This is a must read for Campground, RV Park and Mobile Home Community owners that are contemplating, or are currently working with an outside Property Management Company to supervise the management of their property(s).

Reasons Property Owners Hire a Property Management Company

• They do not want the difficult task of hiring the best manager for their property(s).
• They do not want to be burdened with the day to day responsibilities of managing one or more properties.
• They do not feel they have the experience and/or knowledge to obtain the best return on investment (ROI) associated with managing their property(s).

The Myths about Property Management Companies

• Property Management Companies do not manage properties. Instead they hire and place a separate manager on each property. The manager is then responsible for the day to day operations of the property.
• The Property Management Company performs the unnecessary task of supervising the property manager. Research has shown that Property Management Companies often do not have the expertise to hire and supervise the property manager associated with the type of property they were hired to manage.
• All business-related tasks performed by the Property Management Company can be better served by the property manager hired to manage a specific property.
• The property manager will report directly to you and anyone other designated individuals. For example, your account and attorney. You will then have firsthand knowledge associated with your property(s).
• The cost associated with hiring a Property Management Company are significant and unnecessary. Just a few examples are the costs associated with employing Property Management Company supervisors. The travel costs to have them visit each property on a quarterly basis. The duplication of capital expenditures associated with property management and support personnel.

Conclusion:

Property owners would be better served if they had a means to hire the best manager for their specific property(s). Until recently, this has been a stumbling block for property owners.

CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com (CMM) has developed the only website and software system that can assist Campground, RV Park and Mobile Home Community owners in hiring the best Manager for their specific property(s). All from a single system designed for the non-technical user. For a limited time property owners can register on the CMM Website and receive the FREE Beta version of the CMM Software.

Locating and securing a Work Camper job that is the best fit for both the Work Camper and Employer can be a daunting task for everyone involved. The number of websites and magazines that advertise work camping jobs and camp host jobs has grown significantly. Once you have compiled a list of Work Camper jobs in locations where you would like to live for a summer or winter season, take the time to compare the benefits offered by the Employer. I recommend reading my blog “Work Camping – the Good & Bad”, before accepting a Work Camper job.

Employers and Work Campers join CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com for “FREE” and receive an eye-catching Public Profile Page that can be used to…

• Promote the Employer’s campground, surrounding area and Work Camper jobs, employment opportunities.
• Promote the Work Camper’s capabilities, preferences and resume to Employers.

Camp MAINT Manager – (CMM) Software was designed to “educate and assist” campground owners and managers on how to…

• Hire and manage the most qualified Work Campers, ensuring that you have the right Work Camper for the job.
• Accelerate Work Camper training on the duties they are assigned to perform.
• “Sync” Work Camper profiles with a single click.
• Inspire campground managers to learn the strengths of their Work Campers.
• Manage “Who & When” performs the wide variety of essential campground duties and activities.
• Alternate “Duties“, “Days” or “Hours” among Work Campers with a single click. This will promote cross training, minimize the boredom of performing repetitive tasks and create a more fair-minded work environment.
• Keep Owners, Regional Managers, Campground Managers and Assistant Managers up-to-date on scheduled campground duties, activities and Work Campers capabilities.
• Bring new managers up-to-date quickly on campground operations and Work Camper capabilities.
• Maintain an up-to-date profile for past, present and future Work Camper.
• Create and edit Weekly Schedules manually or automatically with just a few clicks.
• Repeat the current Weekly Schedule with a single click.
• Edit, Save, Preview, Print and Email your Weekly Schedules as a group to all managers and Work Campers. Recipients can then view the Weekly Schedule on any device that they receive emails.
• View and Print Work Camper Sign-in Sheets that include assigned maintenance duties and activities.
• Edit the provided Maintenance Duty List or create your own.
• Use the provided Maintenance Request Form, Supplies Request Form or Campground Inspection Form.

CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com in conjunction with the Camp MAINT Manager (CMM) Software, expedites the process of…

• Uniting and hiring the most qualified Work Campers.
• Insuring Work Campers locate a position that is the best match for them and the Employer.
• Solving the problem of retaining Work Campers for the season and hopefully getting them back next season.

Conclusion: To provide you a Smarter, Faster and Easier Way to Hire and Manage Work Campers and the Maintenance Duties they perform more effectively. The result is Higher Morale, Productivity and the Desire for Work Campers to extend their stay. Employers save time and money.

In the past Campgrounds mostly hired Baby Boomers born 1946 – 1964 and Generation X’s born 1965 – 1980. Due to the aging population of Baby boomers and Generation X’s, todays campgrounds have begun to hire Millennials born 1981 – 2000.

