When Did Camping Become More Expensive Than Hotels?
When did camping become more expensive than hotels? Not long ago, one of the great advantages of RV travel was simple economics. You bought the RV, paid for the fuel, and enjoyed the freedom of the road, knowing that campground fees would almost always be cheaper than a hotel room.
For families, especially, the math was easy. Why pay for two hotel rooms and restaurant meals when you could bring your own bed, your own kitchen, and your own front porch with you? For years, that argument worked.
Lately, though, Jennifer and I have found ourselves standing in campgrounds looking at the nightly rate and quietly asking the same question many of you are asking: “When did camping become more expensive than hotels?” That question isn't just frustration talking. It's becoming reality in many parts of America.
What are the numbers?
Expedia reports that a typical hotel room in the United States now averages $170 to $175 per night, depending on location and season. Midscale hotels in smaller cities and along interstate corridors are often available for considerably less.
Meanwhile, private RV resorts that once charged $40 or $50 a night are increasingly asking $80, $100, $125, or even $150 for a full-hookup site. Waterfront sites, premium pull-throughs, and destination resorts can push well past that number, particularly during holidays and peak travel seasons.
A few weeks ago I noticed one highly regarded resort in the Florida Keys advertising premium waterfront sites approaching $300 a night. Three hundred dollars. For a campsite. For one night. At that price, you're not comparing yourself to a Hampton Inn anymore. You're competing with some very nice hotels.
Current Campground Expenses
Now, before campground owners start firing emails my way, let's acknowledge something important. Running a campground has become dramatically more expensive. Insurance costs have climbed. Property taxes have increased. Utility bills continue rising. Labor shortages have pushed wages higher. WiFi infrastructure, swimming pools, dog parks, pickleball courts, splash pads, and all the amenities modern RVers expect aren't free to build or maintain.
Campground owners aren't sitting around smoking cigars and counting money. Most are simply trying to survive in an increasingly expensive business environment. The same inflation that affects RV owners affects campground operators, too. But that doesn't make the sticker shock any easier to swallow.
One of the biggest changes over the past decade has been the rise of what I call the “RV resort experience.” Many newer campgrounds aren't trying to compete with state parks anymore. They're competing with destination resorts.
They offer luxury clubhouses, multiple pools, tiki bars, concierge services, fitness centers, organized activities, food trucks, and entertainment schedules that look more like cruise ship itineraries than campground bulletin boards.
Some RVers absolutely love that experience. Others are wondering why they suddenly need a wristband, a gate code, and a reservation made eight months in advance just to spend a night under the stars. The economics become even more interesting when you factor in something hotel travelers don't have to consider.
The Value Proposition – More Expensive Than Hotels
The hotel guest arrives in a car that gets thirty miles per gallon. The RVer may have burned $150 or $200 worth of diesel fuel getting there. That doesn't mean RV travel is becoming a bad deal. Far from it. The value proposition has simply changed.
The hotel room gives you a bed and perhaps a small refrigerator. The RV site gives you your own mattress, your own kitchen, your own coffee maker, your own bathroom, your own recliner, and your own familiar surroundings. You aren't living out of a suitcase. You're bringing your home with you. For many of us, that's worth paying extra for.
The challenge comes when campground rates rise faster than the value they provide. We hear about it constantly from RVers across the country. One couple told me they recently paid $118 a night for a gravel site next to an interstate with no trees and no meaningful amenities beyond hookups. Another said they skipped a private campground charging $145 and stayed in a beautiful Corps of Engineers campground for less than $40. Those stories are becoming increasingly common.
Not surprisingly, many RVers are responding by changing how they travel.
Public campgrounds are more popular than ever. State parks remain one of the best values in outdoor hospitality. Corps of Engineers parks continue to feel almost like a secret society among experienced RVers who appreciate spacious sites and reasonable prices.
