Selling Your Campground? Raise Your Prices

Alex Burkett: And you touched on it a little bit, but do you see new players and developers, people coming into the space who are gonna be buying parks in the future, continuing to have an impact on pricing and how the market lays out? I mean, I know that it’s most park owners are probably feeling that slow a little bit, but maybe you’re thinking, well, I don’t know that I’m at the point of selling my park yet, but maybe I want to within five years.

Is the market going to be the same over the next several years?

Is the market still going to be what it was or somewhat close to that? And will there still be buyers and people who would consider purchasing my park? Do you see that continuing over the next several years?

Donna Bordeaux: Yeah, in my great crystal ball (excuse me, if you hear my dog coughing). In my great crystal ball, I don’t see the industry slowing down as quickly as the economy is predicted too with you know, there’s always talk of recession.

And, you know, honestly, I don’t put a lot of guidance into what that economic forecast looks like except maybe the next six to eight months year.

I don’t see a lot of slowdown in the industry.

Now, I know we are seeing numbers of RV production slowing down, but we had a huge jump in supply. And this is just kind of the supply and demand balancing in my opinion, and it will balance itself out. But I’m not hearing people say, oh my gosh, I’m not going camping anymore.

Now, there are some who will instead of maybe taking that 500 mile trip, hey, gasoline’s expensive, we may not make that giant trip. Maybe we’ll just camp closer to home, or we’ll head to the beach for the weekend.

Those kinds of things may occur. But I really am not seeing in our numbers a slowdown in the occupancy of parks. I’m still seeing that there is still a pretty low supply.

There are a lot of players who are afraid to raise pricing.

Now, what people should be reading out of that is looking at their pricing. There are a lot of players who are afraid to raise pricing. They shouldn’t be inflation is hitting everywhere and that should also include the cost of camping. It’s not a necessity as much as we want to think it is still really a luxury item.

Alex Burkett: Right, and it’s about setting up the business for success down the road so that you can continue to make those improvements, those changes, and keep the experience at your park what your customers have come to enjoy. And that’s something that, that we’ve recommended as well as, hey, sometimes the marketing doesn’t need to sell the park as much as just support what you’re doing.

Let’s get pricing into a point where you know your park is full and then we’ll let the marketing take care of the rest.

For additional read: Preparing Your RV Park to Sell

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Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Campground Accounting

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

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