Beyond the Parking Lot: How RV Overnights Is Turning Small Businesses Into Your Next Campsite

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey there. So this is kind of confession time. So I've stayed in probably more parking lots the first couple years we traveled than most people. That could be truck stops. We don't do that anymore. Church parking lots, that sort of thing. But you had to always go in and ask. Here's what I didn't expect that someday I'd pull my rig to a working farm and actually be able to stay there and buy eggs at the same time. And so that is the world that RV Overnights is building. Um and today the man behind it, well, one of them, is sitting with me today virtually across the screen. Welcome, Rob, to Learn to RV the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hi, Jennifer. And uh yeah, we're working hard over here every day. So glad uh glad everybody's enjoying you.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yes. Let's go back a little bit because first of all, you do have a business partner. So you have a business partner that I tried to talk to, like to get on, but I know you're kind of the face of the thing. But let's go back a little bit. Who is Rob? How did you get into this?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, so um, you know, I had a business for a very long time, and I eventually decided that it was time to get out of that industry. I was working a lot of nights and weekends, and my wife worked a nine to five. And uh I made a deal with my wife that when I sold that business that we would get a boat and an RV because I didn't want to be sitting around every weekend. And uh, after getting both of those, the RV stayed, the boat got sold. Boats uh are exactly what everybody tells you they are before you buy them. And that was my third boat I should have known better. I say I'll never buy another one, but we'll see, you know, how that works out. And uh yeah, um, you know, just looking at, you know, the the market and trying to make decisions on on what to do. My business partner, who's Kurt, who's also my neighbor and my friend, a lot of conversations about different things, and we decided to give this a shot, and here we are.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah. Well, and I mean, Kurt also had a business that he sold too, right? Like, I mean, when you guys got started, your entrepreneurial spirit is very much part of that ex excitement.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, I mean, my father uh was self-employed, he was an electrical contractor. Most of his friends were self-employed contractors or one thing or another. Kurt has had everything from an Italian restaurant to a car club that literally like did storage and stuff for collector cars. So, you know, he's been all over the place. I had a few contracting businesses before I went into my previous industry, which was uh audiovisual and event style rental stuff. So we both have had a deep entrepreneurial spirit, which is why I like to think that we understand our hosts so well and we understand the value proposition that we're trying to get RVers out there to deliver on for the hosts, and then the host to deliver on the value proposition for the RVers as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah. So let's go back to the beginning. Originally, you guys launched at the Hershey RV show a couple of years ago, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah. So like most companies in the tech space, we had our ups and downs, and our original up and down was somebody told us they could build the platform in a couple of months, and we were hoping to launch in April or May. And we even had a press announcement come out, I think, in March or April, um, you know, announcing that when we were gonna be launching, and the original tech company blew past that big time. And um, you know, we put in to go to the Hershey show uh in September and got in last minute through somebody else canceling, and an email went out. Like the first one to get this back gets in. We got in and I called up Kurt and I said, We're gonna have to get the app wrapped up here. We got to launch in September. So we launched with uh web only, no mobile app on the phone yet, and just about a hundred hosts, somewhere around there. And uh, you know, it was well received and we had signups, tons of signups, which was great, even with a hundred hosts. And we didn't really officially launch until the following year in April when the mobile app came out. Uh, and then it's kind of been, you know, foot to the floor ever since.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah, for sure. It's something that's kind of like both a little beautiful but terrifying all at the same time. And I know a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

It's terrifying every day, I'm not gonna lie. Um but yeah, I mean, it's it's also a lot of fun. I really enjoy building stuff, uh, and I enjoy uh I enjoy listening to what people's feedback is and then finding a way to innovate on that or or listening to it and and working through it. And that's where you know we still continue to evolve today with a lot of the stuff that we have. That's why we have the loyalty program that just came out, and that's why we added discount for pet products and different things like that. It's it's all from listening to user feedback.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, and we're gonna get into all of that today. But let's start with the plain language. Like let's start at the very beginning. So I want people to understand what RV Overnights is. Can you kind of define what RV Overnights is for the listener that's out there today?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

