Quote:
Originally Posted by Sstancil6
Well I have noticed a huge uptick in the number of emails I am receiving from many of the parks I have stayed at over the years. Particularly KOA. While I definately do not need more emails, it leads me to believe maybe the parks aren’t filling as early as before and they are having to reach out to get us to book early. Many with cancellation deals attached. That or I was such a great guest they always wanted me to come back and stay again. HA
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LOL You may have been their greatest guest last year... Or ...
Seems that most of the chain affiliated parks that we've stay at during travels in the past 6 or 7 years send us "summer specials" or "early bird specials" or some other marketing catch phrase specials.. Their "intensified profit period" is usually when the kids are out of school (same as the military 101 critical days of summer safety campaign) which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Many of those campgrounds/resorts send out emails or even snail mail marketing material to bring attention to their attractions. To them, it's better to have 150% desire and 100% occupancy with a waiting list than it is to be at 80% occupancy during the "high profit time frame".
So, they "saturate the market" not because they're empty, but because they'd rather have a waiting list for that inevitable vacancy than lose the one or two nights of rental income.
Around here (northern Michigan is a "go to recreational area") I have seen a decrease in RV traffic and the campgrounds in this area seem to have had a couple of empty sites toward the end of last season, where the year before, there were people "camped at WalMart waiting for a site to open. So, yes, there was a "decrease in demand" toward the end of last year's season, but this season won't officially open (all the state and national park campgrounds are still closed 18F last night) until around Memorial Day, and that 3 day weekend is always 100% occupancy. I'm hoping this year will be less demanding, and if fuel prices and inflation stays where it is, I'd guess most campgrounds off the beaten path will likely be filled with locals rather than "out of state explorers"....