Category Archives: Press Releases

Campgrounds on Campspot can now connect their lodging inventory to one of the most visited travel websites in the world: Booking.com. This exciting announcement opens up another avenue of exposure for parks, giving them the chance to expand into new markets and attract new campers, while continuing to manage all their inventory on the Campspot platform.

Modern consumers are accustomed to using online travel agencies to book trips, with the expectation that they’ll be able to find the best variety of options in that aggregate space. We want to connect our campgrounds with as many potential campers as possible, many of whom rely on these booking engines to plan trips.

What it Means for Parks on Campspot

Gain More Visibility for Your Park

Now, a larger swath of consumers can access your unique lodging sites alongside traditional hotel listings. According to Booking.com, “more than 1.5 million room nights are booked on [the site] every single day.” Your lodging sites can now be among them with ease.

Reach New Customers

In the first issue of the Campspot Outdoor Almanac we found that 13% of campers got more into camping during the pandemic and now love camping. Not only does this integration increase visibility for campgrounds, it can help you reach those new customers who might not have previously considered a campground as a lodging option.

Campground lodging sites provide an alternate, eye-catching option for shoppers who are open to unique experiences, looking for more affordable options, or simply can’t find the right fit near where they need to go.

Increase Occupancy

This is good news for those especially hard-to-fill nights. With more consumers in a wider range of markets, it opens up more opportunities to fill your reservation grid.

Expand Marketing Efforts with Minimal Cost

Booking.com is essentially an additional marketing channel, now available for you to access with ease as part of your Campspot Software experience. It works continually to drive exposure for your campground opening up your park to even more campers than before.

Manage With Ease

Even as your exposure grows, flexibility and convenience remain. Thanks to a seamless integration with DerbySoft (the technology that facilitates the connection between Campspot and Booking.com) campgrounds can list inventory in multiple places while continuing to view and manage it all on Campspot. In fact, you can manage all reservations, across multiple locations, within the Campspot platform.

 

For more information about how the Booking.com integration works with Campspot visit the FAQ page on our support site.

This is just the beginning of increased connections and integrations that will open up more opportunities for campgrounds through Campspot.

As another year closes, we’re taking a moment to reflect and celebrate the immense growth that campgrounds have experienced with Campspot’s continual commitment to increase revenue. From add-on amenities and POS items, to lock site and cancellation revenue, 2021 was a year full of campground owners taking advantage of Campspot’s many revenue-driving features. Check out the infographic below to see how campground owners optimized their revenue models and drove success on Campspot.

 

 

Add-On Amenities Produce Substantial Revenue

Every campground has aspects and features that make them unique. Golf carts, pedal bikes, hammock rentals, and family-fun activities are all examples of appealing features that attract guests. With Campspot’s add-on feature, campgrounds can make sure these available amenities are front and center as guests make a decision. It is through this feature that Campspot campground owners saw an 87% increase in add-ons this year alone with a combined value of $28.2 million of extra revenue. What could have been an unused golf cart that guests were unaware of has now become a popular commodity guests are excited to reserve.

 

Diversified Revenue Streams with POS Systems

Additionally, a camp store is often viewed as the main source of additional income. From extra toiletry items, cooking supplies, firewood, ice, and souvenirs, and more, these items do attract guests and help to ensure they have a pleasant stay. With Campspot’s POS system, campground owners sold a combined total of 16.6 million items in 2021. Now, campgrounds are able to monitor multiple locations, track inventory, and utilize a seamless platform so even your newest employee can check out guests with ease.

 

Grid Optimization Maximizing Occupancy

As a campground owner seeking to maximize park occupancy, grid optimization and lock sites have eliminated the manual work of scheduling guests. Campspot’s grid optimization feature automatically shuffles guest reservations to allow for further occupancy. This feature takes into account rig size and required amenities but shuffles reservation placement to allow for further bookings. However, if a guest chooses an exact site and would rather not be moved, they can choose to accept a lock site fee and guarantee that placement in the park. This two-fold process increases occupancy while generating extra revenue for parks to the tune of $12.7 million this last year alone.

