RV Park cost

Dear Forum,

Can somebody point to a resource or share thoughts on what it costs to build RV Campground?

I have seen ranges from 8k to 30k per spot, however none of them seem to break it down.

Overall/shared costs
* engineering
* site planning
* well/septic
* bathhouses
* roads
* landscaping
* camp store, storage shed, etc
* electric hookups
* misc equipment (register/computer, etc)
* misc appliances

Above can vary dramatically, IMO based on location and needs.
Below should be easier to estimate

Other things per site (material)
* pad/gravel
* electrical wire, breakers and hookups (500)
* sewer pipe and hookups (300)
* water pipe and hookups (200)
* fire ring (300)
* table (300)

My estimate for labor/material per site outside of gravel is about 4k per site

I would say your range is based on how nice of a park you want to have.

Location is a big deal as to cost..A beach front RV park will draw in a lot of business...But the if the cost of the land doesn't break your budget, then the insurance and taxes will.

Are you going to pack them in tight or give a little space to each site?

It's like any project you have to weigh each expense against probable income.

The bigger the site the more material you need
Based on this image I found on the net, 50 by 100 would be considered generous.
Estimating income would be tough. Riverfront is pretty much only attraction we have.
This would be a destination RV Park for those wanting to get away from civilization, as there isn't much to do around these parts.
At this point the feasibility study primarily consists of "if we build it, they will come"

At this point the feasibility study primarily consists of "if we build it, they will come"

A riverfront park will bring in people as long as they can make use of the river....Boat launch...Fishing dock.

You just have to plan for the river flooding...IT WILL HAPPEN.

As far as your cost/site...Still to many variables.

But if you have access to or own river front land then it's worth consulting with a engineering company.

Where are you located?  California would be a lot more expensive than Arkansas for example.

Have you ever owned a business of any sort? 

We are in WV, the eastern part.
4.5 years ago we bought a property that had a closed country store on it and a tiny trailer park.
6 months later we re-opened a renovated store. It primarily sells prepared food and beer, among other conveniences.
It was definitely a sharp learning curve, and the store didn't turn out to do as well as we have hoped.. but certainly gave a reason for us to move from DC area to what many consider "the boonies".
The store is the only retail business for about a 10 mile radius.
The store/park is also a riverfront property, but the shore is so shallow that it floods a lot and deposits a lot of debris (wood), as the other bank a mountain.
We actually have a camping license, but it's primitive camping and we only get a handful of campers per year. The campground does have a bathhouse, which we brought from Jersey Shore.
This year we hope to add some tubing, and the campground downstream (4mi on road, 8mi on river) would be a good pullout site.
The site we are considering is on a much higher river bank, and while it's still in the flood plain, it would maybe flood 1-2 times per year instead of 5-8 times, and majority the debris ends up on the other bank because of the slight curve in the river.
Other than land, the campground would require an investment of about 500k based on my own estimates, which based on experience of budget planning for house construction and store renovation likely a poor estimate, hence my questions on this forum.

You really need to investigate local building codes for this.  My family owns about 140 acres of farmland  riverfront property in north east Louisiana on a secondary navigable river.  I have toyed with the idea of converting to use as camp or RV campground property.  Though in my case my big concerns are its remote location (45 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart, Hospital, etc. 10 miles from the nearest small grocery store, etc.), as well as the fact that I live 130 miles away, so would need some on-site management, which would eat into the potential profits.

One of the first issues, is potential lack of municipal services, primarily water and sewer, though electricity is also a concern at least in my state as we have a law that was passed about 35 years ago that prohibits the electric companies to providing new power connections in a flood zone, unless the structures are built above flood level, this could be a real issue for things like bath houses, etc. once you also consider ADA access requirements.

Thank you.. I already spoke to the local planning commission and they roughly confirmed it's feasible (but need an engineered plan), even if they're concerned about building a road in floodway.

The electric does run through a flood plain already. I'd imagine the last 300ft-500ft area really on me, but we may need to bring another transformer closer to the shore.

I'll give the local electrical engineer a call. Thanks.

We looked into buying an already existing RV park in Monterey county many years ago and decided against it.

It's a 24 hour 7 day a week business that we decided would be too time consuming and hectic. We didn't want to hire employees as that presents problems in and of itself. 

You mentioned it will only flood maybe once or twice a year...

I wonder how that will affect the sewer system you install.  Not to mention the electrical system. 

