Frequently Asked Questions when Building or Buying a Campground
Homer Staves of Staves Consulting has worked in the campground industry since the 1960’s, and raised his sons, Neil and Walt, to be avid campers as well. Together, we have visited thousands of RV Parks across North America. And as campground owners ourselves, we are very familiar with all aspects of building, repairing, and operating campgrounds and RV parks.
If you have a question that’s not answered on this page, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help.
Q: How much does it cost to build a campground or RV park?
A: There are so many variables to consider when building an RV Park, and every project is unique and different. It is very easy to exceed the initial budget. We do have some rules-of-thumb in the campground industry, but they are broad generalizations, and are only a starting point for the project.
One of the most important things to remember is that every decision for the individual site is multiplied by 100 or more, so the difference between a $100 product and a $200 product per site seems small, only $100 on a million-dollar project, but it’s actually $1000 or more, depending on the number of sites in the park. And every little decision adds up.
We also strongly encourage our clients to keep some kind of consistent theme throughout the campground: same building style and material, same paint colors, same fencing, etc. And the difference, for instance, between stick-built vs. metal buildings can vary greatly, based on region, local building codes, and even the general economy. And you don’t have just one building.
The topography of the land can also have a significant impact on the cost of building a campground, as moving dirt can be very expensive. In some places there are steep hills or even exposed bedrock, other locations have erosion and drainage issues. Flat, level farmland with no geological features or streams is much cheaper to work than a rocky hillside lot. There are many questions that need to be answered before tackling a hard construction or renovation budget.
Can you connect to city water and sewer, or will you need to make room for a (new) septic drain field? Will the local authorities let you dig an “exempt” well, or will you need to invest in a Municipal Water Station that the city will later tap into, without reimbursement? Are there sufficient power and telephone connections at the property, or will you have to pay for miles of wire and weeks of work to the local power company? Will you be required to dedicate ¼ of your property to a storm retention pond? Will you need to build walls around the entire property, or can you get away with wire fencing and landscaping? These are only some of the potential surprises that could break the budget, or even force you to terminate the project.
Local zoning and code requirements can vary not only from one state to the next, but even between counties, or townships within the same county. While we cannot forecast what a local planning board will require, we do often meet with them on our site visit to get their input.
A local contractor and/or engineer can be invaluable in getting a construction project through the permitting and approval stages, but they can waste a lot of your money if they don’t know the specific requirements of an RV Park and don’t have a thoughtful campground design to start with. We try to get the project as far along as possible before engaging these necessary resources for the final steps with planning and zoning, and actual construction of your campground.
As a broad starting point, we assume a building cost between $20,000 and $40,000 per site. That includes sites, roads, buildings, and amenities; everything except the cost of the land itself. On the other hand, a large-scale modern RV Resort with all the bells and whistles could be much higher, even as much as $60,000 to $80,000 per site. Our focus, as consultants, is on keeping that figure as low as possible to maximize your return on investment, and there are ways to control those costs without making any real compromises.
One of the best ways is to start the project with the perspective of growing a garden or bonsai tree, as opposed to building a high-rise apartment complex. You don’t have to get everything perfect before opening the park. Start with essentials, and plan on making improvements every year, starting in the first year of operation. We will help you with this.
Q: How large should a new RV park or campground be?
A: It usually takes at least 80 sites to be economically viable as a free-standing RV Park. There are many smaller campgrounds around the country, but we find that an RV Park with fewer than 80 sites leaves the owners married to the park and unable to leave the property during the season. The profit margins are too tight, and it is difficult to keep good employees at good wages.
We prefer to see 100 sites or more, and campgrounds with 120 to 140 sites, including cabins and other accommodations, seem to work the best. All of the operational costs line up well, the campers and employees are all happy, and there’s enough profit left over for the owners to sleep well at night.
Occasionally, a park can be built as part of some other operation or service-oriented business, such as a hotel/motel, casino, or other popular tourist attraction. In these cases, a smaller RV Park can work well as one part of a larger operation.
Sometimes a very small RV Park on a very small property can work simply because of location, such as next to a large amusement park or deep in the heart of a large city, for example, in New Orleans, walking distance from Bourbon Street.
Q: How much land will I need in order to build a modern RV park or campground?
A: Once again there are many variables, but to build a modern park you should have at least 10 acres of usable land, or be in a very high tourist location where we can get by with smaller sites. One RV Park we built in Anaheim, California was directly across the street from the entrance to Disney Land. This park was a success with very small sites, as the campers spent little time in the campground, other than unwinding at the end of the day, and sleeping.
