Wor Camping Options

[RLM]

There has not been much discussion on the website about work camping so I decided to start the topic. I am sure that there are members of the site who do work camping and some that would like to get into it. I suspect that both categories could improve the learning curve for each other.

Some ideas to respond to:

1- Who works for only a free site and who works for the money? Why do you do either?
2- What's the best way to get started?
3- Because of the lack of work camping experience and competition for jobs, does one have to accept the first offer even if it isn't suited for you?
4- How much effort and time does it take to get the idea work camper job? What is involved?
5- Is work camping in a commercial campground preferable to a public one like a national park or forest service?
6- What is your best and worst experience?
7- For those who have work camped, what is the one (one only) valuable piece of advise you could give someone considering it?
8- For those who are just getting into the work camping thing, what's the most annoying aspect of the process?

[westernrvparkowner]

From a work camper employer's side of things, here is what we offer, consider and look for. We have always hired our work campers from either referrals from previous work campers, a cold call from someone looking to work camp or an e-mail from a prospective work camper. We do not use workkamper.com or any similar service. We look for people who are flexible in abilities and have a willingness to do what is needed to make the campground operate smoothly. We don't usually have a set criteria for skills. A pleasant attitude goes far. If someone has a long list of things they can't or won't do, they are not a fit for our small business. Unfortunately, cleaning toilets and cabins is a task that we need done, we cannot pay people to only escort people to their sites, or only take reservations or only be our "wifi guru". Our work campers must multi-task. We pay $8.00 per hour and require some hours each week to be worked for the site. We sell all our sites every day during the time we need our work campers, so each site we have occupied by a work camper reduces our revenues by $1500. or so a month. WE feel that there is value having your site provided and having to work a few hours for that site is fair. I have read where some work campers feel this is the campground taking advantage of the work camper. I am sure there are many campgrounds where giving up a site really doesn't cost the campground revenue since they have more sites than paying guests, but that is not the case in our area. Also, if you took a job at Wal-mart or a fast food restaraunt you would get no lodging consideration. We make sure husbands and wives have the same days off and we feel that having people work longer days but fewer days each week gives them more time to enjoy our area. We look for people who want to work camp to suppliment their funds while they are enjoying the attractions in our area, we do not look for people who "just need a job". Our work campers are people who are on vacation, who happen to work.