See before you stay - updates to Campground Views - RV podcast 358
See before you stay - updates to Campground Views - RV podcast 358
Don’t get caught in a site that your RV doesn’t fit. Don’t camp where the tree coverage doesn’t suit your needs. Know before you go with Campground Views. This week on the StressLess Camping RV podcast, we welcome back Mark Koep from Campground Views. Mark tells us about some exciting new updated to the Campground Views website, and reveals some of his favorite Route 66 hidden gems. And he requests your input for future updates.
We stay hydrated on the road with a nifty hydration gadget. And we have a sneak peak at a few RV reviews Tony is working on.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Mark’s previous episodes here:
A crystal ball for campgrounds: RV podcast episode 26
Getting around the no vacancy sign at campgrounds: RV podcast 82
Updates to Campground Views: RV podcast 121
Campground Views finds boondocking and dump stations: RV podcast 293
Tony’s story about driving an EV across the country
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 358
Peggy
Don't get caught in a site, your RV won't fit.
Tony
Don't camp where tree coverage doesn't suit your needs.
Peggy
No. Before you go with Campground views.
Tony
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we welcome back Mark Kepp from Campground Views.
Peggy
Mark tells us about some exciting new updates to Campground views,
Tony
Very exciting and reveals some of his favorite hidden Route-sixty-six gems.
Peggy
Also, he requests your input on some future updates. Hmm.
Tony
We also stay hydrated on the road with a hydration gadget,
Peggy
And we have a sneak peek of some reviews that Tony's working on.
Tony
Yep. We have this week's podcast along with the notes and all the stories that go with it, along with discounts, deals, helpful tips, and more at our home on the web. StresslessCamping.com,
Peggy
We really appreciate your likes and your shares and just being here, listening and watching us. For episode 358, Stressless Camp
Tony
Stressless Camping. I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
We are two RV industry veterans, traveling part-time
Peggy
In this Rockwood Mini Light,
Tony
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy
Tricks,
Tony
And discounts.
Peggy
We are getting ready to go on a road trip.
Tony
Yep. Well, by the time you hear or see this, yeah,
Peggy
We
Tony
Will be on that road,
Peggy
Road trip. We'll be on that road trip. We will talk more about that in a week or two. But last week Tony took a trip without me actually. Yeah, it was two weeks ago wasn't, it was two weeks ago because last week is something we'll talk about probably next week. Lots of exciting things have been going on around here. Yeah. And not around here. Tony took a trip all the way to Alabama and back, rather than take the travel trailer, he took our new to us 2021 Volkswagen Electric vehicle id iv.
Tony
Yeah. When the incentives basically went away for buying an EV, I thought to myself, myself, I bet used EVs are gonna be really, really, really inexpensive. And we actually do plan to spend more time fiddling around here in New Mexico this summer. So I thought, well, I'll just look and see what used EVs cost and all that. Well, any, I ended up buying one.
Peggy
Yeah. So I went on a visit to Colorado and this was last November. Yeah. We may have already mentioned this, but I don't think we even had hit the highway yet. When Tony texted me from the dealership and said, Hey, look at this car. Look what
Tony
I got. Yeah. So anyway, so it was, it's just kind of was meant as a running around town type of car. But then when I got a call to go to Alabama and see a bunch of new motor homes, I thought, Hey, you know, I don't wanna take the trailer because I'm flying solo and the objective is get there as quick as possible. So I'm like, I'm going to write a story about driving an EB across country and I did, and I will put a link in the show notes to where that story is.
Peggy
So that will on stress less camping. No, he wasn't camping.
Tony
No.
Peggy
And And
Tony
It wasn't stress
Peggy
Less for in his brain. Right. It wasn't stress less. I imagine you probably talk about that in the article. It actually worked out just, you know, a little preview. It was fine, everything
Tony
Was
Peggy
Fine.
Tony
In fact, it was so good. I would do more long trips in EVs. I was surprised at how painless it was based on how many people have said, you know, all this and all that. And it was like, no, this, it was fine.
