RVtripsetter.com Campground Reservations System Goes Live To Consumers
March 20, 2007
New online campground reservations system targets 4.5 million visitors annually
(Ventura, Calif.) – The RVtripsetter.com campground reservation system announced last year by the leader in outdoor recreation, Affinity Group, Inc. (AGI), is now live to consumers. The new national online campground reservations system is available through RVing’s two largest and most popular directory websites, woodalls.com and trailerlifedirectory.com. Together these websites receive more than 4.5 million visits annually.
RVtripsetter.com has been live to campgrounds for registration since October 2006, but with the launch of the system to consumers, it is expected that there will be a surge in the number of campgrounds signing up to take advantage of the online reservations system.
RVtripsetter.com creates a new online revenue source for campground owners. It helps them attract new customers and fill campsites that might otherwise have gone vacant by allowing RVers to book sites at their campgrounds online – 24/7.
“Sixty percent of online travel reservations are made between 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.,” said Joe Daquino, vice president and group publisher for the Affinity Group, Inc. and AGI Interactive. “What better way is there for a campground to start its day than by checking email and discovering they’ve received reservations overnight – reservations they might not have booked without an online system like ours.”
There is no fee for a campground to join RVtripsetter, no long-term contracts and no maintenance fees. They can post as much or as little inventory on the site and change inventory daily, block out weekends that likely reach capacity, and even block out seasons. The campgrounds set their own booking policies, restrictions, discounts, rates and hours of operation.
“The campgrounds are paid every two weeks, either by live check or direct deposit,” said Daquino. “We tailored the system to respond to payment needs for the campgrounds that operate as independent businesses. We want to ensure their success with RVtripsetter.com.”
Customers must book their reservation through woodalls.com or trailerlifedirectory.com 72 hours in advance and that means campgrounds are notified in advance of their reservation. “Our experience in the field with campgrounds throughout the history of Woodall’s and Trailer Life Directory have helped us create a campground user-friendly system,” said Daquino.
Campgrounds that already have online reservations on their own web site can still join RVtripsetter.com since it is another channel for campgrounds to get bookings in addition to their own reservation system.
Campgrounds can access a number of reports that allow them to track reservations, which will help decide how much inventory to post any given time of year. According to Daquino, “RVtripsetter.com will deliver everything a customer needs for researching, planning, and purchasing a trip to a campground through woodalls.com and trailerlifedirectory.com. It will provide direct access to one of the broadest selections of campgrounds in North America.”
For more information about RVtripsetter.com, go to moreinfo.rvtripsetter.com.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Friday, June 23, 2006
World Camping Conference Announced
Digital Rez International is proud to announce the first annual World Camping Conference: Innovation, Investment and Global Opportunities, in beautiful Barbados. The World Camping Conference 2006 is the inaugural meeting where the world’s leading camping organizations and companies come together to share new ideas and their secrets to success.
The three-day conference’s primary goal is to provide an open forum and think-tank for the camping community to network, and form new visions for the future. Hospitality providers can work together to increase revenues, lower costs and tap into a huge, relatively untouched market of campers across the globe who want to experience camping in other countries.
Organizations from in the USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand will be attending and sharing with everyone how they have achieved success in their various market areas. The conference has been organized around a series of discussion-based forums with audience interaction. These sessions will cover the entire camping industry and how each sector can help to make the industry more successful.
Discussions will be focused on raising occupancy and streamlining costs, cross-marketing and facilitating ‘Fly / Drives’ to other countries at premium rates. The technology is finally available to make this a seamless experience for the camper, RV renter and resort operator.
The organizations that will help this to become a reality will certainly be attending.
Come and mingle, forge new business alliances with industry leaders from around the world and help shape the future of world of camping.
Leaders from the following areas will be speaking:
* RV dealers and manufacturers
* Campgrounds
* Condo and Cabin manufacturers
* Large campground membership groups
* Small campground networks
* The industry’s largest media groups
* Camping technology providers
* Real estate investors
* Credit card processing service providers
Conference attendees also have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful country – Barbados, with its array of sun, sea, sand, entertainment and cuisine. So come and join us – be prepared to foster new ideas and partnerships
Please book early to avoid disappointment. There are only a limited amount of spaces available.
For additional information, hotel rates, booking information and registration, please visit our website – www.worldcampingclub.com
Ken Lahoda
CEO / Founder
Digital Rez International
Suite#5, Warrens Court
#48 Warrens Industrial Park
Warrens, St Michael, Barbados
Toll Free 1 800 - 811 5988
Phone: 1 246 421 3739
Fax: 1 246 417 3739
The three-day conference’s primary goal is to provide an open forum and think-tank for the camping community to network, and form new visions for the future. Hospitality providers can work together to increase revenues, lower costs and tap into a huge, relatively untouched market of campers across the globe who want to experience camping in other countries.
Organizations from in the USA, Mexico, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand will be attending and sharing with everyone how they have achieved success in their various market areas. The conference has been organized around a series of discussion-based forums with audience interaction. These sessions will cover the entire camping industry and how each sector can help to make the industry more successful.
Discussions will be focused on raising occupancy and streamlining costs, cross-marketing and facilitating ‘Fly / Drives’ to other countries at premium rates. The technology is finally available to make this a seamless experience for the camper, RV renter and resort operator.
The organizations that will help this to become a reality will certainly be attending.
Come and mingle, forge new business alliances with industry leaders from around the world and help shape the future of world of camping.
Leaders from the following areas will be speaking:
* RV dealers and manufacturers
* Campgrounds
* Condo and Cabin manufacturers
* Large campground membership groups
* Small campground networks
* The industry’s largest media groups
* Camping technology providers
* Real estate investors
* Credit card processing service providers
Conference attendees also have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful country – Barbados, with its array of sun, sea, sand, entertainment and cuisine. So come and join us – be prepared to foster new ideas and partnerships
Please book early to avoid disappointment. There are only a limited amount of spaces available.