It's uh an RV membership that you join that gets you unlimited access to our host network. Our hosts are all small businesses uh nationwide, coast to coast, and Canada. You can stay at those as much as you'd like throughout the year. There's no fixed uh cost to stay at any of those host locations. We just ask that while you're there, you support that business. So if you're at a farm, buy produce, buy meat, take a tour, learn how to milk a cow. If it's a winery, you do a tasting, you buy a cheese plate, you buy a bottle of wine. If it is a museum, you buy tickets and go in and do a tour or whatever it is. We have some really unique and amazing host locations that offer stuff that you wouldn't otherwise find. And there's something for everybody on our platform. That's why we have 14 host categories is that um, you know, some people say they don't drink. Well, great. We have attractions, museums, barbecue joints, restaurant roadhouses. People might be in more of a charitable mood. Well, we have 501c3s labeled by animal rescue churches, or we also just have a general nonprofit category as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

That's that's absolutely fantastic. Actually, what you don't know is I've already written the blog post that companions that, which lays out quite a bit of that information as well. But let's talk about the membership price because you're pretty affordable. What does that look like right now today?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So if you join right now, uh it's$49.99 a year. You can usually find a discount off your first year, uh most places if you know you're being frugal on the first year. Uh but yeah, it's$49.99 to join. You can get a special discount if you're an FRBA member. Uh you get exclusive pricing through them. Um, and then we also offer 40% off for any military or first responders. It's our hero program. So it's verified through verify pass. You put your credentials in there and it gives you your own specific discount code. And that'll reduce your membership to$29.99 a year every year. Uh, and it's the same with the FRVA. So uh there's some some pretty good ways to get it at a lower price per year. And uh that doesn't take into account the loyalty program on renewals, but you said we're gonna get to that. So I won't.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

We are, we are. Yeah. So there's so much that you've added to this that since even I became part of the program, the rate you join at, is that the rate you keep or does that go up every year?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