Millennial characteristics that create both challenges and opportunities for today’s campground owner is the fact that they…

• Schedule everything.
• Prefer digital literacy as they grew up in a digital environment.
• Have never known a world without computers.
• Do not live to work; they prefer a more relaxed work environment.
• Are less likely to be tied down to a home and mortgage.
• Are more likely to rent, own an RV or tiny home that gives them more freedom and a smaller environmental footprint.

What does this all mean?

Millennials are more likely to…

• Create a more efficient work place through the use of technology.
• Create a more relaxed and less stressful workplace.

CMM Software, LLC was founded to meet the technology demands placed on the growing camping industry and new entry of Millennial Work Campers. This included creating the CMM website and associated Camp MAINT Manager (CMM) Software.

The result has been the improved ability for…

• Campgrounds to schedule and communicate the maintenance duties and activities Work Campers perform.
• Campgrounds to promote their campground and job opportunities to work Campers.
• Campgrounds to find and pre-qualify Work Campers that are the best match for the job
• Work Campers to promote their capabilities and preferences to employers, resulting in more job offers.
• Work Campers to find a position that is the best match for their Capabilities and Preferences, resulting in a more enjoyable work experience.

In conclusion, CMM is committed to meeting the opportunities created by the new Millennial campground employer and Work Camper. Happy trails.

Working as a Work Camper part-time in return for your RV Site and a variety of miscellaneous expenses sounds like a great way to see the country, and it is. As with any other major decision in life there are a number of issues that should be considered before you apply and accept a Work Camper job.

The most obvious, is this a place that you would like to live and work for the next 6 months, which is the length of time most Work Campers are asked to commit to. The less obvious, but should be part of your decision making process are as follows.

• What are the Work Camper duties and/or activities that I will be required to perform?
• How many days and hours per day will I be required to work?
• Will I have a choice as to which days I will be required to work?
• Will there be an opportunity to work additional hours, and if so how much will I be paid?

Employers have good intentions, but with any business things can happen that are out of their control. A Work Camper can get sick or have to leave due to personal reasons. You may temporarily be asked to work additional days until a replacement can be found.

I would recommend asking the employer if they have a Work Camper Agreement that list the benefits and requirements associated with the Work Camper job. If you register on CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com, you will receive “free” benefits that are designed to assist you in finding a Work Camper job that is right for you.

After registering you will have the ability to Search for Work Camper Jobs by Campground Name and/or State. You will then have the ability to View the Employer’s Public Profile page where you can perform the following.

• See how other Work Campers rated their work experience at the employer’s campground.
• Read a brief description describing the campground.
• View campground images.
• View campground video
• View a Google map showing the location of the campground.
• Visit a link to the Work Camper Jobs posted by the employer.
• Visit a link to the Work Camper Benefits document posted by the employer.
• Visit a link to the Work Camper Agreement document posted by the employer.
• See a list of campground awards listed by the employer
• See a list of social media icons that can be used to follow the employer’s campground.

In conclusion, do your research. The result will be a better Work Camper experience.

There are many thoughts that come to mind when first considering becoming a full-time RVer. It may sound adventurist, exciting, fun or romantic. It can be all or none of these. In large it depends on the decisions that you make before setting out on your first adventure. My first piece of advice, keep Murphy’s Law in mind, whatever can go wrong will.

Most first time RVers will make mistakes regardless of how much thought they put into their decision making. The reason being there are some things you can only learn from experience. This lead to my fiancé and I trading in our new 5th wheel, just 6 months after living in it full-time. We wish we knew then what we know now before becoming full-time RVers.

Here is my prioritized list of topics to consider before becoming a full-time RVer. I’m sure there are other topics to consider that other full-time RVers could add to my list.

1) Do I keep my house when becoming a full-time RVer? My advice, make sure you know if you like it before selling your house. As great as it sounds, you may decide that it just isn’t for you. Campgrounds can have their good points and bad points, but that’s a future topic.

2) What type and size of RV do I buy? There are so many variables, I will just touch on what I consider the main topics to consider.

– What type of vehicle do you feel most comfortable driving down the road and to the types of places that you would like to visit? The options today are many. I would suggest going to a big city annual RV show that represents all of the different types and sizes of RVs before making a decision. Another important decision to consider is the difficulty of gassing up different types of gas and diesel trucks that pull behind today’s larger RVs.

– The size and options are very important decisions. Whether you are coming from an apartment or house, it will be a bigger adjustment than you think when you are forced to down-size. You will need to determine what you can live without before deciding on the RV size and options. I would strongly consider an RV with a residential refrigerator, generator and enough storage space. The non-residential refrigerators have their problems and are very expensive to fix and/or replace.

