55 and older RV parks/resorts

[Joe Hogan]

The 55+ requirement is an interesting business model. There might be certain State or Tax benefit programs driving this model.
Pricing might Be an easier way to manage clients or some combination of pricing and incentIves. Earned discounts or awards, etc. For instance the ideal client for your business model would be rewarded with some discounts etc. Others that don’t fit your model would pay full price and thus less likely to stay.

 

[Jim]

. . . and GOOD internet - how hard would it be to provide decent Internet?

Sometimes, it's almost impossible!

Here at our park, I fought the Internet issue for 2 years. I was about to throw in the towel when Starlink arrived! Our park is remote, so there is no cell service and no Internet service.

I tried HughesNet, it was junk. Actually, it was beyond junk. I actually tore the HughesNet dish down and sent them a picture of me backing over it in my truck. They didn't care, given that the customer had to buy the equipment anyway! But it made ME fell better.

Then we tried ViaSat. It was a lesser version of junk, but still unsuitable for our needs. At $250 a month for 85 GB, it was only good for checking emails and WiFi calling. And that was iffy. I actually had 2 ViaSat dishes out here so that I could provide service, but everyone wanted to stream movies, and a full park could burn though the data in a week.

I got an estimate from Frontier to run a dedicated fiber to the park. Cost was around $85K as I recall. I signed the paperwork and several weeks later they sent a technician out to do a survey and get the ball rolling. When she got here, she said "Bad news, the fiber is completely full and we will have to run a new line for you. Cost is $300K." Yeah, right. A small RV park with only 8 sites can't take on that kind of overhead.

Went to Balsam West, pricing was around $85K, but they backed out later as well.

Finally, Starlink came to our rescue! We now get 2 TB of data for $500 a month, and if we go over the data cap, they automatically bill us at $0.50 a GB. But that wasn't just plug-n-play either. I had to buy and install a 50' tower (not cheap!) for Dishy to sit on, and then a Ubiquity system and mesh antenna's to get the service to the campers.

When you live in a populated area, these services are handled by companies with networks throughout the area. So signing up for Cell Service or Internet is pretty easy. But in a remote area like ours, it can be VERY difficult! Not to mention, expensive!