Getting Started
Getting Started |
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Before setting up RV Park Software you may want to consider how you need to organize your Park. Do you have different "Sites" (RV Spaces/Storage Lockers/RV Storage area/Boat Slips/etc.) that you may want to consider in your setup? Sites use a "Site Alias" name that can have as many as 7 alpha-numeric characters to "Name" a Site. The Site Alias is displayed in your Reservation Grid, on Maps. and in the Guest Information Panel, so determining Names that best describe your situation can be very helpful.
Some examples could be just using numbers, but since the Reservation Grid can be sorted by the Site Alias, you may want to start with zeros like: 001, 002, 003, etc. In this manor, if you set the software to sort by Site Alias things would stay in order, where if you left off the zeros, you list may look like: 1, 10, 101, 102, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2, 20, 21, etc. in a Park with 102 sites ... Not the best list.
You can also use alpha characters to denote site features like S for Shade and/or P for PullThru. Example: 001, 002S, 003P, 004, 005PS, etc.
If you have Boat Slips, you could precede the Site Number with a B and all of the Boat Slips would be together. Example: 001, 002, 003, ... , B001, B002, B003, etc.
When you get ready to define the Sites there is a tool that will assist in creating groups of Sites with similar or the same amenities. The "Copy" feature also assists in creating the Site Aliases when they have preceding alpha characters.
Another item to consider is the Site Types which you define. These can help define what type of Camping will happen in a Site. There are as many as 10 Site Types, but I recommend you use only those that you need and make sense for your Park. In my opinion, Motorhome; Travel Trailer; 5th Wheel; A Class; and C Class are all RVs. So why not just use RV as a Site Type to cover all of those. Cabins, Park Models, and Mobil Homes are another example of Site Types that are virtually the same. Pick one, and save your effort.
There is a feature that will let you change your Rates by Site Type. This may be an exception to your Site Type naming convention if you plan to change your Rates periodically, and the Rates are different for various Site Types. When you define your Sites, you can include as many of the Site Types for each Site defined. In this approach, you could have defined the following 4 Types: RV, Cabin, Tent, and Storage and then also defined 3 other Types as: NoElec, 30AMP, 50AMP Now when defining your RV Sites, you can check the RV Site Type and one of the electric Site Types, so that 2 Site Types are checked for each RV Site. Then when your Rates increase on RV Sites, you can use the electric Site Type to change ALL of those types at once, as opposed to, doing them one at a time.