RV Park Costs

[UTTransplant]

Originally Posted by lonfu

I quit boondockers welcome this year due to their media hype and no longer requiring members to own property. Now that they have become commercialized I'm no longer interested. Besides, most only allow 25 feet and below for exchange these days. Sadly the state and county campgrounds have become over crowded with the homeless so we didn't bother trying to get in there.

Interesting perspective, but opposite my experiences. We spent 5 nights at Boondockers Welcome sites on our travel days during a 7 week trip this summer. While there aren’t as many sites that hold our 40’ plus toad, we had no problem finding some. And I haven’t ever seen a county or state campground over run by homeless unless it was immediately after a big natural disaster. Even then, they required gear and maintained payment and site rules. What parks have you seen this at?

[momdoc]

They have at least doubled and probably more. Last year our average cost per night was around $28. This year it is near $45.

Still beats a Sticks and Bricks.

[TXTiger]

When I started out 9 years ago in 2012 the average nightly fee for a FHU was about $25 to $35 per night. Prior to the pandemic rates were averaging $35 to $45 per night. Now I am finding most rates to be in the $45 to $55 range. I am paying $65 tonight. Many parks were closed or had limited capacity (every other site) during the pandemic last year and are now making up for it due to the high demand. As far as State parks, I am experiencing higher fees there to. I was accostumed to paying $25 a night for an electric only site in State parks and now find an average of $30 or $35, in addition to the cost of a State Park pass.

[pogoil]

$45 to $65 seems to be average and most every park we visit say no shows are becoming the norm so prices will continue to go up as well as deposits.

[Bigd9]

Originally Posted by Ldubs

The lowest I've paid recently here locally is $4.39/gallon for diesel. My nearest station wants $4.89. I save 50 cents/gallon by driving another 5 miles.

Holy Mackerel, price for diesel around here has held pretty steady at a fuzz less than 3$ per gallon.

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

I question this statement. If you didn't bother trying to get in then how do you know? They wouldn't be staying there free, for sure. Name the parks.

haven't been to oregon lately have you.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by lonfu

haven't been to oregon lately have you.

You stated the 'State Parks'. I just called Bullards Beach State Park for clarification and she said "No.... parties need to pay for a campsite and there are limitations on how long to stay."

Where did you get your information that it's allowed since you said you didn't actually stay in a state park? The majority of the state parks require reservations. Do you think a homeless person could call and make one without paying?

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Supply/demand....

And rarely do they go Down as demand wanes

Capitalism at it's finest.

[appsol]

Originally Posted by lonfu

haven't been to oregon lately have you.

Twogypsies is correct, most Oregon state parks require a reservation and all have stay limits. They are not filled with homeless people.

In southern Oregon one section of Valley of the Rogue State Park and most the Jackson County Expo RV park are on long term rental to people displaced by the Almeda fire last year. FEMA is paying for those sites for people who qualify.

[Bigceasar]

I think parks may have learned an advanced lesson in economics: park site demand is very price inelastic . Changes in price does very little to change demand. Very few people choose where to go based on the rate parks are charging. They aren’t suddenly going to go to Alabama instead of Montana due to park rates. And while traveling they are not going to drive hours longer or stop hours early because it would save them ten bucks on site rental. Rates are likely to continue to rise because there really isn’t anything to stop it.

[IC2]

Ah yes, costs of RVing (or should I say living)


Economics 101 wage (cost) - price spiral says that if your costs (i.e. salaries) rise, the cost of goods and services will rise. 5 - 10 - 15 years ago the cost of a night at a CG was $20-$30 a night. The CG paid the employees 3-5 bucks an hour. Now we live in the mandated in many areas, a minimum of $15/hour. Of course the CG taxes and services go up too just to pay for those local producers and service workers, the cost of road materials and even books for the local library. A CG owner is in business to at least earn a reasonable living so he raises the cost of a night's visit. Take a walk through your local market. A box of Cheerios is now about $5 and a steak is $20/pound or more. We had fish last night - $19/pound for cod. Stop at your local diner for nreakfast - not $5 for eggs, bacon and toast but getting near $10. MacDonald's - a fish sandwich here is ~$9.00


Wage-Price spiral at work. If you can't afford these new inflated prices that are still rising, you may need to consider a new pastime 'cause it ain't gonna get better soon (if ever).

[lonfu]

Ok, so guess I need to clarify some... as member of BDW for 9 years, one of the first members, in the beginning most guests owned a property and were exchanging their property for the use of ours. In the last 3 years we had only 4 rig owners that owned property out of the 50 or so guests. I'm referring to property space offered in exchange. I didn't join to become an rv park owner. In the beginning there were no fee's but due to guests that did not own or exchange properties we were encouraged to charge a fee for our full hookups. It was a "wink wink" under the table thing that I don't respect.

That said, all of our guests have been delightful. I enjoyed visiting with everyone regardless of what country they are from or what economic class they have been in. I did not have any "bad" experiences only good ones.

