MC Fireside Chats – September 9th, 2026

[00:00:45] Brian Searl: Welcome everybody to another episode of MC Fireside Chats. My name’s Brian Searl with Insider Perks and Modern Campground. Excited to be here with you. I just realized I sat down on my outside furniture and it’s rained for three days here in Calgary straight, so we’ll find out if there’s anything left in the cushions that I’m not aware of.

Uh, but in the meantime, we’re here today to do a show. Uh, we- welcome back for our second ep- or our second week episode of the month. We’re here with some of our recurring guests, Zachary Stoltenberg, uh, Tom Mason, Jayne Cohen, couple special guests here, so let’s just briefly go around the room and introduce everybody.

Jayne, you wanna start? 

[00:01:16] Jayne Cohen: Hi, I’m Jayne Cohen, and I am from Campground Consulting Group 

[00:01:23] Brian Searl: Thanks for being here, Jayne. Tom? 

[00:01:25] Tom Mason: Uh, my name is … Head up the management group, and looking forward to a great hour.

[00:01:34] Brian Searl: Now, now there’s all kinds of pressure on us, Tom. Thank you. I appreciate that, man. We were gonna have a mediocre hour, but now we’ve gotta reach for it. 

Zach? 

[00:01:40] Zach Stoltenberg: I’m Zachary Stoltenberg. I’m, uh, associate principal leading the architectural division at, uh, LJA, Inc. 

[00:01:52] Brian Searl: And our two special guests, whoever wants to go first. 

[00:01:56] Joe Knihnitski: My name’s Joe Knihnitski. I’m the owner/operator at Prairie Junction out here in Stettler, Alberta. 

[00:02:02] Brian Searl: Thanks for being here, Joe. 

[00:02:02] Veronika Knihnitski: And if you haven’t seen our last names, my name’s Veronika Knihnitski.

I’m Joe’s wife. I’m one of the co-owners as well at Prairie Junction, Stettler, Alberta. Pleasure to meet you. 

[00:02:10] Brian Searl: Oh, you guys have tricked us. You’re both from the same place, and you guys do own the same show. Good try. Uh, welcome, guys, and gals. Everybody. Uh, all right. So as we typically do in the beginning of every show, uh, maybe if you I don’t know. Do I look better like this with my dog here? I think I do. You can’t see my face. 

[00:02:27] Jayne Cohen: Yeah, what is, um, what’s- Um, she’s pretty … what is your dog’s name, Brian?

[00:02:29] Brian Searl: Riley.

[00:02:31] Jayne Cohen: Riley. Hi, Riley. 

[00:02:33] Brian Searl: She’s a lap dog, as you can tell, so sometimes she just, well, doesn’t leave. Uh, but as we typically go to our, uh, recurring guests here at the beginning of every show, is there anything that we’ve haven’t talked about or should talk about since the last time we’ve been together you guys think we should be discussing?

[00:02:51] Zach Stoltenberg: So I’ve, I’ve got a topic for us this week. All right, cool. Um, so, you know, o- one of our big focus areas always on this podcast is a focus on guest experience, right? Um, we, we’ve been talking about that. We’ve been preaching that in outdoor hospitality for a couple of years now, uh, kinda trying to get people to view that what, what we’re marketing, what we’re selling is actually a guest experience, not an accommodation, right?

And that’s, that’s what drives the popularity, the demand, the ADRs. All of that is driven by guest experience. And two big things, uh, kinda came across, you know, my, my feeds and things this week. Um, one of those, uh, Travis Chambers, i- if you know who that is, he’s been a, a guest on the podcast. Um, he is sharing some of what they are building down in Costa Rica right now, and it is absolutely all experience driven.

Um, it, it’s really kind of incredible some of the stuff that they’re doing. And so I think we’ve been focused on it in outdoor hospitality, but I saw a, a commercial this week, uh, for Airbnb that now Airbnb is allowing you to book experiences alongside of your stays. Yep. And so it’s like we’ve been saying this for, for years now.

We’ve had that focus in outdoor hospitality, um, of why that’s so important, and, and now we’re seeing, you know, these big institutional groups, even, even people like Airbnb, that are finally figuring it out after we’ve been preaching it all these years. Um, so I thought, I thought that was interesting that, you know, if you wanna take a cooking class, if you wanna go pet goats, if you wanna do yoga, if you want, you know, whatever, maybe cooking while doing goat yoga, I don’t know whatever those experiences are.

Uh, but seeing, you know, a, a big player like Airbnb finally jumping into that, um, yeah, I, I think that’s really significant, and, and it should be something everybody in our industry, e- even though we talk about it, I think people are finally getting it 

[00:04:57] Brian Searl: Yeah, I don’t know how new that is. Like, uh, I mean, it is new, but I don’t know if it’s recent, ’cause I remember Airbnb had an experiences place when we were in Ireland, like last year probably, end of last year.

But I don’t know how prominent it was, whether they folded it more into the, into the booking space and surfaced it more during the checkout to add experiences to your stay. It seems like that’s a low-hanging fruit that, like I didn’t notice it as part of the booking flow in Airbnb when we were in Ireland.

I just… It was a separate thing, right? But we were looking at some of those experiences to try to do. Never really booked anything, but… And the other thing that was interesting to me too, just to… And we can take the discussion wherever we want. Uh, the other thing that was interesting I was thinking about the other day was whether the distance that you travel from home impacts the experience that you wanna have.

And I don’t know that we have any good data. It’s all really just speculation on that, right? But I wonder if you are going, you know, going 30 miles or less from your house, that just because that’s your neighborhood and it’s already what you expect to see, and then they… Like, it’s like I lived 45 minutes from Disney World and nine minutes from the beach in Florida for a couple years.

And we, and when we moved down there, we’re like, “We’re gonna go to Disney World all the time. We’re gonna go to the beach all the time.” And then we never went to the beach. And then everybody who lives in wants to go to Disney World. You’re like, “Oh, you wanna go there again? I guess, if you really wanna go there.”

Uh, it, it… But so it’s everybody’s local area. I wonder if as you get further outside of your own, let’s call it a comfort zone, if your expectations of experience matter more. And I thought about that when you were saying Travis Chambers in Costa Rica, because I think if I paid for a flight to Costa Rica, my expectations would be higher than they would be in Alberta.

I don’t know if that makes sense, but anyway. 

[00:06:33] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, I, I think it kind of probably parallels or mirrors traditional hospitality. You know, if I’m looking for a place to stay in

[00:06:46] Brian Searl: I think you were just lagging, Tom, for a second. So hold on one second. Go ahead, Zach 

[00:06:50] Zach Stoltenberg: I, I think, you know, if you’re going to Chicago for a weekend, um, you’re gonna do all the Chicago things, right? You’re gonna do the, the boat tour in the harbor, you’re gonna see some tall buildings, you’re gonna visit some museums.

Um, you know, you’re gonna do the typical stuff versus like an all-inclusive destination type resort. And I, I think that’s probably the difference is, you know, when you’re stateside or when you’re, when you’re closer to home or local, you’re gonna do the regional things that are in that area. And I, I think you’re right, but that’s the parallel I would draw from it is it’s more like a all-inclusive destination type resort.

You know, just like you’d stay at a, a Hilton in Jamaica 

[00:07:36] Brian Searl: Well, maybe that’s the difference. Maybe, and, and it… And there’s no right or wrong way to do this, is I don’t think is where I’m at least not g- going with this, right? Uh, but maybe there’s a difference between are you curating an experience for the guest nearby or are you doing it on property?

And neither one is better than the other. It just depends on who your target audience is and who you’re going after. But maybe that’s the difference in expectations, too. Because I think we’ve been trying to drive more people to do, not to the extent that Travis is doing it, although that’s amazing and one, right?