Do you own an RV or have you ever used one?

Komrade said:

We are in WV, the eastern part.
4.5 years ago we bought a property that had a closed country store on it and a tiny trailer park.
6 months later we re-opened a renovated store. It primarily sells prepared food and beer, among other conveniences.
It was definitely a sharp learning curve, and the store didn't turn out to do as well as we have hoped.. but certainly gave a reason for us to move from DC area to what many consider "the boonies".
The store/park is also a riverfront property, but the shore is so shallow that it floods a lot and deposits a lot of debris (wood), as the other bank a mountain. The store is the only retail business for about a 10 mile radius.
We actually have a camping license, but it's primitive camping and we only get a handful of campers per year. The campground does have a bathhouse, which we brought from Jersey Shore.
This year we hope to add some tubing, and the camground downstream would be a good pullout site.
The site we are considering is on a much higher river bank, and while it's still in the flood plain, it would maybe flood 1-2 times per year instead of 5-8 times, and majority the debris ends up on the other bank because of the slight curve in the river.
Other than land, the campground would require an investment of about 500k based on my own estimates, which based on house we built and store renovation estimate is likely poor, hence my questions on this site.

Click to expand...

Firstly, I will say that I am no expert having only been RVing for the last 3 years.  I will however, give you some, hopefully, constructive comments / questions which may or may not be useful to you.  These are just off the top of my head.

I would be concerned that the store was not a success and suggest you give this some real thought as to why: 

Pricing, Product, No Local Requirement, Wrong Season, or you are "Outsiders" and the local's don't like it (sorry but this happens).

Will you be open all year or will you be seasonal?

Was the trailer park doing well?  If not, do you know why?  If you don't can you find out?

$500k is a lot of money to invest and I think you would need to be fairly confident that you could make it work or that is a lot to lose.  Can you start out smaller and then invest as you grow?


Will the sites which are likely to flood be "dry camping only" with a dump station well away from flooding area or will they be full hook ups? 

What would your contingency plan be if you did flood, to:

a.  deal with damage to any facilities for the campers - electricity, water/sewage pollution;

b.  ensure your customers could still stay or at least not be inconvenienced.

I think you seriously need to give consideration to what you can do to "get folks to come" as this will be key to getting custom if there are no other campgrounds/attractions in the area.  Particularly if the trailer park was not a success then I feel if you don't make changes then you will have the same outcome.

Can people fish in the river and is it good fishing?

If you are considering setting up tubing:

a.  are you prepared to deal with the after effects of flooding, i.e. how do you clean up the river so that it is safe? 

b  how will you maintain cleanliness of the river (trash etc)?  Whilst I know you may not be personally responsible for this, it would certainly put me off coming back or recommending if it was overly messy.

c.  will you offer a shuttle service to pick people up after the float, will you need new transport if you do?

Would opening a small cafe/restaurant be an attraction for campers if there are none in the area?

Would having a large group area (covered if necessary) with BBQs be beneficial as this could be used for parties, rallies etc.?

Is the area good for birding / wildlife spotting / good night skies - could you offer guided tours / photo opportunities perhaps or you could produce literature to hand out?

Is there good 4x4ing or cycling/mountain biking in the area?

Can you think of good RV parks that you have been to and replicate what they did?

Apologies if you have thought of all these things already, as I said it is just off the top of my head. 

I do wish you well as I think there is a need for more decent RV parks.

We currently own 2 trailers, and have owned one before..  We are not very experienced RVers though.
The first trailer we owned, I never towed, it was delivered to us, and I sold it back to the guy (dealer) after we built a cabin (which later turned into our house)
The 2nd trailer I bought with a river lot, and we used it 2-3 times (mostly due to lack of time), and I can't say I was a big fan of towing it (29ft), but I did tow it with both our Tacoma and an E350 van that will be that shuttle vehicle for tubing. I may sell it or rent it. It needs roof fixing, as it's an older trialer.
The 3rd trailer is a little 17ft Casita we picked up around Thanksgiving that I haven't slept in yet. That's supposed to be our easy weekender next year.
So while we have experience being in the trailer (we certainly used the first trailer for 2 years w/o elec  (solar/battery), we don't have much experience towing or being in RV parks.

We did go to an RV park in PA earlier late last year, and it certainly felt like as earlier poster put it they "packed them in tight", although probably not the smallest sites out there. I'd prefer a more spacious/private site or just dry camp. We hope to achieve spaciousness with larger sites and smart landscaping.

