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It's the Park Pod. Presented by Rest and Relax ROI helping RV parks reach new heights. Join the discussion as we chat with industry experts, owners, operators, and whoever else seems interesting to us. Here's your host, Mark Rowan.
Hey, it is Mark, like the guy said. And this is the Park Pod, like the guy said. And we have a great show. We're going to have a little bit of industry news we'll be sharing shortly. But our special guest is Nadine from Vero Beach Camp. And you want to stay tuned because she has this amazing story about how her father's underwear actually propelled them home after amazing day of camping and excursions. Pretty wild, right? It is funny. So be sure to stay tuned for that.
And then we have a marketing tip that I'm going to share today about social media. The Park Pod is presented by Rest & Relax. ROI. We've got the ultimate RV park marketing checklist. That's something you can download for free on our site. But we wanted to say our system, the M5, you can reach new heights with that, with your reputation, resell, reach and retarget those four areas. That framework is how we help parks and resorts manifest their best destiny.
RV Industry News
Well, it's time to check the news, so let's get right into it. We're going to Woodall's Campground magazine to see what's happening this July.
You can see a kid jumping on a big old pillow, which is fun, but talking about insurance and importance of that. So check that out as industry experts are sharing their thoughts about the type of insurance that are needed for RV parks campgrounds. But also let's take a look at KOA's tobia work talking about camping, continuing to grow and the future of that. She had this to say at breakfast at the RVIA, the RV Industry Association.
"An inflection point is a catalyst for change and you have to respond effectively or face a decline." And she also goes on to say "40% of the leisure travel in 2021 involved camping. It's time that camp begins to be recognized as a formal segment in outdoor recreation."
We agree it is a great thing to be involved in and people should recognize that. Go ahead and check out the rest of the article on Woodallscm.com. Also, we're going to take a look at Modern Campgrounds. One of the stories over there is talking about is Overlanding, the next big thing in camping. So overlanding is when you take off road vehicles and do longer trips, that sort of thing.
And it seems to be upticking. Well, that sounds fun and exciting. I do believe that more people than not will want to have the creature comforts of campground and RV parks. But if you want to look more into that, please check out Moderncampground.com.
Lastly, we'll wrap up this section with checking out our social media feed at Rest & Relax ROI on Instagram. We did our repost this week on Talona Ridge and they had an awesome shot of a guy taking a hike. And they're just sharing some different cool hiking spots near where they are. So check them out and make sure you follow us to see who we're going to be reposting next week. All right, that's all for the news.
Hats Off to Vero Beach Kamp
And now it's time for Hats Off to RV parks. We wear your hats, you talk about your park.
R&R ROI: All right, here we are with Hats Off to RV parks, and we are talking with Vero Beach Kamp today. You can check them out on VeroBeachKamp.com. Follow them on Instagram as well: Vero Beach Camp, it's all easy to remember, so that's pretty exciting. And we have with us today Nadine. So welcome to the park pod, Nadine. How are you doing?
Nadine: Thank you. I'm wonderful. How are you today, Mark?
R&R ROI: I'm doing good. Like you're out there in the sunshine right in the park. So that's awesome to see that. So tell us a little bit about yourself and the park to just get started.
Nadine: My name is Nadine. I am one of the owners daughters of the park. It is run by my father and my mother and my uncle, and it was passed down to us when my grandpa passed away. He actually bought the park back in 1984. So we have been family owned and operated since 1984. And we are located actually here in Sebastian, but it's been named Vero Beach Kamp since he bought it in 1984.
R&R ROI: Vero Beach: for people that are not Florida familiar, tell us kind of what side is that on, what other cities are around, like if they want to come down and visit you all.
Nadine: We are on the east coast of Florida. We are about an hour and a half northwest of Orlando, which is probably the biggest city near us that people would recognize as a name thanks to Disney and all the other fun things that go on through Orlando. It's a major airport and everything. But like I said, about an hour and a half west of us is Orlando. And like I said, we are named Vero Beach Kamp. Our address says Sebastian, but we are located in Wabaso, which is another very small city of Indian River County. So our koozies actually say Beach Camp located in downtown Wabaso. Where the hell is that?
Back before Google and anything that was quite easy to find things, there was something called RV book, and that's very similar to a phone book. And when you looked up at RV park to stay at, you went by city. So my grandfather named it Vero Beach Camp because he didn't think that Sebastian would be a big enough city for it, so we've just kept the name ever since.
R&R ROI: You know what? This is hats off. So I totally need to take hats off to Vero Beach. And I got your hat, and so we pretended like I played that off. Super cool. But I totally forgot. I just had this delivered thanks to you. And you guys have a store, which is cool, that people can order online, and I think you're probably wearing another hat and a shirt that people can also order, right?
Nadine: Yeah, I've got one of the shirts on today. We are about to debut our new visors for our lady friends who want to have and then we've got our cookies on there as well.