For additional information, hotel rates, booking information and registration, please visit our website – www.worldcampingclub.com
Ken Lahoda
CEO / Founder
Digital Rez International
Suite#5, Warrens Court
#48 Warrens Industrial Park
Warrens, St Michael, Barbados
Toll Free 1 800 - 811 5988
Phone: 1 246 421 3739
Fax: 1 246 417 3739
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Camping and the Internet Are Turning a Corner
The past decade has shown a slow but steady rise in the use of technology in the camping / RV lifestyle industry. Yet this increase in technology usage has been accompanied by an increasing concern among venue owners and operators that the technology is not providing the benefit they had hoped for, and promises made by some vendors of successful online systems have failed to materialize.
Ongoing communication with campground and RV resort owners has highlighted some recurring themes with regard to the use of the internet in this industry.
Problems:
-“I have my own website now but no one is using it to make a booking.”
This is the defining problem for thousands of hospitality venues that have jumped into online reservations without understanding how commerce works in this medium.
Just having a website is not enough. You need to ensure that the people who are using the internet to plan their next trip are driven to your site. Simply put, the people who plan on coming to your resort anyway will call during business hours. The people who do not know about your resort are using directories (both paper and online) as well as internet search engines. To have an effective online presence requires tapping into systems of this nature, or better yet, teaming up with a provider that already has.
In five year’s time, 2006 will be seen as the year that camping and the internet truly came of age. The recent announcement made at the ARVC by Trailer Life and Woodall’s that in the 2006 season, they will be entering into the online camping reservation market (developed by Digital Rez International) should be welcome news for the entire RV and camping industry. It represents the coming together of two key elements required for success in the internet market: inventory AND traffic.
Up until now, independent operators in the industry have been working hard at exploiting the internet with the majority of resort parks having their own websites and almost everyone has found that email is one of the best ways for regular travelers to get hold of operators of their favorite locations to stay. Government operated parks have had well established central systems helping them to serve the public for many years; call center services, online booking systems and integrated property management have been out of the reach of the independent operator simply because there was no way to drive the average traveler to a website located somewhere in a hosted directory or on page 23 of a Google search result. With millions of readers, members and subscribers soon to be marketed to through the abundant publications distributed by the parent company of Trailer Life and Woodall’s; Affinity Group Inc., it will be a much easier task to fill those half-occupied shoulder seasons as well as assuring your facility is fully occupied all summer.
In a few years time, there will be a better educated camping public experienced at booking online and much more willing to commit some time to establishing an online travel itinerary that will be flexible and manageable for the RVer, even when they’re on the road. This will open the industry to some even more significant opportunities for independent operators to reach out and create new, online clientele.
It’s difficult for people to find you on the web. Look for services that send people to you.
-“I am being promised inclusion in some vague super-booking site but when will this be available?”
This problem is closely related to the previous issue discussed. We have heard from a number of operators that bought online reservation systems from companies who promised them many things. They promised to share inventory between the resort’s website, local and state level association websites, and new ‘mega camping reservations websites that are just around the corner.’ Unfortunately, the inventory is being shared with a number of sites that themselves are not generating traffic (customer visits) and the promised ‘mega sites’ have yet to materialize. This is the most difficult thing to understand: the web has tons of traffic, but that mass of individuals out there looking for you have to be “told” where to find you. This requires that there be significant dollars invested in marketing devoted to doing just that.
Don’t be misled by promises of web traffic. The internet is maturing quickly and the traffic is already there. If a vendor cannot show you evidence of existing traffic, do you really want to spend your money with them? While we are on the topic of money, you would do well to keep in mind that a confident vendor who has existing traffic will not charge you anything to have you included in their system. They will know that their visitors are spending money to make bookings at participating resorts and will partner with you, taking a percentage of the booking fee, rather than charging you for the ‘privilege’ of giving them your inventory. When the reservation is made and the money processed, YOU should be paid your share (remunerated) within weeks of the reservation being made with full online 24/7 access to your reservation account.
Maintain Complete Control of Your Own Inventory
The system being developed for Trailer Life and Woodall’s by Digital Rez International will provide online access for resort operators to visit the website and adjust the inventory that they have provided for booking. This means you can have as much inventory allocated to the system as you want AT ANY TIME. If the system fills up the inventory you allocated sooner than expected, you can immediately log in and add more inventory. If you need extra inventory for unexpected walk-ins or drive-ups, you simply visit the site and remove some inventory from the system. You don’t have to call anyone and wait on hold, you don’t have to talk to a salesperson who will try to convince you to leave the inventory up, and you certainly don’t have to waste time dealing with anybody who doesn’t understand how you run your business. It is all under your control.
What’s Right Around the Corner?
Google has revolutionized online search and marketing in just a few short years. It’s likely we will see the integration of their new “Google World” technology which incorporates maps, satellite imagery, and location-based keyword searches. To get a look at the next step in online directories you can go to: www.maps.google.com and give it a spin. Be sure to click on the “satellite” feature on the map. Most places in the US are imaged and this provides the RVer with the ability to “zoom in” on the park and its surrounding area in order to assess the quality of the location, proximity to golf courses and surrounding amenities. It’s a given that someone will soon take the next step and attach a reservation tool to this extremely powerful, and best of all, free resource.
With the advent of wireless internet services in many RV resorts as well as having the ability to “tap into” wireless hotspots while enroute, many RVers will be installing economical wireless networking components in their RVs. This will enable the average traveler to save hundreds of dollars in long distance and other costs without ever having to plug in to an internet network jack.
Needless to say, camping has a lot to do with getting away from it all. But grandkids, children and relatives will gain a great deal of peace of mind in knowing their footloose and fancy-free traveling relatives are merely an easy email or instant message away from be right at home with them.
The Future...
The future challenges camping technology to provide campers from around the world the ability to view and book inventory easily online or through a call center. The technology is soon to be available to facilitate this process.
Digital Rez are the largest providers of campground software in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and North America. They have developed the largest and most successful centralized camping reservation systems in the world, with the largest system recording over 290,000 reservations last year alone.
Now that these systems are in place North American campgrounds could soon be welcoming visitors from the UK, Australia and other parts of the world filling up their shoulder seasons at premium rates.
Fly and drive Disney, golf or rocky mountain vacations, packaged flight, RV rentals and campground stays all easily accessible and booked seamlessly. Within the next eighteen months, this level of choice will be a reality.
