Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Douglas.
Ryan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Camping has been a passion of mine since I was a little kid. I still remember taking RV trips to Big Bend National park with my family. Being outdoors, exploring and the bond’s that you experience with friends and family are ones that you never forget and will stay with you the rest of your life. Those memories and others I gained growing up are the reason I have such a strong passion for what I’m doing now with CampReward.
CampReward was started with the realization that booking RV Parks and Campgrounds online was a long and sometimes painful process. Mark Duris, founder of CampReward, was taking a trip with his family and he was amazed at how many great RV Parks he had missed when he was planning and booking his trip. We met several times to talk about how we could change this industry and help RV Park and Campground owners become more successful through online bookings. Little did I know those meetings would turn into us creating the first online travel company fully dedicated to serving RV Park’s and Campgrounds throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.
A few months later, I was hitting the road talking to hundreds of RV Park owners across the US learning about what they were looking for when it comes to offering their inventory online. What I learned was that many of these RV parks are owned and operated by families. The people checking guests in, are sometimes the same ones that mow the lawn, cook the food, clean the sites and handle the day to day business. Their passion for what they do is what drives me to become better every day and to continue to build CampReward into a company that puts its Campgrounds first and wants to help make this industry even better.
Today, we have over 5,000 RV sites available for booking on our site and we continue to get new campgrounds every day. Owning my own business and building my own values into the company is incredibly rewarding and I am so excited to see what the future holds for us.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has been anything but a smooth road. CampReward to date has been fully funded by me and Mark along with some investments from friends and family. We are building this company on our own so everything we do, we take a huge amount of pride in.
We originally had a plan for how our site was going to be built which fell through, but after re-evaluating our needs and networking with some of my contacts we found the perfect fit and had an even better web site than we could have imagined.
There have been other companies like ours that have wasted millions of dollars in investments because they didn’t have the right direction and they weren’t sure what kind of company they wanted to build. That is one thing I am determined not to do. We are building this company on our own and I want our Campground partners to know that when they decide to work with us, we are in it for the long haul. We want CampReward to be our legacy and something that will stand on its own two feet for years to come.
I know there will be some tough roads ahead, but I also know that we have built a strong foundation for CampReward and there’s nothing we can’t overcome. There is so much opportunity ahead for us and we are so excited to share the opportunity with our campground partners.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CampReward story. Tell us more about the business.
CampReward is the first online travel company that is fully dedicated to serving RV Parks and Campgrounds in North America. Similar to how Expedia and Priceline work with Hotels, CampReward offers campground owners the ability to market their campgrounds on our site so customers and search and book thousands of campgrounds at once to find the perfect spot for their vacation.
CampReward is not the only company to take on the world of Online Camping Reservations, but it currently is the only one to offer campers valuable points for every booking they make on our site. The points that are given to campers don’t come from the campground and can be used to book future camping trips for free. CampReward is also very proud of the fact that they only advertise, live partnered campgrounds on their website. That way we know our customers will see only live, bookable campgrounds when they come to our site.
We are proud of the fact that, not only do we have a passion for what we do, we are avid campers as well. We are known for not only for being a company that cares about it partners, but we are also known for being the industry experts when it comes to booking online campsites. What sets us apart is the team that we have put together. Both Mark and I have been camping and traveling in RV’s since we were kids and still camp today as adults with our families. I spent over a year working at Expedia managing over 35,000 hotels across the US and Canada. We know and understand how the online travel world works and how the camping industry works. We use that knowledge and experience to help our customers learn how to manage their online profiles and to make the most of the opportunities that CampReward can offer them.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In the next 5 – 10 years there are going to be some incredible shifts in the industry. Everything is going mobile these days and that includes camping. Customers want access to information to be easy, quick and efficient and CampReward plans to lead the way in this. Not only will more and more campgrounds be offering online bookings, but customers will have the ability to experience their vacations from start to finish on the web.
CampReward has the first mover advantage in this space and we plan to hold onto that lead. There is a lot of interest RV Parks and Campgrounds when it comes to online travel because it is a 5-billion-dollar industry with lots of opportunity.
I also believe that soon our state and national parks will open up their inventory to allow Online Travel Companies the ability to sell camping spots on their websites.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.campreward.com
- Phone: 214-587-2938
- Email: rdouglas@campreward.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/campreward/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campreward/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/campreward
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/campreward-sachse
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/campreward/
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
