RV Park WiFi

Several days ago I posted a simple little survey for folks to take regarding the tech they carry and if they’d be willing to pay a few dollars extra per night for RV Park WiFi.  You can check the survey by clicking here, and you’re welcome to take the survey as well.  But as of today here’s what we found:

Mobile tech traveling with you –

• Out of 41 votes, only one person didn’t have any form of tech with them.
• 92% of respondents are carrying a laptop
• 68% have a tablet
• 80% were also carrying a tablet

Bottom line for the mobile tech.  Just about everyone was carrying more than one device.

On the WiFi survey I think I messed up with too broad of a question.  But let’s go with it:

• Only 36 responses on this one.
• 28% of those who responded don’t use RV Park WiFi (this is where I messed up, should have asked if they have their own).
• So, a little more than 70% who responded would pay something extra for good WiFi.

RV Parks like to advertise “Free WiFi.”  So my suggestion is simple.  Up the rates a few dollars a night, and call it free WiFi.  Seriously, I’m parked at a KOA today for a one day stop over.  WiFi at this park is extra, and I’m already paying $40 for the night.  Most parks run $28 to $32 per night with “Free WiFi.”  Bumping prices by $2 won’t discourage travelers.

For bigger parks, what would that mean?  Well, lets take a park with 100 sites.  And we’re going to think about their “busy” season when they’re almost at full occupancy every night.  $2 extra per night means they’ll be pulling in $200 extra per night.  In 30 days that’s $6,000 extra per month.  Could the investment in parkwide WiFi be paid for in a calendar year?  Yes.  And after it’s paid for?

That’s called profit.

Seriously though, in speaking with so many park owners all they focus on is the up front installation, and they don’t realize that the system can pay for itself and bring them additional revenue down the road.  Extremely short sighted.  But then again it might be the case that the owners think their profits are high enough, and additional money would just make life more complicated.

My bottom line on mobile network connectivity

Personally, I have a WiFi hotspot with me.  I have since 2006.  And it’s worked pretty well all over the country for me.  If a park has good WiFi I’ll use it.  If not, and I have coverage, I’ll be on mine.

My last client site, Blake Ranch RV Park, had good WiFi which was fortunate.  Verizon didn’t have 4G in his area, and the 3G was flaky.  It kept bouncing down to 1X and back to 3G.  Without the park’s good WiFi I would have had a tough time getting my work done for the park.

Honestly, I don’t see perfect solutions in the near future.  But one RV’er I met last week said something pretty simple to me:

WiFi and network connectivity are important to travelers now.  We will go to parks that can keep us connected, and we’ll stop staying at places that don’t offer it.

He was on a vacation trip for 2 weeks, and he left the park the next day because he couldn’t connect more than one device at a time (I was happy with the WiFi, but yes only one device at a time).  He’d told me about a park 20 miles away that covered his WiFi need, and that’s where he moved to.