I lived full time for 6 years, thus I was homeless... you can try to call it other things but when you don't have a property then I call it homeless. I have many friends that are homeless that live in $300k moho's and they choose to live their lives that way. Got no problem with that. I love it when they come to visit. Currently, I spend about 6 months a year on the road myself. In the beginning when we first went fulltime we spent 5 days a week in an RV park. At the end of the 6 years we rarely stayed in a RV park. The point is that over the years I have become familiar with the RV "homeless" fulltimer community. We all have learned little tricks to get by on our meager "on road incomes". One of the tricks is the use of our county, state and national park reservation system. This means make reservations for a week at a time for a discount and change gov. management enities so to avoid the limits of each reservation system. Yes, there are at least 10k full timer homeless living in our park system, perhaps even more... I'm just guessing from what I have personally seen. Why do you think that they had to put the reservation system in place??? duh.... to control the number of "fulltimers/ homeless" living in the park system and limit how long they could stay... Next time you stay in a park, walk through the park and look at the rigs. at least half will have no kids running around. Most parks these days now have full timer families with kids too. I was one of those... Now that you know what you are looking at you can recognize them. They, like myself, camouflage it well. Just because a person has a clean shiney moho or trailer doesn't mean they are not homeless. Why live on a city street when you can live in a our beautiful park system???? With no mortgage payments one can afford a new RV rig!!!!

I love this website but sadly it is very politically correct and doesn't like to get it's blogs dirty with controversial subjects like the homeless in our public parks. Hard to sell adds.... and discourages fulltimers that use this site.

All of this is not a new subject and I do not want to change anything. I love this country, I love that we have options like living "fulltime/homeless".... In the winter we "fulltimers/homeless" flock to the warmer weather IE: 30,000 RV's in Quartzite. In the hot weather we all head north... some folks call us RV Sunbirds.... For some folks they call it a "pastime" but for a million of us it is "a way of life"......

Safe travels to all... each day is an adventure...

P.S. you can also spot full timers... no ladder on the back of their moho's... keeps folks off your roof when city slumming

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by IC2

Ah yes, costs of RVing (or should I say living)


Economics 101 wage (cost) - price spiral says that if your costs (i.e. salaries) rise, the cost of goods and services will rise. 5 - 10 - 15 years ago the cost of a night at a CG was $20-$30 a night. The CG paid the employees 3-5 bucks an hour. Now we live in the mandated in many areas, a minimum of $15/hour. Of course the CG taxes and services go up too just to pay for those local producers and service workers, the cost of road materials and even books for the local library. A CG owner is in business to at least earn a reasonable living so he raises the cost of a night's visit. Take a walk through your local market. A box of Cheerios is now about $5 and a steak is $20/pound or more. We had fish last night - $19/pound for cod. Stop at your local diner for nreakfast - not $5 for eggs, bacon and toast but getting near $10. MacDonald's - a fish sandwich here is ~$9.00


Wage-Price spiral at work. If you can't afford these new inflated prices that are still rising, you may need to consider a new pastime 'cause it ain't gonna get better soon (if ever).

a small note... most new RV parks that are being built are now corp built and owned. they are no longer called campgrounds, the care called RV resorts. The managers are no longer paid with free rent. Talk to them... Corp. salaries.... Small overnight parks are on the way out... Corp's are buying them up due to the existing permits in place and improve them and bump up the rates.

I was born in Portland, Oregon, the place was always spotless and no homeless on the streets. Now there are blue tarps and trash every where, in every neighborhood, in every hiddey hole. Just drive the I5 or the I205...

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by lonfu

I lived full time for 6 years, thus I was homeless... you can try to call it other things but when you don't have a property then I call it homeless. I have many friends that are homeless that live in $300k moho's and they choose to live their lives that way. Got no problem with that.

One of the tricks is the use of our county, state and national park reservation system. This means make reservations for a week at a time for a discount and change gov. management enities so to avoid the limits of each reservation system. Yes, there are at least 10k full timer homeless living in our park system, perhaps even more... I'm just guessing from what I have personally seen. Why do you think that they had to put the reservation system in place??? duh.... to control the number of "fulltimers/ homeless" living in the park system and limit how long they could stay...

Just because a person has a clean shiney moho or trailer doesn't mean they are not homeless. Why live on a city street when you can live in a our beautiful park system????

.... and discourages fulltimers that use this site.

Sorry.... I totally disagree with your definition and never heard it used that way.

Full-timers are not homeless. Their RV is their home. They choose the lifestyle..... they don't HAVE to live in a RV. They WANT TO for many reasons.

They want to travel and see the country. They're tired of doing home maintenance and collecting 'stuff'. They don't like living in their state's climate anymore. They don't want to retire and sit in a rocking chair on their porch watching the world go by. They are typically very active people.... hiking, 4-wheeling, golf, tennis, pickleball, and many, many volunteer in our parks to help out our financially-strapped public parks. They also volunteer in many other ways in communities.

The majority out there have plenty of funds to do this lifestyle and when they're finished they have plenty of funds to buy another house or condo.. whatever they want. Again... the difference between full-timers and homeless.

Public parks typically don't discount for a weekly rate. Public parks typically have a 2-week limit. It's always been that way. It has nothing to do with having to get reservations. It's night by night and it could even be more costly than a RV park who DOES discount for a weekly or monthly.

Public parks can be expensive but some like being surrounded by nature with easy access to hiking trails; not staying in parking lot-type RV parks. True full-timers don't live on the street. Those who don't have funds, do, and those are who I would call homeless. True full-timers are completely different. Again.... full-timers are not homeless.

Finally, this site and many other forums welcome full-timers. Truly homeless folks don't use these internet sites. They wouldn't be looking for the best campground to tour Yellowstone, etc. They wouldn't be asking for the best route.