Every owner I talk to knows their occupancy. Almost none of them calculate it the same way. One counts only summer weekends. One counts a monthly guest as one booking. One divides by the sites he's built, not the sites he can rent. Then they compare that number to something they read online and draw the wrong conclusion.
Here's what the published data actually says about RV park and campground occupancy in 2025 and 2026, how to calculate yours so it holds up in front of a lender or buyer, and why occupancy alone is the wrong number to manage to.
RV park occupancy rates: what the data says
There's no government census of campground occupancy. The best public numbers come from reservation software companies that see millions of bookings, plus a few industry surveys. Each one measures something slightly different, so read the labels.
| Measure | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network occupancy, all site types | 44.5% (down 1% YoY) | Q2 2026 | Campspot |
| Sunbelt lodging (cabins etc.) occupancy | 79.3% | Q2 2026 | Campspot |
| Network occupancy, trailing 365 days | 34.8%–34.9% | Through Jan–Mar 2025 | Campspot / OHI Data Dig |
| Network occupancy, single month | 24.7% (January), 27.3% (March) | 2025 | Campspot / OHI Data Dig |
| Full-hookup RV sites, during operating months | 68% | 2022 data | OHI benchmarking report, as cited by MMCG Invest |
| Rustic and tent sites, during operating months | 25% | 2022 data | OHI benchmarking report, as cited by MMCG Invest |
| Share of tracked site-nights booked | 50.4% (49.4% in May) | June 2026 | Insider Perks pricing index, via RV PRO |
Three things jump out.
Season is everything. The same booking network swings from about 25% in January to about 45% in the second quarter. A park that reports "80% occupancy" almost always means in season.
Site type matters more than location. Full-hookup RV sites ran 68% in the months parks were open, while tent sites ran 25%. If your park is half tent sites, your blended number will never look like a full-hookup park's, and it shouldn't.
Cabins are winning in the South. Campspot's Sunbelt lodging segment, which includes Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, ran 79.3% occupancy in Q2 2026. Campspot also reported lodging revenue per available site of $33.27, nearly three times RV sites.
What happened in the Southeast in 2026
It was a soft year here. In June, Campspot reported the Southeast running 3.1% behind the prior year's pace, the hardest-hit region in its data. Florida was down 4.7%, Alabama 5.1% and Mississippi 6.6%. Campspot pointed to gas prices, which passed $4 a gallon in April and averaged $4.49 by late May, and to drought that covered 99.8% of the region. Short drive-to trips took the hit: transient bookings were down 2.2% nationally.
The same company's August update was more upbeat: Q1 2026 occupancy was up 9% year over year, September was pacing 3% ahead, and it expected occupancy up 2% to 3% through December. So if your 2026 looked worse than 2025, you weren't alone, and one bad summer isn't a trend. Two is.
A warning about "average daily rate" in these reports
Campspot's network ADR was $26.45 in Q2 2026 and about $32–$35 on a trailing-year basis in early 2025. Meanwhile the Insider Perks pricing index put the average RV site at $73.20 a night in June 2026. Those aren't the same thing. The pages we read don't explain the gap. Our read: network averages include seasonal and annual sites priced by the month or year, which pulls the nightly-equivalent way down. Don't hold your nightly rate up against a network ADR and think you're overpriced.
How to calculate RV park occupancy (the right way)
Simple formula. The mistakes are all in the inputs.
- Count site-nights, not bookings. A monthly guest on a site for 30 nights is 30 site-nights sold, not one reservation. Campspot's 2025 data shows a median stay of 3 nights, so a park that counts bookings is overweighting short stays by a mile.
- Use rentable sites. Site-nights available is sites you can actually rent times nights you were open. If six sites were torn up for a sewer repair for two months, take those site-nights out and say so. Don't hide it; a buyer will find it.
- Pick a season definition and stick to it. If you close December through February, report occupancy for the nights you were open and state that you were closed. Lenders will look at both.
- Split by stay type. Calculate nightly, monthly and seasonal sites separately, then blended. A 90% number driven by monthly guests at $500 a month is a very different park from a 60% number driven by $75 weekend nights.
- Split by site type. Full hookup, partial, tent and cabins each get their own line. That's how the industry reports it, and it's how a buyer will rebuild your rent roll.
Example (illustrative numbers): a 40-site park open all year has 40 × 365 = 14,600 site-nights available. Ten sites are monthly and stayed full: 3,650 site-nights. The other 30 transient sites sold 2,920 nights. Total sold: 6,570. Occupancy: 45%. Transient-only occupancy: 2,920 ÷ 10,950 = 27%. Same park, two very different stories, and the second one is where the upside is.
Why occupancy misleads (and what to track instead)
Occupancy is the easiest number in the business to fake. Drop your rate $15 and you'll fill more sites. You'll also do more cleaning, more check-ins and more wear on the bathhouse for less money. A buyer pays for net operating income, not full sites.
The number to manage is RevPAS: revenue per available site-night. The Campspot and OHI Data Dig defines it as ADR times occupancy. You can also get it directly:
RevPAS punishes discounting that doesn't pay for itself, and it rewards premium pricing on your best sites. Innowave's pricing index found premium-designated sites averaging about 24.5% above standard ones and waterfront about 22.5% higher (July 2026 figures, as reported by MMCG Invest). That premium shows up in RevPAS, not in occupancy.
It also tells you what a point of occupancy is worth. At a $45 ADR on 14,600 available site-nights, one more point of occupancy is 146 nights, about $6,600 of revenue. That's the math to run before you spend on ads or cut rates.
