RV Park thoughts, suggestions & ideas.

[gemini5362]

Dave that is how i thought they did it. Eddie here is another term you are going to he hear, ROUTERS. A router does exactly what the name says. It does it routes data. All internet devices have an address exactly like your street address at home. These addresses are called internet protocal addresses (IPA) and are in the following form 54.121.256.116 the numbers are made up but that is the form they take. A router takes information from the internet and then sends it to the proper computer in your network. Dave talked about dumbing down a router. routers are fairly intelligent devices. when you hook your computer onto the net it wont have an internet address. a router has software that works as a domain name server (DNS) this assigns the IPA to your computer. one of the things when you dumb down a router is you turn off the DNS software in that router. If you have two routers on the same network that has the DNS software operational they fight over who is going to assign IPA addresses to computers. What dave is talking about is having one master router to do DNS assignments and other routers to just basicaly route data. In a router that you buy at best buy it can only control about ten wi-fi computers at once. What dave is suggesting is that you hook up your master router. and let it control however many wi-fi computers it is capable of then you run cat 6 wire to another router (thereby cascading routers) you would disable the dns software in this router then let it control its wi-fi computers then you would run cat 6 cable to another router etc etc. this is a good suggestion cat 6 wire has a maximum length you can run it of 300 feet. so each time it goes through a router that resets that distance.
I think that you want to have cat 5 or cat 6 scattered all through the park it really is not that big an expense and if you do it when you are wireing like dave suggested then you wil have it. The conectors that are wired onto cat 5 cable are not that hard to do when get the hang of it. The tools for working on it are not that expensive and you can buy testers for testing the line at almost any electronics store, lowes, home depot etc. If you want to find out more on your own try this website. PracticallyNetworked.com it has a lot of information on it.

 

[tommu56]

Eddie at work the cat 5 and 6 is limited to 100 meters we figure 325 ft some times we get alittle more but fron the hub or switch to the computer but 325 seems to be the max most of the time.

tommu56

 

[rox]

Bird,
my approach would work if he guest had a way to see that their elecricity account is low and they are getting close to running out of electric. The onus is on the guest to monitor their electric, not on Eddie the campground owner. I do not think it is that big a deal to run out of electricity in the night. Inconvenient, yes, but not by any means catastrophic. And no one should be upset about it as they had a way to monitor and make sure this wouldn't happen and they didn't bother, so they are paying the consequences, in a minor inconvenience. As long as you set the regulator to dispense a reasonable amount of electric this will cover 90% of the guests. If all of your guests ae running out of electric well then you are probably alloting too small and amount and should up the base allotment.

I think it is probably the most simple record keeping available. It is no different than buying a $50 long distance AT & T phone card. When you are out of minutes, you are out of minutes. Compared to a regular phone bill where the phne company has to keep track of customers, keep track of usage and then bill the customer and collect after the fact. Selling phone cards in a deliniated amount is way much easier bookeeping.

The key is displaying to the guest how much electric is remaining on their pre-paid card. This doesn't ahve to be fancy, it can jsut be a red trouble light that turns on when xxx wats remain. I like the fact of collecting in advance rather than chasing people down after the fact. I think that an owner could become easily annoyed at people who didnt come to the office to pay their electric bill, and you ahve to keep a look out for them to show up an approach them about their bill. Some fine tuning would be necessary, but in theory it could work.

 

[CurlyDave]

There is a new connection/new guest mechanism that is activated. The guest is assigned XXX amount of electricity. After xxx is reached the power goes out and the guest ust go to the office and "fill up" thir account with electricity. Rather like a debit card. Whne you hit zero you can't buy anymore until you put more money in.

That may be the custom in Europe, but in North America, the custom is either unlimited electricity or metered, pay at the end of the stay.

I know if our electricity ever ran out, or got shut off in the middle of the night, I would just fire up the generator -- camp rules about quiet time can go out the window -- and ask about it in the morning. If I found out that some "smart" electric meter had shut it off, I would be rolling down the road in the morning, and disputing the overnight charge with my credit card company.

If it was a general power outage, I would just expect to be able to run my generator.

In most RV parks, the office closes pretty early -- I have seen it as early as 6 PM, and as late as 9 PM, but seldom later.

Free utilities are something that most parks offer in the US and Canada. If I get to a park that charges for them, I might stay one night, if there is nowhere else to go, but my house is on wheels, and I am going to be on the road after that one night.

Internet is very much the same. I have stayed at parks where there was internet, but you had to pay at the office ahead of time. If you don't find out about this until after the office is closed, it is very frustrating. DW and I use internet the way that many people use TV.

I know we are exeptions, but we usually have four laptops with us, and will frequently use 3 at the same time. This means 3 WiFi connections coming from the same RV. Why so many? Well, we both prefer Mac systems, but there are times when a PC is necessary.

DW will frequently be working on one of her many websites, writing code on her Mac, and checking how it looks on her PC.

 

[Bird]

Rox, I've no doubt your suggestion on electric could work and someday it might be the way to go, but for now, I think most RVers would agree with CurlyDave; they'd be looking for another place to stay. My RVing was done before the days of my Internet and cell phone usage, but otherwise, I agree with just what he said.

 

[rox]

Dave,
I have no idea how they do it in Europe because i have never camped in Europe so I am not an expert by any means. So what you are saying is, as a short term rental you want electric included and as a long term rental you expect a meter.