 

Safeguarding Revenue with Cancellation Policies

One of the challenges of being a campground owner is handling cancellations. As guests reserve sites there is always a risk that they will cancel at the last minute and hold prime real estate within the park. By clearly defining a cancellation policy, you can build a successful booking agreement. Though many may feel that by implementing a cancellation fee you are “nickel and diming” your guests, ultimately a policy safeguards your business model and protects your time and potential earnings.  This year, campground owners saw $5.9 million in cancellation revenue.

 

Online Bookings Growth and Thriving Industry with a  New Wave of Campers

Overall, the camping industry is growing and thriving because of the hard work campground owners put in. As campground owners work to make camping fun, we seek to make booking easy. In 2021, Campspot saw a 146% increase in online bookings this last year. 

To help campground owners grow and succeed, Campspot made strategic investments in 2021 that will carry over into the new year. For example, we increased our support team by 700% to make sure customers get answers faster and easier. We’re thrilled to celebrate the 940 new parks that joined Campspot this year and we look forward to growing together in the year to come.

No individual park data was pulled for these stats and all information is cumulative for Campspot users overall. 

Source: https://woodallscm.com/campspot-software-now-offers-text-messaging-tool/

Campspot Software, an online reservation and campground management system provider, added the ability to text message guests to its suite of integrated features, according to a press release.

“We’re in the business of helping campground operators grow their own businesses through the use of smart technology,” said Casey Cochran, director of business development at Campspot. “By building text messaging functionality, we’re providing pure added value and a convenient way for operators to engage with their campers through one reservation management platform.”

Through this service, operators can easily communicate important information to various guests, such as those already in the park or those checking in within a certain date range.

While email remains a popular form of communication, research confirms that text messaging open rates are as high as 98%, compared to just a 20% average open rate among all email communications. Seventy-five percent of people also state that they would be happy to receive a promotional offer via text messaging, which makes it a popular medium for marketing.

Common use cases for text messaging include updating campers about inclimate weather, revising the hours of operation for a particular amenity, sharing an entry gate code and offering a discount for a stay extension. Through Campspot, guests have the option to opt-in or opt-out of receiving text message communications when they create an online reservation.

SOURCE: http://www.maryvilleforum.com/life/entertainment/city-preps-new-mozingo-online-reservation-system/article_6916e6f4-befd-11eb-b8de-a73498500990.html

MARYVILLE, Mo. — City Council members approved on Monday a plan that city staffers say will make online reservations for activities at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park easier and save the city money.

During Monday’s meeting, the council OK’d an ordinance to contract with Campspot, a leading campground reservation system company, to take over Mozingo Lake Recreation Park’s online reservation system for cabins, RVs and shelters.

Currently, the city uses a custom system built by Hue Labs as part of its redesign of Mozingo’s website in 2015. However, as traffic has continued to increase, the system has required significant overhauls to keep up with demand — because the reservation system is part of the website itself operated on the same servers, high traffic for reservations slows down performance across the whole site.

 

 

The rapid growth in popularity of Mozingo as a tourist destination has already necessitated an overhaul previously: in 2017, the council agreed to another $12,500 redesign to address similar issues. In January of this year, Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland said, the company sent the city another $15,000 invoice for what it said would be a required update to further optimize performance. Instead, the city looked for other solutions.

“In Campspot — a widely used, cloud-based booking system — Heiland said the city has found one that will not only be significantly cheaper, but also will be easier for users and staff alike.”

Campspot charges no upfront fees, but instead takes a $2 fee from each online reservation made through the system — Mozingo charges $10 for each reservation. City documents show that 1,082 bookings in total were made last year, which includes offline bookings that would not be subject to the $2 fee. However, even if all the bookings were made online, the city would have paid a little more than $2,100 to Campspot last year, as opposed to the average of $6,250 it had paid per year the two years prior to Hue Labs.

Additionally, Heiland said, the city is currently required to pay for enhanced security and server capacity to handle reservation payments; since Campspot is cloud-based, Campspot handles the transactions and servers, and the city would only need to pay for hosting the rest of the site. That would allow the city to look for a new website host at a lower rate than the more than $5,200 annually that it pays now that includes such expanded features.