No, you keep that rate. So we actually had the first 16 or 18 months that we started, you know, new company, a lot to prove, you know, have to build a name and build trust. And our host catalog was growing. So the offer that we had out there was lock in$29.99 a year for life. And we had a lot of people join at that rate. And they'll stay at that rate as long as we're in business and as long as they are still subscribed. Those that join at$49.99 a year, that rate is locked in. We're not gonna, we don't really like playing games. We're two small business owners that are consumers ourselves. I don't see the benefit in upsetting everybody that was loyal to us by raising the rate. So we're not gonna do that. It's in our terms and conditions. You can go and find it. It says the rate you join at is the rate you keep. Obviously, like first-year discounts are different. Those don't apply on renewals, but the rate that you sign up at is the rate that you'll keep if you cancel it. Uh and it goes up after that. But honestly, we don't have any plans in sight right now to really raise the price from where it's at. We want the program to be affordable and accessible, and uh we want people to find value in what we're offering.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Well, and the educational side of that alone is worth it for me with the kids, and even my teenagers will come out to like go visit the cow. I mean, like, it's great. It's great to see them, you know, come out of their element and maybe participate in that. But the other side of it is the date night aspect of it for Frank and I. If the kids don't want to go to a brewery or winery, they can eat ramen in the rig while we go out and have dinner. So it's great. I mean, I think there's something for everybody. Um, and I think it looks different for everybody on a travel day. A while back it was very different. You know, you had to go on the computer and fill out the stuff that you wanted to do, but now on the app, it's so much simpler. So talk, talk me through how it looks like if you're travel planning for your route that day. How easy is it to find a stop along the way?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, so a lot of what we built into the app comes down to functionality in filtering and selection. So there's over 27 filters in the app, and there's actually a few more that are going to be coming out in the next couple of weeks that people will find really useful. But you can search along a route. So you can put in a starting point, an ending point, you can put points in between, but it helped make sure it selects the route, the roadways that you want it to select. And then uh it'll show you hosts along that section. You can use the 14 host categories to narrow it down to just the hosts you want. So if you're with kids and you want to avoid hosts that are like a brewery or a winery, you can unselect those. But you know, you can select out of the 14 host categories, and then uh, you know, there's 26 other filters besides the host categories that you can then filter through. So everything from hookups to amenities, you know, we have them broken out by RV amenities, which would be stuff like hookups or being able to cook outside or things like that, versus location amenities. And those could be anything from if they have live music to if they have tours and tastings, or you know, pickleball is popular with our beers, you'd be surprised how many of our hosts have pickleball courts. So um, you know, you can turn those filters on if you're really looking for something specific. On top of that, we also have it's very unique to us, it's a hashtag search. So as we onboard hosts, which, you know, we have a team of people that just help with getting the host profiles ready and making sure they're chock full of information, but we add hashtags that are relative. So if, you know, we wanted to have a thousand host categories, but you can't do that. It would be impossible to go through them. But you know, you take farms for example, and there's 20, 30, 40 different kinds of farms if you were to really sit there and break it out. There's apple farms, there's cattle farms, there's lavender farms, there's, you know, like farms go forever, right? So the hashtags you can get as specific as hashtag lavender, hashtag apple picking. Uh, you know, if it's the fall and you're looking for good foliage and an area that has like those like classic views of like the trees changing, hashtag fall foliage. If you're looking for something that's near water, you can do waterfront, you can do uh beachfront. You know, we have all different hashtags. Obviously, the more filters you apply, the more limited the selection is of what's left on the map. Uh, you know, the point is that as we grow and you know get closer to say 10,000 hosts, uh, you know, you can go down from seeing a hundred host results and 20 of them are ones that you might not want to stay and get it down to eight, you know, like just being able to find the right experience for you is where the filters really make us stand out.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, I love that. So let's get into something I know is on the minds of people that may be listening today. They've heard of other similar platforms. The question that I hear a lot when we talk about RV overnights is what's actually different? So walk me through what's different between you and other platforms.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah. So um, you know, it's a big question. It's one we get often. Price is obviously a huge one. Our price is half to, you know, depending on what tier you you are with the competitor versus what discount you got with us. Like, say if you're getting a military discount or an FRBA discount, you know, we're half to a third the price of the other platforms, and in some cases, even less. And that's where I talk about wanting to make it accessible and affordable for everybody and to drive value in the program. Past that, you know, originally we always thought that it was the filtering abilities, the fact that the app has all these filters built in. But our viewers have let us know at trade shows and things like that what matters to them when it comes to standing out. And one of the things is Kurt and I have a very old school mentality of if you want to call somebody, you should be able to call somebody. If you have a question, somebody should be there to answer it. And don't get me wrong, we're not a huge team, we're not a massive company. So sometimes we don't always pick up the phone on the first ring, but somebody will always call you back. And it's actually usually Kurt through the wall here, is the one that ends up calling people back. So phone support is one of those things, and you know, we have small businesses that are host locations, so it's important for us to support them that way as well. Uh, they're providing a service to our members, and also, you know, they're a big part of our platform. So we want phone support for them. The loyalty program is really a very unique to us thing where you can earn up to 20% off your renewal, which uh there's not a lot of RV companies out there that do that. I don't know if there's any, honestly. I know our competitor doesn't, but at least from what I've looked at, nobody else does that. But the more you stay and review and upload photos, the more money you get off your membership when it renews. So there's that's a big one as well. But we've been really working on our membership discounts. So again, I want to provide value to our members. And through that, what we're doing is partnering with brands all over the RV space and related products. So we had a huge launch in the pet space where we signed up uh national partners like Dutch and Pumpkin. Those are two companies that one offers 24-7, 365 days a year access to telemedicine for RV owners that are traveling with their pets and need to talk to a vet, maybe. And they get a great discount on that. You know, so we're up well over 60 partners, you know, and up over$10,000 worth of discounts on everything from RV upgrades to RV memberships to pet products to, you know, we just got Swagman bike racks, which has one of the only bike racks rated for a travel trailer, which I didn't know that until a few weeks ago. And I said, Well, I need an e-bike rack for the back of my travel trailer. And I looked and I thought, you know, their competitor had a rack that went on travel trailers and it doesn't. Swagman does.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