How can you get ready for this coming revolution and not get left behind by your competitors?
If you have not already looked into getting a computerized system then now is the time to do so. When choosing the system that is right for you, choose an industry leader with a proven track record and select a system that is easy to learn and use. Finally the reservation system you choose should have a strategy to link to the large central systems mentioned above, so that any online reservations made for your park will download directly into your reservation system with no extra input from you. You should always be sure that you are in complete control of the only commodity your clients depend on: your inventory.
The message is: Prepare for the reality that your existing customers will be provided this facility on the internet. It is now up to you to make sure they have the ability to do it with your business as well as with all the other operations they choose to stay with.
Ongoing communication with campground and RV resort owners has highlighted some recurring themes with regard to the use of the internet in this industry.
Problems:
-“I have my own website now but no one is using it to make a booking.”
This is the defining problem for thousands of hospitality venues that have jumped into online reservations without understanding how commerce works in this medium.
Just having a website is not enough. You need to ensure that the people who are using the internet to plan their next trip are driven to your site. Simply put, the people who plan on coming to your resort anyway will call during business hours. The people who do not know about your resort are using directories (both paper and online) as well as internet search engines. To have an effective online presence requires tapping into systems of this nature, or better yet, teaming up with a provider that already has.
In five year’s time, 2006 will be seen as the year that camping and the internet truly came of age. The recent announcement made at the ARVC by Trailer Life and Woodall’s that in the 2006 season, they will be entering into the online camping reservation market (developed by Digital Rez International) should be welcome news for the entire RV and camping industry. It represents the coming together of two key elements required for success in the internet market: inventory AND traffic.
Up until now, independent operators in the industry have been working hard at exploiting the internet with the majority of resort parks having their own websites and almost everyone has found that email is one of the best ways for regular travelers to get hold of operators of their favorite locations to stay. Government operated parks have had well established central systems helping them to serve the public for many years; call center services, online booking systems and integrated property management have been out of the reach of the independent operator simply because there was no way to drive the average traveler to a website located somewhere in a hosted directory or on page 23 of a Google search result. With millions of readers, members and subscribers soon to be marketed to through the abundant publications distributed by the parent company of Trailer Life and Woodall’s; Affinity Group Inc., it will be a much easier task to fill those half-occupied shoulder seasons as well as assuring your facility is fully occupied all summer.
In a few years time, there will be a better educated camping public experienced at booking online and much more willing to commit some time to establishing an online travel itinerary that will be flexible and manageable for the RVer, even when they’re on the road. This will open the industry to some even more significant opportunities for independent operators to reach out and create new, online clientele.
It’s difficult for people to find you on the web. Look for services that send people to you.
-“I am being promised inclusion in some vague super-booking site but when will this be available?”
This problem is closely related to the previous issue discussed. We have heard from a number of operators that bought online reservation systems from companies who promised them many things. They promised to share inventory between the resort’s website, local and state level association websites, and new ‘mega camping reservations websites that are just around the corner.’ Unfortunately, the inventory is being shared with a number of sites that themselves are not generating traffic (customer visits) and the promised ‘mega sites’ have yet to materialize. This is the most difficult thing to understand: the web has tons of traffic, but that mass of individuals out there looking for you have to be “told” where to find you. This requires that there be significant dollars invested in marketing devoted to doing just that.
Don’t be misled by promises of web traffic. The internet is maturing quickly and the traffic is already there. If a vendor cannot show you evidence of existing traffic, do you really want to spend your money with them? While we are on the topic of money, you would do well to keep in mind that a confident vendor who has existing traffic will not charge you anything to have you included in their system. They will know that their visitors are spending money to make bookings at participating resorts and will partner with you, taking a percentage of the booking fee, rather than charging you for the ‘privilege’ of giving them your inventory. When the reservation is made and the money processed, YOU should be paid your share (remunerated) within weeks of the reservation being made with full online 24/7 access to your reservation account.
Maintain Complete Control of Your Own Inventory
The system being developed for Trailer Life and Woodall’s by Digital Rez International will provide online access for resort operators to visit the website and adjust the inventory that they have provided for booking. This means you can have as much inventory allocated to the system as you want AT ANY TIME. If the system fills up the inventory you allocated sooner than expected, you can immediately log in and add more inventory. If you need extra inventory for unexpected walk-ins or drive-ups, you simply visit the site and remove some inventory from the system. You don’t have to call anyone and wait on hold, you don’t have to talk to a salesperson who will try to convince you to leave the inventory up, and you certainly don’t have to waste time dealing with anybody who doesn’t understand how you run your business. It is all under your control.
What’s Right Around the Corner?
Google has revolutionized online search and marketing in just a few short years. It’s likely we will see the integration of their new “Google World” technology which incorporates maps, satellite imagery, and location-based keyword searches. To get a look at the next step in online directories you can go to: www.maps.google.com and give it a spin. Be sure to click on the “satellite” feature on the map. Most places in the US are imaged and this provides the RVer with the ability to “zoom in” on the park and its surrounding area in order to assess the quality of the location, proximity to golf courses and surrounding amenities. It’s a given that someone will soon take the next step and attach a reservation tool to this extremely powerful, and best of all, free resource.
With the advent of wireless internet services in many RV resorts as well as having the ability to “tap into” wireless hotspots while enroute, many RVers will be installing economical wireless networking components in their RVs. This will enable the average traveler to save hundreds of dollars in long distance and other costs without ever having to plug in to an internet network jack.
Needless to say, camping has a lot to do with getting away from it all. But grandkids, children and relatives will gain a great deal of peace of mind in knowing their footloose and fancy-free traveling relatives are merely an easy email or instant message away from be right at home with them.
The Future...
The future challenges camping technology to provide campers from around the world the ability to view and book inventory easily online or through a call center. The technology is soon to be available to facilitate this process.
Digital Rez are the largest providers of campground software in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and North America. They have developed the largest and most successful centralized camping reservation systems in the world, with the largest system recording over 290,000 reservations last year alone.
Now that these systems are in place North American campgrounds could soon be welcoming visitors from the UK, Australia and other parts of the world filling up their shoulder seasons at premium rates.
