Making RV reservations smarter and StressLess
Spot2Nite is a resource that lets you book campgrounds and RV spots quickly and easily. We speak with Terry Broussard about how his company can get you a spot tonight or help with reservations down the road. Terry also explains some nice integrations his company is working on.
We also have a very important tech tip for all RV owners plus a great very inexpensive safety device.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
The StressLess Camping Podcast Facebook Group where you can answer the question of the week, get your questions answered or just share your favorite and least favorite parts of camping: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StressLessPodcast/
Rockwood and Flagstaff celebrated being the lead position within Tier 1 at Forest River - a challenge within the company for quality and customer service.
Redwood Empire RVs - the dealership Tony used to work at: https://www.redwoodempirervs.com/
Our guest, Terry Broussard, came to use from Spot2Nite: https://www.spot2nite.com
We previous spoke with vintage RV specialist Tim Heintz - that was our podcast episode 142
We also spoke with Paul Lacitinola about CampNation in podcast episode 190
Tech tip
Tony mentioned the broken weld on the slide room mechanism and the importance of checking the underside of your RV for rust or other damage. Here is a photo of that broken weld for your reference.
If you tap or click on the image it should go full screen.
Our friend Michael Bracewell’s wheel bearing video:
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
StressLess Camping podcast transcription
Hey Peggy. Peggy, wake up. Look up and tell me what you see.
Speaking as a geologist, I see the beautiful rock formations around us. Speaking of astronomy, I see the stars and the moon and realize how vast the universe is. Speaking as a camper, I look around and see the beauty of sleeping in nature. Why? What do you see?
I see that someone stole our tent.
Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress less camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some stress less camping.
Welcome to the Campfire.
I'm Tony.
I'm
Peggy. And we are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
In a small trailer
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts. We want to give some kudos to some friends of ours. We're gonna start with Rockwood and Flagstaff. And something that I've said in the past is that companies like Forest River and Thor really encouraged their divisions to compete with one another and also to compete with the competition. Right? And this week it was announced that Rockwood and Flagstaff celebrated being the Forest River tier one Q4 winner when compared to the other divisions.
So they are all competing with one another. Well, once again, Rockwood and Flagstaff got the lead position in their, I guess grouping
In all four quarters They did that. Yeah. All last year. Yeah.
So they're just making good stuff. And I mean our Rockwood that we picked up mid-December thus far has been terrific. The customer service team got a huge accolades for their consistent efforts to excel in the warranty and parts and service departments. And at the end of the day, they say they're striving to do the best for you. So they know that they're gonna continue into 2023 and we have no doubts of that.
That's right. Also, speaking of people winning things, <laugh>, the dealership that Tony used to work, which is called Redwood Empire RVs, also won an award the best of Lake and Mendocino counties. Yeah.
I was really proud of Perry and Manya and all the people back at Redwood Empire RVs. One of the things, you know, Perry really encouraged all of us to be RVers and to treat the customers well. And so I'm really proud that they got best of Lake and Mendocino counties. They got got the best of Lake and Mendocino County Award. So two companies that we tip our hats to and people who work there who we are proud to call friends.
Yes, very much so. And speaking of quality performers, you know that ABC Upfitters provided our mini light with a quality performer in the form of the Mastervolt Power package that we had installed in the, when the trailer was built.
We have really put this thing to the test on the road in Quartzsite and now, believe it or not, in the driveway.
Yeah, <laugh>. Yeah. We've had to leave our heater and we leave the fridge on, so we leave the heater on so we don't have to put antifreeze in the system during this cold, cold weather that we are, uh uh, enjoying. Enjoy. Yeah, enjoy here. Enjoy New Mexico
<laugh>. Enjoy. I would winterize, but we are leaving again next week. Yeah. And we'll be gone for almost two months on the road and I, I just didn't feel like it. Right. But the solar system and the battery systems have been working perfectly. We have left the heater on in the trailer, not comfortable level, but to keep everything from freezing. And yesterday I went and checked and it's, the batteries are up to 99% state of charge,
So Right. And we've had some fairly gloomy days and last week I think we told you there was snow like three days in a row. So it's not like there's all that summer sunshine like we are accustomed to in nicer times of the year. But yet even with the cloudy overcast nest, it's still keeping the battery very well charged.
Yeah. So again, ABC Upfitters put in the system on behalf of Rockwood Flagstaff in our trailer and they can also engineer a system for your rv. They take into account your style and your RV and all of that and build a system specifically to your needs. And they use Mastervolt components, which have a lot of experience in the marine industry. And you know, when you're out at sea, your tolerance for failure is pretty low. Yeah. So a good company to look to if you're thinking of getting a solar or battery system for your RV of any type.
We are trying out a new app, it's called Spot2Nite. And we got to talk to Terry Broussard. And so here he is. We are fortunate enough to be joined today by Terry Broussard from Spot2Nite. Terry, thank you for spending some time with us and we really look forward to hearing how Spot2Nite is well spot tonight and beyond, as you said, <laugh>.
Yeah, sure. I'm glad to, I'm glad to be here with your listeners. I always enjoy and appreciate a chance to talk to folks about our journey, where we came from and what's new on the horizon. And, and like I said, I appreciated the opportunity to give you a bit of an update cuz it's been a little bit of a time since we spoke. Yeah. Real quick in a nutshell, I'm, in fact I just sold my fourth rv, so it's kind of a, uh, thing of us military retirees that we like to travel, Uhhuh <affirmative>. And so along the journey on RV number three, my son-in-law and I, we were standing near the RV and he says, let's go somewhere.
