Campspot Fundamentals: Revenue Management

Take a look at some of the great features Campspot offers to maximize your parks revenue potential.

Camping is continuing to see an infusion of new campers. These campers are ditching hotels and resorts to buy their first rig and set out on an adventure. There has never been a better time to be in outdoor hospitality.

This newer camper has been conditioned by the hotel, airline, and cruise industry to expect vacations to have restrictions and to pay a premium for the features that enhance their stay. They are educated to know the further out you book, the better the price, but with certain requirements.

What is Revenue Management?

Also known as Revenue Strategy, Revenue Management is the practice of maximizing your revenue and the money you take to the bank by:

Offering the right rate, to the right guest, at the right time, using the right distribution channel.

As you plan your park's rates, there are many features in Campspot that will elevate your rate planning process. Using automated rules, transition managing rates to a managing a well rounded Revenue Strategy.

This article will introduce you to some features and support your understanding of others. What feature will you adopt in your Revenue Strategy toolbox to maximize your revenue?

The topics discussed below are listed here, click on any to skip ahead:

• Reporting
• Campspot Analytics
• Setting Base Pricing
• Using Dynamic Pricing
• Grid Optimization
• Implement a Site Lock Fee
• Leverage length of stay restrictions
• Use Promo to increase revenue

 

 

Reporting

You know your park better than anyone, but when creating a strategy leverage your data. Campspot is filled with great reports to support your Revenue Strategy. Each section below will reference reports, if applicable, within corresponding articles.

These reports are available to be downloaded in a PDF or CSV (Excel) format for you to analyze, slice and dice. Looking at data and being comfortable with how to create a story to support your strategy is not easy.

 

Let Campspot Analytics help you!

Using Campspot Analytics will help you shape your Revenue Strategy. Access your data in a format that is not only easier than downloading raw data, but visually digestible so you can make a plan easier and more strategically.

Our Business Intelligence tools in Campspot Analytics will help you identify trends, shape your strategy and dive into your park's performance in new ways. Save time and let Campspot Analytics do the heavy lifting with your parks data.

 

Setting Base Pricing

Setting your rates is the foundation of Revenue Strategy. Planning how much to charge for each Site type and when to charge it, is a critical step.

What is your spread, or price difference, between each Site Type within the same Category? For example, does the price between a 30 amp Back-In electric site and a 50 amp Pull-thru Full Hookup site equal the value of having those amenities? How much more is a 8 person lodge than an 4 person rustic camping cabin?

Are there times of the year that should be priced differently from others? Do weekends and holidays demand a higher rate?

Depending on your pricing strategy, you will want to take care and input your rates to support your vision.

 

Dynamic Pricing

There is no accurate way to gauge the exact amount of money your guests are willing to pay for a site. That crystal ball is just not as shiny these days.

Would a guest have paid more to stay during that peak holiday versus an off peak holiday? Would using a lower price to fill last minute vacancies create more revenue opportunities? If your rates increased automatically during Covid, how much more would you have brought to the bottom line?

When your park is busy, you do not have time to manage rates.

Using the Dynamic Pricing feature will enhance the Base Pricing you create automatically using triggers you set to increase pricing based on demand.

 

Grid Optimization

No matter how many hours of Tetris is played, the grid never feels optimized.

How often do you go into the Reservation Grid to move reservation after reservation to fill gaps or open space for a new reservation? What if the grid just did it for you?

Campspot's Grid Optimization tool will work for you to maximize the grid and just like Dynamic pricing, the parameters of the rule are set by you.

 

Locked Site Fee

How many guests prefer that one site year after year? The second that site is locked, you have one less site that can be optimized. If a guest places value over a particular site, make sure to maximize on that demand because the supply of that one site is one.

In a hotel, if you want a room with a view, a corner room, or an upgraded amenity, you expect to pay more. When booking a flight, if you want 3 seats beside your loved ones, you have to pay for those seats ahead of time.

You meticulously plan what sites are grouped together defining your Site Types. A Lock Site fee is your opportunity to charge more individually for those high demand sites.

 

Minimum Length of Stay

Would you want to accept a 2 night stay in the middle of your peak season? Are weekends in the shoulder season more flexible for transient guests looking for a long weekend getaway - would you accept a one night stay?

Minimum length of stay (MLOS) is a very effective and often underutilized rate fencing technique to manage your inventory.

Using MLOS will help to accept the best 100 guests, not the first 100.

 

Incentivize Your Guests to Give You More

In a perfect world, campers would always book 5 or more nights at a peak rate and there would be no gaps to optimize.

Have you ever added a pack of soda to your cart to take advantage of an offer to "Buy 2 sodas and get 1 free"?

When planning a vacation, how does an offer to stay "4 or more nights and Save 15%" sound if you were already planning to stay 3 at full price?

On average, how many nights do your guests stay on your top 3 RV Site Types during the peak season? How many more nights would someone want to stay in the shoulder season if they had a little incentive?

Campspot offers a function that use Promotions to create business in very strategic ways.