CG Prices

[kfp673]

Preaching to the choir, beating a dead horse, etc etc I know but I still have to vent.

I've been camping my whole life and have had travel trailers for the past 18 years and never thought I would see site prices even come close to approaching what I have been seeing lately. Thankfully state parks (which we love and prefer) have kept prices somewhat flat, but we can rarely get a site at state parks. We are not year in advance planners outside of 1 trip each year so we rarely get in. We do it all from boondocking to "luxury RV resorts". The mid tier to "luxury" range has always been from $65-$150 that we have seen, and places like Fort wilderness up around $200. While looking for a site over memorial day weekend, we found a few near Ocean City MD, NJ, and elsewhere that we have used in the past (but not for the last 5 years) that ranged $200-$350 per night! Are they crazy?!?! It's a darn camp site not an all inclusive resort!! It's no wonder the few we found in that price point were not sold out over the holiday weekend. And, KOA's and others we looked at similar to KOA's are all over $100 now. We ended up boondocking and had a great time but we are finding our boondocks sites are far busier now likely because of it. I just can't believe anyone would pay even $150+ let alone $300+ per night at any RV resort / campground. For that price it should include food delivered to my camper, unlimited cocktails, and someone should come make my bed and clean my camper each day. I really hope people continue refusing the Sun RV and others like it so prices start dipping again. This is not inflation. This is "because we can" greed and its ruining camping for those of us without deep bank accounts.

Sorry for the rant 😉

[bucky]

Lower prices in Kansas. Somebody tell Ron White, he could have a field day with that as a follow up to a previous skit.

[Camper445]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
When a company invests in improvements and raising prices, that's a little different than raising rates, and doing no upkeep or improvements. THen take the extra profits to the bank, and clients get nothing extra for the extra fee.

The latter reminds me of the word Greed...

So you sell widgets and you have a big stockpile that sell for let's say $100 and now the market supports selling that same widget for $150 you are going to keep selling at $100???????

Monkey44 is just expressing his disdain for capitalism, just as most folks who are not motivated and self reliant support socialism.
It’s ok. If everyone was was motivated and self reliant and capitalist, there would be less cheese to go around for the motivated people to eat!

YEP!!!

Free Cheese?

[Cummins12V98]

Grit dog wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
When a company invests in improvements and raising prices, that's a little different than raising rates, and doing no upkeep or improvements. THen take the extra profits to the bank, and clients get nothing extra for the extra fee.

The latter reminds me of the word Greed...

So you sell widgets and you have a big stockpile that sell for let's say $100 and now the market supports selling that same widget for $150 you are going to keep selling at $100???????

Monkey44 is just expressing his disdain for capitalism, just as most folks who are not motivated and self reliant support socialism.
It’s ok. If everyone was was motivated and self reliant and capitalist, there would be less cheese to go around for the motivated people to eat!

YEP!!!

[DallasSteve]

There's a new story today that Russia is cutting the price of its oil to find buyers. I love watching supply and demand do its thing. (This will actually help reduce the cost of gasoline a little, but so little you may not notice)

[monkey44]

Taking advantage and gouging during a tragedy or catastrophe is pure greed, no matter how anyone can try justifying raising prices beyond normal conditions.

Running a successful business under normal economic conditions will support raises to employees who help make that company successful.

[time2roll]

So what is better.... a low cost campground I can never get into or paying a higher price and have some availability?

[DallasSteve]

nickthehunter wrote:
I don't know why you want to keep talking common sense like supply and demand. Don't you know trigger words, like greed, are more fun to read and respond to.

A lot of the comments show a lack of understanding of basic economics. I had 2 semesters of Economics on the way to a degree in Accounting. Supply and demand is like gravity; it never sleeps, it never takes a vacation.

[wapiticountry]

valhalla360 wrote:

wapiticountry wrote:
And this is why businesses should never give raises to employees. The day after the raise they will be doing exactly the same work they were doing before. Giving a raise does nothing but put money in the employees bank accounts and the employer gets nothing but higher payroll costs. Increasing income should be outlawed for both businesses and employees because it is just another term for greed.

I assume you were being sarcastic but....

The market will sort things out.
- In the very short term... If you give them a raise, true, they are doing the same week last friday as this monday but making more money.
- But in the long term, if you are underpaying, the quality employees will be offered higher paying jobs and leave. You will be left with the lower quality employees and unable to hire new ones.

Likewise, if owners are pricing campsites too high, the market will punish them because no one will use their services.
- This doesn't mean the park needs to run at 100% occupancy. A price that keeps the park at 70% occupancy may be more profitable (and nothing wrong with that).
- Right now, there is a spike in demand. When that subsides, prices may settle back down (or more typically, they will hold steady for a long period while the rest of the market catches up).
- Another possibility if prices are too high, is it will drive others to build RV parks. It's tough to buy and develop beachfront land into an RV park at $20/n rates. But if the local parks are charging $200/n, you might be able to build a new park at $100/n rates undercutting the competition.

I always shake my head after hurricanes when politicians go on about gouging but taking bottled water as an example:
- If prices are not allowed to rise, the first people into the store buy more than they need (it's cheap and doesn't go bad). Then those that arrive later have no water to buy. There is no incentive for the store to pay a premium to ship more water in.
- If they are allowed to charge $20/case, the first people in buy only what they need because it's expensive. Now the existing supply, is available to more people. In addition, at $20/case, it may be worth sending one of the stock boys north out of the affected area to buy a couple pallets of water for $3/case, so you can resell them at $20/case, so even more water is available to those who need it. Very quickly, the supply catches up with demand and prices subside.