Eddie wrote eariler in the thread-Electric meters have a few positives to them. Tests have proven that sites with a meter use less electricity than site without them. It's also very common for people to run electric heaters when they don't have to pay for the electricity, but will buy propane when they are responsible for electric usage. You just can't stop waste when people don't have to pay. Not everyone does it, but enough do to make it mandatory.

I believe Eddie said that he was going to only have meters on the annual/monthly sites. If oyu think of this as a project and the requirements are to reduce electical expenses with a constriant being keep the customers happy- What if as a short term week-end rental you recieved xx amount of electric and once you reached xx amount a trouble light went on and you could see that you are now above the alloted amount and you need to stop in the office and pay for your extra electric before you leave?

How would you seasoned RVers accept that as a rental condition? Would you then turn your a/c down while you were at the pool? Just trying to think of ideas that would meet the requirements of lowering electric cost but not alianating he guests. What if a yellow light came on when you were half way through your allotment and then a red light to show you were over the alotment? At the half way mark you could turn off the electric heater/turn down the a/c etc so that you would not have to pay any additional electric costs. in toher words it gives you time to modify your behavior, you are half way done with electric. Could you live with that? Wolud it irritate you to the point of the campground being a negtive experience?

 

[gemini5362]

Rox I am not sure where you have camped at or where you have seen the metering system but I am very very positive that what dave said will go for 99.99 per cent of the people that are from the United States and on this website. I personally would not like it if I had to monitor my useage and if I exceeded it then my electricity went off. Also it would seem to me that metering your electric sites would be more problem than it would be worth.

 

[Bird]

Rox, we were among those who carried electric heaters in the RV. But we generally used them regardless of whether there was an electric meter or extra cost, just so we didn't have to refill the LPG tank so often. I had no quarrel at all with a place that charged extra if I had air-conditioning, or with a place that had electric meters, but I'd definitely avoid an RV park that had your proposed system, and the other RVers I know would do likewise.

Things do change, so it's something Eddie can keep in mind, and someday it might be a workable system, but right now I think it would put him right out of business when word got around that he had something like that UNLESS he had extremely low rental rates otherwise.

 

[rox]

Rox I am not sure where you have camped at or where you have seen the metering system but I am very very positive that what dave said will go for 99.99 per cent of the people that are from the United States and on this website. I personally would not like it if I had to monitor my useage and if I exceeded it then my electricity went off. Also it would seem to me that metering your electric sites would be more problem than it would be worth.

Could you then comment on the next idea, you don't loose electric but you have to pay for excess usage.

I have never seen this metering system I am jsut comingup with ideas...

 

[CurlyDave]

So what you are saying is, as a short term rental you want electric included and as a long term rental you expect a meter.

Rox:

That is pretty close. I have never stayed anyplace, other than on my own property, for a long term, so I have no expectations on electricity there, but feel if it is listed that way it is fair.

I have only stayed at RV parks where electricity is free with short-term rentals. Most of the parks we have stayed at start giving discounts after either 3 or 6 days. Stay three days and the fourth is half price, or stay six days and the seventh is free. We have only stayed long enough to get the discounts a few times.

Only once have we pulled into a campground that wanted to charge for electricity, and we just went somewhere else for that night.

This was a surprise, as we use a campground guide, and look this kind of stuff up ahead of time. The guide was silent on charging for electricity, which in all other cases has meant it is free. We did not stay not because we couldn't afford electricity, but because we felt the listing in the guide was deceptive.

In general, if the guide says there is a charge for electricity we go somewhere else. That is a real interesting issue. We don't really care if the charge is $25, $30, or $35, but if they want $30 plus electricity we will go out of our way to stay where the fee is $35 with free electricity. I am not saying this is rational, it is just they way we have come to expect things.

Once we stayed at a park that told us not to run the air conditioner during the day after we were set up, and we left the next day. Again, we felt the listing in the guide was deceptive.

We have stayed at parks where other campers told us the voltage was low and that it might damage our air conditioner. That park was on a river and had lots of shade trees, so we have stayed many times -- no problem. AC was not necessary. Plus they let our dogs swim in the river. This is a big enough bonus that we would have paid for electricity if that had been the park rule.

Recently I bought an autotransformer, which will boost the voltage to the proper amount for the AC, so low voltage is no longer going to be a problem.

For us, the bottom line is that we have the freedom to stay anyplace we like, we research it ahead of time, and we expect to get what is listed in the guide. We almost always call ahead and make a reservation.

A park owner would be far ahead of the game to cover the cost of electricity in his basic charge, and not try to nickel and dime me to death. He should charge enough to cover the cost if I want to leave my AC on all day long, because if he ever mentions it to me I am not going to fight with him, I am just going to move on. But I will let all the other campers on RV.net know about it.

I sometimes leave the dogs in the RV, both to prevent barking and so that if they do bark it will not be nearly as loud as if they are outside. This is why I leave the AC on.

RVers are a funny bunch, they accept rules that make it easier to live packed together like sardines in a park (quiet hours, no RV washing, etc.), but are quick to be offended by rules which they don't think are in their best interest. (Turn down your AC).

Never forget, an RV is self-contained. I can spend the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot and be perfectly comfortable. If you want me to pay you to stay in your park, you have to do something to attract me.