Occupancy and RevPAS calculator
Use your own reservation report. Runs in your browser; nothing is saved or sent.
Default inputs are an example 40-site park, not a benchmark.
What lenders and buyers look for
Lenders don't underwrite your best month. One RV park lender's published criteria say it wants peak-season occupancy of 80% or higher and two to three years of stable NOI before calling a park stabilized. The same page says full-year blended occupancy generally runs 50% to 70%, lower for northern and mountain parks that close part of the year, and that cash flow is stress-tested against the weakest off-season month.
So bring an occupancy report by month, by site type and by stay type, for at least two years, that ties to your P&L. If you can't produce that, the buyer's number will be lower than yours. Every time. More on this in our guide to valuing an RV park and the valuation calculator.
How a small Southeast park raises occupancy without killing its rate
These are the moves we'd look at first on a 20–100 site park in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee or Florida. None of them is a secret. Most small parks just haven't done them.
- Take bookings online, 24/7Campspot reported 64% of all bookings came online in Q2 2026, and 67% of transient bookings. If a guest can't book your park from a phone at 10pm, those nights go down the road. Start with our technology checklist.
- Fill the shoulder and winter with monthly guestsSnowbirds, traveling nurses, construction and utility crews. A monthly base covers fixed costs when transient demand drops off. Our monthly stay strategy covers pricing and the zoning traps. Watch the mix if you plan to sell to an SBA buyer; see our RV park financing guide for why.
- Price sites differentlyTier your waterfront, pull-through and shaded sites. You'll often sell the standard sites faster once the premium ones carry a premium.
- Consider a few cabinsSunbelt lodging ran 79.3% occupancy in Q2 2026 in Campspot's data, and network-wide lodging RevPAS ran nearly three times RV sites. Check zoning, septic capacity and the build cost first; our construction cost guide has sourced ranges.
- Book ahead of the windowThe Insider Perks index measured a median booking window of 127 days in June 2026. If your summer rates aren't loaded by February, you're missing bookings.
- Plan for weak years2026 showed how fast gas prices and drought can soften Southeast drive-to demand. A park with a monthly base, cabins and online booking rides that out. A park that depends on summer weekends doesn't.
The operator's take: Brian Zmich has owned three RV parks in the Southeast, two bought and one built from raw land, and sold them. The occupancy number on the listing never decided the price. Adjusted NOI did. Track RevPAS monthly, by site type, and occupancy takes care of itself. If you want us to rebuild your occupancy and RevPAS by site type from your reservation data, ask for a confidential park review. If your park is already running well and your books are clean, you probably don't need us.
FAQ: RV park and campground occupancy
What is the average occupancy rate for an RV park?
It depends on what you count. Campspot's booking network averaged 44.5 percent occupancy in Q2 2026 and about 35 percent over the trailing 12 months reported in early 2025. An Outdoor Hospitality Industry benchmarking report cited by MMCG Invest found full-hookup RV sites averaged 68 percent during the months parks were open. Year-round, all-site averages run far lower than in-season numbers.
How do you calculate campground occupancy rate?
Divide site-nights sold by site-nights available for the same period. Site-nights available is the number of rentable sites times the nights you were open. A monthly guest on a site for 30 nights counts as 30 site-nights sold. Calculate it separately for nightly, monthly and seasonal sites, then blended.
What is a good occupancy rate for a campground?
Good depends on your market and guest mix, so compare against parks like yours rather than a national number. One lender that finances RV parks says it wants to see peak-season occupancy of 80 percent or higher, and that full-year blended occupancy generally runs 50 to 70 percent, lower for mountain and northern parks that close part of the year.
What is RevPAS for an RV park?
RevPAS is revenue per available site-night: site revenue divided by site-nights available. It equals average daily rate times occupancy. It is the better number to track because it rewards rate and occupancy together, so you can't game it by discounting to fill sites.
Why is campground occupancy lower in the Southeast in 2026?
Campspot reported in June 2026 that the Southeast was running 3.1 percent behind the prior year's pace, the weakest region in its data, with Florida down 4.7 percent. It tied the slowdown to gas prices above 4 dollars a gallon from April and to record drought across the region.
Sources
- Campspot (Errica Henke), Mid-Year Booking Trends: What the Data Says about the Rest of 2026 (Aug 24, 2026): Q2 2026 occupancy and ADR, Sunbelt lodging occupancy, lodging RevPAS, online booking share, outlook.
- Campspot, Why Campground Demand Is Down in 2026 (June 16, 2026): Southeast and state pacing, transient bookings, gas prices, drought.
- Campspot and OHI, The Data Dig, January 2025 and March 2025: monthly and trailing-365-day occupancy, ADR, RevPAS.
- Campspot and OHI, Introducing The Data Dig, August 2024: RevPAS definition (ADR × occupancy).
- Campspot, 2025 Year in Review: median length of stay, site-type mix.
- RV PRO, Campground Demand Tops 50% as Summer Pricing Plateaus (June 25, 2026), reporting the Insider Perks Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Index: demand pressure, RV site rate, booking window.
- MMCG Invest (Michal Mohelsky), US RV Park and Campground Market Outlook 2026 (Aug 1, 2026): OHI benchmarking occupancy by site type, Innowave premium and waterfront rate premiums. Reported as MMCG presents them.
- Commercial Lending Solutions, RV Park and Campground Financing (2026): lender occupancy and seasonality expectations.