What convertibles tell us about RVing
May 14: Convertibles, once the epitome of wind-in-your-face freedom on the open road, have been shunted aside by the technological creature comforts of SUVs. So too with the camping and RVing industries, hell-bent on defanging the great outdoors in order to lure “travelers” who want to think of themselves as intrepid adventurers but don’t want to get sweaty about it. Or as KOA recently commented, camping “has emerged as much more than a way to get outside.”
Myth about RVs and flooding lives on
May 11: When Jackson County Circuit Court in Mississippi convenes this Thursday, it will hear a novel theory that the federal government thinks putting RVs in flood zones is a good idea. That’s total bunk—but what else are you going to say if you want to build Mississippi’s biggest RV resort in a swamp that has a history of being mauled by a disastrous hurricane, with more of the same a reasonable expectation?
Glamping as a Japanese movie villain
May 4: Well, that didn’t take long: just a handful of years since it burst into general American consciousness, glamping has earned a central role as the villain in a newly released Japanese movie, “Evil Does Not Exist.” You’ll have to figure out for yourself whether that’s a mistranslation or a bit of wry social commentary.
Three Ponies breaks a leg; shoot it?
May 2: They shoot horses, don’t they? Maybe the same fate should await the stumbling Three Ponies RV Park and Campground, which was supposed to open next spring just outside Vinita, OK. But that was before a previously unrecognized flood plain threw a hitch into its giddyap, and without taking account of this being part of a much bigger $2 billion theme park being developed by a company with no comparable experience, the non-disclosure agreements it compelled city leaders to sign and the fact that this is all occurring in the middle of tornado alley.
Here’s a remote way to kill RV parks
April 27: Adam Lendi, self-styled “real estate guru” and owner of the Beyonder chain of campgrounds, has a management style that he says is best suited “for people who want a life outside of their campground.” Sure, absentee owners are vulnerable to any number of investment-killing pitfalls, from property neglect to theft to alienated campers—but the reward is personal freedom! Lendi’s secret? Just hire the right manager, silly. If you can.
RVers’ public image is less than great
April 21: When the Mansfield City Council unanimously voted this past week to deny a rezoning application for a proposed new RV park, it had no facts about the campground itself—it was the very idea of a campground that it was rejecting. Because while the RV industry views itself as appealing to an adventurous, freedom-seeking community of self-sufficient nomads, much of rural America sees only the scrapings of society, including child molesters, drug addicts and homeless vagrants.
Notes on an evolving RV landscape
April 17: In a sign of the times, K&K Insurance is advertising itself as providing campground coverage “designed for your unique needs”—unless those unique needs include a Florida address, in which case, too bad! Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has taken note of the Biden administration’s tougher line on price-fixing, and the implications that has for companies using algorithms—like campground reservation systems—to make pricing decisions. But it’s not all bad news. Not with Hilton Hotels moving into the luxury end of the campground business—the end that charges $1,200 for a one-night stay.
Signs we’re at an RV market top
April 11: If it’s published by Forbes it must be factually correct—right? Except that these days the erstwhile business journalism powerhouse is peddling its cachet to any wet-behind-the-ears businessman willing to pay for its imprimatur, with no apparent oversight and no apparent regard for whatever nonsense such ersatz reporters spew forth. Take, for instance, the assertion by investor Ben Spiegel that today’s average RV owner is only 32 years old, an absurd statement echoed by an industry trade press that should know better because, well—because it feels good, at a time when the real news is anything but.
It’s the good Samaritan needs help
April 6: One clue that an enterprise has lost its way comes when it starts “rebranding,” usually with the explanation that it’s seeking a wider audience or is identifying its actual “core discipline”—“people-moving” instead of flying airplanes, for example. Or, for example, the membership organization formerly known as the Good Sam Club, which yesterday changed its logo (again), trotted out the nifty tag line, “Good to Go,” and said it is going to be partnering with Princess Cruise Lines. Because nothing says freedom of the open road quite like a floating petri dish.