Not everybody needs to duplicate that. Uh, but I think we’ve been trying to drive, and you correct me if I’m wrong, but we’ve been trying to drive more people, as you said, away from thinking the accommodation is the experience. And the way that you really do that, and curation has a place in that, but the way you really do that is to build the experience around the accommodation, right?

[00:08:25] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah, I think it, it goes back to that question of authenticity. Um, you know, people wanting something that’s real. Um, if you’re going to Costa Rica to a destination type resort, you, you wanna feel like you’re in Costa Rica. You wanna walk through the jungle, you wanna have, you know, a, a tree house. You, you want that fully immersive experience.

So I think, you know, Travis is, is probably one of the best in the industry at, at blurring those lines of really combining accommodation and experience together. 

[00:08:56] Brian Searl: It’s interesting how that takes on a life of its own too, because I… Like, you’re right. If I go to Costa Rica, then I want the Costa Ri- like how I perceive from the outside looking in what the Costa Rican experience should be, which is a reflection of tourism marketing and what everybody else has told me when they’ve gone there and stuff like that.

I don’t know how, how do you create a glamping experience that reflects Chicago? That would be an interesting thing. Like, you could put it on top of a high rise building, right? But that would be an interesting challenge. Not that there’s anything with Chicago, to be clear, like Chicago’s a great city. 

[00:09:28] Zach Stoltenberg: No, no, no.

I, I think it’s just, you know, it’s a lot of what we talk about on the design side. It’s, it’s knowing your area, it’s knowing the brand, knowing what it is that you wanna convey. Um, you know, you, you can’t be everything, but you need to be authentic. And if, if part of your appeal is your location and where you’re at, lean into that.

You know, you can be, you can be urban, you can be, you know, on the prairie and, and if you’re on the prairie, lean into that. Be a prairie style, you know, resort 

[00:10:05] Brian Searl: Tom, what do you think? Do we have you back? Are you still lagging or? 

[00:10:08] Tom Mason: No. Uh, can you hear me? 

[00:10:09] Brian Searl: Yep. We got you. 

[00:10:10] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah. 

[00:10:11] Tom Mason: So no, I agree and, you know, glamping in Chicago probably would not be successful.

[00:10:18] Brian Searl: Maybe. It depends. 

[00:10:19] Tom Mason: Certainly. 

[00:10:19] Brian Searl: But the way we do glamping, I 100% agree with you. But like, I think there’s a lot of room for it to grow and maneuver still. 

[00:10:26] Tom Mason: Yeah. Uh, and I guess that would be, or Vrbo in Chicago to some extent. But the other thing, you know, as we talked about offering, uh, experiences, as a resort you can’t afford to develop all these experiences.

So that’s where you gotta partner with local people who are just focused on, on whether it’s canoeing or the horseback riding or, you know, something unique to the area. You are still focused on your accommodations and there’s an experience you want to create when they come back from their travels for the day.

But you’re, you’re lean- you know, to Zach’s point, you gotta lean into what the area offers and hopefully partner with the right individuals to provide the right-

[00:11:26] Brian Searl: Let me play devil’s advocate 

[00:11:27] Tom Mason: There’s 

[00:11:28] Brian Searl: Let me play devil’s advocate for a second. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. We were just lagging. Uh, but let me play devil’s advocate for a second and say, like, I think that, that you’re right and you’re wrong, i- in my opinion, doesn’t mean you’re actually are, right?

In that I think the experience defines more than building what Travis is doing, or putting in a water park, or spending millions of dollars. I think there’s tons of little things that Zach can probably speak to, that he’s put touches on in architecture and in the resorts that he’s helped shape, that really make the definition of an experience different for everyone.

Is that fair? Zach, what do you think? 

[00:12:04] Zach Stoltenberg: No, I, I- Yeah. Fine with. I don’t think it’s any one big thing. Um, I, I think it really is kind of that holistic approach of looking at every little thing. You know? That when a guest stays with you, when they… From the time they drive onto your property until they lay their head down in bed at night, that they feel like you’ve thought about them, you’ve anticipated their needs.

You’ve, you know, taken care of all those little things that, that add up. Um, and I, I think it’s about delivering something that’s a little bit different too, right? It’s something out of the box, something that’s unique. Um, I was actually looking at, at the website for, uh, Veronika Joe, and, uh, kind of one of their announcements from earlier this year with their, their themed units.

That, that’s kind of, I think, maybe this is a good segue for you guys to, to talk a little bit about what you’re doing at Prairie Junction. But, um- … you know, I think that’s a really good example 

[00:13:00] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, I’ll let, uh, the mind behind this- … talk on it, but, uh, we’re big travel bugs, so to be able to give an experience in the prairies that kinda is its own little world, I’ll have Veronika talk on it a bit more, but it’s, it is very exciting.

We just broke ground on it this week, so we’re very excited. 

[00:13:17] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah, so I don’t, I don’t know what you guys know about Stettler, Alberta, um, but it is the, the heart of Alberta. That’s how it’s advertised, so to speak. Um, small town Alberta, right? Kind of a dead center between Edmonton and Calgary. Um, a, a lot of what you guys were talking about, you know, I was nodding my head.

I was like, “You want Chicago? Come to Prairie Junction. Maybe I’ll, maybe I’ll change up one of the rooms for you and we can call it Little Chicago,” right? So like Joe was saying, like, we’re huge travel bugs. We love to travel. We’re our best selves when we’re on vacation. We both live extremely busy lives.

Um, Joe’s in Calgary, I’m in Fort Saskatchewan. Uh, we, we, we have full-time jobs and, and we love to travel. Any sort of chance we get to escape our busy lives, our, our regular corporate jobs, and just go on vacation, we’re our best selves, you know? And in many of the cases, we’ve been very fortunate to travel around the world, whether that’s Spain, whether that’s Italy.

Um, and, and we wanted to bring kinda what you were talking about, like, an experience for people to enjoy it too. I mean, if you can’t go jump on a plane to Barcelona, why not spend the weekend feeling like you’re kind of in it by creating those rooms, right? You wanna go to Turkey? Come, come hang out in our glamping dome, right?

We’ll have a, a, a Moroccan-inspired room for you, right? We’ve got, um, a, a lot of very niche things in Stettler and the surrounding areas, right? It’s a very small town. We’ve got rodeo grounds right next to, to our facility. So I mean, that’s, that’s not every weekend, but that comes around, and so we do obviously tell our folks, “Go, go check out the rodeo grounds.”

So we also have, like, a petting zoo in and around. “Go, go, go check that out.” You know, we’ve got a, a lake that needs a little bit of work, but if you wanna hang out by a body of water, go to Buffalo Lake, right? So creating those experiences in and around the park, we, we do that every day. But for some folks, t- to your point, th- they don’t wanna leave.

They want an experience within the facility, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to create with this expansion project. But since we’ve taken on the business, we’ve also done, um, a- actually, we, Joe, has done a ton of actual work in terms of the amenities. We’ve got hillbilly hot tubs. Um, n- n- never made one of those before, but yet somehow Joe figured out to do it.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of hillbilly hot tubs. That’s bringing in business. Pe- pe- people see your advertisements. They’re like, “What’s that? We can, we can rent that and we can camp and look under the stars?” Yeah, you can. You can do that. You can cook. You can play games. We’ve got cold plunges. We’ve even got a sauna.

Um, it’s, it’s been incredible for our business, and so to take it up a notch and, and take it to the next level where we’re creating experiences within, um, our ecosystem and what we have at, at the facility- We figured we wanted to, to expand by creating, um, basically universal, like almost like vacation packages at Prairie Junction by, by exporting, transporting people to some of their most favorite places, like the Parisian room.