And I said, when? he said tonight. I gave him my phone, I said, you gotta go tell your mother-in-law We're going and find a spot. I've got three groups of parks in there. He looks, he comes back, I come back to him, I said, you got a spot? He said, no. And he says, it's incredibly difficult. And I said, it is, it's frustrating. You cannot just go just like that. It doesn't work. Ah. So we got pretty savvy on all these systems and got some development team on the way and did uh, kind of a friends and family investment round and we were off to the races.
Great. How long ago was that? I know we had spoken to you in the past.
Yeah, that was in, uh, let's see, we had the aha moment in September, October, 2019. Okay. We had a minimally viable product for development, which is basically like a PowerPoint demo thing that would search two or three parks for the first RV super show that we went to, which was in 21. Then in 22 I think I had 50 parks in the app and then I just went last month. Right. And we're well over 560 parks in the app.
Wow. And on our way to probably, I really think by the summer, based on the new integration documents that are coming in now and the speed that they're coming in, we will be at about 1200 parts by June.
Oh gee. Wow. So your product is an app and you can literally go on the app and book a spot tonight?
That is correct. We started it as an iOS app, then we did Android and now we have a full fully functional website which lets us do even, even more like share links with different other, whether it's a map like RV Life, those guys, you know, we can actually embed that booking data. But the goal was to make it incredibly easy to book a spot. So if you take that thought and reproduce the direct connection to these booking systems, now you can build your profile that's most important for your readers to understand, build the profile first so we know what type of camper you're looking to fit.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then just point it into a direction whether you just say, I wanna look at Florida, I wanna look at Texas, I wanna look at Albuquerque, I wanna look at, you know, south Texas and let it run its course and it will percolate and filter out and return to you only parks that have spots that meet your requirement for the time that you need it.
Awesome.
Once you have your profile built, you can literally look, book, and go and, and what I think is about eight clicks. Nice. From taking the phone off your, off your hip or outta your purse. <laugh>
<laugh>. And and that's the neat thing. Many RV parks are still thinking it's the 1960s and want you to make a phone call. We've even had one that sends a postcard.
Yeah. We haven't stayed there for a while, but you had to call and then you had to mail a check and then if you had to cancel they had to mail you a check back. And it was, it was not, it was a great park, but it was a frustration to get booked.
That's an understatement. Yes.
And you've been traveling like me for years I'm sure. And you know, you, you deal with so many different people in the industry there and there are, as you said, there are some parks that are very content with their business model. And I've literally seen sticky note reservations <laugh> at a desk. And when I, when I speak to the parks at campground shows, I hold up a pack of sticky notes and I said, unfortunately, if this is your booking system, I cannot get you in Spot2Nite . Yeah. Our users are high tech, tend to be towards the millennial realm and they don't want a directory.
They don't want to have to call somebody while they're motoring down the road Yeah. At 60 miles an hour. And only to pass the exit where your park was and then you to call 'em back and say, oh, I'm sorry I was, you know, dealing with firewood in the camp store. <laugh>. Yeah. And they say, well I'm, we're an hour past you. Yeah. And we're not turning back
And being able to book online is really a lot of peace of mind. Right. Because let's say you're going somewhere as we are <laugh>, in fact we are gonna be driving right by the world headquarters of Spot2Nite <laugh>. Right. Let's say you wanna, you're, you know, it's tomorrow night and you're like, oh, I wanna book something and then you have to wait for a phone call back or, or even worse and they just don't call back. Being able to just book is such a peace of mind.
Yeah. And it's how hotels have worked for decades. Right,
Exactly. And we were surprised when we started doing our business research that there was really not an expedia.com or booking.com for RVs. So felt like the timing was right. And then of course when Covid hit and it really put a surge in outdoor camping, that really just accelerated the development for us. Right. In the business line, the issue, and again, that's another thing that people should understand is I always looking at these systems, there's two different types of systems, right? There's directory that just says yes.
Uh, that park, they have a park there in, you know, Lafayette, Louisiana mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but it doesn't tell you anything about it. As you said earlier, you have to call them, you know, to put that data in. Or if they do offer web booking, you still have to put in all your information Right. And wait for it to return after you've put in on, you know, Forest River or Archive 21 feet, model 1 93, you have to put all that in and then it comes back, sorry, we don't have any data.
Yeah. Yeah. So we took all of those features and by building out your profile and applying that on the top of the stack, we filter it that way. So it says your profile, it confirms that indeed, you, you didn't sell your RV or maybe you were using a rental the last time. So just, we wanna make one more check before we bounce it against the open systems. Right. And then we connect you directly to their systems. So it's just as if you're talking to the person at the campground. Yeah. And, and they're using the same terminal that they Are.
And the good thing is, like hotels, oftentimes you come up to the front desk and there's three or four people they can multitask and, and all of that. But a lot of times campgrounds, the thing we're doing is going to the backwoods or wherever the heck it is. Right. And there's one person and if they're checking someone in, they can't answer your phone call. Cause that would just Exactly. So this is, this solves that problem as well.
