No matter which
campground that campers choose to stay at, chances are they will have friends
or family living in the area who wish to visit them. When guests arrive at the campground, they are
often charged a visitation fee.
The campground’s facilities can only handle so many people at
a time. It isn’t that campground owners don’t want
visitors. On the contrary, we love you
to invite people to come visit. We love
to have people see our parks. We take
great pride in them. However, additional
people place an extra burden on the facilities.
There are the obvious additional expenses of toilet tissue, paper
towels, cleaning supplies, attendant’s labor, garbage bags, and more. The prices of these supplies have sky
rocketed with increased petroleum prices.
Popular, private campgrounds receive hundreds of visitors a
month, which can translate into thousands of visitors a season, which translates
into huge extra expenses for the campground.
The less obvious
long-term expense is that expanding facilities is a huge investment these days
and in order to maintain the facilities a campground has, they have to stay within
the capacity boundaries for which their water and sewage systems were designed. Water system quality, pool samples, and
sewage testing are required by the state to the tune of thousands of dollars a
season. All for good reason, as they are
designed to keep the public’s drinking water, swimming facilities, and ground
water safe. However, when extra burdens
are cast upon those facilities, the costs to maintain and operate them increase
as well. If the testing of those systems
is that expensive, imagine the increased operating expenses for them as well.
In addition, the visitor rates aren’t normally set on the
person who uses the facilities the least, but on the average cost of the visitors
to the campground or RV park. The campground owner assumes that
your family will participate in activities and events, enjoy the entertainment
provided, and or utilize the swimming pool, and other facilities and amenities. These business owners know that their visitor
rates go up dramatically on holiday and special event weekends. The numbers of visitors increase because we
have special activities and events; have better entertainers or entertainment
and more things to do.
Parking extra vehicles is another issue.
In most campgrounds, real estate is a premium. So, too many cars per campsite quickly become
a congestion and safety issue. Most
campgrounds limit the number of vehicles per campsite to one or two for safety reasons
and rescue vehicle access. Therefore,
the campground needs to provide extra visitor parking areas to relieve that
congestion and ensure access for emergency vehicles. That means that there is a clerk that has to
assign the visitors tags, provide access to the park, a campsite map to help
the visitor to find the folks they desire to visit, and finally directions on
where they are to park. All of these
materials and the employee’s time is an additional increase to the cost of
operations to the business.
Increased visitors increase a campground’s liability
insurance costs. The rates for a campground’s liability
insurance are based on the risk assessment and the number of people who occupy a
campground during a season. The higher
the number of occupants in the RV Park or campground, the risk increases accordingly. In addition, some insurance carriers argue
that visitors are more likely to be injured because they are unfamiliar with
their surroundings, may not be aware of all the rules or safety policies at
campgrounds, and are less likely to be dressed appropriately for the camping or
outdoor experience. All of these things
place the visitor at an increased risk for an injury.
Remember that privately owned and operated campgrounds aren’t
subsidized by tax dollars like federal, state, and county parks. Even at most of those campgrounds, there is an
entrance fee, and then camping fees on top of it.
Read the back of your visitor's tag! Many campgrounds,
Including Meadville KOA, offer a full refund if you're only there a short time
(less than an hour). You jut take the time-stamped tag back
to the office and they'll refund your visitation fee if you were there
in less than that amount of time.
Visitor’s fees,
as you can see, are necessary. There are
additional costs associated with visitors.
It isn’t fair to pass those costs on to all the campers. That is why most campground owners believe
that the people receiving those services (i.e. the visitor) should pay for the
services rendered.
So the next time you hear someone complaining
about a visitor’s fee, or worse yet encouraging another person to cheat or to
avoid paying a visitors fee, remember that it is you, the RVer or camper, who
will ultimately pay for that visit. At
the end of the business year, when the numbers come in, and that owner looks at
the bottom line from that camping season, the campground owner will have to set
their rates for the next season to offset their losses. In other words, they’ll have to raise the campsite
prices accordingly to pay for those extra supplies, extra tests, extra labor
and extra maintenance. So when visitors
cheat, they aren’t cheating just the campground owner. In the end, they are cheating the American consumer,
and in this case, that is you, the camper.
By Robyn
Chilson
Tim & Robyn Chilson, own
and operate Meadville KOA Campground in Meadville, PA. You can contact Robyn at robyn@meadvillekoa.com