Fly and drive Disney, golf or rocky mountain vacations, packaged flight, RV rentals and campground stays all easily accessible and booked seamlessly. Within the next eighteen months, this level of choice will be a reality.
How can you get ready for this coming revolution and not get left behind by your competitors?
If you have not already looked into getting a computerized system then now is the time to do so. When choosing the system that is right for you, choose an industry leader with a proven track record and select a system that is easy to learn and use. Finally the reservation system you choose should have a strategy to link to the large central systems mentioned above, so that any online reservations made for your park will download directly into your reservation system with no extra input from you. You should always be sure that you are in complete control of the only commodity your clients depend on: your inventory.
The message is: Prepare for the reality that your existing customers will be provided this facility on the internet. It is now up to you to make sure they have the ability to do it with your business as well as with all the other operations they choose to stay with.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Take Advantage of the Latest Airline Enhancements
Rick Segal provides some cool tips on how to make your airport delays very productive and less stressful...
The New Digital Life...
In this article, Rick Segal refers to a resource you can download to help you with your travel delays, well, North American ones, at least:
Real Time Airline Flight Tracker
The New Digital Life...
In this article, Rick Segal refers to a resource you can download to help you with your travel delays, well, North American ones, at least:
Real Time Airline Flight Tracker
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Digital Rez and JetPay Merchant Services Partner for Payments Processing
Digital Rez and JetPay Merchant Services Partner for Payments Processing
AUSTIN, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 11/30/2005 -- JetPay Merchant Services, LLC and Digital Rez International Inc. have entered into a client referral agreement to promote the JetPay™ suite of payment transaction processing solutions to users of the Digital Rez property management, reservation, call center, and online booking system.
Announced at this week's National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds' InSites Convention, the agreement provides for Digital Rez to refer customers using its reservation system to JetPay Merchant Services for credit card merchant account processing. Digital Rez has integrated JetPay's real-time processing interface into its reservation system enabling rapid real-time authorization via Internet connection.
"The integration of the JetPay module adds a meaningful payments component to the Digital Rez system," said Trent Voigt, chairman of JetPay. "Digital Rez clients will now be able to access all system features and perform payment transactions via a single interface. The addition of the JetPay module will drive faster and more cost-efficient payment transaction processing."
Highlighted Links
JetPay Merchant Services
Digital Rez International Inc.
"Digital Rez is always investigating new technologies that will improve our product offering to the camping industry," said Ken Lahoda, founder of Digital Rez. "Once we examined JetPay's technology we considered it to be another one of the essential elements needed for Digital Rez to continue to produce a best of breed product. We are sure our campsite operators will agree that the efficiencies offered with the integrated payments processing will improve customer service and decrease operating costs."
About Digital Rez International Inc.
Established in 1993 and now serving over 2200 campgrounds in North America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Digital Rez International is the world's leading provider of software and IT services to the camping industry. With over 40 staff serving its clients from offices in Barbados, British Columbia and Australia, Digital Rez International also serves over 2,000 businesses in other sectors of the travel/accommodation industry. For more information visit www.digitalrez.com
About JetPay Merchant Services, LLC
Dallas-based JetPay Merchant Services, LLC is "Setting the Standard in Payments Delivery"® by providing transaction processing products and Visa and MasterCard merchant account support that enable its clients to convert payments acceptance technologies into business solutions. JetPay Merchant Services is an industry specialist in merchant account acquisition and management, and deploys its recommended payments acceptance solutions, services, software & strategies for credit card, debit card, prepaid/gift card, and electronic check acceptors across North America. For more information visit www.jetpay.com or www.jetpayms.com
AUSTIN, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 11/30/2005 -- JetPay Merchant Services, LLC and Digital Rez International Inc. have entered into a client referral agreement to promote the JetPay™ suite of payment transaction processing solutions to users of the Digital Rez property management, reservation, call center, and online booking system.
Announced at this week's National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds' InSites Convention, the agreement provides for Digital Rez to refer customers using its reservation system to JetPay Merchant Services for credit card merchant account processing. Digital Rez has integrated JetPay's real-time processing interface into its reservation system enabling rapid real-time authorization via Internet connection.
"The integration of the JetPay module adds a meaningful payments component to the Digital Rez system," said Trent Voigt, chairman of JetPay. "Digital Rez clients will now be able to access all system features and perform payment transactions via a single interface. The addition of the JetPay module will drive faster and more cost-efficient payment transaction processing."
Highlighted Links
JetPay Merchant Services
Digital Rez International Inc.
"Digital Rez is always investigating new technologies that will improve our product offering to the camping industry," said Ken Lahoda, founder of Digital Rez. "Once we examined JetPay's technology we considered it to be another one of the essential elements needed for Digital Rez to continue to produce a best of breed product. We are sure our campsite operators will agree that the efficiencies offered with the integrated payments processing will improve customer service and decrease operating costs."
About Digital Rez International Inc.
Established in 1993 and now serving over 2200 campgrounds in North America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Digital Rez International is the world's leading provider of software and IT services to the camping industry. With over 40 staff serving its clients from offices in Barbados, British Columbia and Australia, Digital Rez International also serves over 2,000 businesses in other sectors of the travel/accommodation industry. For more information visit www.digitalrez.com
About JetPay Merchant Services, LLC
Dallas-based JetPay Merchant Services, LLC is "Setting the Standard in Payments Delivery"® by providing transaction processing products and Visa and MasterCard merchant account support that enable its clients to convert payments acceptance technologies into business solutions. JetPay Merchant Services is an industry specialist in merchant account acquisition and management, and deploys its recommended payments acceptance solutions, services, software & strategies for credit card, debit card, prepaid/gift card, and electronic check acceptors across North America. For more information visit www.jetpay.com or www.jetpayms.com
Monday, November 14, 2005
Camping in the UK Takes a Tech Step UP
Coventry, United Kingdom - Digital Rez International (DRI) - Nov 8, 2005 - DRI announced today that Coventry, UK-based Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC) has completed their first full year of activity using ClubRez®, a real time, online central reservation and property management system powered by RezExpert®, DRI’s flagship product.
The new system, unique in Europe, brings world-class cutting technology to the oldest and largest camping club in the world.