Peggy
Go ahead.
Tony
The story is there if you care and the story is there if you care. It's a rhyme. And it was written for another website, but we'll put links in the show notes. But basically it was no troubles that I could say it was stress less. But as we have often said, Stressless, camping isn't a reality. It's a goal.
Peggy
It's not always a reality. Sometimes it is.
Tony
Right. Right. And I tend to think of every possible thing that can go wrong, which is why when we came up with the name for Stressless, camping was like kind of funny for that reason. 'cause I'm a, I like to love to worry about stuff,
Peggy
But worry work camping just doesn't have the same ring to
Tony
Yeah, right. Tony's losing his mind camping. So anyway, it was a fun adventure.
Peggy
Well, I'll tell you something that has been Stressless since the day we got the very first one and that is our outfit from ABC Upfitters.
Tony
Yeah. It's funny. So we, here we are. We're like, oh, we better start packing the trailer and get ready to go. Do we have to worry that the fridge is running? Nope. Do we have to worry that we have full power? Nope. Is do we have to worry that our power and lithium system is working? Nope. We are heading to Wichita, Kansas
Peggy
For What are you gonna tell them?
Tony
Well, I'm not gonna tell you why.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
But we are, we are gonna go and
Peggy
Go there. Yeah. And come back and then in a week or two we will tell you what we did while we were there. Yeah. I think you might find
Tony
That it's kind of cool. Cool. I think it's gonna be fascinating. Yeah, it will be cool.
Tony
Anyway, so it's just nice to know that this solar and lithium system that we have just simply works. And I, that's the goal of any system on your rv, right? Yep. Wouldn't it be great if you knew everything? Were just gonna work. And so if a simple, reliable system is something you would like in a solar and lithium system and maybe one that starts small, grows big or is incredible or whatever it is. As you know, our friends at ABC Upfitters are the people that we reach out to when we ever have questions or happen to find a new RV or whatever it is.
Peggy
We have had as many systems have as we have had new rockwoods, which is 1, 2, 3, 4 since 2022. Oh
Tony
Really? Wait, no, just three. 1, 2, 3 0 3.
Peggy
I'm sorry.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
I feel like we change every year, but no, we really don't do it that often.
Tony
No, no. Our friends at ABC Upfitters are the folks to talk to. 5, 7, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 5.
Peggy
That's 5, 7, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 5. Or use the QR code and find more information on our website
Tony
Or links in the show notes below.
Peggy
Or that
Tony
We have had a few folks on the podcast who seem to be routine or regular.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Repeat offenders as it were. Whatever you wanna say. And
Peggy
This is Mark's sixth time on the show
Tony
And you know, every time he comes back there's more new and exciting features with campground views and you know, a lot of times it's like, oh, there's all these great features and the price just went up a little bit. Or the price is the same. No,
Peggy
The price has actually gone down
Tony
A lot. Yeah. So anyway, without any further ado or I don't, we have the privilege of having a regular guest back with us
Peggy
Sixth time for March.
Tony
Yeah. Mark kept from campground views. Mark, welcome back.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Thank you. Good to see you guys. Good
Peggy
To see you. You
Tony
As well. I think you guys have been burning some midnight oil there.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
For the people who haven't heard in the past, share with us what exactly is campground views?
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah. Well, campground views is born outta the same frustration that all campers have, which is you spend a bunch of time planning your trip, you read all these amazing reviews about this place you're going to, and then you arrive and find out that it's not what was described and there's no way your RV is gonna ever fit in that site that they booked you into. And so what we did is we built a technology that allows you to kind of Google Street View over 3,600 campgrounds and you just hit play. It's a video based tour, so you get play and you drive down the campground roads and you can grab the screen with your mouse or with your finger on a phone and look around like you would in Google Street view.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And then we put information markers over the site. So when you're looking at a site, you can click on it and see that that's site 10 and it's a pull through and it has 50 amp hookups and you can actually see where the trees are and how big the approach angle is and how, what the exit approach looks like and where you can put your dog pen and you know, all that type of stuff.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
It's a, a visual experience and like I said, we're at 3,600 campgrounds now that we have these virtual tours for all across North America. And you know, honestly I use the tool myself when I'm planning my trip, so I hope others would too and find it pretty powerful.
