The Campground / RV Park Business
A campground is a real-estate business wearing a hospitality hat. You are not furnishing rooms; you are renting land with a hookup and a fire ring. The cost per site is a fraction of a hotel room, the margins can be the best in lodging, and the seasons can be merciless.
Read the launch plan: every step from deciding to opening, free →The Snapshot
Is this worth your attention?
Cited sources Typical bands for this kind of business, compiled from the public sources listed under Sources and method; they are a synthesis, not figures copied from any one source. Estimates, not forecasts; a specific business varies with its location, lease, equipment and owner. Last reviewed 2026-07-07. smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice.
A fit if you…
- See land as the core asset and want appreciation plus cash flow
- Can manage a business that is seasonal, not steady
- Will invest in the off-season to capture the peak
- Like hosting, grounds, and a community of repeat campers
- Can carry the property through a near-empty winter
Probably not if you…
- Need level, year-round revenue to sleep at night
- Have no reserve for the off-season and capital repairs
- Dislike grounds work, utilities, and septic
- Expect a furnished-room nightly rate from a dirt site
Step Inside the Layout
A live look at one tool inside
This is the actual 3D floor from the full model. Drag to explore it. Inside, you configure the space yourself and watch the economics move with every choice.
Sources and method8 public sources, with the year and a link where the source gives one. The benchmark bands are smbnest's synthesis of these sources, not figures copied from them.
Sources & Method
Figures are compiled from the public sources below; the bands are a synthesis of them, not copies
How these numbers were built: establishment counts and industry size come from the U.S. Census Bureau (County Business Patterns and the Economic Census for NAICS 721211, RV Parks and Campgrounds); manager wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (SOC 11-9081, Lodging Managers); camper demand, benchmarks, and affiliation economics come from ARVC and KOA; financing terms and the size standard come from the SBA; and survival rates come from the Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics. Every source below links to the underlying public material so you can check any figure yourself. These are starting assumptions; the moment you enter a real park’s site count, occupancy, rate, and costs, your numbers should replace ours. Figures are current as of 2025-2026 and refreshed as the sources update. Operating cost ratios and the owner cash flow band come from the Newmark expense analysis of 62 parks as reported by MMCG Invest, sale values from the Newmark 2026 cap rate survey, and the cost to open from the opening kit, priced from development cost guides and supplier pages.
The owner cash flow band and the utility, property tax, insurance and repair ratios anchor to the Newmark expense analysis of 62 parks as reported by MMCG Invest; occupancy benchmarks anchor to ARVC and KOA figures; labor anchors to BLS wage data. Revenue-per-site and ancillary-revenue figures are estimated from general campground operating norms since no single public source breaks those out at the unit-economics level.
This is just the surface
The full model is the complete, interactive deep-dive, and every business here is built to the same standard: a live economics simulator you tune to your own numbers, an interactive 3D walkthrough, a location scorecard, an owner-fit assessment, a buy-versus-build comparison, and the full breakdown of how it makes money and what quietly kills margin.
then $29 a month
Time to choose and start, then month to month.
$99 today for your first 3 months, then $29 a month until you cancel.
about $17 a month
The best price: a year to decide, open and run it.
$199 today, then $199 each year until you cancel.
Renews until you cancel. Cancel any time from your account; you keep access to the end of the period you paid for, and your saved plans stay in your account. What membership opens
smbnest is a self-assessment tool. It does not give individualized financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Figures are estimates and benchmarks, not forecasts. Speak with a qualified financial adviser and a licensed attorney before you start, buy, finance or sign anything.