Harvest Hosts, RV Overnights, county parks, fairgrounds, and boondocking opportunities are all benefiting from travelers looking for alternatives to resort pricing. Public campgrounds often charge between $25 and $55 a night, while many state parks remain well below private resort rates.
We're seeing something else happen, too.
Some RVers are traveling shorter distances and staying longer once they arrive. The old model involved covering hundreds of miles every few days. The new model often looks more like slow travel. Stay a week. Explore the area. Become part of the community for a while. Then move on.
Ironically, that slower pace may actually improve the travel experience. But here's the raw truth: I don't believe campground prices are going back to where they were five or ten years ago. Hotels aren't getting cheaper. Fuel isn't getting cheaper. Labor isn't getting cheaper. Campgrounds are simply following the same economic forces affecting every other part of the travel industry.
Still, I think campground operators should pay attention to the conversation happening around campfires all across America.
RVers understand rising costs. What they struggle with is feeling like they're paying luxury prices without receiving a luxury experience in return. There is a difference.
What's Changing Now?
The campground industry grew tremendously during and after the pandemic. Demand exploded. Reservations became harder to find. Occupancy rates climbed and prices followed. Now, however, the market appears to be changing. Hotel occupancy has softened in some markets and travelers are becoming more price sensitive across the entire hospitality industry. RVers are asking tougher questions about value than they were just a few years ago. That's probably healthy. Competition usually is.
As for Jennifer and me, we still believe RV travel offers one thing no hotel can ever match. When we pull into a campsite after a long travel day, we aren't checking into someone else's room. We're arriving home. That home just happens to have a different view out the window every week. For us, at least, that's still worth quite a lot.
Just maybe not $300 a night.
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Like others, I can’t easily travel with a cat to an hotel. Even hotels that claim they are pet friendly are typically referring to dogs. We were denied at the door one evening but we called them out on their lack of specificity on their website and they let us stay the night.
We can also vote on the type of campgrounds we want with our reservations. Money talks.
We travel with our pets, 2 standard poodles and a parrot. Very few hotels would accommodate that at any price. Yes, the prices have increased, and some RV resorts are quite expensive, the average price is still far less than hotels. Plus with almost all hotels the need to eat meals out has to be added.
Location, Location, Location.
More desirable places will always cost more.
“RESORT” is the key word. It stands for $$$$$$, and a bunch of amenities that jack the prices up.
I would rather boondock on a WalMart parking lot (which we do a lot) then to wake up, open my windows and 15/20 feet away see the back side of someone else’s camper and then take my coffee outside and be looking at electric cables, water hoses and sewer pipes.
To me that not camping. That’s called paying someone else’s bills.
Just give me someplace quiet, spacious, with W/E/S or dump station. For less then $ 1,000.00 per month and I’m happy. Don’t need all the amenities. Don’t use them anyhow.
Also, the East Coast is in my opinion, way over priced compared to out west or down south. Way to crowded.
If it weren’t for my wife wanting the luxuries of W/E/S, I would much rather boondock and move every 2 weeks and stay in a campground once in a while.
CAMPING is different from GLAMPING.
Yes, we have a 38 ft. DP and a JEEP toad, but I’d rather have my space then feel like a sardine.
Nowadays you have to spend at least $200+ to get a halfway decent hotel room and still have to worry about sanitation, bedbugs and safety. Another reason we travel with the RV now is our pets, small dog and two cats. It’s getting harder and more expensive ($100 dog fee at a Marriott property group) to find hotels that will accept pets. We don’t have that problem in campgrounds. Every single one of our RV friends has switched to RV travel because of their pets after one or more harrowing experiences with car travel and pets.
Hotel room downtown Ft Wayne Indiana this week is 240 a night, not counting taxes and parking. Out on the interstate it is 165 plus tax. “free breakfast” though.
You said $170 for a hotel, we found out that isn’t a good room. In order to get a good hotel you will spend about $300. We found out about 5 years ago when we had to go without our camper. You know what has been in your camper bed. We also spend $20-$30 for a COE campground