Camping got too big for its britches
March 30: Once upon a time, “camping” meant a tent and fire ring and “campground” meant a bunch of tents and fire rings, plus—possibly—a communal bathhouse and swimming lake. Sixty years later, it can mean a village of year-round RV park models, tiny homes and cabins on wheels, but the regulatory apparatus that assures campground safety and conformity with surrounding uses is still back in the lean-to age. No wonder local communities get up in arms when a developer tries to sell them a “campground” bill of goods—and they figure out just what that means.
Deschutes dithering about RV homes
March 27: There’s a lot of dithering these days in Deschutes County, Oregon, about whether it’s a good idea to give a government stamp of approval to people living in RVs as their permanent homes. But if the U.S. Navy has adopted RVs as acceptable housing, can civilian governments be far behind? And the RV industry hasn’t said boo about such blatant misuse of its products—despite years of insisting RVs are not suitable for long-term living—so it must be okay . . . right?
Milking a hollow Senate hearing
March 23: The Senate Budget Committee held a public hearing Wednesday that set out to explore how much of an economic cost the outdoor industry is paying because of climate change, and the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable was quick to trumpet the proceedings. But neither the ORR nor any of the outdoor industry’s major players participated in the hearing, leaving just three minor players to make the case—one of whom, a 23-year-old Nordic skier, became a punching bag for a supercilious Louisiana legislator.
RV red flags keep popping up all over
March 20: Representatives of RV manufacturers and campground owners keep radiating good cheer about the upcoming season, paying extravagant notice to every uptick in sales and reservations. But while there’s cause for cautious optimism, there’s at least as strong a case to be made for a less than stellar 2024, as even those who are closest to the action are indicating—not to mention a decision by Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis to unload nearly a fifth of his company stock.
The seal on your RV? Just a tax stamp
March 16: Buy a manufactured RV, and chances are that somewhere in a prominent location near the main entrance you’ll see a gold badge—if it’s a motorhome, silver if it’s a travel trailer or fifth-wheel—that amounts to an industry seal of good housekeeping. But when you get right down to it that seal is little more than a private-industry tax stamp issued by the RV Industry Association, and because RV sales have slumped so badly, tax collections are down sharply. All of which means the RVIA has a big problem.
Campers flying solo and on the cheap
March 10: Reports about this year’s annual survey of U.S. camping from The Dyrt have focused largely on the sector’s continued growth—but dig down a bit and you’ll find significant drop-offs among working-age adults. Then there’s the growing appetite for free camping, apparently in reaction to higher rates—and to younger generations’ growing propensity for not canceling reservations and being no-shows. And why are almost a third of all campers going it alone?
Hustlers, beats and Wendy’s CEO
March 8: It’s been almost a month since Wendy’s CEO caused a firestorm by telling analysts the fast-food chain was going to experiment with dynamic pricing, and the dust still hasn’t lifted. But campgrounds and RV parks already have all but universally embraced the approach, with little comparable push-back, and for them it’s been a windfall. After all, the less a customer understands why he’s paying what he’s paying, the better for business—and even more so if that customer is convinced he’s getting a special deal.
Using ‘nature’ as a propaganda tool
Feb. 28: Michael Patterson insists that his plans to build a glampground on the shores of a relatively small 30-acre pond in southern Maine won’t be environmentally harmful because “I’m trying to keep it wilderness.” His opponents, on the other hand, claim those plans would “devastate” the ecosystem—even as they contend that the pond’s ecosystem has already been “dramatically reduced” by over-development. Both sides are trying to score points by invoking a natural order that was erased years ago.
New homes are now smaller than RVs
Feb. 21: This past Sunday offered a stark study in economic contrasts: the New York Times ran a sizable story, headlined “The Great Compression,” detailing how we’ve entered “the era of the 400-square-foot subdivision house.” And television social commentator John Oliver offered Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a million dollars a year to step down from the bench—as well as a $2.4-million Prevost motorcoach just to sweeten the deal. The Prevost is actually bigger than the homes chronicled by the Times.
