No campground owner knows exactly how a season will unfold.
A holiday weekend that looked average in January may become one of your busiest weekends by June. A stretch of weekdays you expected to fill could stay surprisingly quiet.
That uncertainty is what makes pricing difficult. Set your rates too early, and they may no longer reflect the demand a few months later. Change them manually throughout the season, and you’re spending valuable time watching reservations and updating rates.
Dynamic Pricing helps by allowing your pricing to respond as your campground fills. You establish the pricing rules in advance, including the occupancy levels that trigger each adjustment. As reservations come in and those thresholds are reached, the system applies the changes automatically.
The result is a pricing strategy you create before the season begins that continues to adjust as reservations come in.
Dynamic Pricing doesn’t have to mean large price increases or a complete overhaul of your rates. Many campground owners begin with a single site group and make small modifications as occupancy grows.
One of the first decisions you’ll make is where your occupancy thresholds should begin. Occupancy thresholds are simply the booking levels that trigger a rate change.
When deciding where to place those thresholds, think about how your park typically books. Holiday weekends, seasonal demand, local events, and your park’s reservation history can all influence how quickly sites fill.
For example, you might decide to keep your base rate until a site group reaches 50% occupancy. From 50% to 65%, you could increase the nightly rate by $5. When occupancy reaches 65%, you might add another $5.
You decide where each threshold begins and how much the rate changes. CampLife simply follows the rules you’ve created.
The important part is that you don’t have to get everything perfect the first season. Small adjustments make it easier to see how your pricing performs and give you the confidence to make changes over time.
Once Dynamic Pricing has been in place for a while, you’ll have something even more valuable than a good first impression. You’ll have data from your own campground.
CampLife includes reports like Dynamic Pricing Occupancy Levels and Rate Change Summary so you can see when the rate changes occurred and how your pricing strategy worked throughout the season.
Those reports can help you decide whether to leave your thresholds where they are, make small adjustments, or expand Dynamic Pricing to additional site groups next season.
One of the biggest concerns campground owners have is how guests will react when rates aren’t the same every time they call.
Patricia Maat of North Shore RV Park in Ontario had the same concern when her family adopted Dynamic Pricing nearly a decade ago.
“Normally, you get a camper asking, ‘What’s your nightly rate?’ That’s the standard question,” Patricia said. “So we explain, ‘Our rates vary based on which sites you choose and based on our occupancy levels. If you give me your dates, I can give you an accurate price for that stay.’ ”
“The majority of the time, people are like, ‘Oh, okay, that makes sense.’ ”
Patricia sees another benefit to using Dynamic Pricing as well.
“Dynamic Pricing rewards the people who make their plans early because they’re the ones who get the best rate.”
No pricing strategy can predict exactly how a season will unfold. Dynamic Pricing gives you a way to respond as reservations come in instead of relying only on decisions you made months earlier.
Starting with one site group, making modest adjustments, and reviewing your reports at the end of the season can help you build a strategy that fits your park. As you learn what works, you can refine your occupancy thresholds and expand Dynamic Pricing as it makes sense.
If you’re curious about trying Dynamic Pricing at your park, we’d be happy to show you how it works. Members of the CampLife Community can reach out to Customer Success for more information or for help getting started.
Considering CampLife? Reach out anytime. We’d love to talk you through it.
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