If your campground’s revenue strategy starts and ends with nightly site rates, you’re leaving big money on the table. Campgrounds on Campspot generated $43.6 million in add-on revenue in 2025, a 13% increase from the year prior. 

The good news is that ancillary revenue is one of the opportunities to act on. Here are four ways to capitalize on it at your campground.

For more income-generating strategies, download our free 2026 Campground Revenue Growth Guide.

1. Add-Ons That Sell Themselves

Add-ons are optional purchases guests can make during or after the booking process. Think golf cart rentals, firewood bundles, or welcome packages. 

The fact that Campspot campgrounds earned 13% more from add-ons alone in 2025 signals growing guest appetite for a more curated experience. The key is to make these add-ons feel like a natural extension of the trip-planning process, not an afterthought. 

Think about what your guests most commonly ask for when they arrive, and offer it to them before they even leave home. On Campspot, you can offer add-ons right in the booking flow, so campers can throw those into the cart as they’re planning their trip and about to check out.

Ideas to try:

  • Firewood and s’mores kits bundled together at a slight premium
  • Golf cart or bike rentals available to reserve ahead of arrival
  • Welcome packages (local snacks, park maps, activity guides) tied to special occasions

2. A Camp Store That Works Harder

Your camp store is more than just a convenience, it’s a revenue center. Campspot campgrounds moved $38 million in POS item sales in 2025, with (fun fact) ice taking the top spot as the single most purchased item.

The opportunity here is both in what you stock and how you feature it. Items that are prominently displayed, tied to an in-store promotion, or bundled with popular activities can outperform items that simply sit on a shelf. And with Campspot’s Online Store Add-ons feature, guests can purchase select camp store items before arrival…meaning the firewood can be waiting at their site when they pull in.

Ideas to try:

  • Feature your top 3 to 5 sellers prominently near the store entrance or checkout
  • Create seasonal bundles (bug spray + sunscreen in summer; hot cocoa kits in fall)
  • Offer pre-arrival ordering for high-demand items like firewood, ice, and fireside kits
  • Track which items sell fastest during peak weekends and stock accordingly

3. Lock Site Fees: A Small Charge With Big Returns

The lock site fee—a small, optional fee guests pay to reserve a specific site—is one of the most underutilized (and highest-returning) features in campground revenue management. In 2025, Campspot parks generated $22.9 million from optional lock site fees, and parks leveraging this feature earned 12% more revenue on average.

The opportunity lies in the fact that many guests have a specific site in mind. The waterfront spot, the shaded pull-through, the site closest to the bathhouse with kids in tow. Even the site they’ve used previously with family or friends. Offering them the ability to lock that site for a small fee respects their preferences and rewards your revenue line at the same time. 

Because it’s optional, guests who don’t care simply skip it, and guests who do care are happy to pay. 

Lock site fees are especially effective to promote during peak season and around popular events, when guest competition for preferred sites is at its highest.

Ideas to try:

  • Enable lock site fees for your most desirable site types (waterfront, premium pull-throughs, etc.)
  • Promote the option in your booking confirmation and pre-arrival emails
  • Highlight lock site availability around events and holiday weekends when site preference is high

4. Grid Optimization: The Revenue You Didn’t Know You Were Losing

While this one is a behind-the-scenes tool rather than a purchased product, it’s an important player that protects revenue you’d otherwise lose to inefficiency.

Grid optimization automatically arranges reservations to eliminate single-night gaps between bookings. Those gaps—a Tuesday night sandwiched between Monday and Wednesday reservations that can’t be filled—represent real, uncaptured revenue. In 2025, Campspot’s grid optimization feature generated $14 million in revenue for parks by quietly closing those gaps without any manual effort from staff.

As guests are booking their site, Campspot’s grid optimization intelligently identifies reservations it can shuffle to create a window for a new potential booking, without requiring any manual effort from your team.

For busy parks managing dozens or hundreds of sites, this kind of passive revenue protection adds up fast.

The Bigger Picture

What makes ancillary revenue so powerful is that rather than focusing on attracting more guests, it’s about serving your existing guests better. When the tools are in place and your offerings are thoughtfully designed, guests spend more, enjoy more, and leave happier.

That positive guest experience makes spending feel easy and worthwhile, and it in turn boosts the likelihood of repeat visits and word-of-mouth.

Get More Campground Revenue Strategies

Ancillary revenue is just one of the topics covered in our 2026 Campground Revenue Growth Guide. From dynamic pricing and AI-powered occupancy predictions to Marketplace optimization and staff certification, the guide is your complete playbook for maximizing revenue this year.