Tony
One of the aspects of campground views that we really like is with starlink, I wanna find a site that has fewer trees, no trees, and we've also had a tree cause a hole in the side of our camper. So I'm not a big fan of trees. And we can find the sites that have fewer trees or no trees,
Mark Koep - Campground Views
You know, talking about trees. So we were in our, sorry, we were in our RV last week or last year, we were traveling to some trade shows. It was kind of the off season. And we stopped at Indiana Dunes State Park, which is, you know, just across the board in Indiana. It's got the giant sand dunes. And we went for the hike, you know, the triple peaks, you do the hike up on the sand dunes and we come back and the whole, our RV's in the site, the whole area's cordoned off and there's tree crews taking down trees. I was like, I wonder if we're safe. And I go walking up to our RV and there's a tree crew right there working on this giant old tree right next to the rv.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Oh no. And they're like, oh yeah, you're fine. Go on in. And so my family kind of went to the playground and I went in to do some work and I'm working and I'm literally in a meeting and all of a sudden, boom, you know, the whole ground shakes, they took the tree down and it fell wrong and it missed the front of my RV by probably three or four feet.
Peggy
Oh my gosh.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Literally as I'm in the rv. And so anyways, I'm like, oh my god, you guys almost killed me. Like, ah, sorry. They drug it outta the way. Right. So they leave, they go on and they're down the road working on some other trees. My wife comes back, she comes into the rv, she's in the RV for less than 30 seconds, and all of a sudden crash this loud bang and I look out the window and another tree, it was actually a tree that was leaning against the one that they took down. It broke and fell on the picnic table immediately next to our rv. My wife had just walked through that area.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Oh my. Oh my gosh. So, you know, I think RVers have tree stories. So that was ours a year age. Oh my
Tony
Gosh, that's
Peggy
A bad one.
Tony
Yeah, ours was a war camper crew was sawing a dead limb in kind of in the space between our site and the next, and it, you know, it basically becomes a hinge, came down, smacked the ladder, and punched a hole in the side of the rv.
Peggy
Yeah. To be fair, we weren't hit by a tree. True hit by a ladder that was knocked over by a tree. Oh,
Mark Koep - Campground Views
The ladder knocked over.
Tony
Yeah.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
You never know what's gonna happen when you're on the road.
Peggy
Yeah,
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah, that's
Tony
True. Poor RVs.
Peggy
So yeah, for that reason, Tony is not well that and our solar panel. So if we try, if we are going somewhere that doesn't have electrical hookups, we want our solar panels to work. So yeah, I spend a lot of time looking for no trees in campgrounds.
Tony
Conversely, let's say you're camping in Texas, you're looking for as much trees as possible or wherever
Peggy
Looking for shade
Mark Koep - Campground Views
For shade. You know, have you, you've spent as much time as I have reading campground reviews and it's hilarious to me when you go to the desert and there's reviews, there's no trees here, and then you go to the mountains and you say, there's too many trees. You're like, nobody's ever happy, what are we gonna do? Like,
Peggy
Right, right.