Yeah. You, you're exactly right. You know, everybody wants to deal with the customer that's in their presence. Right. So, and rightfully so. So the person working the desk will give the most attention to the person standing in front of them at that campground store. Whether they're trying to find propane, wanting to know why the price tag on the s'mores is worn off <laugh> or what the next, you know, camp and checking in. Right. I mean we've all been there. We've stood behind these people all the time. Right. And so, as you said earlier, the hotel industry certainly excelled in it.
And I equate this similar back before there was in the airline industry. What was that system? Saber?
Oh man. Yeah.
Cause if I'm not mistaken, I think that was one of the very, very early connecting airline systems where you'd get printed tickets and all of that. So then along came the computer age and we started, you know, integrating and recognizing the value of a shared business set and shared data to the extent that we can, we're extremely protective of our partner park systems data as well as the user data. Obviously we have a responsibility to protect all of that.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, you know, we're not owned by reservation company, so we are Switzerland. All of this guys <laugh>, we like it to be that way cuz I, I really in the matter of having a few minutes discussion with 'em, I can turn competitors into partners in the app. Yeah. If you've looked at our website, you've seen, we have, I think we're up to, we just signed documents for our eighth integration. Wow. Which will be made through system. And each one of these, any park reservation company that sells to the parks, they can generally have from 200 to four or 500 parks Wow.
In their system. Okay. And so then we work, we work with onboarding all those and building out to produce that end product that you see in the web and you know, and then the, uh, handheld device.
Excellent. So then the big question is, what is the cost to use Spot2Nite?
Sure. So there's a convenience fee that is charged at time of checkout, very much like Airbnb, Expedia, you know, all of those companies. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we are charging small convenience fee. It works, it's roughly 10%. And on the bookings that we see it, it average is generally about five bucks per reservation per night.
Okay.
There's no charge to download it. There's no charge to build your profile. I love for people to build their profile. I always tell the travelers at all of the conferences, build your profile first so you get the best experience. Right. And then look and you'll be able to, you'll be able to see in the app, there's actually, if you find a park that you want to, let's say y'all want to ping it between each other, you get the share button, it throws it over into text messaging. Ah, and you can swap it so there's no fusion over what park you're going to.
That's cool.
There's A lot of Gulf Coast RV parks as you can imagine, <laugh>. So, so, uh, that's pretty handy. And then we have the ability to save a park and build little trip boards. So like, if you wanna build one spring break and just throw parks in there that if you're sitting there by the fireside looking at parks and where you want to go, you don't have to write 'em down. You can just hit the green heart, the, the heart in the top right corner of the picture and it'll throw it into a storage board for
You. I love that. Because, and
Then you can share
Those. Yeah. Because a lot of times people do tell me, oh, you should stay here, you should stay there. And I'm like, well how am I gonna, where am I gonna store that information? I'm not gonna remember <laugh>.
Yeah, exactly. And then you'll see, you'll even see that after you complete a reservation, you can go down in the app and on your, on the web to the past reservations and you can leave yourself notes about that park.
Okay.
Kind of a rating. It's not shared or public right now. Okay. You know, we're not rating parks, but it's more for, Hey, we were in number five last time. Well actually it'll show you, it'll save your exact spot. Okay. And you could say we'd prefer to be up at Spot 20 because it was closer to the pool for the Kids or something Like that so that you can save your notes for that particular reservation.
That's very nice.
And then with the ability to share, you could also, one of the things Peggy and I love to do is camp with friends. And so you could share maybe on a Facebook group or Yeah. You know, however, whatever floats your boat. <laugh>, that's pretty darn cool.
Sure. We are developing and, and talking about new features coming out. We'll be the shopping cart that will be launched out here within the coming weeks. And then the shopping cart, you'll be able to get your spot, and a cabin for grandma or an overflow room for the kids and uh, do all of that checkout. So the flow will be, we'll be adding the shopping cart first and then we'll turn on other places of accommodation. So as you can imagine going from zero to Heroes, <laugh>, our target is to really get people into the app in a marketplace booking Campground reservations for RV spots.
So we just, right now you can only book RV spots mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but in the coming year you'll be able to book those other places of accommodation and there's all sorts of information that the parks are loading up, such as firewood if you want that delivered. If you want to reserve a golf cart. Oh, I've spoken to a park that does conceal carry training. Oh. So you can reserve an instructor in a gun lane, huh uh, which is kind of interesting, unique. I, I've seen people put hunting guides in there.
So all of that then once becomes available once we build those highways to those data sets.
So, okay. I can imagine too, like if there's a clubhouse or a gazebo or something that has to be reserved for bigger groups, that would also be good. You know, if you're gonna go meet a bunch of people there, then you wanna maybe re reserve a gazebo so you can all gather in one place. <laugh> or maybe tours of the area. Yeah.
We have a storyboard for rally masters. Oh. So, uh, I'm looking at that as well. And what would it take to develop the rally master where say you're in charge of booking, you know, seven spots. That's awesome. I have a feeling pretty easy right now with our shopping cart. You'd be able to do that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause most of the parks are giving you direct visibility of the spots. So you can actually just line up, say you want spots 20 through 25 cuz they're all together mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's how many campers you have.
And then you can book it Right. Right there in your shopping cart. You, you'd end up paying for all of them, but uh, it would all be on one reservation.