3) Signing up with a mail forwarding service was one of the best things we did after becoming full-time RVers. We just wish that we had done it sooner versus changing out address every time we moved. Mail forwarding services is a simple concept. You are assigned an address that you can use to have your mail sent to. You can then choose the type of mail you want forwarded to the campground/park where you are staying and how often you want your mail sent. The price is reasonable and is typically determined by the amount of mail and how often you want it sent.

4) When traveling down the road and you break down. Beware of Scrupulous RV service providers. One of the most common breakdowns is a blowout. I will just give you one experience that I had that has happened to other RVers in one way or another.

We were traveling down the highway in Texas about 60 miles south of San Antonio. My RV tires were only 2-1/2 years old and had excellent tread. We had a blowout. We called a company that specialized in changing tires on RVs come out to change the tire. Taking into account that we already had one blowout, the fact that we would probably have another within a short time and whenever you have a blowout it typically causes damage to the camper, we thought it would be good idea to replace all 4 tires.

The company said that they could bring out 4 new tires, mount the tires on the rims and install them on the RV on the highway. we said okay. When the truck arrived it had 4 tires, but not the machine to mount the tires on the rims. The driver said the machine was being used on one of their other trucks. The driver attempted to remove and mount the tires manually. In the process he damaged the first mag wheel where he mounted the tire that was blown. When he attempted to mount the second tire he began damaging the mag wheel again. I insisted that he stop and bring the 3 remaining tires back to the shop for mounting.

When I spoke to the company that we contracted to do the work, not only did they refuse to give us a discount for the damage that the driver did to the 2 mag wheels, they charged us an additional $85 because they driver had to go back to the shop to mount the tires. To add insult to injury, we found out after the fact that the company overcharged us a $100 per tire. It is my opinion that they did this because it was late afternoon on a Saturday and the other tire shops would be closed until Monday morning, leaving us stranded on the highway. Lesson learned, be wary of companies that provide RV services when you are broke down along the road and you are in a vulnerable position. Don’t get me wrong, there are many good RV service providers and we appreciate the services they provide.

In conclusion, do your research before becoming a full-time RVer. It can be a memorable experience when you make the decisions that are right for you. Happy trails.

Most campgrounds that I have visited, Wi-Fi is included in the cost of your site. If you have spent time traveling around the U.S. and have spent your fair share in campgrounds, you probably have an opinion on campground Wi-Fi. For what it’s worth, here is my opinion.

The problems that I have witnessed are…

• To slow, sometimes to the point that it gives you a timed out error message.
• The speed and whether or not it works is dependent on how many campers are in the park and logged on.

Some campgrounds may charge a small fee, which may limit the number of devices that can be logged onto your account at one time. It may also include an added fee if you use more than your allotted data.

For the above reasons, the response to campground Wi-Fi is negative. I do have some sympathy for campground owners that attempt to offer Wi-Fi in their campgrounds.

Campgrounds, like any other business have a budget. Campgrounds may only have one company in their area that provides Wi-Fi services. The lack of competition may or may not increase the cost to install a Wi-Fi system. I have seen quotes for as much as $80,000 for a mid-size campground.

On the flip side, I have also seen an instance where the campground owner had a friend that was a professional installer of Wi-Fi systems, install a Wi-Fi system that worked well for a nominal fee.

I think it would be a cost effective business decision on behalf of campground owners to carefully and wisely invest in a Wi-Fi system that actually works. This would not only bring in new campers, but also increase repeat business. They could even opt to charge a nominal fee for their Wi-Fi services.

Keep in mind that due to today’s popular devices that require Wi-Fi, most campers would pay a fair fee for good Wi-Fi services.

If you are an existing Campground Owner, Manager, Work Camper, plan to purchase a campground, or become a Work Camper, you will find the CMM Story a must read.

The “Camp MAINT Manager App”; the #1 Campground Maintenance Management System and associated CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com website, were both created after years of working as a Work Camper and Campground Manager in a variety of campgrounds across the United States.

As with any business or employment position, there will always be a variety of concerns that arise. Campgrounds are no exception. The CMM Story addresses the most common concerns and solutions provided by the CMM App and Website.

There is an inherent problem that haunts Campground Owners, Managers and Work Campers.

Unlike other industries, Campground Owners, Managers and Work Campers do not have the luxury of physically meeting before offering or accepting a position. This can result in hiring a Campground Manager, or Work Camper that is incapable of performing all the tasks associated with the position for which they were hired.

