Your campground should serve a wide target demographic while serving your interests. You must decide whether you’d like to serve a wider market by including children in your campground plan or prefer to cater to adults and create a unique camping experience with a vibrant nightlife. 

Something to consider when you make your decision is the extra attention you must pay to health and safety where children are concerned. Parents tend to become litigious if their child is injured, and they want to avoid liability by adhering to strict health and safety compliance.

Top Tips For Creating A Kid-Friendly Campground

When planning the infrastructure, layout, and amenities at your campground, consider incorporating these ideas to target families as your target audience.

Creating Restrictions For A Safe Environment

Health and safety are foundational elements of your business and child safety is of the utmost concern. When planning your health and safety strategy, consider whether the following restrictions would make your campground safer for children:

• Alcohol restrictions: Children should be free to play throughout the day and stay up late during their camping vacation. If there is alcohol present, this could lead to safety issues for children. Restricting alcohol on the premises, or restricting it to a certain area of the campsite, will make the campsite safer.
• Legal terms and conditions: Create terms and conditions that clearly state that parents are responsible for minding their children on site and that you are not responsible for any harm that could come to unsupervised children at the campground.
• Barriers and restricted zones: If there are areas that are unsafe for children, you should mark them clearly with signage and create barriers to entry. For instance, if there is a risk of fall or a steep drop, this should be signed properly, and access to the area should be restricted.

These are just a few ways you can use restrictions to make your campground safer for both parents and children.

Incorporating Kid-Friendly Activities And Amenities

To reach your target audience, consider the various child-oriented attractions you can include in the guest experience.

Food & Drink

Ice cream, pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, and special treats can make a child’s holiday complete. Including food events such as food trucks and ice cream shops in your campsite plans can make the site more marketable to children and families. You can even support local businesses by allowing food trucks to visit your campsite and serve food on certain days of the week!

Selecting nutritious food and providing clean drinking water will help your campsite market clean living for families – so make your selections wisely.

Playground

Playgrounds allow children to get creative, play hide and seek, and stay active throughout the day. Consider installing astro turf to reduce the chance of slips, trips, and falls, while providing a low-maintenance and durable surface for play. They also allow parents some peace and quiet without feeling the need to entertain their children throughout the vacation. 

When planning your playground, think of safety first. You want to reduce the chance of slips, trips, and falls to avoid liability and broken bones!

Local Activities And Family Days Out

Bonfires, zip lining, candle making, and hiking should be just a short car ride away from your campsite if you hope to attract families with young children. Choose the location for your campsite wisely, as most families will need more than nature’s beauty to make their vacation enjoyable. 

Animals

Being situated in nature allows you to include animals in your unique selling point. Having farm animals and a small petting and feeding zoo at your campsite will seriously boost interest from families, and will keep the children entertained for hours.

Providing Security

Security measures help you ensure your campground is safe and that only campground guests are allowed to enter. Here are the top security technologies to install at your kid-friendly campground:

• Cloud-based security cameras: A cloud-based system allows you to view security feeds from anywhere, even if you’re not on location. Managing safety on-site requires awareness of incidents, and security cameras give you complete visibility. Not to mention, they protect your interests by providing evidence should a crime or accident occur on-site.
• Gated security: You should provide gated security at the entrance to the campsite, ensuring only guests with keycards are allowed to enter. Using a pin pad entry system leaves room for guests to share the entry code with others, and so isn’t an advisable solution for your campsite.

Implementing these measures is essential and should be included in your budget before setting up your site.

Summary

Making your campground kid-friendly only serves to enhance your revenue. Most campers are families with young children, and by tailoring your experience to this demographic, you can attract the majority of campers and create unique selling points that make you stand out from your competitors. Consider the points listed above, and begin creating your business plan for a child-friendly campsite.