Are RV Parks Too Expensive Now?

Above, at the Willcox/Cochise AZ KOA Holiday. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

During the "heyday" of the pandemic, new buyers of RVs were hitting the road and filling up RV parks and campgrounds. Old-timer RVers were complaining that it was hard to find a campsite, especially during the holiday weekends like Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.

At the same time, thanks to inflation and the law of supply & demand, RV parks and campgrounds were jacking up prices to camp. 

Now, it seems that people are avoiding those high-priced RV parks and campgrounds. They seem to be saying, "Screw this, I'm not paying these outrageous prices." An article on this subject is in today's Newsletter in RV Travel.  

The start it off with:

Earlier this week, RVtravel.com publisher Chuck Woodbury emailed me a video discussing the status of camping over Memorial Day weekend. It was a commentary about empty RV parks over this traditionally packed camping holiday. I have to agree. I watched the video and share a lot of the observations after traveling this last month. Campgrounds may be empty again… but what does that mean?

Empty campgrounds on Memorial Day

My RV park on Memorial Day had a lot of empty sites. I was so surprised. I hadn’t hesitated to pay $70 for one night to get a spot because it was Memorial Day weekend. But I was too late planning and figured that the high price was my just due. Little did I know that $70 has become the new $40!

A few of our staff members nodded their heads in agreement at a recent staff meeting where we discussed this. They had the same experience over Memorial Day weekend.

I have found the expensive parks are, at most, half full, and some are only 10 percent full. We stayed at a huge lower-cost “Mom and Pop” RV park across from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park in June. School is out and while there was a row of full-timers, dozens of sites were empty.

My most recent trip took me into Arizona. The most expensive RV park during that trip was at the Willcox/Cochise AZ KOA Holiday. That was $55/night, only because I used some bonus points I accrued that brought the price down. The park was, at best, 50% full.

To read more, go here.