Oh. So this is much more than just open your app and find a place to stay tonight, even though that's part of the name tonight <laugh>. Correct. It's definitely not just for tonight. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. We, uh, that's why I said Spot2Nite and beyond now, because really once we realized that the parks for those parks like that are down here along Interstate 10 and the southern part of the states, they camp all year long. Right. We camp all year long. So there's constant availability being pushed into the system. But if you're up in the northeast or in the snow country where they physically close for a season, they may not publish those dates till February, March mm-hmm. <affirmative> Right. For the summer season.
And so you'll look and say, well I know they're, they can't, they have to have space up there. Yeah, well they do. They just haven't turned on their summer booking yet because again, we're real time. Right. It's, it's all done in real time. Okay. And in fact, you'll even see it when you get to the booking and checkout screen, you'll see a little clock kind of giving you a sense of urgency <laugh> that hey, this is a, this is a hot commodity.
And you know, if you're looking at 4th of July weekend somewhere and you see one spot left in the park Yeah. And you better be ready to jump on it. Yeah. And I tell people, you know, I know some people are skittish about e-commerce and credit cards, although I think most everybody's realized that it's extremely secure. I tell people, don't hesitate. Put your card information in. It's all secure. We use Stripe as one of the, the, the major payment gateways out there for developers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that way when you see that little clock, you don't have to go back looking for your purse or wallet from the back of the coach, you know, to dig out that three letter code Yeah.
To make that card work. Yeah. There's no place to quote hold a reservation in real time. You know, it's like book Okay.
Bam. I like it. And it's much more involved than we had originally anticipated. Yeah.
Yeah. It's extremely powerful. I'll tell you, our chief product officer and chief technology officer, both of those guys are exceptionally skilled at what they do and have created this user experience that is second to none. It's far exceeded my wildest dreams of what I felt like we could get into. And now, like I said, with the website and everything that's been launched, we've had great adoption of that. You know, and the more reservation systems we get to sign up, it's becoming the place to put, you know, your parks.
I think really here within the, by June we we'll have probably the, if not very close to the largest aggregation of immediately bookable parks. Okay. So again, that's different from like RV Parky or Compendium or some of these other systems. Not to downplay those because that's the way we all worked. Those are all directory systems. Right,
Right,
Right. And does Spot2Nite include campgrounds in national parks and things like that? Or are these mostly private parks?
These are mostly private parks. We do have a handful of public land parks that it seems as though the local jurisdiction did kind of a commercial off the shelf purchase and just bought a booking system that was available without having to develop their own mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so there are some public lands in their public campgrounds. We are negotiating with the, uh, booking system that's used by those parks right now. Oh. By the state parks. And hopefully we'll have some news in the coming weeks as well.
Okay, good.
Yeah, I like it.
I think that's gonna be a little bit more involved because, you know, it's all contractual bid process.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's always fun.
But what I really, what excites me the most, I think about opening this up with national parks and state parks is that we present a common user platform. Right. So it doesn't really matter what booking system they're with. The traveler gets so accustomed to saying, oh, here, this is a book instant spot here. Here's how I saved that park. This one shows me the maps. That's great. I like that this one has amenities. Oh, here's the rules and cancellation policies. It's all right here. Oh, in one place for my card, boom. <laugh>.
And it's paid. And so it's not like you have to look at different systems every time you find a different park. Yeah, yeah. It makes it so that it's like the hotel business, which is sort of the the gold standard. Yeah,
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, we modeled a lot, you know, following the technology and growth curves of that particular hospitality industry. And, and I think really, if anything, we're probably in our end camping probably 10 years behind, you know, and what you could do. But now think about this for a minute because what we accomplished was no small task. Right. You know, you, when you call or get on your booking app for hotel, you just said, I want a king, king room mm-hmm. <affirmative> this week in, or you're not telling them that I need hot and cold running water and a toilet.
I need 50 amps on this wall. I'd like cable and wifi <laugh>. That's what we do Spot2Nite, every day when we look Right. Right. We, we give, have so many filtered characteristics. Oh, by the way, and, uh, in case you're wondering, uh, I'm five feet, eight inches tall <laugh>. Right. You know,
My dog's name is Sadie
To have. Yeah. I have one dog. No, they're not on the, the, uh, unacceptable breed list. Oh, the paper. You know, there's so many qualifying criteria in booking a campground that, that really, when you sit back and think, oh my gosh, all of that's weighed into here. Yeah. Oh, I was just writing on a blog that I'm working on a, a blog about memberships because, you know, I think, uh, it's all about everybody likes to memberships. We probably all have a handful of cards in our wallet. Right. We did that from the very beginning, you know, and I, I, again, I talk about how I literally stood at a counter and kind of went through the booking process with my wallet cards in the order that I pulled 'em out and whatnot so that I could see.
And, and the park owners always say, well, gimme this, say military discount cuz we give the most.
Okay, great. So they take that card. So our logic does the same thing if our travelers build their profile and under memberships, put in whatever cards, clubs they're in, travel clubs or whatever. And if the park has authorized that on the backside when they set up and we, we, we build them out and we ask about all that and it shakes hands in the apps, you will get the same discount. Okay. Now, travelers will generally show their card when you get there and the person will say, you know, kind of like, just like going to a hotel, right.
When you, they say, show me your whatever card military discount card, for instance, show me your, uh, your id because we don't send pictures or anything like that, but you'd have to verify when you get there. But they will include that at time of checkout if they authorize it.