I, I can’t wait to show you guys some pictures of it. Um, a- already picking up all these really cool fancy items for it. Again, we’re creating an experience, um, in a town where y- you won’t have those experiences, and obviously utilizing what the town has to offer as well. 

[00:16:22] Brian Searl: Well, I think that’s part of what I’m saying.

The, the experiences don’t always have to cost millions of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars-

[00:16:28] Veronika Knihnitski: Right …

[00:16:28] Brian Searl: even tens of thousands of dollars. And, and I think some of the… honestly, the hardest part, and I’m not an owner of a property, I’m not brave enough, right? Uh, I’m just a marketing and AI tech guy.

Yeah. But, uh, like I think, I imagine that part of the h- the biggest issue is, is understanding your guest since the beginning, what they’re going to look for or what they’re going to, I don’t know, identify with or resonate with that they don’t already think that they’re looking for, if that’s a Chicago room, if that’s a Turkey room, if that’s a Moroccan r- room, if it’s what… right?

And I think that understanding of the guest then leads you to the execution, and the execution is not, yes, you have to build things and it takes time, and that’s hard in its own right. But it’s not as hard as understanding what the actual people will do or will spend their money on. Is that fair, Zach?

Or you’ve done both sides. 

[00:17:13] Veronika Knihnitski: And that, that’s exactly, that’s exactly what we saw too. Like, like Joe, I think like our demographic shifted. Like, traditionally, like our folks were, were kind of passing by, maybe they’re, you know, driving around, snowbirds coming in and out, and, and they would pop into our resort, right?

But i- in the past year, you know, with a lot of advertising, marketing, targeted advertising, we see what works and we talk to our guests like, “Where are you coming from? What do you like?” Right? We, we have such a blended demographic, and that’s what’s allowed us to kind of shape our strategy and adopt sort of a, a, a different model, to your, to your point, Brian.

Like it’s, it’s not like we came up with this wonderful idea and, you know, we, we think it’ll be successful. We know it will be successful because we’ve already done things on a micro scale. And as we’re getting more folks coming in, we’re asking the questions, “What do you like to do? We see what you like to do.

Let’s, let’s build on that. Let’s build on those experiences so we can do more of that.” Right? 

[00:18:04] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah. So just to touch on that point, we currently have 16 glamping units. So we have four cabins, two tents, five trailers, all with different themes, and everyone that stays with us loves the themes. And we have a wait list now with the Prairie Haven expansion underway with over 300 people already signed up that were picking which room they want to stay with.

So we’re already driving that, just, uh, building momentum and the experience. And we have articles written about us about being the fantasy land of the prairies. So Edmonton posted that out, and we just drove so much traction to our, to our website and our business already. So people are already getting excited.

So just kinda solidifies our decision to go down this route, and I think it’s gonna be very unique. 

[00:18:46] Brian Searl: Have you seen the guy-

[00:18:47] Zach Stoltenberg: No question …

[00:18:47] Brian Searl: this is totally changing the subject for a second, and then we’ll go back to Joe, but have you seen the Charmed guy in Alberta? 

[00:18:53] Joe Knihnitski: I have not. It’s a Charmed guy.

[00:18:55] Veronika Knihnitski: Charmed guy.

[00:18:55] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah.

[00:18:56] Brian Searl: He’s a- 

[00:18:56] Zach Stoltenberg: Charmed. Yeah … 

[00:18:57] Brian Searl: I can’t remember his name off the top of my head. He was, he used to be on the show a couple times. 

[00:19:01] Zach Stoltenberg: Um- We’ve, we’ve had him as a guest before. Yeah. 

[00:19:03] Brian Searl: Yeah. He, uh, he does, uh, he used to do Playground Masters on TLC, and he builds these really custom, like, Rapunzel cabins and huge ships, and it’s really-

[00:19:12] Joe Knihnitski: I have seen him. I know exactly what you’re talking about.

[00:19:15] Veronika Knihnitski: Look at this. There, there we go.

[00:19:15] Joe Knihnitski: I know what you’re talking about. Yeah. 

[00:19:16] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah. Charmed Resorts. Um- 

[00:19:21] Brian Searl: Anyway, I’m just saying Alberta 

[00:19:23] Zach Stoltenberg: is the home of invention It’s a husband, it’s a husband-wife couple 

[00:19:25] Brian Searl: Yeah, I can’t… I’m so sorry. I can’t- 

[00:19:25] Zach Stoltenberg: Um, Le- Levitts. Levitts. 

[00:19:28] Brian Searl: Yes. Tyson Levitt. Yes. 

[00:19:29] Zach Stoltenberg: Yes. Tyson and Audey. 

[00:19:31] Brian Searl: Yep. Sorry. We can go back to you guys’ property, but I just want- I was just curious if you’d seen that ’cause you were talking about how you- 

[00:19:36] Joe Knihnitski: No, I know exactly what you’re talking about, and it’s very unique. And there’s actually full resorts that they’ve built, um, for glamping in Alberta and in British Columbia.

So I’ve seen this stuff pop up. And now that I’ve kind of… As soon as you said the Rapunzel castle, I’m like, “Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about.” 

[00:19:49] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah. 

[00:19:49] Joe Knihnitski: It’s very unique, very cool. But people love it, and the kids love it 

[00:19:54] Zach Stoltenberg: So one, one question I have for you guys, um, uh, just a- about Prairie Junction.

Uh, ’cause you mentioned, you know, you, you acquired this property. Um, you’ve kind of tested it, seen what worked, what’s, w- you know, what are your guests gravitating towards, what’s had traction. And o- obviously, I mean, you can kinda tell from, uh, some of your photos and things online that this was primarily just a campground when you acquired it.

[00:20:21] Joe Knihnitski: Absolutely. 

[00:20:21] Zach Stoltenberg: Um, I think industry-wide we’re seeing a, a bit of a shift away from the RV, and we know that the RV market is, is a little soft right now. It’s a little down. We know that that comes and goes in cycles, and it will come back at some point. But, um, is that kind of similar to what you’re seeing there?

Is that a reason for the focus shift to more accommodations, glamping units, unique structures, these themed stays instead of just campsites? 

[00:20:54] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, absolutely. I can touch on that. Um, we see a lot of our guests, like we have five trailers that we rent out, um, and it’s just easier to like, to set up your trailer, to tow it.

The fuel and the way the economy is right now, everything is extremely expensive. So to have everything that is there and set up for our guests, people show up, they set up, everything’s there. It’s such an ease. And then to have the themed stays, like we have four cabins on site, each with an individual theme.

Everybody has a different niche and a- they all have their own little quirks to them, but we’re booked solid all the time with it. So I would say the industry is still… The glamping is ex- is exploding right now. We’ve seen our glamping over double this summer compared to last summer, and we just played around with it last year.

Couple things we see is like, we introduced those wood-burning hot tubs. We built two of them, put them in front of our cabins. They’re very rustic, very unique. Um, we watched our cabin bookings double literally within one month. And then we had RV guests walking past like, “Man, you guys should build some for us to rent.”

So we took that feedback. We built two more, and they literally rent themselves. You see somebody sitting in a hot tub out in front of their RV under the stars, they… We clean them out, the next person right beside them wants it. And we’ve had an ROI on that within the first two months of building them. So it’s just little perks like that.

This year we also introduced, um, a mobile movie theater. So we have these 14-foot inflatable screens with a projector. It’s all very cheap on Amazon, but people are willing to spend more than what they paid for their stay for these amenities, and it’s just a great add-on. And to sit in like a hillbilly hot tub under the stars watching a 14-foot- uh, screen watching the kids’ favorite movie, you see our reviews, like, the people love it and we have so many return customers because of these little amenities.

