Campground Management Blog

Hi folks,

In the past you have heard me pontificate about the trust of the consumer and more specifically how it relates to setting rates at park level. To be more precise, over the years there has been some pressure to move toward yield optimization of parks automatically. In other words, the rates go up in your park every time you sell a site. The rates are adjusted by your software program based on an algorithm that you configure in your system.

My argument has always been that the outdoor hospitality business is different than the airlines or hotel business. That there is a certain social interaction you see around the campfires that you do not see in other industries. If you charge one person one rate and the next per a higher rate you end up breaking the trust of the consumer. It will cost you a lot more than the extra $10 per night you might have gotten, to get that customer back. Recently I had an experience to illustrate this fact.

My older brother just turned 50 years old. To celebrate the entire Kearns clan went to Vegas. Twenty of us. Now Steve is a new year’s baby so we went down over this past New Year’s. It was fun but I always had this underlying feel of distrust that I was being overcharged because it was New year’s. Turns out I was. Now Vegas are the absolute masters of supply and demand. My hat is off to them and they make no bones about it. They are there to deliver a customer experience and extract the most amount of money possible from your pocket. But at what cost?

For example, we stayed at the Mandalay Bay Casino. Very Very nice. Our room were $278 US per night. Got home on the Friday night. The following Sunday I had an email from their marketing department offering me the same room for $77 per night. I understand supply and demand. I get it. However I had just a bad taste in my mouth and a lingering odor of rip off when you receive that kind of treatment. Beer was $9, Cocktails $14. Corn beef sandwich $19. When I asked the waiter, was this the regular pricing he said no , it’s new year’s eve! Get over it!

I got in a cab to somewhere in Vegas and I chatted with the cab driver.  He tells me it is out of control. He says the hotels built too big too fast. He showed me the new 9 billion $$ CityCenter project that sits idle. He tells me the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is moving because the costs are too high. That is the hidden cost of breaking the trust of the customer and relying solely on supply and demand. Once you take the human eyeball element out of it you risk the wrath of your customers.

I had a good time in Vegas however I will not go back on New year’s. Not because I can’t afford it, because I don’t like to be taken for a ride. Let’s not go that route in our industry.

That is it for now. Hope that invokes some discussion.

Peter