The Business of AutoCamp

A recent news article with the Vice President of AutoCamp, in combination with a survey put out by AutoCamp calls for a look at the business of AutoCamp. We’ll look at what the VP has to say, the content of the survey, and we’ll remind you of some other business decisions AutoCamp has made in the past few months.

The Business of AutoCamp: VP of Revenue Management

Vinny Cuneo is the Vice President of Revenue Management at AutoCamp. He was interviewed for an article titled “Leisure Travelers Becoming More Price Sensitive: Guests Increasingly Want Services To Match Rates They Pay” in an online magazine called CoStar. CoStar calls themselves “the industry leader in commercial real estate information, analytics and news.”

Leisure travel began to boom “post-Covid” lockdowns. Business people like the VP of Revenue Management are interested in what these guests are looking for and where they want to go. Why? To market to them to make sure potential customers are hearing what they want to hear.

According to Steve Contos, executive vice president at Davidson Hospitality Group,

… cruise lines and all-inclusive resorts have performed so well recently . . . People see these two options as great deals compared to a luxury hotel . . . The consumer is looking for different ways [to travel], and it’s really evidenced by the way all-inclusive and the cruises almost doubled their demand,” he said.

It’s about focusing on the things that are easy to add and what experiences a hotel can create to bolster the stay, he said.

Airbnb surged for a long time, but now hoteliers are looking at what they offer that isn’t available at an Airbnb, whose prices keep going up. What would make someone want to rent at a hotel rather than an Airbnb.

One thing is that people are now traveling with their dogs, as we do:

Hotels can offer services and options that Airbnb apartments and rooms cannot. Cleaning on request. Room service or dining options. Wine tastings. Food trucks. Yoga classes. The list goes on and on, and AutoCamp clearly is paying attention.

There’s still strong leisure demand, Cuneo said. This year, AutoCamp saw record numbers. Along with leisure demand, it’s also booking a lot of corporate groups, helping with midweek offseason. There’s also strong production out of the corporate segment from people trying to get their dispersed teams back together.

“They’re not operating in an office, so they’re doing off-sites to do a little bit of work and a little bit of play,” he said. “That seems to be the sweet spot for us right now. That is really helping sustain demand.”

We can attest to this. We have been to 4 AutoCamp locations in the past 14 months. We have either seen corporate groups at each location or have seen Instagram posts about corporate groups at every AutoCamp location.

We had reported recently that AutoCamp was about to upgrade their booking system to have more flexibility in pricing. This isn’t just about “surge” increases, but also the opposite: reducing prices when demand is low.

We are about to go to AutoCamp Zion, which just opened in May. When we first started looking, prices were more than double what they are now.

The Business of AutoCamp: AutoCamp Survey

This month (August 2023), AutoCamp sent out a survey. The offered the possibility of a free 2 night stay to those who filled it out. Two of us filled it out. It seemed we could have filled it out more than once, but a) it didn’t feel right to do so and b) it was long!

The survey was very different between the 2 people. Here are the screenshots of what AutoCamp was asking on the second survey, which was far more in-depth than the first.

NOTE: You can click on each image to see them more clearly.

First. there were basic demographic questions:

Next came a just a few of questions on “How I Travel”:

After that came My AutoCamp Booking Experience, which was lengthy! This tells us they are very interested – or is it concerned – about their booking problems:

Next, the focus was “My Time at AutoCamp”:

AutoCamp Amenities was next:

Your Next Stay at AutoCamp was the final section:

And that concluded the supposedly 7 minute survey:

The Business of AutoCamp: What We’ve Learned

It’s clear that VP of Revenue Management is working with the administration of AutoCamp to figure out how to make AutoCamp as marketable and competitive as possible. AutoCamp is outstanding at “value add” in providing both free and paid services and events at their locations that cannot be found at hotels or room/apartment rentals that you find on Airbnb or VRBO.

AutoCamp offers a huge selection of things to do, both paid and free. Check out what each location is currently offering. Note that it will change greatly based on time of year. For example, there will be far more in the summer on Cape Cod than the winter:

• AutoCamp Cape Cod Experiences
• AutoCamp Catskills Experiences
• AutoCamp Joshua Tree Experiences
• AutoCamp Russian River Experiences
• AutoCamp Yosemite Experiences
• AutoCamp Zion Experiences

It seems clear that, based on the survey questions, AutoCamp is heavily focusing on learning what their guests are interested in to provide them experiences and events that can’t be found at a room or apartment rental. Sure, there are many off-site tours, just as Airbnb offers through their experiences, but they offer so much ON SITE – and much for free – that you will never find in a room or apartment rental.

We look forward to seeing where AutoCamp goes next. They plan to open 100 new locations, so they need to know their clientele. However, they are having a hard time getting new locations open, with all 4 new locations for 2023 being delayed – 3 into 2024.

We’re off to AutoCamp Zion next week – our 5th camp in 14 months! Follow along on Instagram, and watch here for our reviews and reports!