Campgrounds celebrate the great indoors
Mike, left, and Casey Venning of relax in front of their motor coach at Ventura Ranch, a KOA campground in Santa Paula, California. (Feb. 9, 2012) Credit: Los Angeles Times
Zip lines, swimming pools and other campground extras typify changes under way across the nation at Kampgrounds of America, or KOA, the nation's largest private network of campgrounds, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Instead of offering rest stops on the way to vacation destinations, KOA wants to add enough activities to convert its modest overnight campgrounds into final destinations for traveling families.
UPGRADED CAMPING KOA's 488 independently owned campgrounds in the United States and Canada are offering such amenities as wireless Internet access, cable television hookups and prefab cabins, most equipped with refrigerators, microwaves and flat-screen TVs. Many also have swimming pools, bicycle rental stations, arcades and miniature golf.
"The world wants to get outdoors," says KOA's chief executive, James Rogers. "At the end of the day, they also want a hot shower and a clean bed and a cold beer."
Although KOA's overall guest bookings dropped 2 percent to 14.4 million in 2011, KOA says reservations for the campgrounds' furnished cabins jumped nearly 20 percent in the same period. The move to install more cabins, tepees and tree houses, says Rogers, helps KOA serve guests who don't want to sleep in a cold tent but can't afford a $50,000 recreational vehicle.
KOA's top competitor, Leisure Systems Inc. of Milford, Ohio, has been installing furnished cabins at its 78 franchise campgrounds.
WHAT IT COSTS The Ventura Ranch KOA camp in Santa Paula, Calif., has added eight "comfort cabins" that can sleep up to six people ($149-$179 a night), eight furnished tepees ($79) and two glamour tents, equipped with microwaves, mini-fridges and queen beds ($119). The camp has dual zip lines, a rock wall for climbing and a 30-by-60-foot jumping pillow