With today’s larger sites that are a must for today’s RV’s, we can usually design 8 to 10 sites per acre, including space for all of the buildings and most amenities. Some campgrounds may need more space for a restaurant or amusement park, especially if there will be offerings to local day-use customers, such as a Jellystone Park. If storage is necessary for the successful operation of the RV Park, such as boat- or ATV-trailer storage, even more land will be required.
It is also smart to have extra land available for future expansion, and even more important if you hope to sell the campground once it’s operating and showing good profit. Most buyers will have ideas of their own for future improvements, and will want room to grow.
Q: How long does it take to build a new RV park or campground?
A: Once financing, permitting, and in most cases, engineering are complete, an RV Park is relatively quick to build. It usually takes one to two years for actual construction, including buildings and amenities.
While engineering can be expensive, it usually goes fairly quickly if you already have a good, thoughtful design for your campground. The steps that take the longest to complete are financing, and permitting from the local planning and zoning authorities. If land purchase is not part of the equation, financing can often be secured before any real commitments are made, and finalized just before local engineers are brought into the project and money starts flowing.
Permitting is a big variable, and can sometimes hold up a building project for several years, depending on the location, and the interests of local authorities (and neighbors). However, few people can argue against the tourism income that your campground will bring to the community. It also helps to have someone in the local government who is willing and able to facilitate the development of an RV Park. Additionally, it’s also good practice to be a good neighbor, and show a willingness to ease the concerns of opponents. Sometimes all it takes is to listen, and show that you care about their issues.
Many planning and zoning authorities offer the opportunity for an informal planning meeting before applications for permitting are filed. These are extremely valuable, and useful for identifying potential pitfalls and barriers before any real commitments or investments are made.
Lastly, local council and committee members will often feel better about your RV Park if they know you have a skilled and knowledgeable campground consultant helping with your project. We often meet with local authorities when we visit our clients. Sometimes they are reluctant to allow a project simply because there is no local building code in place, and it helps to point out that there is a national building code (NFPA 1194) that they can adopt.
Q: Can I build the RV park or campground in sections over time?
A: Of course, you can start with just 10 sites, if you wish. And in some cases, that is the only way the park will get built. Sometimes cashflow dictates your decisions. But we strongly encourage our clients to start with at least 75 sites, and we remind our clients that it takes 100 or more for a typical RV Park to be profitable.
Saying nothing about the engineering and permitting costs, the most expensive parts in the construction of a new campground are the main building and swimming pool, entrance and main roads, and bringing utilities into the property. These will cost the same whether there are 10 sites or 100, so the cost per site will increase significantly if you try to open with only a few sites. However, our typical campground design will have about 50 sites served by the main office building, and up to 75 sites served by each satellite bathhouse, so you could start with 50 to 100 sites, including cabins, park models, and other accommodations, and wait a few years to build the next phase, or pod with another 50 to 75 sites around a second bathhouse.
Subdivision laws and permitting limitations may influence these decisions as well, so consult your local planning and zoning authorities before making any commitment, one way or another.
Q: Would I be better off purchasing an existing RV park, compared to building a new campground?
A: There are advantages and disadvantages to both options.
If you buy an existing park you don’t have to go through the planning and zoning process, construction period, etc., and you have the immediate cash flow of an already existing operation.
However, almost every campground that is for sale will still need significant capital improvements to bring it up to today’s standards. An existing RV Park often goes on the market because of a change in the status of ownership. Whether the current owners are tired of working on the campground, or someone passes away, leaving the park to relatives, the sites, amenities, and even infrastructure of the park may be run-down and neglected. In some cases, the cost to modernize the park will be almost as much as building a new park.
On the other hand, it’s usually simpler and easier to repair an existing campground than to jump through all the hoops of permitting, engineering, licensing, etc.
Building a new campground is no small feat, especially in today’s economy, and with all the regulations and licensing requirements of our modern society. There is also a significant period of time, during construction, when money is bleeding out and nothing is coming in. This can put a big strain on relationships, if nothing else.
However, once it is up and running, and generating income, you can relax a bit knowing that everything is up to code, and in good operating condition. You also have much more flexibility in your project, as you can build the type of RV Park you want for the customer you want, in the exact location of your choosing.
Q: Is financing for an RV park or campground available?