RVs as ‘housing’ a recipe for slums
Feb. 17: Squeezed by a housing crisis that is approaching Great Depression dimensions, state and local governments have started turning their backs on “decent, safe and sanitary” standards that have long guided the home-building and mortgage-lending industries. In Oregon, that means deciding that yes, people should be allowed to live full-time in “vehicles . . . designed for use as temporary living quarters,” even if their kitchens are outside. And even if they don’t have a toilet—unless a county decides maybe that should be taken “under consideration” as an “additional standard.”
Let’s face it: we’re all tourons
Feb. 11: There’s an undeniably smug pleasure many of us take in observing others’ failings or stupid behavior, such as the “tourons”—a mash-up of “tourist” and “moron”—who try to pet wild bear cubs or take selfies with bison in Yellowstone. Yet how much difference is there between the tourist who ambles up to a wild animal and the tourist who thrashes heedlessly through a tick-infested meadow, or who kicks up leaf mold and breathes in fungal spores, or who ignores a mosquito bite even after the headaches it caused progress to vomiting, high fever and aching joint pain?
Need RV repairs? Be prepared to wait!
Feb. 7: Last summer I reported on a possible silver lining to the grey cloud of plunging RV sales: the decline in high-margin sales meant dealers had more incentive to beef up their servicing efforts. And, indeed, there were some encouraging signs that months-long repairs were gradually getting shorter—but that was then. Today that’s history, with average wait times of up to 89 days for some warranty repairs—and as with any average, that means some waits are considerably longer. What the heck is going on?
ARVC/OHI: adrift without a rudder
Feb. 3: The organization formerly known as the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, or ARVC, is having one heck of an identity crisis. Its “rebranding” as Outdoor Hospitality Industry alienated its core membership, without any indication that the change has broadened its appeal—and now it has decided that RV parks and campgrounds across the U.S. can be dues-paying members without also belonging to a state association. Look for mayhem and confusion to ensue.
A warning shot about RV price fixing
Jan. 31: The use of algorithms to set prices of common goods and services, enabled by widespread computerization and data scraping, has seeped into various parts of the economy—including how camp sites are priced. Now an impending piece of legislation , targeting price-fixing in rental housing, is about to be introduced in the U.S. Senate, with obvious implications for RV parks and campgrounds. Using algorithmic pricing “is no different from doing it over cigars and whiskey,” according to one of the bill sponsors.
Why does KOA play a numbers game?
Jan. 27: KOA tooted its own horn this week by announcing that thanks to independent parks becoming franchisees, as well as new RV park construction, it had reached the “elevated number” of 511 branded locations across North America, marking another “year of significant expansion.” Which sounds swell only as long as you ignore the 525 locations it claimed in 2021, or the 515 it had two years prior to that. So what’s really going on?
More RV sites don’t mean more room
Jan. 20: If you’re a recreational RVer—someone who bought a travel trailer or class C motorhome thinking you’d like to take the kids camping—a pair of reports this past week by two long-time campground observers could make your head spin. One indicates the U.S. will gain as many as 18,000 new campsites over the next three years–but the other suggests the demand for those space from residential RVers will be considerably greater.
Turning a deaf ear to Mother Nature
Jan. 13: It’s been a helluva week on the weather front, and nowhere more so than in Marianna, Florida, where a likely tornado smashed through the Florida Caverns RV Resort—just five years after Hurricane Michael caused $2.5 million in damages. But the resort’s owner says he’ll rebuild again—even as a volley of recent reports suggests that yet another repeat is increasingly likely. Is the RV industry capable of reading the writing on the wall?
Holes down which to throw money
Jan. 8: Years ago, when I was reporting from a coastal city in South Carolina, I learned the classic definition of a boat: a hole in the water down which you throw a lot of money. RVs are like that. The romance of the road, like the siren call of the sea, quickly founders on the shoals of high fuel prices, constant maintenance and the realization that you’ll never spend enough time on the thing to justify its price tag.
RVing shenanigans of the past year
Jan. 2: The end of one year and the start of another frequently prompts retrospectives by those seeking closure or looking to demonstrate their cleverness. Sometimes it would be better if they didn’t—but despite that bit of homegrown wisdom, I’m giving it a shot, anyway. There was just too much tricky business going on in 2023 to move on to 2024 without one last mention.
Renting Dirt 