Now many parks feel like, you know, they discount the rate online cuz they feel like there's, they don't have any labor handling, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so they discount the rates a bit and some of 'em say that's our discount. Right. We, we give everybody online a discount. Right. But we all like discounts and sales, so I tell everybody to put 'em in there. Yeah. <laugh>. Absolutely. I have the ability to add, uh, the organization. So if there's, uh, I, you know, if somebody's got a new club that I haven't stumbled across yet, they can always email us at support@spot2nite.com and I can add it in there real quick.
Yeah. And you can also, uh, as the listeners are traveling around, they can advocate to parks and go, you know, I usually use this booking
System Yeah.
<laugh> and makes it easy. So maybe you should look at it. Yeah.
You actually brought up a great point on the main screen of the app, there's down at the bottom there's our ambassador program. And for that particular one, just like what you said, let's say you're in a park and you recognize the lo you have all the booking logos down there from the companies that we've connected to. And they say, yeah, we're on, uh, that, that when they were watching the app and then you hit us up, we hit them up, they, uh, strike a, uh, yeah, we wanna be in there. Then we'll do a uh, we do a little travel credit for you.
Okay. And you're officially a part of the ambassador program. I like It. Okay, perfect.
And then we're also, we're rolling out the, I guess I would say the next up from ambassador, which would be our advocate program. And these will be targeted individuals. It'll be more of a, uh, geographic targeted area and the advocates will work those areas, building the park relationships for us. And we anticipate that they'll also be doing some rallies for us, you know, helping us with rallies. Okay. Getting our name out there.
Excellent.
I like it. So you guys are, you guys have been busy
<laugh>? We have been, it's been very fast. Well, let's see, we're three years now, I guess. Yeah. Three years
Now. You had also mentioned integrations with things like RV Trip Wizard. Yes. So tell us about that.
Yeah, so, uh, RV Trip Wizard, we work closely with the guys over there with, Andy and Patrick and have actually loaded a collection of parks, destination parks in their system as a trial so that we could see how that worked. We had very good conversion and so now we're looking down the road at how do we just load all of our spots in there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, just so that now you'll be able to get your, what is it? Uh, pro membership I think. So you can use the Trip planner, Uhhuh <affirmative>, and see everything and book it all right there.
Now of course, when you go to hit the, the booking link, it will jump over to a Spot2Nite Window and that reservation will occur over there. But you'll, you'll stay, you'll still have your mainframe travel.
Oh. I've been working on planning our trip to the Southern states and that's where I do that planning is in Trip Wizard. So I'm gonna be able to test that out.
Yeah, yeah. And, and they may, um, I I think we put like 20 in there so you, you know, you may see them, it may not, but Okay. Until, because we're just kind of a beta test on that. Okay. It's all about what we can get done before the first of the June, you know, when the real season kicks off. Right. But certainly give it a shot and then just flip back and forth. Keep two screens open. If you're driving down the road road and you see you're going through I 10 in Louisiana, just hit the button. I just activated a brand new resort yesterday close to the Texas, Louisiana border on the, the Sabine River. Okay. And, uh, little got a little bit of a Lady River going there. It looks beautiful. A brand new park. Uh, so even my home state is coming along. I'm excited <laugh> for the conversions along here.
Super. Well I'm glad that we crossed paths again because I didn't realize all of the things that you had added and all the capabilities of Spot2Nite. So it sounds like a great tool to help plan and book travel. Yeah.
Yes, indeed. Well, thank you. I, and again, like I, I really appreciate a chance to update and share all of the, uh, new features cuz we've, we've really come a long way. We've worked hard. Our teams work constantly on this. We're quite nimble on our development. So if we get good feedback from the travelers on something, we can make an adjustment and and work that way. And we're still rolling. So the eight reservation systems, six of them are live right now. So that's why I'm counting on another 500 parks or so before one June.
Okay.
Wow. Great.
We'll be doubled. Yeah.
We'll Be doubled. So it really will be Spot2Nite and beyond <laugh>.
Yeah. It sounds like the functionality has far outgrown the name, although it's still a great, it's a great name. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah. I really see this availability of immediate booking in real time and the data feedback that we provide makes all the difference in the world for travelers that now you can just really just pull the phone out and if you can get a last minute call that, Hey, I got off work early today. Can we go to the campground tonight? Boom. <laugh> can pull the phone out. Yeah. Yeah. I like the website and find out what's available. Oh, and I forgot to tell one, one last thing. While you're driving, when you're stopped to get gas or whatever, you can do the parks near me button right on front and center on the app.
Mm. And it will reset to your current location and show you those parks that are available for tonight. Okay. If you're tired and wanna stop. Yeah.
And that's more on keeping with the name. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah, because that's really kind of how we started. I, the funny story there, I was literally on uh, godaddy.com at night coming up with names <laugh> and checking URLs.
Oh
Okay. And bought that one. And then the next week, the following week I was on the phone to Australia talking to our first partner, which was RMS Cloud, getting a developer kit from those guys. Wow. And then we were off <inaudible>.
Wow. And I would imagine since you see all these reservations, you're also probably seeing some interesting trends in booking.
Oh yes. Yeah. Actually this summer was, this past season was really interesting cuz I started seeing, I saw a gentleman that was booked several in a row. Right. And I thought, well this is pretty cool. And I reached out to him and you know, he was actually in England and was flying over Uhhuh renting a van and doing his trip. Cool. In Spot2Nite. He said, you know, I'm in the uk. I said, well I figured that cuz I couldn't, couldn't figure out how to call you quickly, but it's no problem cuz I was stationed over in Germany for five years.