A: While there are several specialized banks and investors who like to invest in a new RV park, the most common financing today comes from local banks with a guarantee from either the Small Business Administration (SBA) or the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In most cases, the federal government will guarantee up to 80% of the development cost including land, and the bank will require a 20% capital investment from the developer. This equity is often secured through land ownership. If you are purchasing an existing park, a motivated seller might be willing to provide some form of seller-financing. For a new retiree, a reasonable sum up-front along with a guaranteed monthly payment can be tempting.
Q: Do I need to retain an engineer or architect to design an RV park or campground?
A: The RV Park design and layout that we prepare is usually all that is needed to get through initial planning and zoning, but in many cases a local engineer will have to be retained to provide more developed drawings for final permitting and approval. There are companies who can overlay the electric or water-and-septic utilities on our CAD drawings for a small fee as long as you purchase the required products from them, and some jurisdictions will allow basic earth-work without engineered plans.
In some locations, all of the permitting and construction work can be done with our layout by a good general contractor who knows how to get the work done and approved by local authorities. They often have building plans that they’ve already built before, or you can purchase a pre-engineered building and have your contractor set it and make all the necessary connections. This is by far the least expensive way to go, if you can do it.
In other places, and in some states generally, the permitting process is very difficult, or even impossible to complete without the help of a local architect or engineer. In these locations, they become your most valuable resources to get permitting and final approval, and are usually able get things done in days or weeks that would be impossible to accomplish without their help.
Q: How do I design a campground or RV park?
A: Call us, before you contract your local architect or engineer. Most engineers and landscape architects have little to no experience with RV parks, or with RV’s in general. Some are avid campers and have more knowledge and experience, but a campground has some very unique requirements, and few people are even aware that there is a national building code for RV Parks. Fewer still actually know those rules.
We serve on the NFPA technical committee that writes and maintains the national building standard for the construction of RVs and RV parks, and Homer has served on this committee since its beginning, over 50 years ago. We have designed over 500 campgrounds in the last 25 years, to this Standard, and in a typical year we visit over 1000 RV Parks, public and private, across the US and Canada. This gives us the understanding and ability to design the best campground for a specific location and market.
We design every park with the ideal camper in mind, as well as the specific needs of our clients, to ensure the design will appeal to the best customer base for any given location. Even people who have camped all of their lives probably will not recognize these nuances that are so important to the profitability and ultimate success of an RV Park.
Many engineers are glad to let us, the campground experts, design the RV Park first. Then they can do what they do best to actually get the campground design through the permitting and approval process. We regularly work together with local engineers to help our clients build the best RV Park for their market, so they can focus on growing a successful business.
Q: Does my RV park need a swimming pool? What other amenities are needed in a campground?
A: Amenities are a very important part of a modern RV park. Today’s campers who want to get away from civilization, and spend a quiet evening beside a campfire in the woods will go to the state or national parks, or search out more primitive sites. Those campers who choose to stay in private RV Parks want the feel of camping, and they definitely want that campfire, but they also want a variety of things to do while they are camping. The actual mix of amenities sought after by campers will vary from one park to another, and from one region to the next.
Our work and our specific recommendations for any given RV Park are driven by the answer to the question, “who is the best customer for this location?” And the range of amenities for a specific campground will vary according to the needs of that camper.
That said, we highly recommend including a swimming pool in your list of amenities, and it will usually increase occupancy by at least 10%. Similar to the hotel market, many campers will choose one park over another solely because it has a pool. Even if they don’t use the pool once while they are staying at your park. Most seasoned campground owners hate having a swimming pool, and would love to get rid of it, but they recognize that their campers want it, even if it sits empty most of the time. Any additional water features, such as splash-pads, lazy rivers, or real rivers will certainly help attract campers to your RV Park, and should be considered when developing the campground. Many of these can also be added later, once a healthy cashflow is established.
Another very popular feature in RV Parks today is the pickleball court. As this sport grows in popularity every year, more and more RV Parks across the nation are making room and adding them to their lists of amenities.
Dog walks, or bark-parks, are also a necessity, as ½ of all campers today bring their pets along. Having an open space for big dogs to run or fetch is a great amenity, but many campers are uncomfortable letting their dogs loose outside of a fenced-in area, not to mention the potential liability issues of letting dogs run wild in a campground. Today, we recommend at least one, if not two or more of these yards, and many RV Parks today are even adding a private dog run to some of their higher priced sites.
Food service is also very important. This can range from microwave pizzas and burritos for sale in the store to a free-standing restaurant that is also available to the local public. There are many more amenities to consider, depending on budget and cashflow. Just remember that kids can have fun with nothing but an old can or “coke bottle,” and many of the less expensive amenities are the most popular.