ClubRez processed over 92,000 advance reservations with an unprecedented 38% (35,000) of those being handled online. Including drive-up, check-in services the system processed over 294,000 bookings in total, on a real time basis.
“We’re especially pleased with the high percentage of online, advance bookings as this represents a significant saving for the club.” stated Ken Lahoda, founder and CEO of DRI.
“ClubRez, powered by RezExpert, remains the world’s largest centrally managed reservation and property management system in the camping industry for the second year running. With that said, the RezExpert system is now capable of providing central booking, property and membership management services to any accommodation market.” Lahoda continued.
This year, the Camping and Caravanning Club will be enhancing the system to accommodate all of its long-term cabins and cottages and camping storage as well as its national camping jamboree, the National Feast of Lanterns, which hosts over 10,000 attendees each year.
Along with almost 100 front desk locations throughout the UK, the system provides centralized master setup, central pricing control, call center, property management, client web services, loyalty points program, online reporting and centralized employee security and system control. It presently supports over 200 Citrix® thin-client systems running on a Microsoft® SQL Server 2003 / IBM SAN central storage platform. The enterprise accounting system is provided by Great Plains®, a Microsoft® company.
About The Camping and Caravanning Club:
Founded in 1901, The Camping and Caravanning Club is the world’s largest and longest-established club for all forms of camping. It has over 400,000 members all of whom have access to nearly 100 award-winning UK Club Sites, over 1200 hideaway Certificated Sites, Carefree overseas travel and a range of special interest sections and Club related services. www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk
About Digital Rez
Established in 1993 and now serving over 2200 campgrounds in North America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Digital Rez International is the world’s leading provider of software and IT services to the camping industry.
With over 40 staff serving its clients from offices in Barbados, British Columbia and Australia, Digital Rez International also serves over 2,000 businesses in other sectors of the travel/accommodation industry.
The new system, unique in Europe, brings world-class cutting technology to the oldest and largest camping club in the world.
ClubRez processed over 92,000 advance reservations with an unprecedented 38% (35,000) of those being handled online. Including drive-up, check-in services the system processed over 294,000 bookings in total, on a real time basis.
“We’re especially pleased with the high percentage of online, advance bookings as this represents a significant saving for the club.” stated Ken Lahoda, founder and CEO of DRI.
“ClubRez, powered by RezExpert, remains the world’s largest centrally managed reservation and property management system in the camping industry for the second year running. With that said, the RezExpert system is now capable of providing central booking, property and membership management services to any accommodation market.” Lahoda continued.
This year, the Camping and Caravanning Club will be enhancing the system to accommodate all of its long-term cabins and cottages and camping storage as well as its national camping jamboree, the National Feast of Lanterns, which hosts over 10,000 attendees each year.
Along with almost 100 front desk locations throughout the UK, the system provides centralized master setup, central pricing control, call center, property management, client web services, loyalty points program, online reporting and centralized employee security and system control. It presently supports over 200 Citrix® thin-client systems running on a Microsoft® SQL Server 2003 / IBM SAN central storage platform. The enterprise accounting system is provided by Great Plains®, a Microsoft® company.
About The Camping and Caravanning Club:
Founded in 1901, The Camping and Caravanning Club is the world’s largest and longest-established club for all forms of camping. It has over 400,000 members all of whom have access to nearly 100 award-winning UK Club Sites, over 1200 hideaway Certificated Sites, Carefree overseas travel and a range of special interest sections and Club related services. www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk
About Digital Rez
Established in 1993 and now serving over 2200 campgrounds in North America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Digital Rez International is the world’s leading provider of software and IT services to the camping industry.
With over 40 staff serving its clients from offices in Barbados, British Columbia and Australia, Digital Rez International also serves over 2,000 businesses in other sectors of the travel/accommodation industry.
Monday, October 31, 2005
CEO Questioned On Camping Industry's Online Future
FROM: Jeff Crider
SUBJ: Q & A with Ken Lahoda, President and CEO of Digital Rez International
Crider - One of the biggest innovations to hit the campground sector in recent years is the ability to process reservations online.
But while campgrounds and RV parks have been relatively slow to adopt this technology, companies that specialize in online reservations technology are forging ahead, forming strategic partnerships that will ultimately give park operators a variety of options from which to choose whenever they decide to make their campsites and rental cabins available online.
One such partnership involves Barbados, West Indies-based Digital Rez International Inc. and the Affinity Group Inc. (AGI) of Ventura, Calif., whose holdings include the Woodall’s and Trailer Life campground directories, the largest directories of public and private parks in the North American campground business.
The partnership, first announced last summer, will soon provide campgrounds and RV parks listed in both directories with the ability to offer online campground reservations to the roughly 3 million unique consumers who annually visit the Woodalls.com and TLDirectory.com websites. “The potential is huge,” said Ann Emerson, associate publisher of Woodall’s Publications Corp., “because of the kind of traffic that the Trailer Life and Woodall’s websites can bring to a park. Nobody else has that kind of traffic.”
Digital Rez is currently working to develop a website called RVTripSetter.com, which will process reservation requests made by consumers who visit the Woodalls.com and TLDirectory.com websites. Consumers who click the campground reservation tabs on either website will be automatically directed to the RVTripSetter.com website to process their reservation requests.
Campground operators, for their part, will be able to allocate however many campsites or rental units they want to make available online by using the same RVTripSetter.com website.
The new online reservation system is expected to come online in early 2006. And campground operators will have a chance to get a sneak preview of the new system Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 during the InSites 2005 Convention & Expo in Austin, Texas, which is sponsored by the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC).
Emerson said the cost of the online reservations service has not yet been determined, but would likely be a percentage of the nightly reservation fee. “We really think that this will be a new business opportunity for the parks,” she said.
The Digital Rez-AGI partnership, of course, isn’t the first strategic alliance in the campground reservation business. And campground operators have a growing range of options when it comes to deciding which vendors they’ll use to market their inventory online, if they do so at all.
Many private park operators, in fact, still wonder where online reservations technology is headed and what it means for them, not only from a marketing standpoint, but from the standpoint of managing their cash flow on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Moreover, what risks do campground and RV park operators face when they place their inventory online and how does the online reservations system being developed by Digital Rez and AGI differ from other online reservations systems that are already currently available to campground owners?
