Using data to drive your decisions often makes the difference between turning a profit and leaving money on the table. Data can also be used to identify gaps in guest satisfaction and other business health metrics that are adjacent to net revenue. Bottom line, the end of the year is a great time to closely review your data and make critical changes that will set you up for success all the following year long. 

There are three crucial questions in this process:

  1. Have you been gathering data over time?
  2. Do you have easy, instantaneous access to the data about your business?
  3. Are you able to fully understand and make use of the data at hand, or are you left feeling more confused about your property’s health and future?

Ideally, your park management and reservation software provider makes answering all of the above a breeze—it’s yes, yes, and yes with Campspot! Whether or not you’re a Campspot customer, let’s review the key data and steps you need to keep top of mind as you plan ahead for the next season of camping. 

Dashboards for Conducting a Year-End Business Review

There are many real-time analytics dashboards within Campspot to help you keep a pulse on the health of your campground year round. Here are the four dashboards we recommend customers view in Campspot Analytics during their year-end business review. 

1. Campspot Value

This dashboard provides insights on how Campspot’s unique features are impacting your revenue. In doing so, the data bring attention to new opportunities to leverage such features for increased revenue in the upcoming seasons. 

2. Park Overview

Using information such as reservation value, source information, and year-over-year booking comparisons, this dashboard analyzes booking trends based on booking date. This is useful to compare differences from online versus offline bookings, for example, for the same date. 

3. Year-Over-Year Metric Comparison

This dashboard compares occupancy, site night, revenue, average daily rates (ADR), and RevPAS (revenue per available site) from the current year over the last year. This helps you calibrate the health of your business against a comparable annual timeframe.

4. POS Sales Insights

Use this dashboard to view insights on products sold through Campspot’s built-in point of sale. These insights factor in quantity and dollar value, sales, profit by category, and year-over-year profit comparisons. 

Within Campspot Analytics, you can mark your favorite reports to appear at the top of your account for easy repeat viewing. Similar data points also appear in different formats across various dashboards, which provides flexibility depending on how you prefer to visualize and digest information. 

Industry-Wide Data on Demand

With the many hats a campground operator has to wear on a daily basis, it can be understandably difficult to prioritize time for analyzing industry data. That’s why Campspot created The Data Dig, a monthly insights report campground owners and operators can subscribe to and receive anonymous, aggregated data across our analytics suite. Campspot customers are sent The Data Dig automatically. 

Developed in partnership with OHI, The Data Dig includes practical industry benchmarking so you aren’t making key competitive decisions in a vacuum. Hear from other OHI members in the Field Notes sections as they comment on the most recent trends. We also share revenue maximizing best practices to ensure you’re making the most of every opportunity. 

Growth Tools and Integration Capabilities

Aside from internally auditing your business strategy, take a look at what new offerings your software provider has in store to grow your business. 

At Campspot, we’re continuously improving upon our stock of integration tools and partners. From point-of-sale and email marketing, to text messaging and smart utility metering, there’s a world of integrations out there just waiting to enrich–rather than encumber–your campground operations. Does your software provider prioritize your growth through integrations?

Another exciting partnership we recently launched is with Checkfront, which allows for advanced add-on booking for a wide range of activities and resources at your property. This enables flexible booking windows by hour, data, or over custom time slots for events. How often is your reservation software upgrading its offerings?

These questions are especially important to consider at the end of the year, when it’s easier to try new systems and onboard before a new season ramps up. 

Want to supplement your business review with a look at industry-wide insights? Be sure to subscribe to the Data Dig today to ensure your finger is on the pulse of the bigger picture.

Haley Dalian is a lifelong Michigander who takes advantage of recreation throughout the state’s changing seasons—from snow skiing to scuba diving in the Great Lakes. A former Campspot marketing manager, Haley holds a B.A. degree in public policy from Michigan State University and an M.S. degree in sustainability from the University of Michigan. She is passionate about environmental stewardship, exploring the outdoors, and has never met a potato she didn’t like.