Just out of the box thinking and we’re like, “People just want something cool and something cool for the kids to do.” 

[00:22:48] Brian Searl: Yeah, they just want something different. And, and, and we’ve talked on the show before, or we’ve had people talk on the show before about how maybe the glamping market is starting to get saturated.

I don’t think it’s anywhere close to saturated. I think if you’re doing the same thing as everybody else, either in RV or in glamping or in cabin rentals, then maybe you might be running into a saturation issue. Maybe. But if you’re willing to differentiate yourself and think of new things like you’re talking about, I think the sky’s the limit.

It’s gonna be for a long, long time.

[00:23:15] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:23:16] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, 4.9 stars and over 200 ratings on Google, you guys are doing something really right. 

[00:23:23] Tom Mason: Do you find- 

[00:23:24] Joe Knihnitski: Oh thank, uh- … 

[00:23:24] Tom Mason: your guests wanting to rotate through the different accommodation types you have? 

[00:23:30] Joe Knihnitski: We do. So-

[00:23:31] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah …

[00:23:31] Joe Knihnitski: we have a lot of return customers.

[00:23:33] Zach Stoltenberg: You, you’re getting return, yeah.

[00:23:35] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, and they like to s- stay in the different themes, and it’s always triggered, it seems to be, by the kids. Because we have an Ocean Breeze room, and then we have a Lumberjack, and we have a, a bunk house, which is very cowboy themed, and then we have, like, a Bohemian room. So that’s currently what we have for those, and then we have some yurts and stuff as well.

But, uh, we have a lot of return customers, but a lot of it is from the customer service side of it. We have really, really good staff that really see the vision. They’re bought in, they help me build things, they’re fully engaged. One of them lives right on site, and you’ll see them name-dropped in all of our reviews.

Like, they’re, they’re reaching out to our guests as soon as they book, “Hey, is this an anniversary? Is this a birthday? How can we help? Can we go get personalized cake for you? Can we go get…” Like, we treat ourselves like a resort, and our reviews don’t lie. Like, our staff is our greatest asset. 

[00:24:29] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah, and, and on, on the anniversaries, trust me, we’re, we’re not shy to, to pull out a YouTube video, try to figure out how to make a, a swan, a towel swan.

Trust me, we both spent endless hours trying to perfect a swan, and we’re still not there, but we, we will try. We will do whatever we can do. If it’s something that we would love and appreciate, um, why, why not extend that to our guests? We, we have a lot of fun with it. You know, rose petals on your bed, you know, couple chocolates from Dollarama, fold up some towels, call it a day, and people, people love it, right?

They, they appreciate that extra care. Um, it, it’s a campground, it’s a, it’s an RV resort, but you don’t see those sorts of, you know, things in, in, in your traditional campgrounds, right? So w- we, in anything that we do, Joe and I always like to take it an extra mile, and we, we just have fun with it. We enjoy it.

We, we really do. 

[00:25:23] Brian Searl: I think it’d be fascinating for somebody to try to offer turndown service at, like, a RV. Just walk up to the RV and knock on the door and have a warm chocolate chip cookie or something kind of turndown. Like, not go in their rig- 

[00:25:32] Veronika Knihnitski: Totally … 

[00:25:32] Brian Searl: touch their bed. 

[00:25:33] Veronika Knihnitski: Totally. 

[00:25:34] Brian Searl: But, you know. Yeah. 

[00:25:34] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah.

[00:25:35] Brian Searl: Jayne, what do you think?

[00:25:36] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah.

[00:25:36] Brian Searl: You’ve been quiet 

[00:25:39] Jayne Cohen: Hi. I think I’m a little bit delayed, and Brian, I’m gonna have to leave in a- about five minutes, but I think, I think that cabins and rentals and, you know, I’ve been around for 50 years, and cabins were always the glamping. You know, I think glamping, while it is a level of accommodation, I see it as more of a marketing term, and I still do.

Um, typically at campgrounds, in all my career with campgrounds that have rentals, the rentals always book much faster than the sites, and there’s reasons for that. One is there’s usually more sites than rentals, right? And also, the rental market is much bigger than the RV m- than the site market. Okay? So there’s, like, reasons for that.

And, and honestly, after dealing with thousands of campgrounds, I’ve only ever had one that I’ve seen the reverse. And, uh, this park in particular has, like, 80 rentals, uh, and has, and is in an area that’s very high competition with hotels. So, so I think it’s just got a little bit of a different demographic, but, um, you know, y- you’re right.

It’s always been about the experience, but also the experience is just getting in the outdoors, ha- sitting around a campfire listening to… You know, there are some very simple things about the experience. Listening to the sound of water, right? Whether it’s rolling up on the beach or a stream going by. Um, and I think many campgrounds, glamping resorts, whatever you wanna call them, um, have missed that.

They don’t, they get so into, like, what’s the site have and what’s the rental have. Listen, the basics we all have to have, but after all those basics, it’s all about creating that experience and the customer service behind it. I think that is probably the most important And I do wanna say that y- your, your place is very impressive, and having a 4.9 um, Google rating is, with a couple hundred reviews, is very impressive.

[00:28:15] Joe Knihnitski: Thank you. 

[00:28:15] Jayne Cohen: Keep it up. 

[00:28:17] Joe Knihnitski: Thank you. We’re very proud of it. 

[00:28:20] Brian Searl: Anything else you wanna add, Jayne, since you have to leave us in five minutes? I don’t wanna miss anything huge. 

[00:28:24] Jayne Cohen: Well, maybe they, maybe um, Joe and, and Veronika sh- could share how they are getting all those reviews because- … that’s sometimes very hard for folks.

Um, certain pe- people, uh, tend to wanna write a review, right? It’s either, it’s one end of the spec- trum or the other. If they’ve had a time and they wanna let everyone know that, they write, or it’s the other end of the spectrum where they’ve had such a great time and they’ve made such a great connection with your staff.

I think that’s, you know, that they, they wanna tell everyone about it, right? Because that’s what they’ll remember is the experience and the people, the staff, you know, that they met along the way. 

[00:29:14] Joe Knihnitski: And I think that is, like, I kind of talked about it earlier, but that is the one key driver is our managers.

Like, they are those, they like, they will work 16 hours, and they’ll be p- by people’s-

[00:29:26] Jayne Cohen: Mm-hmm …

[00:29:26] Joe Knihnitski: sides stoking their fires to get their hot tub, help them set up the projector screens. We give the kid, the kids free perks all the time, candy and chocolate bars and, like, it, it’s a couple dollars here and there, or we’ll even see the kids having such a good time with the projector screen, we’ll let them have it for free for a night because they’re enjoying it so much.

And there’s these little things that, like, in the big grand scheme of things, it’s just, we already own it. It’s there. They’re having such a good time. We let them have these little perks. Sometimes just throw it in there, and they are so happy to write us a review. And yeah, we just drive it honestly. No, it’s, 

[00:29:58] Jayne Cohen: what you’re doing is you’re setting-

[00:30:02] Joe Knihnitski: And there’s so much po-

[00:30:02] Jayne Cohen: Uh, what you’re doing is you’re setting a guest expectation and then you’re delivering way more.

And that, you know, that always results, that’s always positive, right? Um- And I think you guys- 

[00:30:18] Joe Knihnitski: Another thing to touch on too … 

[00:30:20] Jayne Cohen: an example of that

[00:30:20] Joe Knihnitski: Sorry.

[00:30:22] Jayne Cohen: I’m sorry

[00:30:23] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah

[00:30:23] Jayne Cohen: I have a delay here today, I don’t know. 