That's really cool. You and I have known each other for a little bit and we partnered with you with RV Riffing Solutions, but FRVA members can save even more on that too. And so we stack discounts for our FRVA members and our RV overnight's partners. So basically, if you're both of those, you can get like for RV roofing solutions, you can get like rally pricing any time of the year if you have both of those. So it's a great way to do that. Let's talk about your stay score because that's something that's kind of different too. It's brilliant. And I don't think people talk about it nearly enough. But essentially you've built an accountability way into your system for both sides of that equation, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah, I mean, most people today are familiar with Lyft and Uber. And, you know, that was kind of where we borrowed that idea from, which is, you know, you hear all the time from members that, you know, another member showed up and they weren't happy with seeing that member there, maybe because they ran a generator at night or, you know, whatever it was. And, you know, every now and again we'll hear from a host that might not have had the best experience with a member. And we wanted some type of social accountability because as the business running this, you know, we've got thousands of locations and thousands of members, and we can't be at every single stay and keeping an eye on everybody. So just like Lyft and Uber do, you know, you get a rating after your stay. And if you cancel a stay within a certain time frame, I always say that our program is an ecosystem, right? We're a two-sided marketplace of RVers and small businesses. And the value proposition for both is the business gets a new customer, the R Vers gets a great scenic private location to stay. That ecosystem has to stay balanced. If the RVers come, they need to support the host. Uh, they need to give the host a reason to continue on providing that service, which in some cases is better than you'll ever get at any other place you would stay at. You know, I've stayed at places where it's just me on the property at night, nobody else, beautiful views, beautiful amenities. And, you know, all it cost me was a meal uh or you know, a bottle of liquor or you know, a tour of the farm.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Which you were gonna do anyway, somewhere. You were gonna eat dinner somewhere, stopping for the night. So I mean you're just putting the money somewhere back into the into the hands of actual people that host their own business. Yeah. I love that about the program, actually.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

That's the value proposition, right? Is you're getting not just a place to stay, but you're getting something for the money that you're spending. And the host is getting a customer that they otherwise might not have ever gotten. And uh, you know, when we talk to the hosts, we usually say things like, your customers, your average customers are the ones that can drive to you on a daily basis. So, you know, if you heard about an amazing brewery, you might drive two hours to go to an amazing brewery, which means that their average customer is no, you know, past two-hour radius out from the business, that's the end of their customer reach. Whereas RVers travel the nation. They travel five, six, ten, twenty hours in a car. That brings clientele to them that otherwise would have never found them. You don't know, you know, the hosts in a certain town in Nebraska that you're passing through on a major highway. You don't know the breweries there, but with our platform, you can find that brewery and come stay there. And so, you know, it's an ecosystem and the stay score um and the rating system helps keep that balanced. And that was a large part of why we built that was we want it to remain fair and honest for everybody. And, you know, making sure that uh it stays that way is really important to it working for everybody long term um and keeping everybody happy. So we're we're always focused on keeping that ecosystem balanced.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Well, and your military program is fairly new to you guys, but you know, with a husband that's a retired Marine, we always appreciate businesses that take that step forward. Choosing to put your dollars in front of that, though, says volumes about who you guys are. What made you create that decision? Because you're not military.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Uh Kurt's family has a long history of military. Uh, his grandfather and his father were both military. I have a brother-in-law who's in the military. I had tons of friends uh that chose that path. You know, honoring that sacrifice and and that part of things is really important to us. We did want to make sure that the discount was substantial uh so that it it showed you know that appreciation. And we also wanted to make sure that it was honored for what it is, which is why we partnered with Verify Pass in order to make sure that, you know, anybody off the street just can't claim it and grab that big discount that we're offering. By getting Verify Pass, it the verification process of of being in the military or a first responder is handled the right way, where we're not like asking you to send a picture your ID, which is a big no-no. Um, but it's also making sure that the discount is honored for those that deserve it.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Well, I love that RV Overnights isn't just a tech company, but it's a company that thought about all of those details and built-in programs that people could actually use. So the pet program, I know it just rolled out recently, and it's super exciting, and it's got some really neat things. And in fact, I just used it two weeks ago. My my daughter's frog, half Frenchie, half pug, and she is the dog with all the problems. She'll sniff something, get stung, we'll end up at an ER, and we never know where we're going. Well, a couple weeks ago she stopped eating. And so I actually used the telehealth side of that for a vet visit. And they said basically to take her in X number of days if she hadn't started eating. But they actually helped us even find a vet in the area that we're in currently, because we didn't know. And so they helped connect us. So it was worth its weight gold for us. It was just a wonderful add-on to that. So lots of our viewers travel with pets. Let's dive into all of the things that the pet program does because it's not just about telehealth medicine for your dog, although that is a nice perk.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