Heiland said the target date for the system to go live is June 15.

Source: https://woodallscm.com/campspot-factor-4-integrate-new-gift-card-solutions/?fbclid=IwAR02s3xJ0UyycH7I17_BOxbuyas6wG4houNG_VZWW1Jo4SFvgJYJLA8pFqY

Campspot announces new gift card capabilities for reservation software platform users according to a press release by Woodall’s Campground Management. Recently awarded by TripSavvy as the “Best Campground Software”, Campspot was thrilled to Partner with Factor4 LLC, a provider of gift card and loyalty solutions, to offer this feature.

The camping industry has exploded in popularity over the past year. According to the 2021 KOA North America Camping Report, over 48 million households camped in 2020 with first-time campers comprising 21% or 10.1 million households. The report found that all campers intend to increase their trips in 2021 as COVID-19 concerns continue and people seek outdoor experiences.

As the camping industry continues to grow, gift cards provide an additional resource to campgrounds and RV parks. “We’re thrilled about our partnership with Factor4 because campground operators are in the business of selling experiences,” said Haley Dalian, marketing manager at Campspot. “There’s no better way to head into another record-breaking summer than to offer the unique gift of a camping experience at your property.” Campground gift cards provide the opportunity to share the gift of camping and attract new customers. 

Similarly, the use of gift cards encourages campers to purchase amenities and store merchandise that they may not have considered otherwise. With the ability to purchase and redeem gift cards in person or online, campgrounds can maximize revenue all while providing contactless payment options. Campground owners and managers will be sure to appreciate this feature as another busy camping season approaches.

 

Source: https://woodallscm.com/supplier-focus-campspot-building-out-tools-growing/

Campspot, a reservation and management software provider, is having a great start to 2021 in this thriving camping marketplace.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company, which also has development offices in Denver, Colo., and Chicago, Ill., was founded in 2015 with the intent to provide a simple, modern online booking experience serving campers and campgrounds. According to the company, since the initial software was launched, it has processed hundreds of millions of searches and millions of bookings.

“We had an incredible 2020 with more than 600 new parks starting on our service,” said Casey Cochran, director of business development. “We passed 1,100 parks on the system, with plans to increase what we accomplished last year into 2021.”

Cochran explained that Campspot has technology built into the system that no other software system in the market has.

“Between our Grid Optimization Algorithm paired with our Lock Site feature, our eSignature with Express Check-In, and recurring billing with automated payments, we have helped park owners gain significant revenue while saving lots of administrative time,” explained Cochran. “But our hottest seller will always be our support and account management team. They are the difference-maker.”

He stated that his team will continue down the path of automating processes for campers checking in by adding text messaging and even camp store add-ons that are tallied when campers reach the online checkout.

“All this, as well as online cancellations, are all slated to be completed before the season kicks off in 2021,” added Cochran.

He said the company’s concept began in 2014 with a small group of campground owners looking to make their lives easier.

“It started out as a group of park owners that had a portfolio of parks and just needed software that had a little bit more flexibility for their day-to-day needs,” Cochran explained. “So, what started out as running very large transient parks has taken on a life of its own. We now can accommodate all parks of all shapes and sizes.

“It’s a modern booking engine with the focus on driving revenue for the campground owner,” he added. “That has always been the focus but it’s taken on a life of its own. Right now, we plan to have somewhere between 1,700 to 2,000 parks by the end of the year. That is the current roadmap or plan.”
Cochran stated that part of Campspot’s dramatic growth is partially due to recent trends in staffing and human resources at the front office level.

“Owners are realizing how time-consuming it is to take every reservation over the phone,” he noted. “Especially with last year’s boom, it just became almost impossible to manage the amount of interest that owners were seeing. There has been a big shift of owners realizing, ‘Hey should I be taking reservations online?’ And just as important, they want to be able to implement the rules and the strategies that their park has had with that online system.”

Cochran shared that growth for Campspot also sprang from the fact that its software was developed for campgrounds, not modified from hotel and hospitality software.