Oh. I said, so I'm respectful of the time difference and know how to work all of that, you know, so Yeah. So you can see that. And I'll tell you the other thing, talking about trends I'm already seeing, you know, July 4th, Labor Day, Memorial Day, I'm seeing holiday bookings this far out already. Yeah,
I know. It's gonna be tight this year because what was it last year they sold 550,000 RVs and that, you know, you add that to the RVs that have already been out there and there's a lot of folks who have recognized how awesome this lifestyle is. Right.
It's so true. And they're building and selling so many more RVs way far in excess of the amount of available spots, right. For campers. Right. And so the ability to have technology like this that will actually do all the legwork for you mm-hmm. <affirmative> is, is a real game changer for campers. You know, it, it's, it's huge. I've had people at the shows come to me and say, you know, okay, I'm gonna spend all of my time, precious time looking at parks, calling places or I can just pull your app out.
And so that's exactly why.
Yeah.
Yeah. It, it makes pull it out, it makes the whole experience, it brings it into the modern times
<laugh>,
Right? It does. Yes. Yes. <laugh> It does. And it, like you said, it frees up more time to enjoy camping. Yeah.
Which is, you
Know, to be sitting there by the fireside chatting, I mean instead of fretting where are you gonna be next? Where are we gonna go next? Yeah. You know, how do we have those reservations man?
Well it turns making a reservation into Stressless Camping.
Oh
No, that's perfect <laugh>. It is the epitome of Stressless Camping.
Absolutely. Yes
Indeed. Yep.
Well Terry, thank you so much for your time today and for the tool you've created. It really, it is a game changer. Yeah. We look forward to crossing paths with you in the real life. Yeah. In a few weeks here I think.
Yeah. We will be in your, in your neck of the woods so we'll keep in touch and maybe we'll get together and find one of those breweries nearby.
I'm all over that.
Come on down to Louisiana and as we say Laissez les bons temps rouler: let the good times roll
Yeah, that, that sounds like a slogan. I need to learn
<laugh>,
I'll send it
To you. Yeah, sounds good. So we also have questions we ask. One of those is, what is your best RV memory
Or your best camping memory? What is your best camping memory? There
You go.
Okay. So my best camping memory is camper number three, which was our Jayco Seneca <laugh>. We were team camping with a friend of ours and he was in his Newmar Ventana and the campground spots were separated by a nice row of hedges, trees, you know, at about chest height. And all of a sudden I hear all of this commotion coming from the side of his camper only to discover he had not fully connected his black tank.
Oh no.
And he, he had enough. Yeah. It was the funniest thing, <laugh> to see, to see this go on there and uh, we just had the best time camping that trip together that was so funny. And all of our families were there. So you know, we had, I think we had 10 people in in the Seneca that time.
Nice. Oh
Man. Massive number must <inaudible>. Yeah, it was great. It was a great time.
That's one of those situations where first you see it and then you say it.
<laugh>. Yes. <laugh>. So then conversely, what is your worst camping memory?
My worst camping memory. I say it is always around getting rained on, right. <laugh>, um, going to a campground where you're flooded out because it's just has so much rain and although there's a lot to do in the, uh, you know, to sit into the camper with family and whatnot. And we certainly do all of that. We bring games and we seem to make great times together with the family. But when you're just cooped up in a camper in the pouring rain and then when it stops and you come out and everything is still flooding.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit frustrating. Fortunately, knock on wood, I've not really had any mechanical issues probably because you know, my background, like I said, as a nurse I really stay up on things and I have a, you know, a walk around where I make sure everything's working, you know, and it's not gonna leave me stranded on the road. Yeah. I've been fortunate. I'm not, uh, knock on wood, never had a blowout <laugh> on the RV pretty, you know.
Excellent.
I did have on the second, the first RV was that Ford four 60 engine that had back in the, uh, I guess that was in the late eighties, early nineties, uh, that had the, the uh, what was it? The exhaust manifold cracks. Yeah, leak and uh, yeah. Had that warranted out once and I think it, I think it happened again, you know, before I ended up selling it. You just came the doghouse while you're driving and that thing, it just would heat up where Yeah, it almost burned you.
Oh yeah. <laugh>. It's so hot. Well cool. The best is my, I, one of the other funny stories is when I, my buddy calls me up and he says he has a mission, we're going to Tampa to look at a camper lazy days. And he says, you know, I know you, you've had a couple of those and this was before I bought number three.
Right. So I was learning all about getting refreshed on the, the nuances of the Newmar and then I'm talking to my wife and I said, I think I see camper number three. And she says, cuz I was looking, that's when I first discovered the super C, you know. Oh yeah. She said, Broussard, it better slide and drive <laugh>. She didn't wanna be in another, but the one we had right before was a 25, 27 foot trailer with no slides. So it was like a shipping container on wheels, <laugh>, she wanted one that opened up.
You know, that's when slides, that was the cat’s meow Right when you had slides
<laugh>. Well on that note, we will let you get back to your day and, and we really appreciate your time. Okay.
Yeah, thank you so much,
Y'all take care. Thank you very much. You too.
Thank you. Thank you.
So that is a pretty awesome app and I've been testing it out. I will continue to test it out as we work on the planning of our next journey and as we start our journey, I'll be updating our favorite apps blog post in a couple of weeks when I've, I've got some other things also on the burners, so I should have some new things to add to that app post.
