The Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Index climbed to 102.7 in May — the first measured month-over-month increase since the benchmark launched in April — as the national weighted average nightly rate rose to $103.58 across private campgrounds, RV parks, glamping resorts, independent hosts, and public campgrounds.
The composite masks a divergence between accommodation types. Tent sites rose to 105.6, up 5.6 points from baseline, as seasonal campgrounds across the northern half of the country came online at summer rates. Lodging followed at 102.1, with the segment averaging $196.88 per night. Meanwhile RV — the largest segment by inventory and the revenue backbone of most parks — slipped below baseline to 99.3, with the segment averaging $72.79 per night.
The RV dip is striking given what the demand side is showing. The OHPI’s Demand Pressure Index jumped 9.4 points in a single month, from 40.0% to 49.4%, meaning nearly half of all tracked site-nights nationally are now booked. The booking window is tightening alongside it. The median sold-out observation moved from 154 days out to 131 days, and 77.2% of sold-out site types were already at zero availability 60 or more days before check-in.
The explanation is partly structural. Year-round RV parks concentrated in southern states are holding established pricing while newly opened northern tent sites enter the market at summer rates, pulling the tent average up without a corresponding RV adjustment. Whether RV pricing catches up as summer progresses will be one of the key metrics to watch in the June and July readings.
Within individual parks, the pricing story is more nuanced. The 50-amp service premium more than tripled from 1.7% to 5.9%, the largest attribute-level shift in the dataset. Premium-designated sites — those parks actively name and market as deluxe or preferred — nearly overtook waterfront as the highest-priced RV tier, closing to within $0.07. Standard back-in sites dropped $1.25 while premium/deluxe-designated (+$1.07) and 50-amp (+$1.56) tiers rose, widening the spread between commodity and differentiated inventory. More than 1,250 parks now maintain a spread of $40 or more between their lowest and highest RV rate.
Market stratification showed up at the macro level too. The gap between 25th and 75th percentile pricing widened to $69.00, now equal to 94.5% of the national median rate. The 90th percentile jumped $8.75 to $210.00. The bottom of the market actually softened slightly — P25 dipped $0.50.
At the state level, Maryland extended its lead as the most expensive market at $175.07, a 21.9% increase that reflects the mid-Atlantic’s seasonal ramp. Ohio and Virginia entered the top 10, replacing Alaska — which dropped from #8 to #27 as its short summer season expanded supply — and New York. The spread between the most and least expensive states — Maryland to North Dakota at $39.73 — widened to $135.34, a 4.4x difference up from 3.4x in April.
The glamping segment held steady overall at $304.95 per night, but the composition of the top tier shifted. This issue transitioned the glamping table from listing prices to actual booking-platform prices, which include cleaning and service fees captured at booking. Castles top the segment at $547.09. Safari tents showed the largest movement at +14.2%, one of the few glamping categories where pricing rose alongside expanding coverage.
The OHPI’s forward pricing curve — which captures how the market is pricing future months — shifted higher across every period through March 2027. July remains the national peak at $110.09, up $2.64 from the April observation — a shift that isolates pure demand pressure from seasonality, because it compares the same future month across two observation points. Winter months showed the largest gains, with January through March 2027 moving $3.86 to $4.83 higher, a signal that warm-weather and snowbird markets are strengthening rates ahead of the off-season.
The OHPI is published monthly by Insider Perks. The full May 2026 report is available at insiderperks.com/ohpi.