Options For Greater Income Stability

He even, during the peak times in hotel occupancy during World War Two, would rent out each chair in the lobby by the night when the hotel was sold out. And many smart RV park owners are also thinking right now, with R V park occupancy high and demand so strong, What additional things can I do to create greater income and particularly more stable continual income?

This is Frank Roth, the RV Park Mastery Podcast. We're going to talk about the different options that are out there for smart owners, creative owners to harness to increase their occupancy and their cash flow.

The first one, which is not a new idea, but is one that every RV park owner needs to consider are park models. These are individual units that are designed to be rented by the night, just like a hotel room. Park miles are typically not large, four hundred square feet and under. They're not inexpensive. They could definitely easily cost thirty thousand dollars or more per unit.

But the big thing about a park model is it taps you into a new customer base because these are people that do not have RVs. These are people who do not want to camp in a tent. What their desire is to enjoy the RV park and its many amenities, but to do it without having the burden of carrying around a tent or a fifth wheel or go out and buy a motorhome.

Now often you'll find a lot of demand for park models in areas where people have family reunions and other group activities because this appeals to people who want to participate but they don't have an R V. And right now the occupancy in park models is extremely high. You have many people who have fled urban markets because of the pandemic.

They're just looking for something new, a new place to live, new chapter in their lives. And those park models give them that entree into the outdoors and R V park living. In fact some people will now use park models as a stepping stone to buying an R V to make sure they really enjoy that experience. Now the next one is a less expensive option, but offers you the same concept, and that's called glamping, which stands for glamour camping.

What you do is you buy an old travel trailer, typically from the sixties, but sometimes even the fifties, sometimes even earlier. Might be an airstream, doesn't have to be. And what you do is you buy it, but you don't set it up to be moved. It's there to be permanent. And then you really get out your Martha Stewart creativity on the inside and make it something special. The beauty of glamping as opposed to park models is the price point.

because you can build a glamping unit at a fraction of the cost of the park model. You can buy a suitable old travel trailer for a few thousand dollars. And if you're handy and if you're good at design, you can really make something very attractive, very very low amount of money. And there are people who actually prefer travel. They would actually choose that glamping trailer over that park model. They like the kitschy style. They like the unusual nature of it.

So there's another option to capture that overnight traveler who shows up in their car, they don't have an R V, don't have any tent, not there to camp, they're there to glamp.

Now this next option is a different departure, and that's the tiny home. We've all seen them on HGTV. Relatively attractive, some are amazingly attractive, And these are tiny residences, typically four hundred square feet and under, and it gives people an additional type of housing model, and this is for full time living. This is not for part time living. So this would be the person's actual dwelling. The good news is they're attractive.

Bad news is though, they're not your typical overnight R V customer. And as a result, it will change your community to some degree, but possibly for the better. You see tiny homes, since they'll be there year round, are going to pay you rent year round. I've toured some RV parks and we have some RV parks where we have put a special focus on filling certain sections with tiny homes.

In an ideal world, you'd have enough tiny homes, enough residual monthly income to cover your basic necessities, perhaps your mortgage. without worrying day to day if anyone's going to ever show up because you'll know exactly when you start each day how much income you will have. Also those tiny homes can actually produce a very interesting and charming character for your property.

Typically people in the tiny homes care deeply about their neighborhood, have a lot of pride of ownership, and give kind of an unusual charming character to any RV park. It also allows you to use areas that you typically could not for RVs, maybe because of access, because again, these are not moved, these are permanent by nature. In that same vein

you have the idea of extended stay. Now how is extended stay different than tiny homes? Extended stay would mean where you attract people who are going to retire into their RV Whether it's a fifth wheel, motor home, travel trailer, it doesn't matter. But they're not going to be moving it around. They're there for the duration. They plan on staying there for perhaps a balance of their lifetime.

Now there's ten thousand baby boomers a day retiring in America, and most of those as part of their retirement they're selling their home, investing in an RV, and they plan on retiring and living full time in that RV. And you can set up a little bit. Set aside a section. Well, it doesn't have to be a section, it could just be in the general populace of your RV park. But these customers again bring lots of positive attributes.

Perhaps foremost, stable income. Because they're there every single day. They're going to pay you monthly. Some might even pay you annually. And once again, that stable income base will give you great comfort every month when you're going to be able to do It comes time to pay your mortgage because you've already got that built-in revenue source every month. Therefore, everything else otherwise, nightly, weekly, that's gravy because you have all your basic essentials covered with these extended.

and stay units. Another positive is, again, it gives the community extra charm having people that love the area so much that they're devoting the rest of their life to staying there. Those people can kind of be unofficial ambassadors and tour guides for your other residents. They also display lots of pride of ownership typically, so they're really an asset.

Never, never a liability. Now extended stay is also a big booming market because there are so many Americans retiring and so many Americans learning they really love RV park living. And they also just don't love it.

Traveling constantly in between RV parks. They like to have one set place to go, and that ties directly into that demand stream. The bottom line is smart RV park owners are aware right now. Right now that RV parks are hot. And it's looking they'll stay that way. I can't really see anything on the horizon, a single mega trend that will harm RV park occupancy. I actually just see it continuing to increase. That's because the industry has done such a great job

of public relations and got so lucky that was at one time non-existent and now the largest segment of the population likes RV parks and that's the millennials. Used to be all about baby boomers, which used to be the largest segment of the US population. population. Now that's been changed to the millennials. But millennials perhaps bigger fans

Than the baby baby boomers were. So the industry is very well positioned. And because it is so well positioned, every RV park owner needs to think how can they maximize the construction of their business model? How can they take and perhaps set aside certain sections to create continual income through extended stay or tiny homes? And how can they take other areas and provide a whole new product line, a whole new business model of nightly rental for those who don't have RVs?

In the forms of glamping and park models. So I urge every RV park owner to really look at their business. Do you have any section that is not income-producing to its fullest? Think like Conrad Hilton in the Those chairs in the lobby. It's those kinds of thoughts that not only create you the best income base, but also give people the most happiness because there's so many people out there wanting to experience the RV Park model. This is Frank Roth with the RV Park Mastery Podcast.

Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.