The CMM website in conjunction with the CMM App for employers…

• Expedites the process of uniting and hiring the most qualified Campground Managers and Work Campers.
• Furthers the process of insuring that Work Campers locate a position that is the best match for them and the Employer.
• Helps to insure that Campground Owners, Managers and Work Campers benefit from a better working relationship, resulting in a more enjoyable work experience.

The CMM App provides a Smarter, Faster and Easier Way to Manage the Duties performed by all Work Camper types. The upshot is Higher Morale, Productivity, Lower Costs and ultimately the desire to extend their stay. This is accomplished by a modern design paired with powerful, affordable, and user-friendly functionality.

The CMM App and website were designed to “educate and assist” Campground Owners and Managers on how to…

• Inspire them to learn the strengths of their Work Campers.
• Manage “Who & When” performs the wide variety of essential campground duties.
• Take advantage of Work Camper strengths, ensuring you have the right Work Camper for the job.
• Alternate duties among-st Work Campers to maximize cross training and minimize the boredom of performing repetitive tasks.
• Alternate hours among-st Work Campers to create a fair-minded work environment.
• Keep up-to-date on the campground maintenance duties Work Campers are scheduled to perform.
• Maintain an up-to-date profile for each Work Camper.
• Bring new Campground Owners and Managers up-to-date quickly regarding campground operations and Work Camper capabilities.

“Campground Owners and Manages” join for FREE and receive an eye-catching Public Profile Page that can be used to promote their campground to Work Campers.

“Work Campers” join for FREE and receive an eye-catching Public Profile Page that can be used to promote themselves to Campground Owners and Manages.

Whether you are a Campground Owner or Manager and are considering hiring Work Campers or you are considering becoming a Work Camper, read on. So not to discourage you, I will tell you about the good first and the bad last.

Work Camping is a “win win” for both Campground Employers and Work Campers. Most often Work Campers are retired and can provide a lifetime of work experience and knowledge at a considerably lower cost than Campground Owners can afford or are prepared to pay. The benefits that Work Campers receive can vary. Below are some typical examples.

Typical Work Camper Benefits

1) Full hookup campsite – includes water, electric, cable TV and Wi-Fi.

a. Occasionally, the Employer will not cover electric, but will provide a $50 to $100 Stipend.

b. It is not unusual for the Employer to provide propane at their cost.

2) The number of hours Employers will require Work Campers to work per week can vary from 15, 18, 24, 30, 36 and 40 hours. A typical range is 18 to 24 hours. Work Camper couples are allowed to divide the number of required hours.

3) Employers typically pay minimum wage for hours worked beyond the agreed upon hours per week.

Typical Problems that Work Campers face

1) A small percentage of Employers will hire Work Campers under the pretense pertaining to the mandatory hours and jobs they will be required to perform in return for the benefits received.

a. Work Campers may verbally agree to the total number of hours, number of hours per day, number of days per week and descriptions of the jobs they will be required to perform. When they arrive, they may find that what they agreed to has changed.

b. Work Campers may verbally agree to the benefits they will receive. When they arrive, they find that what they agreed to has changed.

Work Camper Recommendations

1) Think ahead and plan your next Work Camper job. The better jobs are taken first.

2) Don’t be shy when it comes to negotiating your benefits, number of hours and jobs you will be required to perform.

3) Ask the employer if they have a Work Camper Agreement that outlines your benefits, number of hours and descriptions of the jobs you will be required to perform.

Typical Problems that Employers face

1) Work Campers will accept a position, but not have the ability to perform the jobs that they committed to due to health reasons, physical attributes and/or the necessary skill sets.

2) The Work Campers RV doesn’t meet the minimum requirements of the campground.

Employer Recommendations

1) Create a Work Camper Benefit Agreement.

2) Before signing a Work Camper Benefit Agreement, request a picture of each Work Camper and their RV.

3) Request that the Work Camper registers on CampgroundMaintenanceManager.com, there you can view the below information on the Work Campers Public Profile.

a. My Resume

b. My Capabilities

c. Workamper Type Form (Includes the Work Campers Maintenance Duty and Activity Capabilities, Preferred Work Days, Preferred Number of Work Days per Week and Preferred Number of Work Hours per Day).  This information Can be synced with the Camp MAINT Manager App.

d. My Preferences

e. Certificates & Licenses

Conclusion: To provide you a Smarter, Faster and Easier Way to Hire and Manage Work Campers and the Maintenance Duties they perform more effectively. The result is Higher Morale, Productivity and the Desire for Work Campers to extend their stay. Employers save time and money.