“Campspot was built by park owners for campgrounds specifically,” he said. “And this doesn’t take anything away from any other software in this space, but we feel it has given us the advantage to be able to accommodate a lot of those unique features that only park owners have and demand.”
But the No. 1 reason for Campspot’s exponential growth may be its business income strategy.

“We’re a little unique in this space,” said Cochran. “It’s free to sign up with Campspot. There are no upfront costs. There are no monthly costs or yearly fees. If a park has eight sites or 8,000 sites, they get the same software. There is no tiered pricing, there are no different levels, everything that the software has, every park gets.

“And so once a park is signed up, we make that entire investment upfront to build everything out, build their map, put in all the rules, import any of their data, do all the training, do all the support,” he continued. “We don’t charge anything for that and then once they are live and taking online reservations, we charge $2 per online reservation that’s made.”

Cochran said most parks, more than 90%, take that charge/fee and pass it onto the guest.

“They really don’t pay anything for Campspot,” he noted. “To be honest, there is really no costs to them. That’s the pricing model, there are no hidden fees or anything else there, it’s just what we charge per reservation.”

On a park’s website, Campspot installs links to its software platform.

“We provide a direct booking link for them,” explained Cochran. “They get their own direct booking link that is mirrored to look as if it’s an extension of their own website. Then we also have a marketplace as well that we use to bridge the gap between new campers looking for parks that have availability and linking them up with the parks that are using Campspot.”

All internal reservations, point of sales, and reporting are all run through Campspot. The campground collects the money upfront and then Campspot bills the park at the end of the month based on how many online reservations they took.

“We service most of the large parks in multi-park owner groups in this space, including Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resort, Northgate, and Horizons,” noted Cochran. “Most of the multi-park owners in this space use Campspot and their advanced reservations have skyrocketed.”
To learn more about Campspot, click here.

Source: https://www.tripsavvy.com/best-campground-management-software-5095555

Whether you’re the owner of a mom-and-pop property with 20 sites or the manager for a major state RV park, running a campground manually is a herculean task. Fortunately, there is software that can make your life easier by providing an end-to-end management solution, leaving you with more free time and a better bottom line.

Campground management software can vary greatly in terms of features, price, and the extent to which it can be customized, but most have a few key elements in common including real-time reservations and online bookings, integrated point-of-sale and inventory, and automated accounts and reporting. Read on to discover our favorite campground management software.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: Campspot

 

 

Why We Chose It: We chose Campspot as our overall winner because of its intuitive design and clever features that help to maximize your revenue.

Founded in 2015, cloud-based campground management software Campspot was created by campground owners for campground owners. It is the ideal solution for all kinds of outdoor hospitality properties across North America, from RV parks to private and municipal campgrounds. With a stellar rating on Capterra, reviewers love how easy the software is to use as well as the company’s first-class customer service.

Standout features include automatic grid optimization, dynamic pricing according to demand, and point-of-sale management for processing secure credit card payments and tracking inventory in real-time. The Lock Site feature is a particular highlight, driving revenue by encouraging prospective campers to pay an additional fee to reserve a specific campsite.

Best of all, Campspot doesn’t require a long-term contract or charge setup, import, or subscription fees. Instead, it costs roughly $2 per reservation.

Read more here.

Source: Tribune-Star, Terre Haute and Wabash Valley

Vigo County Parks and Recreation is moving to a reservation-only system for camping spots, shelters and facilities such as a barn or log cabin.

The Vigo County Parks Board on Monday approved the change this year for Fowler Park, Hawthorn Park and Prairie Creek Park. The parks previously had operated on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We did research on the reservation system and on different parks and what they do,” Brian Gilbert, assistant parks superintendent, told the board Monday. “We found that only two parks (departments) in our area are not doing reservations, and that is us and Sullivan Lake, but their website says they are starting reservations.”

The parks board voted to approve a reservation system, which includes a $2 fee, plus an optional $5 fee to lock in a particular camp site or shelter. The reservation system uses credit cards, removing a cash payment option.

The board voted to keep the parks’ base price the same, with primitive camping at $12 per day; $20 daily for electric camping; $25 daily with water hookup added; and $50 a night for a new log cabin, still under construction, at Fowler Park. The board also approved a $100 damage deposit for the cabin and barns.

