The battle against uncertainty: We're here to help.

Dear friends, partners, and fellow campground owners:

Confirmed cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) have eclipsed 200,000 across 164 countries and territories. As of March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled COVID-19 a pandemic. This is the first pandemic classification since the H1N1 virus in 2009. Global travel has been severely restricted. In the US, 37 states have closed schools and many local municipalities are requiring local business to temporarily shut down. These past few weeks have delivered an unprecedented human tragedy and presented immense pressure on our industry. Our thoughts are with all of the families that have been directly affected by the virus. We are also deeply concerned for those who find themselves in adverse economic positions as a result of the depressed economic activity. More than $7 trillion dollars in equity market value have been lost over the past few weeks alone (roughly $22,000 per American). One thing that is certain in uncertain times is that we do not know when we will get back to normal. We expect that businesses across the country, many of which were thriving just weeks ago, will struggle to maintain liquidity and their ability to continue to operate. The Dow Jones Travel and Tourism index - an index that tracks the financial performance of US-based listed travel and tourism related companies, is down nearly 40% year to date. Tens of thousands of people have had their employment terminated, with more to come, as the roar of our global economy is put on mute.

Global supply chains have been disrupted

Global supply chains have been disrupted. Companies reliant on materials from abroad - which in our interconnected world is the vast majority... are now facing significant delays. Some of these suppliers will be forced to permanently close their doors, requiring those who were reliant on their services to find new suppliers going forward. These supply chain disruptions will not be resolved overnight. According to Axios, Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies.

Additional reading...

Restaurants and hotels, the backbone of the service industry, are now without customers

Restaurants and hotels, the backbone of the service industry, are now without customers. Many are owned and operated by mom-and-pops and have been operating their businesses with limited savings. Those owned by larger organizations, too, are ill-prepared to pay for corporate overhead indefinitely. According to Moody's Analytics, nearly 80 million jobs in the US economy are at high or moderate risk today. That's more than half of the 153 million jobs in the economy overall.

Additional reading...

Airlines are reducing routes in response to decreased demand

Airlines are reducing routes in response to decreased demand - affecting not just the airlines' employees but those of the many vendors reliant on the airlines' continued operations... catering companies, mechanics, reservations booking platforms, airport parking companies, to name a few. According to Time, U.S. airlines directly employ 750,000 workers, and the industry as a whole supports 10 million jobs. The economic impact on U.S. airlines, their employees, travelers and the shipping public is staggering. New flight bookings for the next 90 days are down by 65-75%.

Additional reading...

As mentioned in our very first blog post regarding the need for professional management in the campground industry: "Today's world is different than yesterday's and most certainly different than tomorrow's."

So what does this all mean for us as owners and operators of campgrounds…?

As campground owners and operators, we are trained to deliver warm hospitality, manage our individual enterprises, and provide for our families. We are not trained on how to lead our teams and guests through health and economic crises. Even experts in our government and health care system are struggling to understand the scope and impact. While the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has provided guidance on staying safe, many of us are lacking clarity on how to manage the day-to-day events at our campgrounds.

Do we proactively reach out to our guests? If so, what do we tell them?
Are we putting our team and guests in danger by keeping our business open?
What is our moral obligation here?
Should we close? Can we afford to close? If we close, what will the economic impact be on our business?
Who has our back?

With that said, we would like to offer some guidance on how we are handling the above questions in-house. As always, please feel free to reach out to discuss - we welcome the discourse and look forward to being of value to you and your campground.

These past few weeks have delivered an **unprecedented human tragedy** and presented immense pressure on our industry.

1. Do we proactively reach out to our customers? If so, what do we tell them?

Yes. Tell them what you know. There is often nothing scarier than silence. If your campground is located in an area with forced closures, communicate that to your guests. If you have revised your cancellation policies, communicate that to your guests. If you have amplified your campground sanitation policies, communicate that to your guests. Opening the line of communication is the single most important thing you can do right now.

To your most loyal guests, now is the time to ask for their help. Offer them gift cards. Discounted, if need be. Redeemable whenever. Your ability to generate cash flow will be the determinant between weathering the storm and not.

2. Are we putting our team and guests in danger by keeping our business open?

This depends. For campgrounds where many of the team members and guests live on-site, we don't believe there is a real benefit to voluntarily closing down; for a campground that draws guests from around the country (or world) and/or is more transient in nature, keeping your campground open would appear to present additional risk to your team and guests. Consider altering your operations to minimize team and guest contact. We have closed stores and have been using our night registration process during the day to limit close contact.

3. What is our moral obligation here?

As part of our mission to be the most hospitable company in the world, we believe that it is our duty to put our people over our profit. Our moral obligation is to do whatever is in the best interest of our team and guests. Period.

4. Should we close? Can we afford to close? If we close, what will the economic impact be on our business?

The economic impact will likely be meaningful. At our campgrounds, cancellations in certain locations have skyrocketed. This year will likely present considerable challenges to meeting performance goals established prior to the current pandemic. Bigger picture, the value of our campgrounds - by almost all metrics - has or will drop considerably. That value may take years to fully recover.

5. Who has our back?

That's unclear. Certain financial institutions are proactively opening channels to increase the availability of credit - large banks have paused share buybacks, freeing cash flow to assist customers instead; others have paused student loan repayments, allowing borrowers to focus any available cash on basic needs. We have yet to hear from any of our lenders and industry communication is sparse. Surely, they too are still struggling to figure this all out. Whether or not a government bailout is around the corner (and whether or not that will benefit you or us) is an unknown. We do not know who has our back. But we can look out for each other, and to the extent we can have yours, we are here to do so. Below are three ways we hope to do just that.

Here's how we can help...

1. Need advice?

We will be putting out free content - typically reserved for our in-house team and clients - that we think you'll find valuable in navigating the course ahead. We will publish this to our blog and LinkedIn pages which you can find here and here. If there are specific topics you would like us to write about, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.

2. Need an operating partner?

If there ever was a time to partner with a professional management company, now is that time. You can find our thoughts on the need for professional management in the campground industry here.

For any campground that starts working with us before June 1, 2020, we are offering short-term minimum contract commitments. That means you can try working with us for just three months without any longer-term obligations. Interested? Please reach out here to discuss further.

3. Need cash?

We appreciate that liquidity is important to you during this time. If you'd like to discuss selling your campground, we are in a position to help. Please reach out here to discuss further.

Stay safe and in good spirits. If you need us, we're here to help you.

Interested in selling your campground? Let's connect.

Let’s Talk Campgrounds

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