Tony
But you have, you all, I guess, have been really working on campground views and just introduce new features and interface and all of that. Tell us,
Peggy
I think when you were here about a year ago in February last year, you had just put the site markers up where you could see kind of floating over the top of the site, the site number. Yeah. Which is super
Tony
Cool.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
You guys have been along for this journey as we've built this, right? So it's not like we're not backed by some big corporation. This has been a labor of love that we've built and we spent a lot of time on the virtual tours building, building that technology and getting those tours out there. And we finally got to the point of saying, all right, let's, let's, let's make campground views the tool that every camper uses. And so we just launched and you're, you're the first ones to see it. We just launched a completely revamped campground views. We took the whole side apart and rebuilt it from the ground up to make it as one of our early testers said, this is better than Google Maps.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And so that was our goal is to be better than Google Maps. And, and I think we've got it. It's pretty powerful tool.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
You can log in, create your account, you can, if you're a member, you can put in your, your RV dimensions and it'll generate your routes based upon your RV dimensions, heights. And with restrictions we're adding on, it'll be done this week. We're adding on the ability for you to set your, your preferred travel distances. So if you're going on a long trip, it'll start finding stops along the way for you that you can kind of look at and review. We've added, we have over 26,000 points of interest. So that includes all the boondocking spots, dump stations, we have the loves gas stations added in there in addition to all the virtual tours and, and the photographs that we have.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
We're not building something just to build it, we're building it for ourselves too. And so we, we believe we really hit it with outta the park with this new remodel.
Peggy
And that's one of the great things about being, being actual RVers doing something for our viewers. You understand what our viewers need, like you said, you're doing it for you and the fact that we get to use it too is just a bonus.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yes, yes. And in fact my brother, my brother was planning his summer trip and so he was like, he was on our old website as we were working on the new one and he is like, Hey Mark this, like, I'm not finding, and I'm like, and I just sent him a link to the new site. I'm like, check it out. And he replied, he's like, you know, he's already given me feedback. Hey, I want this, I want that. In fact, the the feature of setting like a travel distance and finding parks, that was something he said. He's like, I've seen this in a few other places. It kind of works if you can make this work really well. Like this thing becomes a killer experience and so nice. That's what we're building.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
We built in a whole, we call it a passport program. So you can actually start logging parks that you want to go to or that you've been going to. You can post reviews and get points and we'll be doing prizes and so forth for that. We really, we we're at that point now people have seen what we've, and you've seen what we've done with the virtual tours. We're now putting that attention on the website. So it's gonna be pretty exciting what we're going to release over the next few weeks. Realistically on the website for campers to use this season.
Tony
You also have a tool where you can sort of like put in, not a reservation, but like get updates if a place you want to go to is full and then you have the ability to like get notified, Hey, reservation just popped up there. Correct,
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yes. And not live yet. But yes, we will have that, which is something there's services out there that do that you need to subscribe to them and pay a fee or whatnot. This thing is able to do that. There's actually, when you look at, and we've talked about this in the past, I believe when you, and we have all experienced, if you're campers, it's actually a pain in the rear to, to book your sites. 'cause you go to one site, it's Reserve America, another one is, is this one in the camp spot. And then they don't have a reservation engine you have to call like, you know, you end up having to manage all this stuff. And so we're actually very aggressively working to consolidate all that.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
So we have a partnership with a entity called Spot Tonight that's kind of done that with the private parks.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And so their spot tonight availability is shown on our site and you can actually book through SPOT tonight through our site. And then we're, we've got the recreation.gov availability information within the site and we're currently working on all the state park system. So it's actually a pretty big technological hurdle to do that. 'cause a lot of 'em don't have APIs. They don't have the ability to do that. So we have to, we have to figure out ways to get that data without harming their services. Right. There's, there's some folks that'll go out and scrape and it actually, you know, it really impacts our servers and we don't wanna do that. So we're, we're working on ways to make a, a really low impact on them, but the ability to really help campers out.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And so we're working on that right now actively. And in addition to that, we are in the final stages of building our own reservation system for campgrounds. That is AI first. So that means you can chat with it like you would chat gpt or whatnot. You can actually pull in the booking into your own chat gpt interface where you can interact with the parks. And then for the parks, they'll be able to interact with the system via AI also. So our goal now is to take technology to the next level in the camping space. And we're working aggressively to do that.
Peggy
Maybe you'll be able to help some of those state, state park systems. 'cause wow, some of those state parks are really struggling.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Painful. No, it's painful. It's painful.