In an effort to find answers to these and other questions, Woodall’s Campground Management recently interviewed Ken Lahoda, who founded Digital Rez International with his son, Chris, 12 years ago and helped build it into a leading provider of central reservation and property management software and IT services for campgrounds and RV parks and other tourism businesses in North America, England, Australia and New Zealand. Digital Rez’s clients include campgrounds and RV parks affiliated with Coast to Coast, Thousand Trails as well as the Camping and Caravanning Club in the UK. Following are highlights of the interview:
WCM - A number of strategic alliances have been formed in an effort to provide campgrounds with the ability to market their inventory online. Campground operators, on the other hand, have been slow to embrace online reservations technology. What do you see happening in the online reservations marketplace and how should private park operators respond to these emerging opportunities?
Lahoda - What you’re looking at now is the industry is moving forward to centralize these (reservation) processes. There are a lot of organizations thinking that they can provide (reservation) services by using the Internet solely, by using the Internet alone. But the critical issue there is that the campground operator ultimately loses control of their own data and we feel that it is very essential that the individual campground maintain their independence and their autonomy. They should own their own data locally because it is their own bread and butter. It is their client base. It is their information. And in many ways, you still can’t depend on the Internet to deliver service on an extended basis.
WCM - Do you mean that some online reservation systems are being put in place where a private campground owner could lose control of his inventory?
Lahoda - Well, there’s a possibility. It’s not so much control over his own inventory. But he puts a great deal of risk in the fact that his data is somewhere else other than a PC or a server of his own.
WCM - What is the risk with that?
Lahoda - Well, the Internet goes down, your business stops. Somebody with a backhoe digs through a line, your business stops. Somebody runs into financial difficulty, your business is in jeopardy. It’s the heart of your business. You’re also depending on (Internet security systems) on a regional basis. And identity theft is a major issue these days. So you’re very dependent on the level of skill and the abilities of the other operations that you’re depending on to maintain that security.
WCM - So, what’s the solution?
Lahoda - We believe the campground should continue to control their information. We see the inevitability of (online reservation) centralization. And so what we believe is the next phase here is allowing the campground to maintain control and yet be able to share their information with central (online reservation) facilities, thereby optimizing or increasing their revenues.
WCM - It sounds like there is a fundamental philosophical difference between your company and others in the online reservations business. Others seem to recommend that private parks make all of their inventory available online, whereas it sounds like Digital Rez recommends taking a “go slow” approach.
Lahoda - The only place I would make all of my inventory available would be on my own website. And I would allocate to others. This gives the campground operator control and the ability to see which marketing methods work best for that business.
WCM - So by slowly allocating their inventory to online reservation service providers, campground operators would essentially have the ability to test the waters and get a feel for online marketing before committing too much of their inventory?
Lahoda - Exactly. We feel that there is a lot to be watched over here until the industry really sees the direction it’s going.
WCM - What exactly does Digital Rez offer campground and RV park operators in terms of reservations technology?
Lahoda - The packages that we deliver are basically a solution all the way out to call centers and what not, but the individual campground still wants us to manage the front desk processes very well, and we’ve been doing that consistently. Up until now, we’ve been serving over 2,000 campgrounds in North America with a (reservation management) product called ROS2000. Were about to upgrade that in this coming season to our brand new product called RezExpert, which will have the ability to tie seamlessly with these central (reservation) operations and yet still allow the campground manager to maintain their own data locally and thereby ensure his client security and his business’s foundation.
WCM - Then how should a campground go about selecting an online partner to market its campsites or rental units to consumers?
Lahoda - What we’re saying is it’s better to consolidate around a much larger user group.
WCM - Such as the RVTripsetter website now being developed by Digital Rez for campgrounds listed in the Woodall’s and Trailer Life directories?
Lahoda - That’s the whole secret to this. It’s wonderful having an online presence. But if you don’t have a whole heck of a lot of traffic, you don’t receive the benefit. The big hype in the industry right now is everybody can go online. But if you don’t have significant volumes of traffic, you’re not going to be able to reap the benefits of that to a significant degree.
WCM - So what you’re saying is that it isn’t enough to be able to process reservations online. You have to have the thousands of people regularly coming to a website to check out your inventory.
Lahoda - Exactly, and have the marketing strategy to drive people to that product. If you look at the dot.com revolution, what you’ll see is basically people were spending billions of dollars on advertising to draw the eyeballs in. And a lot of it was hype. Almost all of it was hype. But the situation created the user base that stuck around even after the fad wore out and all of the companies went broke because they ran out of money. Essentially, they didn’t have substance. Essentially, there was no substance plus traffic. Then you turn around and start looking at eBay, Amazon, Expedia – operations that had invested heavily in marketing – but all of the sudden people started realizing the opportunities within the environment and started contributing more inventory. Both elements have to be in place: Inventory and traffic. And we think the big thing right now is there are people who are hyping the Internet, but until the big marketing players come into the scene and put their information out there so that the general public can digest it, (online reservation) traffic is going to be light to the individual campground.
WCM - Does this explain why campground operators have been slow to adopt online reservations technology?
Lahoda - The camping industry is extremely independent. These people are free thinkers. And they’ve been told a number of stories along the way. But the situation is that the strategies for online bookings have not delivered a lot of substance in terms of real reservations. And where we find our strength is that we’ve been preparing the system for the past five years now for this next major thrust. There were several essential elements that had to come into place for all of the security systems that are out there to make sure that your information is not stolen. You also have to have true substance.
WCM - So what’s needed to make campground operators more successful with online reservations?
Lahoda - What has to come together is a much greater level of traffic.
WCM - So what should campground and RV park operators do right now?
Lahoda - We feel the secret to this is establishing a very strong presence at the front desk so that you’re in control of this. And then, in turn, exercising the patience waiting for the major players in the industry to step up and do what they’re best at.
WCM - So is it your thinking that campground operators would be best off developing an online reservation system through Woodall’s and Trailer Life, using the new RVTripSetting.com website?
Lahoda - The system we're putting together is independent of us. The situation we see is that should the owner opt to use our technology at the front desk, we can make the connection more seamless. We’ve left the doors open for all of the property management providers to join in on this system.
