# Campground / RV Resort Model

See how bookings, site mix, amenities, and seasonality shape a campground's performance.

- Canonical: https://finamodel.com/templates/campground
- Excel download: https://finamodel.com/templates/campground.xlsx
- Category: Hospitality
- Model type: Operating model
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Audiences: Investors & analysts, Founders & operators, Campground and RV resort owners and operators, Outdoor-hospitality franchise and roll-up investors, Multi-site operating-business acquirers, Lenders and private-equity buyers
- Tags: campground, rv-resort, outdoor-hospitality, operating-model, dcf

## Overview

This model helps you assess a campground or RV park with overnight sites, cabins, long-stay guests, and amenity income. It brings bookings and seasonal demand together with the land, staffing, maintenance, and guest-service costs behind the experience.

Use it to evaluate an acquisition, expansion, or new amenity. Test occupancy, pricing, site additions, and financing to see how they change income, cash flow, and property value.

## What's included

- Site network inputs: Year-1 RV, tent and cabin site counts, new sites per year for each type
- Operating calendar: RV/tent operating days, cabin operating days, seasonal-lease season length
- Seasonal RV mix and pricing: Year-1 mix, annual ramp, ceiling, RV ADR, season price, price escalation
- Ancillary: ancillary/store revenue rate per occupied site-night
- Cost structure: guest-services and groundskeeper comp and wage with benefits and wage growth; utilities by site type; site maintenance, property tax and insurance; marketing and G&A; depreciation; tax
- Capital and working capital: RV/tent site development cost, cabin build cost, useful lives, maintenance capex %, prepaid days, deposit rate and holding days, payable days, base-year working capital
- Valuation: WACC, terminal growth, net debt, shares outstanding
- Operations sheet: RV/tent/cabin site roll-forward, the seasonal/transient RV split and occupancy ramp, staffing, working capital, capex and depreciation
- Revenue sheet: RV transient, RV seasonal-lease, tent, cabin and ancillary revenue, mix and pricing KPIs
- P&L sheet: revenue to net income with labor- and rate-based cost of goods sold, the opex stack, margins, identity check
- FCF sheet: NOPAT, depreciation add-back, growth and maintenance capex, the working-capital balance and its change, unlevered FCF, discount factor, PV
- Valuation sheet: sum of PV, terminal value, enterprise value, equity value, value per share, value per site, implied EV/EBITDA
- Dashboard with total sites, seasonal mix Year 1 vs Year 7, blended revenue per RV site, revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, deferred revenue, enterprise value, value per site
- Operating calendar: RV/tent operating days, cabin operating days (longer shoulder season), seasonal-lease season length
- Seasonal RV mix & pricing: Year-1 seasonal mix %, annual ramp, ceiling, RV ADR, season price, price escalation
- RV transient occupancy: Year-1 occupancy, annual ramp, ceiling; tent and cabin pricing and occupancy
- Ancillary/store revenue rate per occupied site-night
- Labor & staffing: guest-services minutes per night, standard FTE hours, guest-services and groundskeeper wages, sites per groundskeeper, wage growth, benefits load
- Utilities: per-occupied-night rate by site type (RV full hookup costs meaningfully more than tent or cabin), growth
- Cost structure: site maintenance and property tax & insurance per site, fixed-cost growth, marketing %, G&A %, store cost of goods %, other depreciation %
- Capital & working capital: RV/tent site development cost, cabin build cost, useful lives, maintenance capex %, prepaid days, deposit rate and holding days, payable days, base-year working capital
- Operations sheet: RV/tent/cabin site roll-forwards, the seasonal/transient RV split and occupancy ramp, staffing, working capital including the fall-deposit deferred-revenue liability, capex and depreciation

## Campground Financial Model: How This RV Resort Template Works

This campground financial model evaluates a multi-site RV resort with a seven-year operating forecast and unlevered DCF. It links site roll-forwards, a seasonal-lease mix shift, occupancy ramps, and cost drivers to revenue, EBITDA, free cash flow, and enterprise value.

Below we explain the documented operating drivers, calculation flow, outputs, and practical use for analysts assessing the template. Rates and financial results described here reflect illustrative model settings, not industry benchmarks.

### Operating drivers: site types, seasonal mix, and occupancy

The model separates three site types—RV, tent, and cabin—each with its own roll-forward (opening plus new sites equals closing). RV and tent sites operate 210 days per year, while cabins run 275 days, reflecting shoulder-season demand.

- RV sites split into seasonal and transient pools: seasonal sites earn a flat annual season price, while transient sites earn nightly revenue based on available nights, occupancy, and ADR. The seasonal mix rises from 15% to 39% over seven years, removing an increasing share of RV sites from the transient pool.

- This mix shift is revenue-dilutive per site, but rising transient occupancy and annual price escalation more than offset it.

### Calculation flow: from site roll-forward to free cash flow

Site roll-forwards feed occupancy chains that produce occupied site-nights for each type. Revenue builds from escalated ADRs, season price, and an ancillary rate per occupied night.

