How to read an RV park or campground deal
A park earns its money one occupied site-night at a time. Nightly guests, monthly residents, seasonal contracts, and cabins each use the calendar differently, so build your revenue from the nights each site is open for booking, then take out the work and the bills it takes to serve guests.
Build the year before you judge the summer
The basic view runs sites × nightly rate × 365 × annual occupancy. If your park only opens for part of the year, turn your season's occupancy into a full-year equivalent before you enter it. The advanced inputs let you test seasonal rates and a stay mix; they're a simplified model, so check them against a monthly reservation forecast. And don't offer a site nightly when a monthly contract already has it.
Include the costs of every revenue stream
Store sales, laundry, and rentals bring in money and bring their own costs: labor, inventory, fees, maintenance. Price those in alongside taxes, insurance, staffing, utilities, roads, drainage, water, wastewater, and electrical capacity. Your own hours count too, so keep a management line in the budget even if you plan to do the work.
Separate operating income, debt, and capital
NOI is revenue after operating costs, before financing and before the capital projects you budget separately. The cash-flow result is annual for the whole property, after the modeled loan payments. Reserves, major replacements, and income taxes sit outside that figure, so add them if they aren't already in your expenses. The default cap rate, occupancy, and expenses are example numbers, not a forecast; trade them for local evidence as you gather it.
Then try a shorter season, fewer bookings, and a bigger utility bill. Keep a monthly cash plan too: a park can finish the year positive and still run short in the weeks before opening. The RV park valuation guide has a worked nightly-and-monthly revenue example, the valuation calculator handles NOI divided by a cap rate, and the glamping guide covers furnished accommodation if you're weighing that too.
Pin down your season length and your utility bill first; everything else here gets easier to trust.