WCM - Do you foresee other companies joining you in this endeavor?
Lahoda - It’s up to the developers on the other side. Everybody’s trying to do their own online process. You can get people to hook up to the Internet. But can they hook up their inventory to a significant volume of traffic?
WCM - How many online service providers should a campground or RV park operator use?
Lahoda - In the hotel industry, there are usually no more than three to five online (reservation service) connections because it represents an inventory management issue. You can’t manage what you’ve said if you allocate to any more than three or four operations. The problem is people think they have to choose one where they can choose two or three. What they need is better management at the front desk because if they’re not taking care of their own inventory, then it all of the sudden means they’re locked into one process, which I think is a vulnerability.
WCM - Let’s talk a little about money. Right now, when consumers book their campground reservations, in many cases, the consumer is not really processing the credit card through the campground. It’s being processed by the reservation service provider. This means that the campground doesn’t get paid right away. How long does it take campground operators to get paid when they market their inventory online?
Lahoda - If they don’t have a mechanism to get paid quickly, they could wait an undetermined amount of time. If they were using Coast to Coast, they get paid within a week of checkout. But that is simply Coast to Coast policy. They’re just waiting for the client to check out. Because if they extend their stay, they have to charge more. Now that doesn’t mean that has to be the policy of the entire campground sector. If those same resorts were dealing with a central entity like Trailer Life or Woodall’s or any other company, they would have to follow the policy set by that central service provider.
WCM - What’s the future hold for online reservations?
Lahoda - Online bookings are not the only thing that everybody is looking to solve. They’re also looking for property management, the whole issue. The situation is that this (movement toward online campground reservations) is so brand new. Everybody in the industry is still hyping this. There’s nobody making money on online bookings. But we think the situation is going to quickly change when larger marketing entities become involved because they will bring the necessary volumes of traffic to the inventory so that it starts to justify some attention by the campground owner.
SUBJ: Q & A with Ken Lahoda, President and CEO of Digital Rez International
Crider - One of the biggest innovations to hit the campground sector in recent years is the ability to process reservations online.
But while campgrounds and RV parks have been relatively slow to adopt this technology, companies that specialize in online reservations technology are forging ahead, forming strategic partnerships that will ultimately give park operators a variety of options from which to choose whenever they decide to make their campsites and rental cabins available online.
One such partnership involves Barbados, West Indies-based Digital Rez International Inc. and the Affinity Group Inc. (AGI) of Ventura, Calif., whose holdings include the Woodall’s and Trailer Life campground directories, the largest directories of public and private parks in the North American campground business.
The partnership, first announced last summer, will soon provide campgrounds and RV parks listed in both directories with the ability to offer online campground reservations to the roughly 3 million unique consumers who annually visit the Woodalls.com and TLDirectory.com websites. “The potential is huge,” said Ann Emerson, associate publisher of Woodall’s Publications Corp., “because of the kind of traffic that the Trailer Life and Woodall’s websites can bring to a park. Nobody else has that kind of traffic.”
Digital Rez is currently working to develop a website called RVTripSetter.com, which will process reservation requests made by consumers who visit the Woodalls.com and TLDirectory.com websites. Consumers who click the campground reservation tabs on either website will be automatically directed to the RVTripSetter.com website to process their reservation requests.
Campground operators, for their part, will be able to allocate however many campsites or rental units they want to make available online by using the same RVTripSetter.com website.
The new online reservation system is expected to come online in early 2006. And campground operators will have a chance to get a sneak preview of the new system Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 during the InSites 2005 Convention & Expo in Austin, Texas, which is sponsored by the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC).
Emerson said the cost of the online reservations service has not yet been determined, but would likely be a percentage of the nightly reservation fee. “We really think that this will be a new business opportunity for the parks,” she said.
The Digital Rez-AGI partnership, of course, isn’t the first strategic alliance in the campground reservation business. And campground operators have a growing range of options when it comes to deciding which vendors they’ll use to market their inventory online, if they do so at all.
Many private park operators, in fact, still wonder where online reservations technology is headed and what it means for them, not only from a marketing standpoint, but from the standpoint of managing their cash flow on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Moreover, what risks do campground and RV park operators face when they place their inventory online and how does the online reservations system being developed by Digital Rez and AGI differ from other online reservations systems that are already currently available to campground owners?
In an effort to find answers to these and other questions, Woodall’s Campground Management recently interviewed Ken Lahoda, who founded Digital Rez International with his son, Chris, 12 years ago and helped build it into a leading provider of central reservation and property management software and IT services for campgrounds and RV parks and other tourism businesses in North America, England, Australia and New Zealand. Digital Rez’s clients include campgrounds and RV parks affiliated with Coast to Coast, Thousand Trails as well as the Camping and Caravanning Club in the UK. Following are highlights of the interview:
WCM - A number of strategic alliances have been formed in an effort to provide campgrounds with the ability to market their inventory online. Campground operators, on the other hand, have been slow to embrace online reservations technology. What do you see happening in the online reservations marketplace and how should private park operators respond to these emerging opportunities?
Lahoda - What you’re looking at now is the industry is moving forward to centralize these (reservation) processes. There are a lot of organizations thinking that they can provide (reservation) services by using the Internet solely, by using the Internet alone. But the critical issue there is that the campground operator ultimately loses control of their own data and we feel that it is very essential that the individual campground maintain their independence and their autonomy. They should own their own data locally because it is their own bread and butter. It is their client base. It is their information. And in many ways, you still can’t depend on the Internet to deliver service on an extended basis.
WCM - Do you mean that some online reservation systems are being put in place where a private campground owner could lose control of his inventory?
Lahoda - Well, there’s a possibility. It’s not so much control over his own inventory. But he puts a great deal of risk in the fact that his data is somewhere else other than a PC or a server of his own.
WCM - What is the risk with that?
Lahoda - Well, the Internet goes down, your business stops. Somebody with a backhoe digs through a line, your business stops. Somebody runs into financial difficulty, your business is in jeopardy. It’s the heart of your business. You’re also depending on (Internet security systems) on a regional basis. And identity theft is a major issue these days. So you’re very dependent on the level of skill and the abilities of the other operations that you’re depending on to maintain that security.