- Cost of goods sold is driven by guest-services labor (minutes per occupied night), grounds-crew labor (sites per groundskeeper), utilities (per occupied night by type), and store cost of goods (percent of ancillary revenue only). These flow to EBITDA, then depreciation and tax yield net income.

- The free-cash-flow bridge starts with NOPAT, adds depreciation, subtracts growth and maintenance capex and the change in working capital, and discounts at WACC with a terminal growth rate.

### Outputs: valuation, margins, and working-capital balance

The model produces a seven-year P&L, unlevered free cash flow, and a DCF valuation: enterprise value, equity value, value per share, and value per site.

- A dashboard summarizes total sites, seasonal mix, blended revenue per RV site, revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, deferred revenue, enterprise value, and value per site.

- Working capital includes a fall-renewal deferred-revenue liability driven by seasonal-lease revenue, a prepaid property-tax/insurance asset, and payables.

- The deferred-revenue balance grows with seasonal-lease revenue, creating a rising cash source ahead of recognition.

### Practical use: evaluating acquisitions, expansions, and amenities

Use the model to assess how changes in occupancy, pricing, site additions, or financing affect income, cash flow, and property value. The seasonal-mix mechanism shows the trade-off between seasonal contract revenue and volatile transient revenue, while the occupancy ramp and price escalation demonstrate offsetting forces.

- The cost structure, with fixed per-site expenses and variable labor and utilities, highlights operating leverage. The DCF and multiples provide a valuation range.

- The public download is a values-only preview; it shows the model’s structure and outputs as static values, not live formulas.

## A seasonal-lease mix shift that is honestly two-sided

Seasonal RV sites equal closing RV sites times a seasonal mix percent that rises from 15.0% to 39.0% over the horizon; on a like-for-like basis that mix shift alone pulls blended revenue per RV site down roughly 9.7%, because a flat season price undercuts what a filling transient market increasingly commands per site. Rising occupancy and price escalation more than offset that dilution across the horizon, so the blended figure a reader actually sees still rises from $5,791 to $7,138 - the model carries both forces as separate rows so neither is hidden inside the other.

## Designed for one-edit responsiveness

Every input - the site-network pipeline, the seasonal-mix ramp, occupancy and ADR by site type, the fall-deposit rate and holding period, the full cost stack, capex, working capital, and the WACC - is a named-range cell. Edit one and the operations build, revenue, P&L, free-cash-flow bridge, valuation, and dashboard all recompute. No formula rewrites are needed to test a mix, pricing, or expansion scenario.

## An unlevered DCF, not an EBITDA shortcut

A campground operator still builds out site infrastructure and a cabin fleet and carries a real fall-deposit liability against next season, so the model bridges to unlevered free cash flow - charging growth and maintenance capex and the change in working capital - and discounts it at a WACC set for a real-asset-backed leisure business. Enterprise value bridges through net debt to equity value and a per-site figure, and the implied EV/EBITDA falls out as a sanity check against where outdoor-hospitality portfolios change hands.

## Workbook structure

### Cover

Workbook overview, sheet legend, units, and tab-colour key.

- Title and scope framing
- Sheet-by-sheet purpose summary
- Units and tab-colour legend

### Dashboard

Headline metrics, the seasonal-mix trend, and revenue mix.

- Total sites, seasonal mix Year 1 vs Year 7, blended revenue per RV site
- Revenue and EBITDA
- EBITDA margin and deferred revenue
- Enterprise value and value per site
- Seven-year trend grid and a revenue-to-net-income waterfall

### Assumptions

Every driver in one sheet: site network, occupancy, pricing, costs, capital.

- Year-1 RV, tent and cabin site counts, new sites per year for each type
- Operating calendar and seasonal-lease season length
- Seasonal RV mix ramp and ceiling, RV ADR, season price, price escalation
- RV transient occupancy ramp; tent and cabin pricing and occupancy
- Labor, utility, and site-cost rates; capex, depreciation, and working-capital terms
- WACC, terminal growth, net debt, shares

### Operations

Site roll-forwards, the seasonal/transient split, staffing, and working capital.

- Opening plus new equals closing for RV, tent and cabin sites
- Seasonal RV sites equal closing RV sites times the seasonal mix percent
- Transient RV sites equal closing RV sites less seasonal RV sites
- Available and booked site-nights by site type
- Guest-services and groundskeeper staffing
- Working capital including the fall-deposit deferred-revenue liability

### Revenue

Revenue by site type and ancillary.

- RV transient revenue equals transient RV sites times operating days times occupancy times ADR
- RV seasonal-lease revenue equals seasonal RV sites times the season price
- Tent and cabin revenue at their own escalating rates
- Ancillary/store revenue priced per occupied site-night
- Total revenue and mix and pricing KPIs

### P&L

Revenue to net income.