[00:30:26] Joe Knihnitski: So we have an event center. So we did 10, we did a bi- big renovation last year, opened up the rafters, did a big pergola, fire tables, um, and we booked 10 weddings this year.

And my wonderful wife, with her full-time job, thought she would be, and I- she loves weddings, let’s get fully involved in helping these ladies plan their weddings. And they have wedding planners. And my wife- 

[00:30:49] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah … 

[00:30:49] Joe Knihnitski: spent, I’m telling you, like 60 hours with some of these ladies. We had a 220 person wedding, and my wife was answering her phone at 12 o’clock at night just to make sure that it was perfect.

And she didn’t listen to me, I said, “You’re getting way too in deep with these people.” But, uh, she rode it out and these people were over the moon. And then all their guests wrote us reviews. There was, they had wedding planners there that had no idea what the schedule was, what was happening, but my wife knew it, and we were there to support and we made sure that everything went out without a whim.

We also love events. That’s part of the reason we acquired this business. So we’re happy to do it and we’re just there to support. And that little bit of extra touch, yeah, we don’t sleep much, especially with material, but, uh, it’s important to us and our name’s all over this, and we are so prideful that we have such a good customer retention, such good experiences, and obviously the reviews follow, so.

[00:31:38] Veronika Knihnitski: Mm-hmm. 

[00:31:39] Brian Searl: Well, and I think that’s, that’s one of the lessons about experiences that, that I’ve been, and, and Zach and many other people in this industry have been trying to portray is like you can do the Travis thing. You can also do something smaller like we’ve talked about that, that makes just as big of an impact, which both of you have done.

And I don’t know that I’d call it smaller, but you understand what I mean. There’s difference between that and multimillion dollar chalets. Absolutely. Uh, a- and I think that’s, for me that, for the RV park owners who are listening to this, the campground owners, the, the people who are adding glamping to their park or, you know, just starting something from scratch, I think, I think the bar is set so low on a macro level in our industry.

There are certainly- Yeah … lots of micro people doing it great. But on a macro level, the bar is set so low because nothing’s changed since the 1960s, that if you just give somebody a warm chocolate cookie or like a turndown service or like you can blow them away and they’ll leave you a review and they’ll be like, “Wow, I’ve never had anything like this.”

And they’ll come back and wanna stay in the different cabins and everything else. And certainly like above and beyond, like wedding is a special thing, right? 60 hours. Not saying that we’re advocating for everybody to do that, although that’s great, right? But- Yeah … but like there’s just, there’s little things that you can do that will really like just change somebody’s entire perspective and make them really excited and they’re…

And for now, I think- Oh … the next five, 10, 15 years, they’re gonna be pretty low hanging fruit 

[00:32:58] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, I agree. And, and in this industry, like I- when we onboard our staff, we have that conversation. It literally takes two seconds for somebody to have a good day. It’s just how you treat them, how you are, and just listen to the little details, it goes miles.

It’s such a simple business to keep people happy. If they’re already there, they’re spending tons of money to come to your property, you might as well give them that five-star treatment and treat them how you wanna be treated, that’s the biggest thing, and support them. Like, it literally takes two seconds to make somebody have a good day, so we’re happy to be in this business.

We’re both in oil and gas for full-time, and we don’t make people happy all the time, and it’s, uh, this is like therapy. 

[00:33:33] Veronika Knihnitski: Not in our industries. It’s a, it’s a little rough out here. 

[00:33:36] Joe Knihnitski: So- Yeah … so we, we quite enjoy it. I find it quite therapeutic and, uh, yeah, we’re so happy to have this business. 

[00:33:42] Veronika Knihnitski: And then the other thing that just comes to my mind in terms of, of, of going the extra mile, like, it was so obvious, like when we acquired this campground, like, like obviously, you know, technology is such a huge thing and, and, and a huge part of our lives, and of course, if you’re going camping, you kinda wanna escape all of that.

But even from the point of booking, one of the very first things that we did is we looked at their existing booking system and their infrastructure, we’re like, “Holy smokes, we absolutely need to elevate. We need to elevate, we need to upgrade, we need to implement a new system, something that’s user-friendly, get on board with all of the other booking companies,” right?

‘Cause in many cases, w- what was happening previously was if you wanted to stay at the resort, you had to call in and somebody needed to be on the other line to book you in. We don’t have time for that. Folks are, are, are, are driving around. You know, get, get advertisements going, get on Airbnb, get on Expedia, get on booking.com, get on all these platforms, make it so that the guests can book themselves, or also have the option that they can have the support, right, by your staff to actually help them with the booking.

But where, uh, the game changer was from, from the very beginning was make sure that you have the right tools in place so people can book, they can see you, you’ve got the advertising, and also just- Not because we wanna have, like, any sort of, like, really futuristic campground, but simple stuff, right? We, we automated our showers, right?

Not everybody’s… I don’t know about you guys, I don’t have, like, 20 loonies in my pocket at any given time, right? And if I’m going camping in the middle of nowhere, that’s not what I think about, is to go get a bunch of loonies. 

[00:35:10] Brian Searl: Just to be clear for the Americans, she’s not talking about crazy people. So go ahead, sorry

[00:35:14] Veronika Knihnitski: Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[00:35:17] Zach Stoltenberg: I know what a loonie is.

[00:35:18] Veronika Knihnitski: You guys, you guys have dollar bills.

[00:35:20] Brian Searl: Yeah.

[00:35:21] Veronika Knihnitski: Paper dollar bills. Okay. We’ve got fancy, um- 

[00:35:24] Zach Stoltenberg: We’ve got coins too . 

[00:35:25] Veronika Knihnitski: Okay. So we got, we got, we got coin. We got coin loonies, right? And so if you’re gonna come and have a shower with us, you know, a, a year and a half ago, you had to have a bunch of loonies, the coin loonies, with you in order to do that.

And so that’s, that’s not convenient. I don’t know who- who’s got a whole bunch of, of, of coin loonies lying around. Um, they’d come to us, we’d, we’d have no choice but to get them, but we automated, right? So we’ve got NAX machines that you can, you can use your credit card, you can tap in for, for a shower, right?

Simple stuff like that, that evolves with where we’re at as a society, right? We use our cards, we use our mobile devices for payment. Integrate with that. Don’t make it so difficult for people to purchase those things, right? A lot of them are very cash and carry, or bookings have to be done over the phone.

Simple stuff to automate and to ensure that, that we can attract, uh, a larger scale of people is, is one of the first things that we’ve done. 

[00:36:17] Brian Searl: I think one of the- 

[00:36:17] Veronika Knihnitski: And, and found it quite effective … 

[00:36:19] Brian Searl: I think one of the interesting things that I’ve learned just in what I do with, you know, the AI technology we deploy is, like, so we, I share the kind of mindset with you, is that AI is powerful technology is powerful, where we’re going is powerful. Not everybody wants it front and center in their face. But if you design it well-

[00:36:35] Veronika Knihnitski: That’s right …

[00:36:35] Brian Searl: then the undercurrent of that helps you deliver a better guest experience as we’re talking about here. And so I think what we’ve discovered probably over the last year is we’ve begun to not just continue to deploy our AI chat and call agents, but to build some of the features like abandoned cart recovery and things like that, is that we’ve learned that the people are there, they’re willing to spend the money, they just sometimes need a nudge toward your store or toward the abandoned cart or toward, you know, some kind of add-on or experience they can have either at your campground or in the local area.

And, and I think that tend, tends to hold true. And so what, what was more, and maybe other people knew this and were just smarter than me all along, right? What, what I think I’ve come to realize is that sometimes it’s just more about that touchpoint than trying to go out and spend a bunch of money in advertising.