You know, it's it's a great program. Heather from our company spearheaded it and working with a lot of the partners and bringing in a lot of the brands. So, like I mentioned, we do have these big anchor partners, which are uh Dutch Pumpkin as well as Necto, who provides uh temperature monitoring, which is really important if you're leaving your pet behind. But there's well over 10 plus partners in that space, and uh the discounts exceed over a thousand dollars to get off. We've got everything from pet food, uh, different pet food brands to DNA kits to find out your pet's history as far as uh what their breeds are. And pet owners in the RV world are always traveling. They can't have a fence, so we have Spot On, which is a GPS dog fence. We have a company called Trail Tech, which is uh some really unique pet gear for people who camp. So uh stuff that's more outdoor-based, harnesses, right, leashes, things like that. And we, you know, we're we're always continuing to add to everything that we have. So uh there's more brands coming online for that as we go on. But the more that it's heard about, the more companies that reach out to us and want to join in on those discounts.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, no, it's a great offer. Um, all right. So I'm gonna twist things a little bit because this one's different. You guys actually look for farms and ranches and breweries and all sorts of things to come on board with you. And I think you said churches too. Hosting. Tell me about that program. How do they become an RV overnight host?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

So uh they can reach out to us, but we have some uh host representatives that'll answer questions and explain the program for them. There's obviously a webpage that says start hosting on our website where you can learn more information about it. We do have 14 different host categories that we can put a business under or a nonprofit. And really what it comes down to is you have to have space to park an RV, you have to have permission to park an RV, you have to have something for sale or be a 501c3 nonprofit. We do Don't allow somebody to claim to be a nonprofit that is not a 501c3. We want everybody to be legitimate and and and honest.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Um I actually love that you check that. I mean, I think that that's important. And it's an extra layer of protection for your guests as well as the people that, you know, buy into the program.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah. And you know, being completely upfront with everybody, uh, you know, we've grown really quick. We have a lot of hosts. We started with 100. We're over 1,500 today. It'll continue to grow as time goes on. At the end of the day, we are selective about who gets onboarded to our platform. We turn down potential hosting locations all the time. We review them very carefully. We look at reviews on other platforms that that business might have or that nonprofit might have. Um, we review Google aerial aerial views and driveway views to make sure that RBs would fit there. Um, you know, and at the end of the day, if we don't think it's a good fit for our members, we don't onboard the host. Um, you know, they have to have something for sale. It can't just be, you know, uh Jennifer signs up her house and you go there and then, you know, she demands$30 from you while you're there. You know, you have to have some type of business or or nonprofit, and and you have to have, you know, we can't have people signing up and their businesses in a strip mall and they don't have the right for you to park there. And at three o'clock in the morning, you get a knock on the door from the police asking you why you're in their parking lot. So um, you know, like we verify all these things ahead of time, and that's why uh, you know, we're offering safe scenic places to stay uh at verified businesses or nonprofits. And there is some being selected in there, but we want to maintain uh a good program, a valuable program. And it takes a little extra work to do that, and it costs us a little bit on not getting every location under the sun. We do have some RV parks that are our host locations, but we make sure to verify before that they sign up that you're not gonna get there and they're gonna say it's$60 to stay the night. They have to offer that first night at no fixed cost in exchange for you making a purchase while you're there, and that purchase can't be forcing you to buy electric or hookups. Uh, I've heard a lot of complaints about other platforms uh with that being the case, and we don't we don't play that game. We will kick somebody off, uh we have in the past that said that they would offer that first night at no cost, and then we get a call from a member and they said, Well, they were trying to charge me$50 and not let me buy anything. They just wanted$50 for the spot. And we did exactly that. We called it the host, verified it. They said, well, yeah, but we're you know, we're allowed to charge people to stay here. And we said, read the hosting guidelines. You need to read the hosting guidelines again. And we asked them to leave. So it's an ecosystem, it's got to stay fair and balanced for everybody, and that means everybody following the rules.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

And I love that you take care of the R Ver as well as the host, and you do both. And so that's that's a dance by itself. Um, all right, so let's shift one more time. The most unique stays in your RV overnight's network. I don't want you to pick a favorite because that just wouldn't be fair. But what would you say is some of the most unique and unexpected places, like or memorable types of stays inside the network?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

