Hosting a movie night at your RV park is a fun opportunity to build a positive and memorable experience for your park’s visitors. Here are 5 keys to hosting a successful movie night at your RV park.
Hosting social events at your RV park is a great way to create a positive experience for your campers, and it often translates to more return visitors and better online ratings and reviews. Besides being a great opportunity to promote your park, if done correctly, hosting social events (like movie nights) can be a fun opportunity to get to know your residents and differentiate your park from the others. Here are 5 keys to hosting a successful movie night at your RV park.
Movie nights are a hit because most campers love to enjoy some leisure time after exploring the outdoors or driving. The challenge: most RV parks also host movie nights, so it’s helpful to find creative ways to make yours unique.
To start, keep these two simple business goals in mind when hosting a movie night:
- Your event will create such a positive experience for the campers that they will leave wanting to return soon.
- Your event will offer a such unique experience that your campers will want to tell their friends about it and recommend your park online.
The second one is especially important because now that we live in the internet age, customer reviews and referrals by word of mouth are key components to driving any business. Having great reviews on sites like TripAdvisor or RoverPass will attract RVers to your park!
Lastly, here are some key tips to hosting a successful movie night:
1) Safety First
Nothing is more essential than safety. This includes checking the weather forecast, providing secure wiring for all of your electronic devices, having camp security monitor the area, and making sure all of your equipment is set up properly so nothing falls on to anyone. This is very important in the 5 keys to hosting a successful movie night at your RV park.
2) Provide adequate screen size and sound effects
Ever watched a great movie on a tiny screen? We hope not because it’s not very fun. What you don’t want is a movie night that gets an amazing turnout only to hear complaints from your audience that your screen was too small.
The screen size you should choose depends on the size of your viewing area and the maximum number of campers you’re able to have at your park. Just to be safe, it always helps to go a little larger than what would you’d expect.
Additionally, make sure your speakers are powerful enough so that everyone in the audience, including the people in the back, will be able to hear the movie.
3) Pick an appropriate movie
Choose a movie based on the demographic of your campers. For example, if a lot of your campers are families, it wouldn’t be wise to screen an R-rated film replete with adult language and violence.
Speaking of relevance, show a movie that campers have heard of and they would like to see. If you have a young audience, don’t show a classic from the 1940s. It might be a great movie, but it’s just not relevant to your audience. The campers are more likely to attend your movie night if the movie is something they’ve heard of and fits the time and setting. Another of the 5 keys to hosting a successful movie night at your RV park.
A great example is when Alamo Drafthouse screened Jaws at man-made lake in Texas Ski Ranch (featured below). They even had swimmers sneak up to the tubes and scare the movie viewers for a fun effect.
4) Make the seating more than just comfortable
Most parks put the burden on the campers themselves to bring seating so preparing unique seating is actually a way to differentiate yourself from other RV parks.
A great example of this is how Shooting Star RV Resort features 1960s classic cars as seats for their movies (featured above).
5) Create an elaborate or creative atmosphere
When you walk into a restaurant, you feel the atmosphere of the place before you even catch a glimpse of the food. If you’re not feeling the atmosphere, it’s very likely you’ll decide to leave before even looking at the menu.
If you and another RV park screen the same movie but the other park puts more effort into the setting, their movie night will be more memorable than yours.
Atmosphere is a combination of everything: seating, lighting, decorations, snacks, etc. The atmosphere you create will directly impact the experience of your campers. That experience is the deciding factor whether those campers will ever return to your park or recommend you to their friends. We hope you enjoyed these 5 keys to hosting a successful movie night at your RV park.
Leave a comment, and tell us how you make your RV park movie night unique and fun!
