The Workamper Show Podcast
Austin Faught with RV Park Management describes how to work for campgrounds around the nation in Episode 123
Today, I will speak with someone from an RV park management company who helps campground owners improve their operations as well as run the parks for absentee owners. He’s looking for Workampers not only at the three RV parks he owns in Florida and Texas, but also for other parks within their network around the nation.
Austin Faught is the founder and president of RV Park Management, a company located near San Antonio. His firm owns two RV parks in Texas and one in Florida. However, his company also manages RV parks for people who buy campgrounds, but don’t want to manage the day-do-day operations of the business.
Austin had worked in commercial real estate for about 10 years and came up with the business idea while pursuing his first RV park investment in 2017. He discovered a number of inefficiencies in RV park management. He had lots of questions. However, there were not many management companies available to help him understand the ins-and-outs of running a campground.
The ability to acquire the RV park was an ideal business opportunity for him, but he knew he’d need to hire a team of professionals to profitably run the park. The structure he created to support that first RV park now works to support other RV park owners.
Each of the parks Austin owns has a separate management team who hires Workampers to help maintain the property, take reservations, check guests in and lead them to their sites as well as provide the level of service to guests Workampers like to receive themselves when they’re traveling.
The beauty of working for a company like RV Park Management is that when a Workamper is ready to explore another area, they can switch locations, but still have a job somewhere else that is run just like the campground they left. The systems are the same as are the processes. What’s different is the scenery.
Austin likes to hire Workampers because they understand what customers expect and they’re really tuned in to what it takes to deliver first-class service.
Because the parks are available in the southern states, the jobs are generally open year-round. What makes RV Park Management so unique is that some of the jobs available to Workampers can be performed remotely. The company established a call center, of sorts, that works as a backup to the office staff at each of the parks.
For example, if the phone rings, but the staff at the RV park is busy helping another guest in the office, rather than going to voicemail, the call is directed to the call center, which may be another person working from his or her RV.
Because the company specializes in RV park management, the staff is always looking for new ways to improve service to all RVers. I was impressed by Austin’s desire to improve what he calls “touch points,” which are ways to provide personalized service, such as speaking to a real person rather than an answering machine.
When a Workamper suggests a new idea and it works well, chances are good it’s something that would be implemented in other RV parks. So it’s possible to have tremendous impact on the operation of several campgrounds.
Generally, Workampers are on the clock 20 to 25 hours per week. Almost all of the jobs are paid and they come with a free RV site. Austin thinks his campgrounds attract better people when Workampers are paid for the hours they work without having to pay money back to the business in order to rent their RV site.
There are some full-time jobs available and they come with extra benefits, like health insurance. So, RV Park Management really is trying to elevate Workamping opportunities and perks across the board.
People who enjoy variety in their job, love challenges and have a knack for identifying ways to make improvements will likely find Workamping for RV Park Management to be a great job.