So I'm gonna broaden out your answer to a point where it doesn't list anybody in particular, but just puts out there an experience. And that experience would be privacy and seclusion that you would never otherwise get. I don't know about you, but when I bought my RB, I pictured me staying in places where it was quiet and scenic and there wasn't anybody around. And like, you know, like when I'm sitting outside the camper, it's you know, quiet, peaceful, and just me. And the unfortunate part about camping, especially ever since COVID, is that it's generally quite the opposite. You know, a lot of places you're cramped and packed in, and um, you know, even some other places, you know, you don't get that experience. But we have so many host locations where you might be the only RVR night all night, or if you are there with 10 other people, you'll never see them because the hosts tend to space everybody out so you get that unique, uh, awesome experience. That's uh, you know, it takes me back to a host that I stayed at in Tennessee. It was a distillery. They said, uh, you know, this is where you park. And I went and parked there and nothing around. And at night when the place closed down, they're like, you know, feel free to walk around if you'd like, which we usually tell members to, you know, stay in the area of their RB, don't wander around the business. But if the host gives you explicit directions otherwise, then, you know, obviously you can do that. And they're like, there's a trail right over here. Feel free to take the trail down to the spring and experience the spring and check it out. That's something that I never would have got to enjoy without our program, is that level of seclusion of being by myself in the Tennessee Hills at night with the moon shining on the mountainside and seeing the rolling hills and uh having no other RBs near me and being able to sleep with the windows open without hearing cars drive by or seeing headlights or anything like that. And those are those are the hosts that are really special, are the ones that offer something you'd never otherwise get anywhere else.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Yeah, I keep telling Frank we need to go to the goat yoga one. So he says he doesn't need the goat yoga.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

So there's like a hashtag feature comes in. You can just put in hashtag goat yoga and you'll find a bunch of hosts that have goat yoga. There's uh cow cuddling is a big one too. Goat yoga, cow cuddling.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Oh, my daughter would love the cow cuddling one.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Depending on when you can do the cow, it's funny because it's milking in reverse, right? It's feeding a baby cow with a milk bottle. Um, you know, there's that too. So there's there's all kinds of just really unique experiences out there. And that's why, you know, I I call out the scenic seclusion as as a big one, but it doesn't take just that to make a really cool experience. Absolutely I'm not on yoga in the first place, so I'm not doing goat yoga, but overall it's uh there's a lot of cool stuff out there.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Well, what I love about this is they're not places that you'd necessarily just stumble into um off a magazine cover. They're real places that exist because you found them or they found you. You know, it's these people are real people that they built a dream of their own, and now we have a way to share it with them. And so I think that's what makes it such a beautiful experience. You don't just move from point A to point B. You actually can move from experience to experience if you want to. How many of these places allow pets? Because that's a question a lot of our viewers travel with pets. Um, and you know, there's some companies out there that won't let you bring your pets on property. I read somewhere that it's over 80% of your hosts actually will allow pets on property. On a leash, of course.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

The last time I clocked it, it was 92%.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Wow. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

So last time I clocked it, it was 92%. Yeah. Um, and that's uh, you know, part of the reason why uh the pets program was so important to us is because uh industry journals overall identify that most people traveling in RBs are doing it with their pets. It's like something like 80% of RBers bring their pets with them. Uh it's one of the upsides to having an RB is you're not like traveling through an airport with a dog and you know, sticking them in the storage bay underneath the plane, which I would never do. I'd be too afraid to do that to my poor dog. He's nervous anyway, so that's a whole other story. But uh, you know, in looking at that, that's how we identified uh the pet discount program being so important, is because a lot of RVers do travel with their pets. And then when you cross-reference that with the fact that so many of our hosts allow pets and welcome them, it just makes it that much stronger of a point to say, you know, this is something you should focus on and and help out your members with.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah, no, if Frank can take Wesley with him, who is half Frenchie, half pug, and to a you know, place that serves a burger and gives a beer, he's gonna take Wesley every time. He is not a hiking dog, even though he was purchased to be a hiking dog. The only way Wesley goes hiking is on Frank's back. So he's uh 25 pounds of solid muscle, very small, but he's the size of a chihuahua, but the weight of a potato. All right. So the heartbeat of RV Overnights is you and Kurt. So what's next? I mean, there's gotta be some vision. There's gotta be a mission. Where are you headed?