It’s about who do I already have who’s already willing to come here? Who can I already take, not advantage of in a bad way, right, but steer in the direction of like, “I have something that you want, let me give it to you.” 

[00:37:32] Zach Stoltenberg: Well, I think a lot a- about some of the, the things that they talk about in the book on Unreasonable Hospitality.

Um, I don’t know if you guys have ever read that or heard about it. Uh, I try to read it about once a year. It’s front of my mind because my boss is reading it right now. Um, that’s one of the things that they talk about is, you know, kind of empowering your staff, uh, your onsite manager to, you know, your maintenance guy, everybody, that they have the power when they see a need for a guest to just step in and do that, whether that’s giving them an extra night with the, the outdoor movie theater set up or, or whatever it is.

Um, but I think the, the piece that’s missing, and Brian, you kind of hit on this, is when you look at what that costs, and Joe, you, you mentioned this earlier, right? Like we’ve already… We already own the equipment. Like nobody else has it booked. Nobody e- you know, there’s nothing else there. It doesn’t cost us anything to do this, but it makes a huge difference to our guests.

And it’s not so much the transaction piece of that because they’re still paying for it. They rented it, right? They, they bought a service, you provided it. 

[00:38:37] Tom Mason: Yeah. 

[00:38:38] Zach Stoltenberg: But it’s that extra step, that above and beyond, that shows that you’re tuned into that guest, that you are paying attention, that you are sensitive to their needs or to their kids, to what their family, you know, needed in order to have a great experience with you.

And I think those are the things that sometimes an operator gets so distracted about. Like, we’ve got to do marketing, we’ve got to do advertising, we got to buy, you know, Meta Ads and Google Ads, and we got to do all this when, you know, doing something as simple as, as a free night on a movie rental. Now you’ve made such a huge difference to that guest.

You’ve built that trust, that loyalty. They’re gonna come back. They’re gonna give you a five-star review. That’s marketing and advertising that you can’t, you can’t pay for. You couldn’t buy that if you wanted it. It’s got to be real. It’s got to be authentic. And, and so I think the fact that you guys have tuned into that is, is awesome.

Um, but maybe talk a little bit like- He said, I, I know in the book he, he talks about, uh, his experience working at a hotel in, in New York, and they had like some crazy high limit. It was like $1,000. Like if, if you saw a guest had a need for something and you could fix it for less than $1,000, you didn’t even have to go to your manager.

You didn’t have to go to your boss. You didn’t have to ask for, for permission to do it. Just go do it. Just take care of it. You know, I’ve, I’ve heard stories about a, a guy that was in town for a job interview. Um, the hotel he was staying at, you had to valet your car, and he wasn’t expecting that expense, and he was almost out of gas.

And as he checked in with the valet, he was like, “You, you, you don’t take these very far, right?” Because he was worried he wasn’t gonna have enough gas to get to his job interview the next morning. And the valet went and took his car and filled his car and brought it back and parked it. And when he came down the next morning, like worried, “Am I gonna run out of gas on my way to my job interview?”

He got in his car and it had a full tank of gas. That’s great. And he got the job, and he came back and he was like, “I need to repay whoever that was.” And they had to pull security footage to even find the valet attendant, and they found out he had done it out of his own pocket. He, he had just heard the guy talking on the phone, telling whoever he was talking to, he was worried he was gonna run out of gas that, you know, that next day.

And he just saw a need and he, he stepped up and did it. So I don’t know, y- you know, you mentioned kind of your training with your staff and what you go through in that onboarding, but maybe talk a little bit more about that. Like w- what have you done with your staff, with your managers to kind of empower them to, to, one, to pay attention and be sensitive to those guest needs, and then two, to be able to act on it without, you know, bureaucracy and six levels of approval to be able to do it?

[00:41:30] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, I can touch on that as well. Um, we have a group chat, and I will literally every five-star review that we get a name drop, and they come in probably every two days. I share that with them, and I kind of build them off that. They’re also enticed with a little bit of commission, so any of the markups for the rental scooters, the bikes, the hot tubs, anything that they drive, they get a commission on that as well.

So all these little things, like we give them perks. Like, some of our people live on site. They get to use all the amenities. They get to live there for free. They get to use it, so, and we spend a lot of time on just showing them how to interact with the customers, how to talk, how to navigate through…

‘Cause not everyone is as pleasant as the other person. Like, we’ve had some Karens for sure at the park, and we’ve had people pull magnifying glasses out and look at a, a piece of fluff screaming that we have bedbugs, and we’ve had to navigate through all those. And we’ve never not been able to get through it, but it’s just being able to, like, teach them how to deescalate, and that’s so important because these little small details, you don’t think it’s a big deal, but you’re not in the same mind frame as the person that’s dealing with it.

So spending time with them, how to deal with customers, how to deescalate. Veronika has a huge background in HR, so she’s been an adversary for all that training as well. But, uh, it’s just spending time with them and showing up for your employees too and just recognizing the good feedback all the time so.

[00:42:54] Veronika Knihnitski: But, but beyond that too, like, I think realistically, like, the, the, the cliche is, I mean, y- your leadership is important, so ultimately, like, any sort of time we’re interviewing these folks, we’re having sincere conversations. Like, no bullshit at home. Like, what you see is what you get. If you come and join us, this is exactly what it is, right?

We, we want you to know us, you… We want you to trust us, right? We always say, “You’re an extension of our family,” and so is this business, right? We wanna make sure that obviously we, we treat our staff very w- well. We, we go above and beyond for them. They need something, you’ve got it. You wanna spend the night with your husband or, or your partner or your friends in a cabin?

Don’t even ask. Just book it, block it. Like, we wanna make sure that they’re supported. Um, the other thing too is, like, yes, of course, like, we provide, you know, a degree of training, but at the end of the day, like, I can’t teach someone to be kind. I can’t do that. I can’t teach someone to be authentic and sincere and genuine.

I cannot do those things, right? You either maybe evolve to become more of those things with the examples that are around you, but for the most part, when we’re hiring, I actually am absolutely looking for that. I’m looking for someone who is sincere, someone that goes above and beyond. Um, our current manager, like, we, we, we couldn’t be more proud of who we have, right?

Because that’s just who they are, right? If, if we have an exa- Like, uh, we have so many examples. We have so many full circle moments. Even Joe, like w- with, with this construction, I know you’ve got a wonderful story there, um, with how the guy that’s doing the construction, how we helped that guy and somehow he’s coming in, right, to help out, right?

But for example, like, i- i- if, if, if a mom’s out there, she’s camping, um, and she’s got a baby. Cold milk. “I got a, I got a microwave.” Like, “Let me help you. If you don’t wanna use the microwave radiation, no problem. I got a, I got a, a pot and I got a, a, a stove. Just, just let us know. Here’s my number. Shoot me a text.

I can help you out. You’ve got some toddlers, I got a water table.” We don’t even ask. We just show up with it, right? I- it’s just, again, being an extension of our family to our guests, to our staff. It’s the example that, that we hope people follow by and, and ultimately we, we, we see it kinda come to life.

It’s a full circle moment with our staff, with our guests, with ourselves and, and we just keep, keep that standard going and ensure that, you know, the folks that we bring in, they, they have the same mentality. I think that’s very important 

[00:45:10] Tom Mason: It sounds like, um, I, I just wanna speak a little, you, you… The culture you two have developed over the year, it, years perpetuates itself. So you hire-

[00:45:23] Joe Knihnitski: Sure …

[00:45:23] Tom Mason: someone new and they, they know the group, you know, the new person coming in is trained by the people who are there. So you’ve created this foundation and culture which perpetuates itself, which is great. It makes anyone, uh, newly employed, makes their onboarding much easier. And just speaking to some of the conversation here, people generally wanna keep people happy.

