It started with a wisp of smoke.
Bryan Rupp was driving back to Castaic Lake RV Park after running an errand when he spotted it—a faint smudge in the sky about six miles past the park. It was 10:38 a.m. on a beautiful, clear day.
“New fire?” he texted his staff, attaching a photo he snapped while on the road.
By 11:23 a.m., the sky was black.
Just north of Los Angeles, Castaic Lake RV Park sits on 12 acres of California land that four families purchased together in 1975. Those same families developed the land and turned it into what is now Castaic Lake RV Park. They still own the park today, and it’s now led by the second generation.
Bryan joined the park in 2017 as general manager and quickly recognized the need for a better way to manage the park’s daily operations.
“We had old systems in place. We used five different systems to run the business,” Bryan recalled. “We had an online component. Our POS system was with a different company. Our reservation management system just managed the sites and didn’t talk to the other systems. We also had paper components for the other parts of the business.”
At a national conference in 2018, Bryan and one of the park’s owners met CampLife’s President, Tyler Duffy. After visiting a park that had already implemented CampLife and observing operations firsthand, Bryan was sold.
“We came home after two days and I said, ‘That’s the one we need to go with,’ ” Bryan shared. “We went from five systems to CampLife. We went live on June 1, 2018, and it’s been a great experience.”
Daily reconciliation dropped from 20 minutes to two. Inventory tracking became seamless. “Any given minute I can go in and see what our income is for the day and our reservations—in and out—for the day,” Bryan explained. “I can forecast based on historical data what we’re going to do for the current month and the following month. It helps me determine what I’m going to carry in our store. We can go in the system and pull out inventory data and set limits and profit margin and reorder points. Rather than manually having to go look at a shelf to see what we’re running low on, we just go on CampLife.”
“I think we utilize most everything CampLife has to offer,” he added.
But Bryan had no idea just how critical the processes he’d established within the system would become until he found himself, his team, and his guests in the direct path of the Hughes wildfire.
“By 11:23, less than an hour [after I first saw the smoke], the sky is black,” Bryan remembered. “It was a windy day, so I stepped outside of the front door of the office, and I took a picture. In the picture I captured the black smoke filling the sky, the American flag flying on our flag pole, and a sheriff's department helicopter in the distance flying toward the fire. That picture was so potentially scary because, in less than an hour, it went from a beautiful day to a day that could have had a devastating outcome.”
His first thought? “Send out a text on CampLife.”
Bryan went inside and used CampLife’s built-in SMS Texting to send a mass message to nearly 500 customers: “There’s a fire nearby. We may have to evacuate. I’ll keep you informed.”
Shortly after: “We have a mandatory evacuation. This is not a drill. Evacuate.”
That day, the park had 107 on-site guests and 370 RVs in storage. By 2:00 p.m., the evacuation was in full swing.
“I went door to door in our campground saying, ‘Evacuate, there’s a fire coming. This is a mandatory evacuation,’ ” Bryan recounted. “And as I was going door to door, I saw our storage customers coming in and hooking up their trailers from storage and leaving. So I know that many of them got the texts, got over here, and took their RVs out just to be safe.”
The on-site guests had already gotten the message as well before Bryan even knocked.
“Ninety percent of them left or were leaving because of the text, not because of me pounding on the doors,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure because some people might have been sleeping and didn’t receive their texts. But there’s no doubt in my mind that 400 of our nearly 500 customers got the text and were able to do what they needed to do—or what they felt they could do— because of the advanced notification.”
Bryan opened the key-coded gates so people who were coming to get their rigs didn’t have to enter their code. This also benefitted the firefighters who had to battle the blaze from multiple angles.
“The fire came from within six feet from one of our storage lots, and that storage lot was full,” Bryan said. “The firefighters were fighting that portion of the fire from inside of our fence, and another couple of teams were fighting it from the outside. It was a big deal.”
But thanks to early communication and clear action, no one was hurt. No RVs were damaged. The park was safe.
“The bottom line is everyone was safe,” Bryan said. “The firefighters did an outstanding job protecting us.”
And Bryan and his team did an amazing job protecting the park and everyone in it. His efforts did not go unnoticed.
“People were reaching out to me saying they didn’t know what was happening until they got the texts saying everything was ok,” Bryan shared. “One thank you email that I got from a storage customer said, 'We store our fifth wheel at your site. I really want to thank you for the text updates this past week. My husband tried to pick it up and couldn’t, so we were on pins and needles until you sent the text that all was ok.’ ”
Bryan’s quick response—and the technology that supported it—played a key role in keeping Castaic Lake RV Park safe. But he's the first to say that tools like SMS Texting are only helpful if you already know how to use them.
“I think the biggest part is we need to know what is available to us before we need it,” Bryan admitted. “If you don’t use text messaging on the CampLife system, and then you’re in an emergency situation, you don’t have time to think, ‘What can I do? How can I get this information out?’ You’ve got to know this tool is available and it’s going to work.”
He also stresses the importance of training and clarity for staff.
“The staff needs to know if anything happens, the first thing is you have to communicate,” Bryan shared. “You have to have a plan in your head and even write it down for your staff if you aren’t there and the owners aren’t available.”
And when it comes to the people you serve, every second matters.
“A lot of people don’t live a mile away and can come grab their trailer,” Bryan pointed out. “So you give them 15 minutes as opposed to 3 minutes to react. Those 15 minutes could make the difference.”
Thanks to steady leadership and the systems Bryan and his team already had in place, those 15 minutes—and more—were available.
When the sky darkens, preparation matters. For Bryan that preparation included SMS Texting, one of CampLife’s many features his team relies on to keep operations running smoothly. But on that day, it became the lifeline that helped protect everyone in his care.
“We communicate with our customers often through text messaging,” Bryan said. “So it was never a question of, ‘How can I get this information to everybody?’ It’s just a click of a button. You type out your message and, boom, you send it. Then you go about whatever physically you have to do to protect life and property.”
Want to learn how CampLife can support your park in both daily operations and emergency situations? Reach out to our team and learn more. We’d love to help you find the right tools to serve your guests and protect what matters most.
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