SPEAKER_00 29:59

There is. Right now, we're doing some some pretty big revisions to the app, adding some more features and filters, making it more user-friendly. We've got so much data in there that it sometimes loads a little slow on slower internet connections. So our engineers have been working hard for the last few months on finding ways to slice that up a little bit easier to digest on a slower internet connection. So that should be coming out. In the world of engineering, you can say any day now, it might be any week now. Uh, it could be three years from now. Kidding about the three years, it'll be any day or any week now. But um, we're finding ways to make things load faster and improve the customer experience there on slower internet connections and just overall. And from there, we have some other plans that are uh a little bit more on the secretive side until they come out into the public eye. But we've had a busy, a busy run so far. We introduced the pet discount program and all the pet features. We've came out with the military and first responder discount, which was huge. Developing the loyalty program of the more you stay, the more you save on your renewal of your membership. But to me, that's a game changer for everybody. So, you know, we have been busy continuing to innovate and make additions to the program. And, you know, I love I'm one of the owners. I work 60, 70 hours a week. You know, I'm busy all the time. I don't have to go to every trade show that we do, but I do because I want to be there in the booth hearing from people about the good, the bad, and the ugly, and then taking that feedback, coming back to this office that I sit in way too much and figuring out what did I hear that I can make a noticeable change for everybody on? And, you know, we heard from people that, you know, RV is expensive and memberships keep raising prices. And and that came up with the idea of let's let's reward people for their loyalty. The longer you're with us, the more money you'll save. The more you stay at the host, the more you'll save. Um, you know, so it's it's stuff like that is is what we like working on. It's stuff that we're excited to release if it were us. If I was the consumer and I had my membership as a consumer, what would excite me when it came out the door? And that was one of those aha moments with the loyalty program. And uh, I don't know if you read really deep on that page, but on top of that, because now we're able to track points, yes, you may be able to max out how many points come off your membership at the end of the year. You can earn up to 20%. So if you're at standard pricing of$49.99 a year, that's$10 off. That's pretty significant, 20%. Uh, but the top 100 people in our program with the highest points in our program every year, the top 100 get a free membership for the following year. And that's a rolling thing. Every year we'll select the top 100 and you get a free year for being one of our top members. So it's it's coming up with stuff like that. Support those that are supporting us. Kurt and I appreciate every single member, every single host. In some cases, there's many that have our cell phone numbers, which you know makes it really hard to relax sometimes on a Saturday night if you got my cell phone number and you call me with something. But we wouldn't have it any other way. We want to know what's going on. We want to be accessible. That's why we have the customer support number. We want to keep innovating, we want to keep being accessible, we want to keep listening.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