The trailer park does fine. It has mostly long term residents, and very old trailers. It's relatively low maintenance. It's tiny though, 5 sites and 2 unused ones. 1 is occupied by the bath house.

I should elaborate on "success" of the store. It does do better than previous owners did (we asked them for financials), and last year it no longer needed additional operational capital, but its not exactly a retirement plan it was intended to be (the return on investment has been low so far), but it continues to have potential and we'll continue to grow it. The county we are in seems to have plenty of movement of "in and out", so a many locals are not really originally "local". In general, it's the density of population and low volumes of traffic that is more of a challenge (to the store) than acceptance of outsiders.

I am hoping to make all sites full hookups, but I am not sure how feasible it will be, especially with electric.

In case of a flood we'd pull all resident campers out. The camp rules would have include "no junk laying around"

There are definitely campers in the area. There are a lot of cabins. Most of the houses not on main roads are recreational/seasonal in this part of the county. There are also cabin rentals.

Local campers primarily "dry camp" on someone else's land. Most of the weekend crowd either owns or rents a cabin..

River is good, clean and scenic, with plenty of kayakers (they use store as put in), fishing is good. I think primary customer would (sub)urban crowd, as we are within 2hours from DC/Baltimore area. This won't be a highway stop, as it's rather far from any interstates.

Large "party" pavilion and converting existing house into cafe are consideration. The pavilion would a consideration down the line.

There are some biking and nature attractions nearby other than river. There is a small town about 20m drive with plenty of antique/artsy shopping and a successful fall festival.

I should add, that we do have employees at the store, and play to have employees at the RV Park. My wife helps at the store, and I do some chores and hire locals for other chores I can't do. My day job is in IT. I apply some of my IT skills for network/WiFi setup and data analytics @ store.

OK. Well it sounds like there are several things to attract people so that is definitely viable and lots of opportunities for you to capture some of that market, particularly if you put a little ramp in for kayakers etc. to use if that would work for you. 

I think the key thing is to get some feel for how you would manage a flood, obviously this is the key.  We stayed at a campground that was right next to the Salmon River in Idaho and it did have electric but no sewer.  The same was true in a campground next to the Kern River so obviously the sewage is the problem not the electricity, but you should get proper professional advice on this I think.....

Good luck...

You have several things going against you that could make this plan a disaster:
[list type=decimal]
[*]You are not experienced RVers, so you don't know a lot about what RVers want.
[*]Being far from the interstate is a positive and a negative.  As a negative, it means you will not get people on their way to someplace else, which limits your business.  As a positive, it means the area is quiet.
[*]You have a limited season in West Virginia, so you will need to make most of your income in the summer.  Do you have the potential of people working in a nearby big city that would stay all year?  You say the nearby campground has some full-timers, but are there others needing such places that would move into your facility to help you through the winter?
[*]You have no experience running or building a campground, so you are likely to make a lot of expensive mistakes.
[*]You are planning a low-budget, basic campground with gravel roads and camping sites.  Many people, especially me, do not like to stay in such places because of the dust.  There are a lot of places to get away from it all, but many RVers want more luxuries these days, like pools and activities.
[*]There is a lot of information missing.  How are the campgrounds in the area and on this river really doing?  Are they packed all summer and into the fall and spring?  Do they turn people away?
[/list]
If you are really serious about this, it would be valuable for you to get some experience working for a campground for a few months.  In addition, you need to do a market study and evaluate whether such a business is really needed and if people are likely to come.  Check with your local Small Business Administration for help with this before you commit your life savings to this.

You'll see a very common complaint on all RV forums about WiFi.  It stinks. So, seeings as how you are familiar with IT problems, I'd suggest installing an extremely good Wifi system.

People will remember your park for that reason alone. We've hit RV Parks all over the lower 48 states and two of them have extremely good WiFi. Those two stand out in my memory bank. 

