Montana RV parks are preparing for another busy summer season, according to a report.
As per the RV Industry Association, over 11.2 million American households own an RV–an increase of more than 25% from ten years ago and over 60% from 20 years ago. As many new RV owners are keen to use their RVs to travel, some RV parks say they’re already fully booked.
“It seems to be the busiest year that we’ve seen so far, especially with people needing to stay month to month, or long term, and one of the ways we’ve tried to prepare is to hire staff earlier and get people here earlier to help out as we need all hands on deck,” Brandi Boatman, owner of the KOA camping site on the east side of Great Falls said.
In light of the rising cost of gas in conjunction with the growing amount of people taking vacations, Boatman said, “It’s hard to say (given the gas prices,) but we are projecting to have a really busy summer.”
As for Great Falls RV Park, they’ve noticed increases in people seeking longer-term spots, and the gas price is a significant factor.
We probably get six to a dozen calls a day, with people asking if we have monthly available, either for the summer or long term, we have had people cancel because of the gas prices, so that does give us a little bit more spots that we can give to people,” Christianna Kruger of Great Falls RV Park said.
“We have many days, in June and July where we only have electric spots available, and we only have 2 or 3 of them, so we have many days in the coming months for the summer where we are going to be at full capacity,” Kruger added.
As RV parks remain at full capacity, RV park owners and operators suggested alternatives, including looking into State Parks and contacting RV parks to request any vacant spots. They also advise that holidaymakers plan their trip as early as possible.
This story originally appeared on KRTV. Featured image from KOA Great Falls.