You also support the industry in ways that a lot of people don't know about. For example, last year's Scavenger Hunt, you gifted me some memberships to give away as prizes. I was just at Adventure Bandits Bash down in On Alaska, Texas. Um, and they had a couple to give away. And so it's not like you give away 30 or 40, but you know, you do support each one of those communities, you know, for influencers and people that you care about and trust. And so I appreciate that as a vendor. And you know, learn to RV is just a space for people to come find stuff for free. You know, we don't do anything. We do have the second annual like scavenger hunt coming up in July. And, you know, it's it's one of those things that, you know, you give back in ways that a lot of companies don't. And so we just thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yeah, uh, it doesn't take much for us to do things like that. You know, we have a digital product, so it it makes it easy to say yes a lot of times. And Kurt just left here to go to the post office with a bunch of boxes. Those boxes have koozies and hats and stickers and uh, you know, like pamphlets about our membership. And, you know, we include door prizes in there, which is what you're talking about, which is like, you know, we usually do like a drawstring backpack with a hat and a koozie and a keychain and an air freshener and stickers, and then a free one-year membership. Uh, you know, I I can't even tell you how many of those packages go out a week to events all over from Grand Design Rallies to Winnebago rallies to uh, you know, Forest River meetups to FRVA events to, you know, like anybody that's having an event in the RB space, and it doesn't matter if there's 20 or 30 rigs at it or 150 to 300 rigs at it, we're happy to send out a box with a bunch of goodies. And, you know, everybody always goes, Oh, well, can you come? Can you come stay with us like at the rally? And I would love to, but nothing would get done. And by the time I'm done driving there and hanging out with everybody and and spending time there, uh, you know, you wouldn't see a lot of progress here. And we have a select few that we go to every year because they're easy for us to drive to or, you know, like we've been doing it for the last couple of years. My dream is to one day be on the road six months at a time, going from event to event, getting to talk to people out in the open at these events, uh, you know, sneaking in the Tiffin rallies when I have a Winnebago, being there and being front and center to answer questions and help out.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Well, the truth is though, you have a lot of great people like Learn to RV that if you ever find us at a rally, we're happy to talk RV overnights with people, even though we're there for RV riffing solutions. You know, typically we have at least their paperwork with us and a flyer with us. So if you've never heard of RV Overnights, Learn to RV is a great resource for learning new things on the market. And that's kind of what we look for. And it's kind of funny. That's kind of how we met Rob and Graham. And, you know, you don't see him everywhere you go, but sometimes, like if you're at Tampa or Hershey, there's a chance that you'll see your mascot. Let's talk about Graham.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Graham was uh one of my brainchilds uh that I get like these crazy ideas, and somebody'll try to keep me in check and be like, I don't know. And I'll say, no, no, no, no, we're gonna do it. So uh, you know, I drew up a sketch of Graham and and sent it to an artist and had them make it not look like I drew it, because that would have been bad. You know, and we we came up with Graham and he's a s'more, which makes sense for a campaign company, if you ask me. Graham like Graham Cracker. Um, it started out as you know, I wanted a mascot, so we got a mascot. And he's been a prominent figure on the website and he's in the app. And when the map is loading, Graham's jumping and waiting for you to get into the map. Uh, but you know, it it went from there to, well, I'm gonna start doing cartoons about Graham. And I don't know if you've ever seen a gram tune, but I did not. We have three or four gram tunes out there, and they're pretty funny stuff like uh him walking out of his camper, seeing people roasting marshmallows by the fire and then bolting back to his camper because he doesn't want to get roasted. Um, him, you know, going in a hot tub and then leaving, going to the grocery store and getting hot chocolate mix and coming back and putting it in the hot tub and then getting back in. Um there's there's all kinds of funny things that I came up with in this crazy mind of mine to make Graham a big part of the company. And a couple of years ago, I said we should get a Graham costume. And uh that was met with a lot of skepticism around budget, you know, like you know, we're a bootstrap tech startup. I don't think we need to go spending money on a Graham costume. And I said, I think we do. Uh, and he's been a hit ever since. So if you ever see a six-foot s'more walking around at an RV show, you know exactly who it is. And uh yeah, he's he's made appearances all over the country and all over the place, and people love getting pictures of Graham. And so he's a happy go-lucky guy who just likes to camp and stay away from the campfire.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

That's awesome. Well, Rob, thank you so much for joining us this week. This conversation, you know, it reminds me of why I fell in love with RVing, but it's all about the people and the businesses behind it. That's what Beyond the Brand was started for. I wanted people to understand that the businesses weren't just businesses, that they were real people, real genuine people that cared about the industry and what they're doing. They're campers, just like you. If you're listening to this and you ever thought to yourself, there's gotta be a better way to do this than a Walmart parking lot. There is. It's called RV Overnights. So check out rvovernights.com. Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Yeah, so you can learn more on rvovernights.com. Uh, there's a ton of info there. There's a page on RV membership, and you can click on the compare us page, uh, which will tell you more about how we compare to other programs. You can also follow us on social media. We're on all the majors Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Uh, we've got a great YouTube channel if you want to watch some videos and learn about us. Um, you know, or you can learn about us on Learn to RV. But yeah, there's there's there's plenty of places to get more information and and learn. And like I said, we're always accessible and I'll prove it. Our phone number is 908-219-9119. Dare you to ask most other platforms for a phone number. I doubt you'll get one, but we want to be accessible and we want to be able to be reached on the phone. So if you really had any questions that you can't get answered online, you can call or text us anytime. We're happy to pick up.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Well, Rob, thank you so much. If you're a business out there today looking for a beyond the brand episode, that's what we do. You know, every Wednesday we drop a brand new episode featuring a business in this space. Not everyone gets selected, just like Rob said about the companies that he works with. We only choose the companies that are honest and up front. I know Rob and Kurt personally, they are great guys and they're building an amazing, amazing ecosystem for our viewers. So thanks, Rob. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Thank you for the kind words. And we have known each other quite a while now and glad to know that we have that reputation because that's important to us. So our name is everything. Awesome.