This week on the RV Podcast:









* Enough is Enough. RV’ers have had it with ever-rising campground fees







* The BLM wants to charge RVers up to $600 to boondock in the Arizona desert. 







* And speaking of Arizona, we have the details on a large chunk of highly desirable RV property near Kingman and Route 66 that’s going to be sold off in 5-acre parcels later this month







* All this plus the Social Media Buzz and your questions coming up in Episode #514 of the RV Podcast









You can watch the video version from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel by clicking the player below.















If you prefer an audio-only podcast, you can hear us through your favorite podcast app or listen now through the player below. Click the CC logo on the right side of the player, and you can follow along in a word-for-word transcript of the podcast as it plays.















RV CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK - Rising Campground Fees















This week’s conversation of the week is about a topic that has been simmering all summer. Our email and social media have been filled with angry comments from RVers who are up to here over what many feel is price gouging by RV campgrounds all across the country.







As the demand for camping space has continued to grow after those crazy COVID days, so have prices. It’s insane: $100 a night is no longer rare, with $70 a night very common. 







On top of that, campgrounds are doing all sorts of other things... Charging more on weekends or holidays, adding various extra charges, like making you pay more to reserve a specific site, making it harder to get a refund when you have to cancel, and charging extra for having friends stop by to visit or to bring along a pet.







And we’re not even talking about taxes - tourist taxes, county taxes, state taxes!







It’s crazy, and people are crazy mad.







Campgrounds are businesses















Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat. Campgrounds are businesses. Many have huge expenses and limited seasons, and they need to cover costs. Their costs are going up fast, too.







To be competitive, many have had to upgrade their Internet wireless networks - no cheap undertaking. Add swimming pools. Leash-free dog runs. Build cabins.







We get it. They are hard-pressed to afford all this and have to raise prices to afford it.







We want campgrounds to do well and stay open or we won’t have anywhere to camp.







Before the Internet, you would call a campground or just show up, pay the camping fee, maybe a tax, and go camp.







When the internet began, reservations could be handled online and campgrounds started adding reservation fees. They had to invest in costly software to manage the reservations. That was the first fee just like when ticket sellers do this when you go to a show. Hotels do it. Airlines do this. It seems to be a normal cultural thing.







But over time and especially the last couple of years, many other fees started getting added to the tab. Now some in our TV Lifestyle Community say they fully understand this:







“It’s a free country - choose to pay it or move on.” - said one of our social media community posters.







Said another:







“It is a matter of Supply and Demand…. There are a whole lot of new RVers now…. This creates a crunch on the decent campgrounds… i like site “x” and so do others… Therefore a lock fee for t...