Emily Starbuck, recreation coordinator, said four companies were reviewed and software systems were demonstrated. The parks department then reviewed the pros and cons of each system.

“We narrowed it down to ReserveAmerica and Campspot,” Starbuck said. “We came to the conclusion that Campspot looks like the best fit for our three campgrounds,” Starbuck said.

Campspot has free website set up and training, with no annual or monthly fees, Starbuck said. It takes about four weeks to build a parks reservation web site, Starbuck said. “Campspot does all web site maintenance and builds an interactive map. It will have three separate reservation sites (for the three parks) … so there is no confusion,” she said.

“It is a cloud-based system, so it is easily accessible with WiFi and data. The standard booking fee is $2 for all reservations,” Starbuck said. “We plan on consolidating our camp sites and our shelter reservations into one site,” she said. If a camp site is rented plus a shelter, the fee is $2 for the camp site and $2 for the shelter, she said. The fee covers the term of the reservation, whether it is one day or one week, she said.

CardConnect is the credit card company used with the site, charging a 3 percent fee on credit card transactions. People can go the Campspot web site and select Vigo County, then be directed to the three parks, Starbuck said. The parks department can also add events and programs at no cost.

If someone wants to reserve a specific site, that would add a $5 lock fee, Starbuck said.

The board approved Campspot for its reservation system.

After the meeting, Parks Superintendent Adam Grossman said “most campers have wanted this for a long time. It is a huge shift in our department, which has long been first come, first served, but I believe it is a change that almost all campers want to see.”

The reservation system also will benefit the parks department with better data, Grossman said.

“I can highlight Ash peninsula at Fowler Park and see how many camp sites were reserved and which ones were reserved most often, all within seconds,” he said. “It also gives the ability to market the parks nationwide to so many more people. It gives us the ability to (attract) people who did not want to travel three to four hours to our parks where they did not know if they could get a camp site,” Grosssman said.

“State parks, which use a reservation system, were all full last year. People want to be outdoors and people want to know they have a site. I think this will increase our revenue by 40 to 50 percent. I would not be surprised to see $30,000 to $40,000 more in revenue this year,” Grossman said.

The board also approved a new gatehouse at Hawthorn Park, relocating the gatehouse to the park’s entrance, instead of inside the park. The new gatehouse will have a lane for campers and a second lane for people just visiting the park.

With front entrance gatehouses at Fowler and Hawthorn parks, a gatekeeper can reserve a camp site through Camp Spot for a “walk-in” customer who cannot access a phone or computer tablet. At Prairie Creek, a customer must call a displayed telephone number to reach a staff worker who can make such a reservation as that park does not have a gatehouse.

Vigo County has 138 electric camping sites across its park system and 22 primitive sites, Grossman said. A breakdown has Fowler Park with 49 electric sites and 10 primitive camping sites; Hawthorn Park has 51 electric sites, with 10 primitive sites; while Prairie Creek Park has 38 electric sites, with two primitive sites.

Fowler Park has two shelters, a barn and a log cabin, expected to be available in March; Hawthorn Park has three shelters; and Prairie Creek as two shelters.

Source: https://woodallscm.com/ala-fla-groups-report-positive-winter-season-update/
Editor’s note: The following message was sent to members of the Florida Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds and the Alabama Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds on Friday (Dec. 4).
Almost all indicators and reports are pointing to a very good winter camping season for our Florida and Alabama RV park properties. Regardless of what is being reported in the national media, or for the rest of the nation, the truth is that the RV park and campground industry in Florida and Alabama is doing great. Businesses are open, they are providing a safe environment for their workers and customers, and the campers are coming.

Reports from many park owners and managers are saying their reservations are on par with last year or up. The Canadian travel and border closures continue to be a real concern, and some parks are seeing cancellations, however, most park operators are saying they’ve been able to fill their sites with new campers who are brand new to camping or campers who are staying closer to home. We have heard many operators saying they have two waiting for every one cancellation. We know that all parks won’t be this fortunate, especially for some of the snowbird parks who are usually filled with Canadian campers, but it’s still a great sign that the winter season will be good for most.