- Revenue from the Revenue sheet
- Guest-services and grounds-crew labor, utilities, and store cost of goods as driven flows
- Gross profit and gross margin
- Site maintenance, property tax and insurance, marketing and G&A to EBITDA
- Depreciation, EBIT, tax, net income, margins, identity check

### FCF

Unlevered free cash flow bridge.

- EBIT and unlevered tax from the P&L
- NOPAT equals EBIT less unlevered tax
- Add back depreciation
- Growth capex by site type and a maintenance-capex line
- Change in working capital, including the deferred-revenue swing
- Unlevered free cash flow, discount factor, and PV

### Valuation

Discounted cash flow.

- Sum of PV of explicit UFCF
- Gordon-growth terminal value and its PV
- Enterprise value
- Less net debt to equity value
- Shares outstanding, value per share, and value per site
- Implied EV/EBITDA

## Features

- **A seasonal-lease mix shift that is honestly two-sided, not hand-picked:** Seasonal RV sites equal closing RV sites times a seasonal mix percent that rises from 15.0% to 39.0% over the horizon; on a like-for-like basis that mix shift alone pulls blended revenue per RV site down roughly 9.7%, because a flat season price undercuts what a filling transient market increasingly commands per site. Rising occupancy and price escalation more than offset that dilution across the horizon, so the blended figure a reader actually sees still rises from $5,791 to $7,138 - the model carries both forces as separate rows so neither is hidden inside the other.
- **Fall-renewal deposits create a real, growing deferred-revenue liability:** Existing seasonal campers renew for next season during a fall deposit window, paying roughly 30% down before the fiscal year closes - cash collected this year for revenue recognized next year. The resulting deferred-revenue balance is driven off seasonal-lease revenue specifically, the only working-capital line transient guests never touch, and grows 3.6x from $10,119 to $36,652 as the seasonal mix expands, flowing through the free-cash-flow bridge as a genuine source of cash.
- **Cost of goods sold as driven flows, not a blended margin:** Guest-services labor scales with occupied site-nights actually serviced, grounds-crew labor scales with total site count, and utilities are priced per occupied night by site type - RV hookups draw meaningfully more utility cost than tent or cabin sites. None of these is a blended-margin assumption, so gross margin (73.1% to 76.6%) and EBITDA margin (28.7% to 39.7%) are genuine outputs of the operating build, not inputs.

## Use cases

- **Intrinsic valuation of a campground / RV resort operator:** Set the site-network build-out pace, occupancy and ADR by site type, the seasonal-mix ramp, the cost stack and a WACC, and read enterprise value, equity value, value per site and an implied EV/EBITDA multiple off mature-year earnings.
- **Seasonal-mix and deposit-term sensitivity testing:** Flex the seasonal-mix ramp and ceiling, the season price, or the fall-deposit rate and holding period to see how blended revenue per RV site and the deferred-revenue balance respond, and where the mix shift stops being revenue-accretive.
- **Site-network expansion and cabin-build planning:** Flex the RV, tent and cabin site build-out pace and per-type capex to see how the portfolio mix, occupied site-nights, utility and staffing costs, and EBITDA margin respond to a faster or slower glamping expansion.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a campground or RV resort financial model?

A campground or RV resort financial model captures the seven-year operating economics and intrinsic value of a multi-site outdoor-hospitality operator running RV full-hookup, tent and cabin sites. It rolls the site network forward, splits RV sites between a transient nightly market and a flat-price seasonal lease, prices the fall-renewal deposits behind that seasonal pool as a real deferred-revenue liability, and discounts an unlevered free-cash-flow stream to enterprise value, equity value and value per site.

### Why does the seasonal-lease mix shift both hurt and help revenue per site?

A seasonal lease sells at a flat price that undercuts what a filling transient market increasingly commands per site, so on a like-for-like basis the mix shift alone is revenue-dilutive, pulling blended revenue per RV site down roughly 9.7%. But rising transient occupancy and annual price escalation are a separate, independent force that more than offsets the dilution across the horizon, so the blended figure investors actually see rises overall, from $5,791 to $7,138 - the model reports both forces rather than assuming either one wins in advance.

### Where does the deferred-revenue liability come from?

Existing seasonal RV campers renew their site for the following season during a fall deposit window, paying roughly 30% down before the fiscal year closes - cash collected this year against revenue that will not be recognized until next year's season. Transient guests, by construction, pay at arrival or checkout and never create a deferred-revenue balance, so the liability is driven entirely off seasonal-lease revenue, growing 3.6x from $10,119 to $36,652 as the seasonal mix expands.

### Why does EBITDA margin expand so steadily across the horizon?

Site maintenance, property tax and insurance are priced per site and grow only with the modest site-count expansion (362 to 422 sites) plus cost inflation, while revenue grows 79.6% on occupancy, price and mix gains. That fixed-cost operating leverage, the same mechanism this library uses across its other site- and headcount-driven formats, expands EBITDA margin from 28.7% in Year 1 to 39.7% by Year 7.

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