in our free ebook below.

Campspot Accelerator: A New Way to Make Revenue

Campspot’s new revenue-driving feature is live for U.S.-based Campgrounds. With Campspot Accelerator, third-party ancillary products (like insurance) and offers from premier partners across the outdoor industry will appear on the campgrounds’ Consumer Booking sites. Campgrounds can sign up and get paid, as a portion of the revenue generated from these placements will be automatically returned to the campground. Or there is always the option to opt out if they don’t want to participate.

What it Means for Your Campground

Campspot Accelerator placements on Campspot are intentionally selective and thoughtfully designed to create the most value for the consumer while maximizing the potential for the campground. We are launching with two high-value partners: RVshare, an RV rental website, and Sensible Weather—whose Weather Guarantee, an insurance-like product, reimburses campers’ reservation costs when rain impacts their experience. According to a recent survey, weather is the most stressful part of planning a camping trip. Campspot Accelerator will now put this offer, available for purchase, directly on your booking site to help increase camper confidence and enhance the overall experience.

About RVshare

For campers who may be looking to rent an RV for their upcoming trip, this RV rental website connects RV owners and renters. With Accelerator, display ads will appear in relevant sections of campground consumer booking sites that link to the RVshare site.

About Sensible Weather

This climate tech and insurance company can help campers alleviate the number one worry they have when it comes to booking a campaign trip—poor weather! With Accelerator, campers can add, for a small fee, a Weather Guarantee which will reimburse them if it rains during their trip.

Learn More About Campspot Accelerator

Visit our support site to find answers to common questions, including how to sign up to get paid or how to opt out of the program if you do not wish to have these placements appear on your Consumer Booking site. You can also see examples of what these placements will look like.

With Campspot Accelerator, campers get access to offers from relevant outdoor brands that help increase confidence when planning and booking, and add value to the trip itself. Here’s to making your happy campers even happier!

Get Growing With Campspot