R&R ROI: How did you get into the industry? You talk a little bit about your family, and why did you decide to jump in with the family?
Nadine: I've always been around the park. Growing up, we came here for the many events that we do throughout the seasons. We have always kind of just been here. I worked here during some summer months, but we used to call the slow months. But now we are thriving more as a park. So we don't really have a slow season. We just have a less busy part of our season. So I worked here during, like I said, what would be called our slow season some summer months, and then I sort of just fell into it. After the pandemic, I was working retail, and my retail store closed. I was lucky enough not to be one of the millions of Americans out of a job, but I did have to travel then for my job about an hour south of where I'm currently located. And then I had a baby and couldn't force myself to do the travel, along with working a full shift. And my mom asked me to just come help with some of the website and the social media aspects of things. And now a full time gig, and I'm loving it, and I love to be here.
R&R ROI: That is great news that you find the next step in your career journey, and it's with family, so that's cool. All right, so let's talk about the difference that you guys bring to the table with Vero Beach Kamp. What's your experience like that would be? Make it unique.
Nadine: A lot of RV parks are mainly focused on the retiree generation that 55 and up. We are more family oriented park where we welcome all. No age is terrible or bad or anything. We love to have all sorts of people with having a newborn well, not really a newborn. She's one now. But with having a baby for the first time. I've noticed how extremely important it is to young families and even older families alike that having that ability to be able to go somewhere and say. Yes. This is a family oriented park and have it available to them is such a godsend for it because there are so many. Especially here in South Florida. So many retiree communities. And sometimes you don't feel like you fit in. But we have your traditional families, your single parents, your retirees, your empty nesters. We've got them all from zero to 102, you know.
R&R ROI: Nice. Come one, come all. What do you enjoy most about the RV park business?
Nadine: The thing I enjoy the most is just meeting new people, but then also along with meeting new people, having our return customers every season. Our season for Florida runs from about October is when we start getting what we call snowbirds in from our northern states. And even from Canada, we get a lot of people and they stay until about March or April. So we have a lot of repeat guests that come back yearly. And just seeing them and I don't get to watch them grow up because those snowbirds are generally the retirees. But they've watched me grow up. I can't tell you how many times a year I hear, oh, I remember when you were this big, you were knee high to a duck kind of thing. But hearing the stories of the new and old customers and just getting to meet all sorts of different people through every walk of life is one of the most amazing things about this. Because like I said, when you cater to all ages and all family types and you get to meet everybody from every different walk of life.
R&R ROI: On the flip side, what would you say is the biggest challenge running the park?
Nadine: The biggest challenge is the fact that we are a growing community. And there are a lot of people, especially after the pandemic, who have decided that they want to travel. There are so many people who are working from home now who are able to get in an RV and take themselves on the road and take their work with them wherever they want. And we only have 120 full hookup sites with, like I said, many repeat customers. And we are still, even this morning, having to turn people away and say, I'm so sorry, we're fully booked for the season. So not being able to accommodate to all of the people who want to come enjoy our park is one of the hardest things as a business owner, because I want to give everybody an experience. I want to be able to show everybody why Viral Beach Camp is great and we don't have the room.
R&R ROI: You are going to have to start taking over the city there ... buying up land. Well, it's a good problem to have, as they say. You mentioned Orlando earlier, not too far away. What are some other highlight attractions that people can enjoy while they're at your park?
Nadine: It's a common misconception with our park that we are backed up right to the beach. We unfortunately are not, but we are only 2 miles away from the beach. So it's a quick drive, maybe five minutes, maybe ten if we've got bad traffic that day to the beach. Sebastian is actually home to Pelican Island, which is America's first national wildlife refuge. So it's great for your outdoor adventurers who want to go on one of their three mile loop hikes. They also are there for good bird watching and all sorts of other animal type activity. A little further south, in actual Vero Beach, we have the McKee Botanical Gardens, which again is for your outdoorsy type of people. They are home to over 300 different natural wildflowers that grow here in Florida. So they are extremely busy throughout the year. And then again with the family oriented stuff. They have a children's park within McKee Botanical Gardens as well. So it's a great place to take the family or just get the children's spark altogether if you don't have children.
And then we also have Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum, which is if you don't know who Mel Fisher is, he was one of the most recorded national divers who did a lot of the shipwreck fines. And actually right in front of our office is an anchor that he my dad, my uncle and a good family friend recovered. And it sits proudly in front of our office. And that's on our Instagram website as well.
R&R ROI: Got some fun things as you visit the park. You can check that out. Obviously, the last two years things have gone crazy in the industry and there's a lot of new people looking to get into owning and operating parks. So what would be some advice you would give to those kind of journey into that now?