Absolutely being sarcastic. Even in disaster scenarios price gouging has been limited to essential items. While you could make the case a park quadrupling prices in a hurricane ravaged area is price gouging, a park that makes that same increase in rates year over year in a place that is not a disaster area, but rather a tourist attraction is doing nothing wrong. Previous costs or pricing has nothing to do with current prices. I don’t think anyone would argue a person who was selling the home should base that price on what they paid for it. I mean should someone who paid $400,000 3 years ago be allowed to get a much higher price than the guy selling an identical house next door because that next door guy inherited the house from ancestors who homesteaded, built that home themselves and actually got that property for free. I have never seen a park or any other business hold a gun to the customer’s head demanding they pay or else. Many things have had enormous price increases recently and I don’t believe geeed is the primary motivation.

[Grit_dog]

nickthehunter wrote:
I don't know why you want to keep talking common sense like supply and demand. Don't you know trigger words, like greed, are more fun to read and respond to.

Bingo!
And what is sad, is I generally regard the generation before me (which most of the members on this board are part of) as good hard working folk.
When I see old folks pander and play the victim card and get “triggered”, I feel sorry that they are not only not helping themselves, but setting a poor example for those coming up under their care or influence.

[nickthehunter]

I don't know why you want to keep talking common sense like supply and demand. Don't you know trigger words, like greed, are more fun to read and respond to.

[valhalla360]

wapiticountry wrote:
And this is why businesses should never give raises to employees. The day after the raise they will be doing exactly the same work they were doing before. Giving a raise does nothing but put money in the employees bank accounts and the employer gets nothing but higher payroll costs. Increasing income should be outlawed for both businesses and employees because it is just another term for greed.

I assume you were being sarcastic but....

The market will sort things out.
- In the very short term... If you give them a raise, true, they are doing the same week last friday as this monday but making more money.
- But in the long term, if you are underpaying, the quality employees will be offered higher paying jobs and leave. You will be left with the lower quality employees and unable to hire new ones.

Likewise, if owners are pricing campsites too high, the market will punish them because no one will use their services.
- This doesn't mean the park needs to run at 100% occupancy. A price that keeps the park at 70% occupancy may be more profitable (and nothing wrong with that).
- Right now, there is a spike in demand. When that subsides, prices may settle back down (or more typically, they will hold steady for a long period while the rest of the market catches up).
- Another possibility if prices are too high, is it will drive others to build RV parks. It's tough to buy and develop beachfront land into an RV park at $20/n rates. But if the local parks are charging $200/n, you might be able to build a new park at $100/n rates undercutting the competition.

I always shake my head after hurricanes when politicians go on about gouging but taking bottled water as an example:
- If prices are not allowed to rise, the first people into the store buy more than they need (it's cheap and doesn't go bad). Then those that arrive later have no water to buy. There is no incentive for the store to pay a premium to ship more water in.
- If they are allowed to charge $20/case, the first people in buy only what they need because it's expensive. Now the existing supply, is available to more people. In addition, at $20/case, it may be worth sending one of the stock boys north out of the affected area to buy a couple pallets of water for $3/case, so you can resell them at $20/case, so even more water is available to those who need it. Very quickly, the supply catches up with demand and prices subside.

[wapiticountry]

monkey44 wrote:
When a company invests in improvements and raising prices, that's a little different than raising rates, and doing no upkeep or improvements. THen take the extra profits to the bank, and clients get nothing extra for the extra fee.

The latter reminds me of the word Greed...

And this is why businesses should never give raises to employees. The day after the raise they will be doing exactly the same work they were doing before. Giving a raise does nothing but put money in the employees bank accounts and the employer gets nothing but higher payroll costs. Increasing income should be outlawed for both businesses and employees because it is just another term for greed.

[Cummins12V98]

monkey44 wrote:
When a company invests in improvements and raising prices, that's a little different than raising rates, and doing no upkeep or improvements. THen take the extra profits to the bank, and clients get nothing extra for the extra fee.

The latter reminds me of the word Greed...

So you sell widgets and you have a big stockpile that sell for let's say $100 and now the market supports selling that same widget for $150 you are going to keep selling at $100???????

[monkey44]

When a company invests in improvements and raising prices, that's a little different than raising rates, and doing no upkeep or improvements. THen take the extra profits to the bank, and clients get nothing extra for the extra fee.

The latter reminds me of the word Greed...

[Lantley]

Those of you familiar with Frontier towne. Have you checked out the new full hook up section? Those sites are $150.00 or so a night. It's hard to justify $150.00 a night on the other hand I'm sure cost millions, not thousands to create 70 or so new paved full hook up sites. With new modern bath house and laundry.
In order for Sun or anyone else to invest millions in their properties they expect substantial return.
So far Sun's Frontier towne has done alright by me. I'm not happy about the price increase, but I do notice the substantial investments being made at the property.
Truth is I could stay in the older much less expensive W/E no sewer grass sites.
However I prefer the new sites with all the amenities and I'm willing to pay a premium.
Sun understands there is demand for better sites and they are attempting to meet the demand, Sun has the resources and capitol that the Family run CG's could never come up with.
I have been going to Frontier towne since I was a teenager. I feared that the corporate buyout would ruin Frontiertowne, however the buyout has breathed new life into the CG.
Yes the rates have increased, but those increases appear to have funded major improvements and expansion within the CG.
Whenever I go to Frontiertown I have a great time. Yes I grumble about the prices, but compared to a week stay in a OC condo I'm still way ahead of the game.