Speaking of our favorite apps, that is one of the three presentations we will be giving in Perry, Georgia. Yes. At the F M C A convention. And if you have interest in attending the F M C A convention in Perry, Georgia, you don't even have to be an F M C A member. If you're interested in attending for the day and seeing some of basically what makes an FMCA convention, we have some free day passes and so you can message us through stresslesscamping.com and we will have them available for you until we run out
Right <laugh>. So I'm really excited about the collaboration that Terry talked about between Spot2Nite and RV Trip Wizard. Like I told Terry, we, I use RV Trip Wizard to plan all of our trips and the convenience of clicking right into a reservation system from RV Trip Wizard is gonna be a really good, helpful addition to the planning process. Another thing I really like about RV Trip Wizard is that I can add sights or locations, like if we're gonna go to a Harvest Host or a Boondockers welcome or if we're gonna Mooch Dock with a family or friends <laugh>, I can just put in those addresses and add those as destinations in RV Trip Wizard or I can use RV Trip Wizards Campground layer and find a place to stay from there.
And then it'll be really cool when I click on one of those campgrounds and it just takes me directly to Spot2Nite and then I have one less step to worry about. Yeah. Another great feature of RV Trip Wizard is that I can tell the system how far I wanna drive, how far Tony wants to drive in a day, <laugh> and I can find a destination that's the right distance away. So if I know point A and point B and I know that they're 1200 miles apart, then I know how many days it's gonna take to get there and I can make stops along the way.
We also have a discount to RV Trip Wizard and the whole RV Life system. We have a 25% discount when you use the word STRESSLESS, all caps in the coupon code. And one of the things that RV Life did with us is lets you actually try out the full system. So if you look at our website on our discounts and deals page, there is a link to RV safe navigation. You can actually go and try out the system and there are links in the show notes of this.
And at the RV discounts and deals section of the Stressless Camping website.
This week we have a gadget review that I didn't do.
That's right. My nephew Corey, was kind enough to take from us a TPMS system, a tire pressure monitoring system that we had received. You know, our truck and our trailer both have them built in so we didn't know where to attach <laugh> that system and Corey said that he could use it. So the review that Tony's gonna give you now is actually from Corey.
From Corey. And so it is the Tymate tire pressure monitoring system. To be honest, it's a relatively inexpensive system between 70 and 80 bucks on Amazon and I've seen other tire pressure monitor systems in the three to $400 range. Wow. So yeah, it's, it's relatively inexpensive. The pluses are, you basically replace the caps on the valve stems, which are called the Schrader valves. Oh. So you replace those on your vehicle and it comes with four of those.
There's a device that you put in your vehicle and that shows you what the tire pressure is on your four tires. The neat thing is that can either be charged with a power port or cigarette lighter or it also has a solar panel on the top so it can charge itself with that. Nice. These do show tire pressure, Corey said they're fairly accurate. He was pretty happy with how accurate it is.
They also show if there's a rapid loss of tire pressure, so that means a hole in the tire or a blowout and it also will report if the tire is excessively hot and you can set all those parameters in the main unit. So you know, you tell it what tire pressure is supposed to be and what temperature and all of that and it'll warn you when it goes outside of that. Not a bad system at all and not expensive as some of these are.
It's probably not quite as elaborate or good as a $400 system, but well probably, you know what, it's better than not having one so. Right. I would say for 80 bucks on Amazon, why not? Right. So it's the Tymate tire pressure monitor system.
Thank you again Corey for Yeah Corey checking that out for us and we hope that you never find that there is an emergency with your tires, but if there is, hopefully this will
Help. Yeah, and Corey's a very cool guy so I'm glad that he said yeah, I'll help you out.
Oh yeah. So did anybody else help you reviewing your RV of the week <laugh>? No,
Actually that one is is all me <laugh> and it's interesting as you know we provide articles to a number of places including Girl Camper and one of the things that I get requests for a lot are small class C RVs and we've found the Thor Compass 23 TE as the RV of the week. List price is 160,000. But I saw them for about a hundred thousand dollars and you might go woo doggies, but for that money it's a better value to me than a Class B.
It has a real bathroom that extends across the entire width of the rear. So I really like that it has a really good kitchen. There's a televator, so it has a Murphy bed in a slide on the roadside and that Murphy bed is not bad. There are wooden slats so that the mattress doesn't get moldy. The bad thing on that though is it is a shorty queen, but it does face the tv so that's kind of cool. <laugh>
A lot of motor home features and if you have a motor home, you know like typically they have generators. Yes this does. But one of the things I like is a lot of Class Cs tend to come with residential refrigerators, whereas this comes with a 12 volt fridge, but oddly enough a separate 12 volt freezer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So yeah, it's kind of interesting how they put this together. It's got a really tall ceiling height. It's a six foot eight inch interior height.
It's based on the Ford Transit all-wheel drive platform. So another little feather in its cap. Mm-hmm <affirmative> is all-wheel drive. There's a lot of good things that I thought were well designed. It's got tankless water heater, skylight over the cab. The things that I thought were real downsides were that it had a plastic toilet. I mean come on, Thor 160 grand and you're putting a plastic toilet in and then the front seats don't swivel around to face the back, which is dumb would be the way I'd put it.
Well sure, I mean
That's part of the reason for having a motor home. Right, right.