WCM - So, what’s the solution?
Lahoda - We believe the campground should continue to control their information. We see the inevitability of (online reservation) centralization. And so what we believe is the next phase here is allowing the campground to maintain control and yet be able to share their information with central (online reservation) facilities, thereby optimizing or increasing their revenues.
WCM - It sounds like there is a fundamental philosophical difference between your company and others in the online reservations business. Others seem to recommend that private parks make all of their inventory available online, whereas it sounds like Digital Rez recommends taking a “go slow” approach.
Lahoda - The only place I would make all of my inventory available would be on my own website. And I would allocate to others. This gives the campground operator control and the ability to see which marketing methods work best for that business.
WCM - So by slowly allocating their inventory to online reservation service providers, campground operators would essentially have the ability to test the waters and get a feel for online marketing before committing too much of their inventory?
Lahoda - Exactly. We feel that there is a lot to be watched over here until the industry really sees the direction it’s going.
WCM - What exactly does Digital Rez offer campground and RV park operators in terms of reservations technology?
Lahoda - The packages that we deliver are basically a solution all the way out to call centers and what not, but the individual campground still wants us to manage the front desk processes very well, and we’ve been doing that consistently. Up until now, we’ve been serving over 2,000 campgrounds in North America with a (reservation management) product called ROS2000. Were about to upgrade that in this coming season to our brand new product called RezExpert, which will have the ability to tie seamlessly with these central (reservation) operations and yet still allow the campground manager to maintain their own data locally and thereby ensure his client security and his business’s foundation.
WCM - Then how should a campground go about selecting an online partner to market its campsites or rental units to consumers?
Lahoda - What we’re saying is it’s better to consolidate around a much larger user group.
WCM - Such as the RVTripsetter website now being developed by Digital Rez for campgrounds listed in the Woodall’s and Trailer Life directories?
Lahoda - That’s the whole secret to this. It’s wonderful having an online presence. But if you don’t have a whole heck of a lot of traffic, you don’t receive the benefit. The big hype in the industry right now is everybody can go online. But if you don’t have significant volumes of traffic, you’re not going to be able to reap the benefits of that to a significant degree.
WCM - So what you’re saying is that it isn’t enough to be able to process reservations online. You have to have the thousands of people regularly coming to a website to check out your inventory.
Lahoda - Exactly, and have the marketing strategy to drive people to that product. If you look at the dot.com revolution, what you’ll see is basically people were spending billions of dollars on advertising to draw the eyeballs in. And a lot of it was hype. Almost all of it was hype. But the situation created the user base that stuck around even after the fad wore out and all of the companies went broke because they ran out of money. Essentially, they didn’t have substance. Essentially, there was no substance plus traffic. Then you turn around and start looking at eBay, Amazon, Expedia – operations that had invested heavily in marketing – but all of the sudden people started realizing the opportunities within the environment and started contributing more inventory. Both elements have to be in place: Inventory and traffic. And we think the big thing right now is there are people who are hyping the Internet, but until the big marketing players come into the scene and put their information out there so that the general public can digest it, (online reservation) traffic is going to be light to the individual campground.
WCM - Does this explain why campground operators have been slow to adopt online reservations technology?
Lahoda - The camping industry is extremely independent. These people are free thinkers. And they’ve been told a number of stories along the way. But the situation is that the strategies for online bookings have not delivered a lot of substance in terms of real reservations. And where we find our strength is that we’ve been preparing the system for the past five years now for this next major thrust. There were several essential elements that had to come into place for all of the security systems that are out there to make sure that your information is not stolen. You also have to have true substance.
WCM - So what’s needed to make campground operators more successful with online reservations?
Lahoda - What has to come together is a much greater level of traffic.
WCM - So what should campground and RV park operators do right now?
Lahoda - We feel the secret to this is establishing a very strong presence at the front desk so that you’re in control of this. And then, in turn, exercising the patience waiting for the major players in the industry to step up and do what they’re best at.
WCM - So is it your thinking that campground operators would be best off developing an online reservation system through Woodall’s and Trailer Life, using the new RVTripSetting.com website?
Lahoda - The system we're putting together is independent of us. The situation we see is that should the owner opt to use our technology at the front desk, we can make the connection more seamless. We’ve left the doors open for all of the property management providers to join in on this system.
WCM - Do you foresee other companies joining you in this endeavor?
Lahoda - It’s up to the developers on the other side. Everybody’s trying to do their own online process. You can get people to hook up to the Internet. But can they hook up their inventory to a significant volume of traffic?
WCM - How many online service providers should a campground or RV park operator use?
Lahoda - In the hotel industry, there are usually no more than three to five online (reservation service) connections because it represents an inventory management issue. You can’t manage what you’ve said if you allocate to any more than three or four operations. The problem is people think they have to choose one where they can choose two or three. What they need is better management at the front desk because if they’re not taking care of their own inventory, then it all of the sudden means they’re locked into one process, which I think is a vulnerability.
WCM - Let’s talk a little about money. Right now, when consumers book their campground reservations, in many cases, the consumer is not really processing the credit card through the campground. It’s being processed by the reservation service provider. This means that the campground doesn’t get paid right away. How long does it take campground operators to get paid when they market their inventory online?
Lahoda - If they don’t have a mechanism to get paid quickly, they could wait an undetermined amount of time. If they were using Coast to Coast, they get paid within a week of checkout. But that is simply Coast to Coast policy. They’re just waiting for the client to check out. Because if they extend their stay, they have to charge more. Now that doesn’t mean that has to be the policy of the entire campground sector. If those same resorts were dealing with a central entity like Trailer Life or Woodall’s or any other company, they would have to follow the policy set by that central service provider.
WCM - What’s the future hold for online reservations?
Lahoda - Online bookings are not the only thing that everybody is looking to solve. They’re also looking for property management, the whole issue. The situation is that this (movement toward online campground reservations) is so brand new. Everybody in the industry is still hyping this. There’s nobody making money on online bookings. But we think the situation is going to quickly change when larger marketing entities become involved because they will bring the necessary volumes of traffic to the inventory so that it starts to justify some attention by the campground owner.
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