JudyJB said:

You have several things going against you that could make this plan a disaster:
[list type=decimal]
[*]You are not experienced RVers, so you don't know a lot about what RVers want.
[*]Being far from the interstate is a positive and a negative.  As a negative, it means you will not get people on their way to someplace else, which limits your business.  As a positive, it means the area is quiet.
[*]You have a limited season in West Virginia, so you will need to make most of your income in the summer.  Do you have the potential of people working in a nearby big city that would stay all year?  You say the nearby campground has some full-timers, but are there others needing such places that would move into your facility to help you through the winter?
[*]You have no experience running or building a campground, so you are likely to make a lot of expensive mistakes.
[*]You are planning a low-budget, basic campground with gravel roads and camping sites.  Many people, especially me, do not like to stay in such places because of the dust.  There are a lot of places to get away from it all, but many RVers want more luxuries these days, like pools and activities.
[*]There is a lot of information missing.  How are the campgrounds in the area and on this river really doing?  Are they packed all summer and into the fall and spring?  Do they turn people away?
[/list]
If you are really serious about this, it would be valuable for you to get some experience working for a campground for a few months.  In addition, you need to do a market study and evaluate whether such a business is really needed and if people are likely to come.  Check with your local Small Business Administration for help with this before you commit your life savings to this.

Click to expand...

All valid points.. Couple of responses.
* you'll never be able to appeal to all RVers even if I knew what many wanted
* some of the fancier amenities (e.g. pool) can be added later. BTW, pool is not that expensive.
* there are consulting firms that specialize in feasibility studies, and am in touch with some of them as well as site planning/engineering
* I can contact a local campground owner (his is in the mountain, not on the river) and ask him some additional questions. His focus is bigger sites in the mountains, with not a lot of hookups.
* there was an older campground for sale that was well established, it was a lot closer to the interstate (although based on reviews, not best access). Based on feedback from realtor, it has mostly seasonal RVs
* there some unofficial/unlisted campgrounds, and likely also "seasonal" (there is one near the river with a bunch of porta-potties)
* we never had experience running a store either. The logistics of operating a campground don't scare as much as low potential ROI.

I've been reading and trying to speak to industry experts and seeking feedback on this forum (which seems to be largest RV forum)
I am hoping to get somewhat comfortable before buying the real estate, and then spend a year planning the build out and observing the property during floods before we put any more money into it.

Unfortunately, the only "book" on operating a campground on Amazon seems to be mostly about buying one.

I disagree a bit.  I prefer more rustic places for our trips - and being a river is a HUGE plus.  Nice and clean is good - - basic services and freedom appeal to me.

-Kyle

Have you ever written a business plan?

It sounds like you are doing your homework, and this thread is part of that homework.  To that end, a couple thoughts:

I found this campground while "just browsing" recently.  They sit right on the Mississippi River on a flood plain.  You may wish to contact them to see what they do.  NOTE: Currently CLOSED due to High Water!

Tom Sawyer's RV Park        http://www.tomsawyersrvpark.com

We recently stayed at a nice COE park near Mammoth Cave.  It sat on Nolan Lake with beautiful lake views.  Obviously, it was on a hill side.  The prime sites on the lake were either water only or no utilities.  They flood.  The next level up, and all other levels, has water and 20/30/50 electric.  They do not flood.  Probably 10 foot elevation difference.  This park had a Patio as part of each site, which included a picnic table, fire ring, and "table" for the RV grill.

Nobody will complain the sites are too big!  If you have lots of land, then your plan is great!!

If possible, plan your 300 site park, (did I read that, or just guessing??) but only build the first 20 sites and see how business is.  Add sites as business warrants.  This keeps SOME initial costs down and allows you to better gauge occupancy and needs for more sites.

Good Luck in your planning and research.

We stayed in the Tom Sawyer RV park back in September.  It's in West Memphis, right on the Mississippi River.  The campground is about 6 feet above the river and would totally flood everytime the river rises.  You actually drive over the dike to get to the campground.  All of the electric transformers are on poles about 10 feet off the ground.  The bath houses and campground office are on wheels so if the river floods, they just disconnect them and tow them to safety.  The sewer lines can be sealed up.  Even the washing machines were on the 2nd floor of a building away from the river.  It was a well maintained campground and watching the 24 hour a day barge traffic was fun.  If you're planning on building in a floodplain, I would definitely visit some other campgrounds that have already dealt with this issue.

Many campgrounds count on income from full time campers, and people who want to leave their campers on site all year round. You would be losing out on these tenants, as no one would want to have to move their campers several times a year due to flooding. Sorry, but building a rv park on a flood plain that floods twice a year sounds like a big headache to me. Investing  half a million dollars to see it under water twice a year sounds risky. How about purchasing some land that doesnt flood adjacent to the riverfront lot for full time rvers, just to get that year round income? You could still set up rv lots on the riverside for short term rvers.  Cheers.