Some RV park operators who are now booked solid for January-March are still a little concerned about cancellations because quite a few of their reservations are from Canadian campers expected to arrive in January. These park operators are understandably fearful they may receive cancellations at the last minute, and then it will be too late to fill their sites. This is especially frustrating when they are having to turn away reservations now.

We’ve been advising park operators to reach out to their Canadian or northern customers who have reserved sites and have them confirm they will still be coming, and to let them cancel now if necessary, but to make sure they understood they would not be allowed to cancel at the very last minute. Many campers assume that they can just cancel at the last minute and say it’s because of COVID (valid or not) and then not have any repercussions and expect full refunds. This is obviously not fair to the park owner and customers need to be made aware of your refund policy. From what we’ve heard, the borders are expected to be closed probably through most of the winter, but no one knows for sure and it will all depend on how the COVID vaccinations are going.

Fortunately, there is enough positive news and data for us in Florida and Alabama to remain very hopeful that all we go well for our industry over the next few months. Many of the reservation companies are confirming this with their reservation tracking systems. For example, Campspot reported to us that 90% of their customer parks in southern states are showing higher occupancy from November to March of 2020/21 vs. 2019/20 as of now, and the Florida specific numbers are even greater.

Here are some other interesting stats collected and released by Campspot based on the parks within their system (stats noted at the beginning of October this year):

• Looking at how many reservations there were as of August 2019 for Fall 2019 vs. as of August 2020 for Fall 2020, we saw 35% more advanced fall reservations in 2020 than 2019. We defined fall as post-labor day through October plus the first couple days of November to include Halloween weekend.
• Average length of stay in lodging is up 28.55% from 2019 to 2020 (as classified by our website, meaning not RV or tent sites).
• Snowbird travel is up: Of all the parks in southern states, 90% will have higher occupancy as of October 29 for November 2020 – March 2021 than they did as of this day (October 29) last year for that same range last year. Florida has some parks reporting 100% higher occupancy.

No matter how you look at it, we are extremely fortunate to live in Florida or Alabama and to be working and thriving during these unprecedented times. Though there still may be a couple of bumps in the road during the next couple of months, we are optimistically positive that 2021 will be a banner camping year for our members and for the RV park and campground industry.

 

 

Source: https://woodallscm.com/campspot-gives-care-camps-an-employer-donation-tool/

Campspot today (Dec. 1) announced its donation of an online donation matching tool integrated within Care Camps existing donor platform, according to a press release.

Care Camps is a charity founded by campground owners to help send kids with cancer to medically-supervised camps where they can experience the carefree joy that can only come from camping and spending time in nature.

“Campspot is our ideal partner in healing,” said Jennifer Mercer, director of development at Care Camps. “We are grateful for their support and commitment to spreading our mission with the outdoor hospitality industry.”
Campspot’s donation of this digital tool means that any employer, including campgrounds, can easily host a donation match challenge with their employees online up to a specific amount over the next year.

“Campground owners know firsthand the magic, relaxation, and memory-making that happens at camp, and now they have the opportunity to gift that magic to children in need,” said Haley Dalian, marketing manager at Campspot.

The benefits of hosting an employer-sponsored match campaign for Care Camps go beyond simply feeling good. According to Forbes, taking part in corporate social responsibility can reduce a company’s staff turnover rate by up to 50%, increase productivity by up to 13%, and increase employee engagement up to 7.5% among many other bottom-line benefits.

“We believe healing doesn’t just happen in hospitals,” said Mercer. “Beyond helping a child heal, doing good is truly good for business.”

For Care Camps, the needs this year have never been greater. They adapted to COVID-19 changes by taking their camping experiences online, providing virtual camper counseling sessions, and shipping activity boxes to campers’ homes. Unfortunately, Care Camps was unable to host its highest-impact fundraisers due to the pandemic, and the charity is now looking to make up the financial difference to help the next year of campers.

Interested campgrounds can start their Care Camps match campaign by visiting this link to fill out a short form. Because of the four-day verification process, campgrounds in the U.S. and Canada can also visit this link to give a one-time donation for Giving Tuesday.