Peggy
It's painful to them too. Like I wanna complain. But then I walked into a visitor center and like all already to complain and they're like, man, this is terrible. And we're like, oh yeah, that's what we are gonna say. But they don't like it either
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Behind the scenes. I mean, it's government contracting too. And so, you know, the, the people that work in the visitor center have no input on the system that's picked at all. And so that's like, you know, one of my frustrations there is, and you've seen this, like you go to book a state park and the, and it's $45 a night and then they charge you $20 for your car. So you're at $65 and then it's like $10 a, a booking fee on top of you. You're like, wow, I'm at 75 bucks for $45 site. Well that $10 is the, you know, it's free to the, to the state park to use the system.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And they're making all that money on the booking. So what we're gonna do is we're leveraging technology to lower the costs of the overall service. And that way we're not all paying just bloated fees to camp. Like, I want to go camping, I don't wanna take out a loan to do it, so let's make it
Tony
Well, and it's, it's getting nuts with, with a lot of these Yeah. Fees too. I mean, what are some of the other things that you've added since in let's say the past year, some of the highlights? 'cause I know you've really been working on campground views.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah, so with the virtual, like I said, we've passed 3,600 virtual tours now across North America. So there's just a volume of content there. And we're talking, I think we were doing the math a year ago, we had something like 1500 miles of roads mapped inside of campgrounds with virtual tour, which is insane. And so what we're doing is we have all of this visual data, right? So we have all this data where you can see these sites from Forest Service state parks to private parks. So we're now leveraging technology to actually utilize systems that watch those videos for you.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
So over the course of the next year, you're gonna start seeing us add filters where you'll be able to put in your specific RV and utilizing advanced ai, it'll watch the videos for you and pre-select, you'll fit in this site, this site, this site.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And so then you don't have to watch the whole tour. Nice. You can quickly identify my RV will fit in these 10 sites and then you can go look at 'em from your end. So that'll be some of the, that's actually, I mean we're talking next generation stuff. There's, you know, there's nothing like that out there. And so to be able to have that type of experience from a campers perspective, yeah, that's one of the things we're working towards. The other thing we're working on is, you know, we already have all this visual data that you can watch within the virtual tours, but some people just need a quick view of site 10. And so for members, we're pulling out still images from the virtual tours.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
So you can quickly see site 10, 11, 12 whatnot. So that'll unlock tens of thousands of, of campsite images on the fly.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
We're also working on improving the overall mapping and routing experience. So you can actually save your trips, route your trips, you know, there's some tools out there that you can subscribe to that are good with that data. But we we're gonna take to the next level on the visual experience. You know, it's, when you look at the world of technology, it's changing really, really fast with all the advances in ai. And so we look at it and say, well how do we, how do we help and how do we actually survive all of this change? And the reality is, is nobody has our virtual tour technology. Nobody has that content, let's unlock it so people can actually use it however they wanna use it.
Peggy
And you say 3,600 virtual tours, that doesn't mean camp sites, that means campgrounds Grounds,
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yes.
Peggy
Of however many sites are at that campground.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah, it's some, it's over. I mean it's hundreds of thousands of campsites are, are, again, I, I use the tours all the time when I'm planning my trips and actually if you'll look at the new campground experience on, on campground views and you'll see that the icons for the parks with virtual tours are a little bit bigger because
Mark Koep - Campground Views
I mean, I don't know about you. If I can see where I'm gonna stay, I'm more likely to stay there. And it's more valuable to me as a camper, again, being totally biased and building something that I would want to use and assuming other people would want to use it. So I find myself, oh this one's got a virtual tour, let's look at that one. It has site availability. We're gonna stay here in site 10. It's great. I mean we use it, you know, we filmed all these state parks and we have that content available for folks to see. And I love state parks, you know, they're usually in really beautiful spots and you know, I love camping in the off season, so I'll watch the virtual, oh this one, this one backs in the back end is facing southeast so I'm gonna get the sun at this time and the shade on this time and then we're overlooking the lake, right?
