"We Don't Have a Demand Problem" — What KOA's Data Reveals About Outdoor Hospitality Bookings
Where Campground Bookings Actually Break Down, According to KOA's Industry Data
There's a particular kind of confidence that comes from having more data than almost anyone else in an industry, the confidence to challenge conventional wisdom and be right about it. Kim Wootteon has that kind of confidence. She's earned it the long way, through a career that started in retail, wound through traditional hospitality, passed through a time at Blue Water, and landed at KOA, where she now serves as Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy, overseeing revenue management, field marketing, sales, and retail across the largest franchise system in outdoor hospitality.
When Wootteon sat down with Blue Water's Rafael Correa on the Upstream Podcast, she went after a story nearly every campground owner tells themselves when bookings slow down: the market's shifted, demand has cooled. It's an easy story to believe; it puts the problem outside the business, out of anyone's control. Her data says it's wrong.
Rule Out the Obvious Answer First
The instinct, when bookings dip, is to assume fewer people want to camp. Wootteon’s data says otherwise. “We do not have a demand issue,” she said. Sessions are up. Traffic is up. Guest sentiment toward camping hasn’t moved in sixty years, she noted, and if anything, COVID widened the pool of people interested in getting outdoors.
What has changed, in her words, is conversion. People are showing up, looking, and leaving. That’s a materially different problem than a shrinking market, and it demands a different response. An owner who diagnoses a demand problem starts cutting rates and hoping. An owner who correctly diagnoses a conversion problem starts asking where, specifically, guests are dropping out of the booking flow, and why.
Know Which Camper Is Actually in Front of You
Wootteon pointed to something the data surfaced that most operators can’t see from inside their own business: two camper populations, moving in opposite directions, at the same time, inside the same industry. One has more disposable income and more time than it used to. That segment is filling premium sites, patio spots, and glamping accommodations, and it’s doing so frequently. The other is the traditional camper base, economy and mid-scale, and it happens to be the majority.
“There’s a lot of operators who think they know who their camper is,” she said, “and then there’s the data that really tells them.”
For years, the industry’s answer to almost everything was the same: raise rates a little every year, apply a blanket length-of-stay strategy, and let it ride. It worked, so nobody questioned it. That same strategy is now pricing out the very camper who makes up most of the business, in property after property, without anyone quite noticing until the booking calendar goes quiet. Wootteon’s point wasn’t that operators did anything wrong. It’s that a strategy built for one era doesn’t announce its own expiration date. Only the data does that.
That distinction matters more than a demographic footnote. A premium glamping guest and an economy tent camper aren’t the same buyer at different price points, they’re two different transactions with two different expectations. One is paying for an experience, a patio, a firepit, a bed that isn’t an air mattress, and will absorb a rate increase if the site earns it. The other is paying for access to the outdoors at a price they can still justify against a mortgage and a grocery bill. Run the same annual increase and the same length-of-stay rule across both, and the math looks fine on paper right up until the second group stops booking.
Rates Are Not a Set-and-Forget Decision
This is where revenue management actually earns its keep. A rate table built once in December and left alone through the following October assumes the market holds for ten months. It doesn’t. Gas prices change how far a family will drive for a weekend trip. A competitor two exits down the interstate cuts rates and starts pulling reservations before anyone at the property next door notices the calendar thinning out.
Hotels and airlines settled this question decades ago: price moves with demand, sometimes daily, because the alternative is turning away a sold-out weekend at last year’s rate and sitting on empty sites during a slow one at that same rate. Camping is only now catching up. Static, blanket pricing is exactly the mechanism Wootteon is describing when she says the problem isn’t demand: a rate strategy that stopped matching the market months before the booking calendar went quiet. Marketing can fill the top of the funnel. It can’t fix a rate that’s wrong for the week.
None of this means chasing every fluctuation with a spreadsheet macro. It means treating pricing as a live decision, reviewed on a real cadence against occupancy pacing and what the competition down the road is doing, rather than a policy set once a year and defended out of habit.
Recognize the Discipline You’re Not Trained For
Running a campground and running a pricing strategy are two different disciplines, built on different instincts, and there’s no particular reason the person who’s good at one should also be good at the other. “Nobody really gets into camping because they’re a great marketer,” she said. That’s not a criticism, it’s closer to an observation about how the industry actually works: most of the people running these properties got into the business because they loved the outdoors, or loved hospitality, or loved building something of their own, not because they wanted to spend their mornings watching a booking funnel. That’s not a flaw in them. It’s a gap in the business, and it’s a gap that’s closeable in a way a genuine demand slump never would be.
Get to know your customers and what they need. Adjust rates to match demand, needs, and wants, and back it up with great guest service. That's a lot to run alone, which is why it's worth using the tools your franchise already provides, or bringing in third-party revenue management to maximize your effectiveness.
FAQ: Revenue Management and Marketing for Campground Operators
What is revenue management for campgrounds and RV parks?
Revenue management is the practice of adjusting rates based on real-time demand, occupancy pacing, and competitor pricing rather than setting one rate schedule and leaving it in place for a year. In outdoor hospitality, that means treating a campsite the way an airline treats a seat: the price for a sold-out July weekend should not be the same as the price for a slow Tuesday in March.
How is revenue management different from marketing for a campground or RV resort?
Marketing management drives awareness and traffic — it gets a prospective guest to the booking page. Revenue management determines whether that traffic converts once it arrives, by making sure the rate matches what that specific guest segment is willing to pay. Wootteon's point in the interview is direct: marketing can fill the funnel, but it can't fix a rate that's wrong for the week.
Why are bookings dropping if camping demand hasn't declined?
KOA's data shows sessions and traffic are up, which rules out a demand problem. The gap is in conversion: guests are visiting the site, looking at rates, and leaving without booking. That's a pricing and positioning issue, not a market-size issue, and it calls for a different fix than discounting across the board.
Does dynamic pricing work for campgrounds the same way it works in hotels?
The mechanics are the same — adjusting rates against real-time occupancy pacing and competitive pressure — but outdoor hospitality has to account for two distinct camper segments moving in opposite directions: a premium segment (glamping, patio sites) with rising disposable income, and a majority economy/mid-scale segment that is price-sensitive. A single blanket rate increase applied across both will price out the segment that makes up most of the business.
Should a campground owner handle revenue management in-house or outsource it?
It depends on bandwidth and expertise, not effort. Running a campground and running a pricing strategy are different disciplines. Franchise systems like KOA provide revenue management tools built for this; third-party revenue management firms are another option for owners without the internal capacity to review pacing and competitor rates on a regular cadence.
About Kim Wootteon
Kim Wootteon is Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Kampgrounds of America (KOA), where she leads local marketing, revenue management, field operations, business intelligence, and retail across the largest franchise system in outdoor hospitality. She has more than 20 years in retail, sales, marketing, and hospitality, spanning independent and branded hotels, campgrounds, and attractions — including prior revenue management and marketing roles at Blue Water Development Corporation and The Grand Hotel and Spa.
About Blue Water
Blue Water is a family-owned hospitality company founded in 2002 by Jack and Todd Burbage in Ocean City, Maryland. It's the largest third-party manager of RV resorts and outdoor hospitality in the U.S., overseeing 70+ properties across 25 states — including RV resorts, campgrounds, glamping sites, hotels, marinas, and attractions — with a team of more than 1,600 hospitality professionals. Blue Water applies hotel-industry operations, revenue management, and marketing discipline to the outdoor recreation space.