If you hire right, you know, they, they wanna make sure the experience is right. And if they don’t feel the burden of the policy or the procedure has to be followed, or I need approval, if they don’t feel, they’ll make the right decision 99% of the time.

[00:46:04] Veronika Knihnitski: Right. 

[00:46:05] Joe Knihnitski: We totally agree. Yeah. And it, to be honest, guys, it was not easy to get to this point. We, we-

[00:46:10] Veronika Knihnitski: No …

[00:46:10] Joe Knihnitski: went through a lot of staff, um, but we have kept on to our core four, and they’re amazing. And hard work is contagious, and being kind is contagious. But we, uh, we know what our expectations are and our standards to make sure that we hold that resort name. It’s in our name. We have the reviews, we have this, so it’s really important to us to make sure that we have the right people, and I think that’s important to any business, not just campgrounds and glamping RV parks.

But yeah, finding the right people, you, it’s number one for sure. 

[00:46:42] Veronika Knihnitski: And they enjoy it. Like, we, we talked, like we, we slipped in there, you know, some of our fo- folks, they work 16 hours. Like, we’re not slave drivers. We ask nobody to work 16 hours. They do it willingly because they love it. They enjoy it, um, you know, to be able to, to make someone’s day and, and see what that extra mile does.

It’s, it’s contagious. It’s infectious. Like, we want our staff to be rested, work eight-hour days and go home. Go do, do what you want. But they love to be there. They love to be interacting with the guests. Um, that’s where they like to be. 

[00:47:12] Brian Searl: Tom, how do you think you can scale that at, like, a, a larger resort?

‘Cause you manage a, a lot of them, right? How do you think that… Is it, is it possible? Or I mean, I’m, it’s possible, but how, it’s harder, right? 

[00:47:23] Tom Mason: Yeah, it’s harder. I mean, I, i- if to scale something along those lines, y- y- you probably need to have a dedicated person to make that visit to each park to work with the employees at that park, and there’s gonna be some standard You know, steps that you need to follow just because of scale.

Um, th- that over time you would hope you… It would begin to take. And like anything else, like all my GMs aren’t AGMs. I have As, Bs, and Cs. And y- you know, you need to focus on the Cs a little bit more than you need to focus on the As. The same thing would probably happen in a park, and the size of the park would determine, you know, if you have four employees there, that’s much easier to create that culture than in a park where you have 30 employees.

Absolutely. And we also know this turnover that exists, you know, I may have 50 employees for the summer, but 20 during the winter. And so, you know, when that turnover, you’ve got to… You wanna… Ideally, you want a core of employees at each park that keep that culture alive, but that would be difficult. It’s dif- you know, it’s not easy for the two…

You know, you two to have done it in your park. You said it was… You had challenges. You know? Sure. If you roll it out to 10 parks or 14 parks or whatever, you know, you’re gonna have challenges. Absolutely. 

[00:48:59] Veronika Knihnitski: It, it’s true, and then just on a, on a, on a final note, like y- yes, we absolutely have, have, have gone through quite a bit of attrition, right?

But the thing is, I, I think we’re, we’re… It’s not that I’m proud of attrition, it’s just if you have somebody that doesn’t fit the mold or is a disruptor, is a toxic seed, uh, we’re not gonna enable it. We’re very strict on that. If you are disrupting the business, if you’re, if you’re, if you’re, you know, changing the culture and the dynamic that we’ve tr- worked so hard to cultivate, it’s going to upset everyone else, right?

We’ve all worked with people that, you know, how, how the heck does this guy still work here, right? We, we, we have a zero tolerance for that sort of behavior of, uh, any kind that goes against, um, the, the general wellbeing of our staff and, and how we operate. We’re, we’re a customer-centric business, the most service-oriented you can be, and we’re trying to, to, to continue to lead in Alberta in that sector, and so we’re, we’re very, um, meticulous in hiring, and we certainly, uh, will provide chances.

We provide training, provide feedback and areas for growth and improvement, but, um, we’re quite firm on ensuring that any sort of misdemeanors, any sort of, um, you know, beyond what was reasonable is, is immediately, uh, dealt with. Yeah, we, we don’t tolerate it, for sure. 

[00:50:18] Tom Mason: As you should

[00:50:22] Brian Searl: All right. Let’s spend the last few minutes asking each other questions. I’ll turn over the hosting duties. So Zach, do you have a question for any of our guests that are left? We lost Jayne. Be awkward if you ask her a question, but I’m just saying, I’m trying. 

[00:50:36] Zach Stoltenberg: So, uh, I, I don’t care either Joe or, or Veronika, you can take this one.

Um, kind of on the heels of that discussion, uh, what do you feel like is, is maybe just one thing, like the, the single thing, um, that you have changed in your business in the last year that has either i- improved the guest experience piece or improved the, the staffing response to it? What’s, what’s one thing that maybe you’ve either gotten rid of or something new that you’ve added and just said, “Gosh, you know, it took us a couple years to figure this out. We should have done it sooner”?

[00:51:25] Joe Knihnitski: I would say adding… Well, there’s, there’s so much.

[00:51:27] Veronika Knihnitski: Go ahead.

[00:51:28] Joe Knihnitski: We, we’ve branched-

[00:51:30] Veronika Knihnitski: There’s so much, yeah …

[00:51:30] Joe Knihnitski: we introduced so much technology, we did so many renovations. But, uh, the one thing that changed the business was obviously technology integration, making sure that everything’s automated. That was number one.

Making that easy for everyone. That helps with the staffing so they’re not on the phone all the time. And then number two is adding all these custom fun amenities. The, the hot tubs, the cold plunges, the saunas, all these little things that just kinda, they keep people at the park, and they keep ’em occupied, keep ’em busy, and just thinking outside the box, like introducing these little movie theater packages.

Um, they’re rented all the time. People love sitting in a hot tub watching a movie with their kids. Just always thinking of, how do we get better and how do we offer something that’s something that nobody else is offering? And they’re all fairly cheap to do, and they incentivize your staff to s- upsell it, because it’s worth more than what the stay is, and people buy it all the time.

I think that’s super important, so… 

[00:52:30] Brian Searl: All right, Joe, do you have a question for anybody else? Like, I mean, you’re apart from your wife apparently right now, so if you wanna take the time to ask her a question, you can do that, but… 

[00:52:39] Joe Knihnitski: No, I’ll save that for after the show. Uh, let’s talk to Tom. So you obviously run some big resorts.

What is your biggest hindrance do you see with operating something on such scale? 

[00:52:53] Tom Mason: Um, it, it is the consistency. We want to make sure we’re consistent across all the parks, and there’s a lot of diversity within our portfolio, uh, both with types of park and ownership groups. So trying to deliver a consistent product, you know, and we talked about attrition or turnover and leadership.

That, that constant deliverable, um, it has been a challenge. And, uh, you know, we go, it seems like we go through some phases where- Um, y- we go, you know, a couple GMs resign or, um, they, they move on or they’ve had a couple of, quite a few positions become, uh, available, so to fill those. So all that kind of allev- you know, causes problems for us to deliver a, a, a singular good product consistently.

And for me, my background is in the hotel world, you know, uh, that was always the focus as well. So, but it still remains probably the biggest issue for us, a consistent good service product. We never are, accept what has been given. We always w- are striving for more.

[00:54:17] Joe Knihnitski: Fair enough. 

[00:54:18] Brian Searl: Well, you know two things now, Tom, right?

You know that there are good people out there, like you hired some, right?

[00:54:23] Tom Mason: Oh, yeah.

[00:54:23] Brian Searl: But, uh, but obviously Joe and Veronika, there’s good people out there. And if there’s not in your area, have you ever seen the movie Artificial Intelligence by Steven Spielberg? Like, the, the pleasure robots are coming to do whatever you want to make you happy and-

you know, that’ll be here soon, so. 