Nadine: Again, with the fact that social media is everywhere, we need it for everything. That would be my biggest thing is just make sure your social media presence is there. It's active, it's full. We had a website for a long time. We had a Facebook, but it was inactive for the most part. We'd throw a post out here, we'd update some rates there, but it wasn't active and it wasn't there for people to see. They'd go on and see a post from a year and a half ago like, okay, but now that I've taken over and I've really started bringing more of a social media presence to everything that we're doing, I would definitely say that is the key aspect of it is just that, social media advertising, because that's the only way everybody knows how to do things now.
R&R ROI: Well, I will echo that. We are marketing people, so we run across a lot of people that do it right, but also need help. So listen to Nadine and get that stuff in order because right, it's the travel industry. People want to know where they're going. They want to see what it's like. And the ease of your cell phone is basically HD, high quality stuff. Everybody can capture something pretty interesting to share about parks and like so we say they had a lot for the people in the back. Very nice. You're doing our job for us, Nadine.
This is kind of along the way, maybe there's another marketing activity, because that's where we come into the picture we try to help people with. What would you say has been the most effective for your park over the long haul? The type of marketing that you guys done.
Nadine: Definitely the social media presence because of the general population of what RV parking used to be versus what it's becoming into over the past couple of years. Facebook is definitely one of our more popular platforms that we get interacted with more so than Instagram and on our website as well. But we live in a day and age where even your grandmother knows how to use her phone to go type in where can I find this? And look up things. And then Good Sam as well. We are a Good Sam park, and they offer discounts and all sorts of different things throughout the years for Good Sam customers. So they also do some advertising for us there with anybody who's a membership or has a membership with Good Sam.
R&R ROI: We're getting close to the end of our time together, Nadine. It's sad for everyone involved, but our final on the record question will be what is your favorite RV or camping experience from your childhood or any time?
Nadine: My favorite camping experience was actually when I was probably about ten or eleven, we went to a campground that we owned property at. It's called River Ranch. It's not your typical RV park where they call them clampers with AC and their RVs and all of this stuff, but our RV did have electricity in it, so we had AC at night. And then we actually, because we own the property, built a outdoor kitchen out there so it was like you could go into it and sit down. It was almost like an outdoor restaurant, if I have to paint a picture for anybody who could imagine it, but with the screen enclosure. So we were there, and that is a big four wheeling campground. So we brought our four wheelers out. We went to what they called the watering hole, which is just a big lake to go swimming. And it has this rope swing, I'm sorry, tied off to a branch that I was always too scared to go off of. And this day I finally did. And it's probably only about a ten or twelve foot drop, but it felt like I flew 100ft. And we stayed there for hours on end.
On the way back, our buggy, which was the large mud buggies that people use, actually had its belt break. And we were in the middle of nowhere, of course, and my dad had to think quick on his feet, and he and his friends thought about it and actually took off their underpants and cut the actual fabric part off of it and just use the strap or the elastic from the waistband to use as a makeshift belt to get us all safe by the underwear. It went from the best day to the worst day back to the best day because my dad was so impressive. It was honestly just it's my favorite camping experience.
R&R ROI: This is a great way to kick off Hats Off the first episode with that underwear powered go kart. That's awesome.
Well, Nadine, I want to go ahead and bring up your social media one more time to make sure people can go and follow you there on Instagram. And like you said, you're also on Facebook, which is great, so people can find you there. The website has lots of information that people can buy stuff. Do you guys allow people to try to book online or do you have people do that through your phone?
Nadine: We're still working on getting it up with being able to book online. Right now, we are just having people call and do their bookings a little more of an old fashioned way. And we are currently working towards getting an active online to be able to book, but at the moment, you just got to call us.
R&R ROI: Thanks again for being with us, Nadine. Really enjoyed our time together, learning more about Vero Beach. Obviously, you guys are pretty booked up right now, but there are slower seasons, right, that people can maybe find it a little bit easier to come see you guys. That's going to be all we're going to do today with Vero Beach Kamp and catch us next time on Hats Off RV Parks.
R&R ROI Marketing Tip
Strap in, folks. You're about to experience the R&R ROI marketing tips.
Today's marketing tip is actually brought to you by Nadine from our Hats Off segment. She mentioned social media, so we're going to go ahead and talk a little bit more about that and the importance of actually responding. So guests are on social, so don't miss their messages. So there are 20 billion business message that are sent each month on Facebook and Instagram direct messages. 81% of users say it helps them research. So the reality is people are on Instagram, Facebook especially. There are other ones, but those are the ones you really want to focus on. When they send a message, make sure that you respond and in a timely fashion. A lot of times in the travel industry in general, there's not a great percentage of people that responds. It's like less than 50% are responding at all, I believe. So let's not be in that group. Let's be in the group that is attentive to the guests and answering the questions they might have. So that's your tip for today. Catch you next time.
Thanks for tuning into The Park Pod. Don't forget, subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform. We really need your attention and validation. Seriously, we can't go on without it. For additional episodes and more, visit restrelaxroi.com. Join us next time. Until then, happy trails.
