Jim Turntine, owner and developer of the new RV Self-Park in Missouri, believes he has a winning concept. His fully automated RV park with 24 paved pull-through sites opened a few weeks ago just off I-44. The concept, as Turntine describes it, is designed to provide convenient, stress-free parking for RVers.
His potential customers are RV travelers who don’t need a full resort or a camping experience. “We’re in a different time from even 10 years ago,” he explains. “People now just get on the internet and find a place. With our new system, they can go to our website, pick a space, pay for the space, drive directly to the campsite, and check in with their confirmation number. This gives them access to water, electric, sewer, even WiFi.”
Turntine bases his business model on his own extensive experience traveling in RVs. “We’re on our fifth RV in 17 years,” he says of his family. “Currently I’m driving a Thor Tuscany 42-foot tandem pusher.”
But, he says, he and his family aren’t campers. “I’m more of a transient traveler. We use our RV to travel to events or to visit family. We like to be spontaneous, just jump in the camper and leave whenever we feel like it.”
Turntine doesn’t like to boondock. “I don’t sleep well in a Wal-Mart or Flying J parking lot,” he admits, a sentiment that many RVers can agree with. “And I don’t want to be driving 5 or 6 miles off the interstate looking for a campground in the dark. I don’t need a store, I don’t need a pool, I don’t need a shower house, and I don’t want to pay for a resort just to park overnight.”
He believes a large segment of the RVing public will agree with him. “People just want a level spot, well lit, a pull through that’s easy to find and get into,” he tells The Buzz. “I want to be able to see my spot, pull in and park.”
The RV Self-Park is designed for travelers who just need to get off the interstate for a while, dump their tanks, and recharge their electrical devices, in a safe, secure and easy to access location. “We’re not a campground,” Turntine emphasizes, “we’re an RV parking facility.”
Only a few weeks into the soft launch of the Self-Park, Turntine says he’s received an overwhelmingly positive response. The park’s Facebook pages rapidly built up more than 1,500 likes. The New England RV Dealers Association featured an interview with Turntine on its Facebook Live show.
Aerial shot of RV Self-Park facility in Sullivan, Missouri. [Photo/RV Self-Park]
At the time MobileRVing spoke with him, only three customers had so far actually stopped in the park, but that wasn’t surprising, he said, since the weather in Missouri had been sub-freezing and not many people are traveling down I-44. Besides, the light traffic has given him time to fine tune his concept.
“It allowed us to train our staff, layer in our website, and get our security cameras online,” he explains. The entire park is covered 24/7 by a series of security cameras; customers get a code that allows them to see the security footage on their phones or computers. Other codes provide access to the dumpster, WiFi and hookup bays. The utilities (water, a choice of 30 or 50 amp electric, and sewer) stay on until the paid-for time runs out. Campers also have access to a 24-hour hotline number, in case of emergencies.
Parking fees vary with the length of time RVers plan to remain at the Self-Park. Those just looking for a short break can pay as little as $20 for ten hours, which can be extended for additional hours at $2 each. A full 24 hours costs $39. Those who plan to stay longer, to visit family or tour the area, can pay $32 each for two to six 24-hour days, or $32 per day for seven to 28 days.
Turntine says he’s still fine-tuning the fee system, along with other specifics. The park is designed to be inexpensive to run, with minimal staff and upkeep. “We structured it this way from the first turn of the shovel,” he says.
Turntine, who is a builder and developer with interests in commercial and residential real estate, was able to build the RV Self-Park on land he already owned along I-44, which is also the route of Historic Route 66 in this part of Missouri. “The location is perfect,” he says, “about a mile from the interstate overpass. Far enough away so you don’t get all the truck noise. We’re a couple of minutes from a Flying J, a Wal-Mart and a Cracker Barrel, whatever you need, and you can come and go.” The Self-Park has no gate, but does have parking sensors that allow the operator to tell which sites are being occupied.
Everything about the park is high tech and as automated as possible. Turntine says they have developed new technology to use in the Self-Park. “Sometimes we’re using devices from other genres and applying, redirecting them to our needed outcomes,” he says. “The entire concept itself is ‘patent pending,’ ‘trademarked’ and so on. The package of automated parking as we are doing it has not been done before anywhere we can find.”
All that automation didn’t come cheap. “At this point it looks like we are on track to hit about $30,000 per site not counting the land itself,” Turntine says. “It will get cheaper as we perfect the systems and learn from this prototype development. Of course we have built this park from the start to support this concept, so when we begin to retrofit an existing park there will be adaptations needed to do things at each parking site that we are doing from central distribution points now. In the long run, we want to be able to do everything we do in both types of scenarios. And, frankly, the demand is there for retrofitting an existing park, so we have planned for that from the get-go too.”
While Turntine doesn’t anticipate expanding the 24-site Self-Park at Exit 225 off I-4, he does plan to build more of the automated RV parking facilities. “We believe this business model will lend itself to smaller parks…. and more of them spread out instead of a large congestion of RV’s in one place. Too many at one place could cause some problems that we do not want,” Turntine says. “This concept is meant for shorter term use, not long term use or anything that seems like camping.
“For example, if we find our parks are selling out often or maintaining high occupancy averages, we will simply build another a few miles away, at the next exit perhaps - instead of expanding this one, not unlike other franchise systems. For example McDonalds or Quick Trip don't expand their stores to increase volume, they build another one at the next exit or down the highway a few miles away.”
Franchising the concept is definitely in Jim Turntine’s plans, down the road. Some franchisees, he anticipates, will want to retrofit an existing park with some of the automated features he has developed. “I can make an educated guess at this time for a new RV Self-Park costing between $25k and $30k per site. Retrofitting the RV Self-Park model into an existing park will be much less expensive because of existing distribution infrastructure, roadways, etc. already in place. A retrofit site may be just a few thousand dollars each.”
However, the retrofit plan would likely be restricted by criteria that existing parks might not have in place. Possibly only some parts of existing parks might qualify for conversion to a Self-Park facility, Turntine believes.
“I believe there’s a need for this, based on the 99 percent positive feedback I’ve had so far,” he reports. “It could help the RV industry, and RVers as well, by making it more convenient to use an RV more often.
“We aim to make RVing more than easy. We want it to be stress-free, no matter what the time, what the weather. Guests won’t even have to talk to anyone if they don’t want to.”