[00:54:37] Joe Knihnitski: Add that to the rent list, eh, Tom? 

[00:54:39] Brian Searl: Yeah. 

[00:54:40] Tom Mason: I know. It’s coming. They just had the… Yeah, it, they just had what, what, the Olympics over in China and, uh-

[00:54:48] Brian Searl: Oh, the Robot Olympics …

[00:54:49] Tom Mason: the robot Olympics and some bot ran faster than, uh, uh, the guy from Jamaica, so, in the 100 yard dash. 

[00:55:00] Brian Searl: U- Usain Bolt or is there another guy from Jamaica? Yeah. 

[00:55:02] Tom Mason: Or a hundred meters, so yeah. 

[00:55:06] Brian Searl: All right, uh, Tom, you have a question for anybody? 

[00:55:09] Tom Mason: Sure. Uh, I’ll, I’ll go to the, the, um, Joe and, uh, Veronika. So you’re, you’ve created this singular wonderful experience it sounds like. Um, are there… Are you thinking a couple years from now you’re gonna head into a, another location?

[00:55:31] Joe Knihnitski: Absolutely. So we, me and my business partner, Alex, and then his wife, and then obviously my wife Veronika, we went into this together. So we wanted to see if we could create something in between Calgary and Edmonton where we could pull people. Because generally when we took over the park, it was all senior citizens staying at our park, and now we developed like such a cool experience for everyone.

We have everyone, all kinds, all walks of life showing up there. I think we are, we’re nailing it out of the park of how our projections were and what we were trying to do. Um, and after this Prairie Haven expansion, we are definitely looking at expanding as well, so. 

[00:56:09] Zach Stoltenberg: Yeah. That’s where I can help. 

[00:56:12] Joe Knihnitski: Well, it’s good to have your contact now, Zach.

[00:56:22] Brian Searl: Veronika, do you have anything to add or? 

[00:56:24] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s early retirement or what we’re thinking. Uh, it, it, it kinda just fell into our lap as an opportunity, right? Um, it’s actually very interesting ’cause the former owners, they also were two, two couples, right? They came into this together.

They, they had the park for many years, and then here we come acquiring the business. We’re basically the exact same. So you’ve got two couples doing the same thing. Let’s see what we can do with this, right, alongside our, our, our full-time jobs, uh, kind of a side hustle. See how we can, you know, put our spin on it, add some amenities, do all the fun things that we like to do, generally enjoy, and see where that leads us.

And so, you know, we, we’ve had the business now for, for over a year. It’s done exceptionally well. We would be foolish not to try to scale this in other locations. Now, other locations may have different features. Maybe there’s a river there. Maybe there’s, um, you know, some sort of, of, of unique, uh, a- attraction, right?

The other thing that we haven’t actually touched on, too, is we have a boardwalk next to, to our campground that, uh, actually our guests can board a steam train. It’s called the Prairie Railway, uh, one of the very few last railways that’s available. And so we actually thought that, you know, when we acquired this, we would, we would do a lot more partnerships, and we have to some degree, but we thought that the train was gonna be driving a lot more, more folks coming to us.

And to some degree, yes, but we’ve, we’ve had to do a lot more. So yes, we’re gonna partner and, and, and expand in, in other locations based on what’s around, but our core model, I think, um, is what we’re gonna keep to, and we’re gonna try to replicate as best. Yes, we can attract and, and bring in experiences from around the facility, but who we are and what we’re doing, uh, absolutely we, we wanna maintain that, that kind of ecosystem, whether that’s geodesic glamping domes, travel destinations at the, at the campsite, hydrotherapy hillbilly hot tubs that my husband’s built with his bare hands.

Uh, would like to keep that sort of, um, fun, kind of family-oriented vibe going in, in any of the locations that we choose to, to expand into. It’s important to us. 

[00:58:20] Brian Searl: All right. We got a couple minutes left. Uh, final thoughts, Veronika, and, and where can they learn more about, uh, your property and see what you got going on?

[00:58:28] Veronika Knihnitski: Final thoughts? Um I don’t know. We’re, we’re, we’re just excited. We’re, we’re excited to be able to, to, to be true to ourselves and to apply the things that we like to do. We, we both, as Joe mentioned, are oil and gas, very heavy into operations and logistics in, uh, both of our roles, and so that’s allowed us to kinda do what we’re doing kind of as a hobby, right?

I- in a way. We, we didn’t expect it to grow to this scale so quickly, right? Uh, if, if you were to tell me when we acquired the business that we would be, you know, partnering with Alberta Tourism, getting a grant, and, and breaking ground in October to put in these massive geodesic domes kind of in, in, in the heart of Alberta, I’d say, “In, in what world?”

But here we are. We’re doing it in, in, in, you know, just a little over a year, with a two-and-a-half year old and, and, and doing it all. So it’s been really fun, um, but w- it, it, it’s a lot of work, and, and we’re just grateful that we’ve got the support of the city, right? We’ve got the support of the city.

They’re, they’re behind us. We’ve got great marketing, great staff, um, and just, you know, a, a, a good ecosystem to take it to the next level. 

[00:59:31] Brian Searl: Joe, any final thoughts? 

[00:59:34] Joe Knihnitski: No, I just wanna say thank you for having us on this podcast. It’s such a cool experience, so I can put this feather in the hat, check this one off the bucket list.

So thanks, Brian, for having us. Tom, thank you for the great conversation. Um, definitely will reach out, and we could have some insights and some good conversation forward. But, uh, I’m just excited. It’s a fun business compared to our other businesses, so we quite enjoy it. Um, anyone that wants to get into the space, it’s, it’s definitely worth it.

There’s, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. There’s lots of hurdles. Staffing’s always number one. Um, research grants. Look into employment grants, too, with the student programs and the summer programs. There’s all sorts of things you can do as a small business to save money, and, uh, a lot of people kind of forget about that.

But with the power of AI-

[01:00:18] Veronika Knihnitski: Right …

[01:00:18] Joe Knihnitski: you can search up anything, and it’ll give you a full roadmap of different cost savings and how to save money on manpower and training and everything like that, so. 

[01:00:28] Brian Searl: And I don’t think, uh, Veronika said, but where, where can they find out more about your website, or where can they see p- what you built?

[01:00:34] Joe Knihnitski: Yeah, so- 

[01:00:35] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah, so on, on our website there. Go ahead, Joe. 

[01:00:37] Joe Knihnitski: No, you got it. Go ahead. 

[01:00:39] Veronika Knihnitski: Yeah, so at pjrvresort.com, if you, if you look into kind of our, our tabs there, you’ll, you’ll see that we’ve got, uh, uh, a Prairie Haven expansion component. So it kinda shows you a mock-up of some of the rooms that you can expect.

Um, and we’ve got an actual button that you can, you can click and, and reserve yourself to join our wait list. 

[01:00:58] Brian Searl: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for being here. Tom, any final thoughts, and where can they learn more about IVEE? 

[01:01:02] Tom Mason: No. Uh, great to meet you both. Uh, Brian, thank you for having, and, uh, anyone listening, if you ever need, uh, third-party management, IVEE is, uh, here and will deliver for you.

Thank you. I have a- 

[01:01:15] Veronika Knihnitski: Thank you very much … 

[01:01:16] Tom Mason: hard stop, but yep. 

[01:01:18] Brian Searl: Yeah, so do we, so thank you. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it, for joining us on another episode of MC Fireside Chats. We’ll see you guys next week. Take care. 

[01:01:24] Veronika Knihnitski: Okay. Bye. Take care. Bye bye.