Is the new RV'er tide starting to turn around?

[NY_Dutch]

Last year at this time I was trying to book three adjacent sites at one of our favorite NY state parks for a time frame that included Labor Day weekend (9 month window) for a family get together. Almost every site in our preferred loop was already booked, so we decided to move our get together to include the following weekend instead. Today, I logged in to Reserve America, fully expecting a similar situation, so imagine my surprise when I found almost the entire loop was available for Labor Day weekend this time, including our three first choice sites! Of course I jumped right on it and booked our sites, but I'm still a puzzled as to what has changed. Are things really starting to go back to "normal" that much? In a couple of weeks I'll be making the first of our winter 2023 reservations for southern Georgia, and I'm curious to see how that goes...

 

[HappyWanderer]

I went through six campgrounds before finding one available for next August. Couldn’t get reservations for the first week in October of next year, had to change the date. Not sure how much has changed.

 

[Skookum]

Not here, upper left USA. State parks are booked solid as far out as they'll allow and people are using bots to grab sites as soon as they open up.

I've been watching specific models of new RV's for sale on RVtrader, though, and prices seem to be easing a little bit.

I'd say people who are into RV'ing already, there's many who are still going full bore. The number of new people hopping in and buying new rigs might be letting up, though.

 

[Isaac-1]

I still have yet to really experience any of this, just made reservations a few days ago to spend a long weekend at the beach in Galveston, Texas for weekend after next, call it 3 weeks out, and out first choice of commercial RV parks still had at least 3 sites available for the entire weekend (though they only had back in sites left). In Sept / October we took 2ish week trip from Louisiana to the mountains of New Mexico, only making reservations at our first choice of commercial campgrounds at our destination in the mountains, even then only reserving a week or so in advance, other sites were either drive up, or reservations made no more than 24 hours out. We had much the same experience with our last trip in May to Tennessee, though on that one we did experience one state park which was booked up for the weekend, requiring us to leave a day sooner than we had initially planned, and then staying in a lake front forest service campground instead for a Saturday night.

 

[Rob&Deryl]

We messed up and were going to arrive at our next destination a day too soon so stopped at a state park and had a great time.

 

[Alontheway]

It doesn't take that many people laid off, getting paid to not work, or who work reduced hours to load up their RV and take up camp spots. Kids are banned from going to school because of a 99.999% survivable flu going around so parents take a few days off work and vacation. I do not see it so much as a surge, but as the same people just being able to go out more. If every RVer is able to stay gone for 3 extra days then that really adds up in the big picture. There are more RV sales, but I think it is more the current RV owners filling up camp spots than the new ones. The balance of available spots to actual RVer days has been tipped. If things ever pick up in this country and people go back to work it will settle down, and if not then it will settle down as our nation fails and fades and enters a 3rd world status as non-proucers who not longer have the World reserve currency. If gas rises too much more then driving those RVs long distances will halt and at best people will seek out camping close to home, at locations with few spots available and abandon the big destination parks in middle of nowhere that do have huge number of spots. I have seen it where I live. People overnight camp at the first campspot available in forest that are closest to the city. They bring their walmart camping junk and leave it in a trash pile. Forest rangers start to close camping down, so there are fewer spots, and the open ones get more crowded and more piles of walmart trash pile up and rangers close camping faster.

 

[SeilerBird]

Wow, just wow. What a steaming pile of horse feathers.

 

[Joezeppy]

Dutch, your post reminded me today is 9 months until our recurring Labor Day weekend at Green Lakes (we do Thu-Mon). Only 13 sites left - all Electric only. We missed our 2 or 3 top picks but did get a site we have stayed in before that is decent so I'm good with that. Maybe if I had gotten in right at 9:00 we might have had better success but I'll still have room for the camper, the truck, and the cooler so all is well.

 

[NY_Dutch]

Dutch, your post reminded me today is 9 months until our recurring Labor Day weekend at Green Lakes (we do Thu-Mon). Only 13 sites left - all Electric only. We missed our 2 or 3 top picks but did get a site we have stayed in before that is decent so I'm good with that. Maybe if I had gotten in right at 9:00 we might have had better success but I'll still have room for the camper, the truck, and the cooler so all is well.

We'll be at Green Lakes for 4 visits in May, June, and July next year, but only for 2 nights each stay. Green Lakes works well for us as a midway layover on our way to 2 weeks at Wellsley Island SP with full hookups, and Letchworth SP in July for 2 weeks. Only one of our 4 Green Lakes stays will be on a full hookup site, but for only 2 nights it doesn't really matter.

 

[rldees]

I have been trying to book a long trip through the Midwest for about a month now. Between closed windows on bookings and websites that do not work along with parks that are already booked up, I am about ready to throw in the towel and book a trip out west. We tried to book a trip along the East Coast last year and it took me three months to get the campsites that were nearly all commercial KOA type campgrounds. Not sure why the East has been having such trouble but we can wait until things slow down a bot before doing the Midwest trip.

Bob Dees