However, with today's tight economy and budgets slashed to the bone, barter has started to make a comeback. And it just might work for traveling RVers struggling to keep campground costs manageable. Look around as you enter a campground for areas that seem neglected, or jobs undone. Ask the owner, manager, or ranger if you can trade out a night (or more, depending on the job) for your talents in taking care of postponed or neglected maintenance or other job that needs doing.
This works better in state parks, campgrounds on public lands, and some smaller private campgrounds. If you can trade your talents for something they need, you've got a deal. For them it's a Win-Win situation--especially if they have empty campsites. The cost to them is negligible, and they don't have to pay someone to do the job. Parks are usually quite accepting of volunteer labor.
The areas could include gardening, mechanical maintenance, building a website, repairing fences--and many more ideas. Be creative and observant and you never know what you may workout. I once spent five months in a South Georgia state park for free by helping with various campground chores that the rangers had no time for, relieved the campground host on her days off, participated in Civil War re-enactments (that was fun), and built them a website. Cost to me: $0.
3 comments:
Thanks for the idea of bartering for a campsite. Will be more observant when entering ares to see what needs to be sttended to. Anne
We just pulled into our home town on our yearly stop to visit family. We just rented out our home where I had built my own dump station and 30 amp service so we couldn't stay there. There are two campgeounds nearby, one 17 miles north and one 5 miles south of town. Neither was actively looking for help and hadn't thought about it until I approached them with the idea of swapping 12 hours work per week for 7 weeks from my wife and I for a free campsite. They both decided they did need some additional temporary help and we picked the one closest to our family members to save on fuel. When campsites advertise they normally require a full season comittment but here are two examples of campgrounds being flexible and taking what they can get. But we would never have known about either opportunity if we hadn't asked.
There are only 2 answers in life - Yes & No. It never hurts to ask the owners or Mgr. of a RV park for any type discount, especially if your pull in at 6pm and will leave at 7 am. You don't need full hook-up, ask if you can dry camp for a special price.
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