Mark Koep - Campground Views
So having that type of visual experience, you can't get that anywhere else other than driving through the big trees.
Tony
Yeah. It, it really helps to make reservations more what you want a whole different view. Shorts. We do Patrick and this guy is like a magician at finding these incredible spots. I think I know it as secret is say, oh this is the only site that has a view of the stream. And I'm like, I oh yeah, yeah.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Well you guys have been here, right? You've been along on this journey. So the idea, it was a concept, I think people like it. We built it up and in July of last year we had over 1 million views of the virtual tours in that single month in July. I mean wow. Wow. That tells you the volume of, of folks using this.
Peggy
Yeah,
Tony
It's a tool that's really effective and makes it easy. You keep layering additional features that make it more of a complete solution as opposed to, and the, I I think when, when you first started it was make a reservation but first look at campground views and now it's more like go to campground views and just
Peggy
Do it all.
Tony
Get it done.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah. Yeah. In the last year we've spent a lot of time working with private park operators. So we've got great Escapes RV Resorts, there's a lot of Jellystones and KOA properties that are now contracting with us and using these virtual tours on their own website. So campers end up on a website, like a KOA website and there'll be a virtual tour option and they'll be able to click, it's our technology web, powering it right in the campground. Great to be park from that perspective. You know, obviously it has value to campers if I can see it on, if I don't even know about campground views.com and I'm on, you know, a great Escapes or a KOA website to be able to see that park.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
It's an amazing experience. And so the park owners of these places, 'cause they're, they're front lines like the, the folks in the visitor center, they know, and I was just talking to one last week and he's like, mark, this is amazing. I use it every time I'm talking to one of our campers on the phone. They can look right at their site, they know what they're getting and then they show up and they're happy 'cause they're, you know, you know your campers, you, the worst thing for camping is you show up there and it's not what you expected. It kind of puts a damper on the trip and you know, depending on your mood, it could ruin the whole trip. But we, we want to drop that, let's make camping more accessible and enjoyable.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Well and it's also, if you own a campground or manage a campground and it's not on campground views, you can reach out to you and have, have a tour done and maybe embed that or integrate that into your website. And I would imagine if you're, you know, like us, we're going somewhere, we're gonna favor a place we've seen over one where it's a mystery spot.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Bingo. Yeah, exactly. And we track data, you know, we track the views and how people use it and we can show these parks. I mean, they're gonna get anywhere from 25 to 150 bookings straight through the virtual tour. You know, people passing through that in addition to the folks who happen to have a tab open and they're already on the booking process and oh, I wanted to verify it. And they're using that tool to verify it. I mean, again, it's built for campers, you know, it, you guys have used it. It's, it's a technology that makes that decision so much easier because you know what you're getting into and you know what you're gonna expect.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
And you know, then you just have to worry about where you're gonna get gas at and whether it's gonna cost nine bucks a gallon or not as you try to get
Tony
Right. Oh my gosh. Oh, I just saw a picture and I don't know if it was AI or not, but it was, I'd pull out my hair if I had any, my
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Brother, so my family lives in California and he went up to visit my mom. She lives south of Reno, so we went up 3 95, you know, which is probably one of the most beautiful roads in the world. And he got to Bridgeport and the gas station there in Bridgeport had diesel at eight 60 a gallon. Yes.
Peggy
Oh yes.
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Yeah. And he was
Peggy
In his
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Rv. He was in his rv. So he, of course,
Peggy
I'm
Mark Koep - Campground Views
Actually doing a trip out there this summer. We're, we're taking rv, which is a Class C, thankfully it uses regular gas, but even then it's like we're getting to the point where it's a dollar a, a dollar a mile based upon the, the cost of fuel. And so then you start doing the math and maybe we'll just be homeless and hitchhike or something like that. But it's nice having your own bed. We
Peggy
Were in southern California in the, in the Desert park doing Route 60.