<laugh>, Josh winners, our friend Josh, the RV nerd described this as 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag. We like that expression. Yeah, I would agree with that. And a couple of things that Thor could fix and you'd have a real winner here and that's that toilet and swiveling the front seats. But other than that, a real nifty package in a small container that I believe would fit in a normal parking space. Oh right.
And one of the Facebook groups that we troll, as it were <laugh>, there was a photo of underneath the slide mechanism on their travel trailer and the mounting bolt, the bracket that holds the bolt to the slide mechanism broke off and it was a weld that broke.
But I suspect it may have been caused by rust though I don't know cuz it wasn't like super rusty, but there was rust on the frame.
And so my advice is to crawl around under your RV and just look for rust or any signs of corrosion because they had the slide out and could not bring the slide in. And the remedy is you had to call a mobile welder and have that bracket repaired and you know, that's not cheap. So it's better to do that at home than in the campground. So rust is definitely something to look for under your RV because it can cause failures like this poor camper whose bracket literally sheared off on a, maybe not a good, weld maybe a good weld but definitely a rusty one.
So, okay. Something to look for.
Yeah. So every week, as you know, we have a question of the week
On our fun and friendly stresses camping podcast Facebook group.
That's right. And last week I wanted to know what would you most like to learn from a seminar, bootcamp, whatever you wanna call it. Like what class would you first sign up For? And I was surprised at the responses cuz they were relatively consistent. Yeah.
So some of them are kind of fun. Like Bryan wants to know how to use the itty bitty teeny weeny oven <laugh>. A few people wanted to have classes on how to back up and tow. And that is, I mean, that's great. A couple people actually said they'd like to learn from someone who isn't their partner because maybe they and their partner, you know, love each other and want to continue to love each other. <laugh>. Yeah.
I'm sorry for what I said when I was Backing up at The campground. Right. How many of us have seen that shirt or coffee mug or whatnot?
A lot of people just wanna know how to inspect and maintain their whole rv, their whole travel trailer or their whole rv and as Bill said, repairs that you can do while you're on the road because some things, you know, maybe you want to know that you need to take it in for service and some things maybe you can just service on your own and not have to find a place to take it, which would be nice.
Yeah. There's no bigger bummer than you're on the road and you have to bring your RV in for something. Yeah.
Tom wants to learn about solar, solar, solar as he wrote <laugh>. I don't know if there's an echo or if he's just really, really interested in solar.
All he has to do is call ABC Upfitters.
That's true. Debbie really wants to know the basics. She said she's still learning how her small travel trailer works after she used to have a popup and she's a little overwhelmed about how all these things work. So she would take every class <laugh>.
We may have an update about that.
We may, yes. Coming Up soon. Yeah, stay tuned everybody.
Betsy wants to know how to grease her wheel bearings.
That's a good thing to know. And Michael Bracewell, our friend, the travel trailer guy does have a really good video about that.
Right. And a couple people, I think one might have copied the other one, but the term cranky vintage trailer issues came up a couple of times. <laugh>. Yeah. So I think those people need to listen to our episode about Camp Nation Expo and maybe see if they can join that or if I, I can't remember exactly who said it. So if you're farther East coast, maybe you need to try to look up Tim Heintz and see if he can give you any tips and pointers.
And We had an interview with Tim, so we'll put a link to that in our show notes.
And Thomas said he would like to see a good general training course on RV system troubleshooting that is displayed in flowchart philosophy, which sounds like a very good idea. And it would help people quickly know if they are capable of making the repair or if they need a technician. Also, he points out that it would save technicians time when they are doing repairs.
That is a really, really good idea. I like it.
Yeah. So thank you all for letting us know where your, where your weak spots, where you feel your weak spots are and I hope that everyone finds the training they need. We are, as Tony said, we maybe have a little bit of information about some upcoming training. Well, um, yeah, that's, we don't know much more To Say right now to say right now, now, but,
But we may have some pretty cool news coming up, so. Yep. Obviously stay tuned.
So this week I'm kind of curious, do you decorate your camp site? I know a lot of people decorate the inside of their camper and that kind of feels sort of, you know, permanent. Like you don't have to change it or set it up or take it down every single time, but do you actually set up your site? You know, do you just put a rug or do you maybe stick some flamingos in the ground? <laugh> or <laugh>? Of course this is one of those questions that demands answers with pictures.
Oh yeah. And the And the better. The better.
Yeah, for sure. And of course where you would want to answer and post those pictures is on our fun and friendly Stressless Camping Podcast Facebook group.
Whew. Man. It's a long name.
It's a long name but it's a fun group full of fun people. We really don't have a problem keeping it friendly. People are very nice and and kind and friendly and we don't have to give very many people the boot, which is nice. <laugh> because that takes too much time out of my day.
Right. And did you know we did a once a week newsletter? That's absolutely, totally and completely free.
That's true. We have links to stories, videos, and, and podcasts that will help you get the most out of your RV experience. Yeah,
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You know, a review will help others find the Stressless Camping podcast and having more listeners means we get these awesome guests.
That's right. So thank you to those of you who have written reviews. They really, really help us a lot. And they help other people too, because if someone's looking for a good podcast and they read the reviews that say, this is a good podcast, hopefully they'll believe
It. Yeah. <laugh>, who knows?
<laugh>.
Anyway, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate you. We hope you are anticipating a great season of awesome camping. Yes. And with that
Happy
Camping
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
Someone stole the tent.
Let the good times roll.