Resilience, AI and Consistency in Outdoor Hospitality

We spent two days at Marvel Stadium for CRPVic 2026 and three words came up again and again: resilience, AI and consistency. They set the tone for everything else we heard. An industry that keeps proving it can take a hit and come back stronger, right as it works out how far to take AI, and how to keep every guest walking through the gate getting the same park they expected to find. 

Resilience is real, and it's being tested again

One operator's story stayed with us. Carmen Risby, CEO of Tathra Beach Eco Camp, took over her first park in 1998 and spent years overcoming setbacks nobody plans for, from freak accidents to a fire that destroyed the whole property. Each time, she rebuilt, reopened, and came back stronger than before. Her line for all of it: you need the lemons to make the lemonade. 

Zoom out and Carmen's story isn't a one-off. It's the pattern the whole sector keeps repeating. Every real shock the industry has faced - bushfires, downturns, the pandemic - has played out the same way: real disruption, then recovery, then growth that goes on to outpace where things stood before. That's what a resilient sector looks like from the outside. 

The opportunity is big and rising. Australians took 17.3 million caravan and camping trips in 2025, up 14% on the year and spending is well ahead of pre-COVID figures. Victoria accounts for 19% of the country's caravan and camping spend and regional Victoria leans on the sector even harder than that: caravan and camping makes up 39% of all trips and 45% of all nights, holding the top spot on nights of any accommodation type in the region. The numbers are clear: the sector is the backbone of regional tourism. 

But the pressure hasn't eased off. Rent, utilities, wages continue to rise. It now costs an average of $96.11 just to clean a single cabin. Taking into account that RevPAR for a cabin is approximately $169*, keeping business costs lean is top of mind for everyone in the room. This is where AI enters the conversation. Not only is AI a conversation within business, AI is changing how guests find and book a stay. 

 *as presented by Chris Young from Catch Training

AI isn't optional anymore

We asked a room full of park operators what they're currently using AI for. Some of the answers we heard were optimising imagery and full website rebuilds. One operator put it simply: AI is "good at getting creases out of sheets." What was once a costly exercise, graphic design and website building, is now in the hands of operators. Giving them the freedom and speed to make changes when needed and saving money in the process.

Angus Booker, from BIG4 Caloundra Waterfront, summarised it clearly: "We remain the human connection to guests." The parks getting it right are using AI to free up time and sharpen their thinking, not to replace the relationship with the guest. Analyze the business with it. Understand the data better. Spot the patterns in guest behaviour that are easy to miss when you're running the day-to-day. But it won’t ever fully replace what your team does face-to-face with guests.

David Gillespie, RMS's VP of Product, went further on where AI is heading. His prediction: “AI will transform the guest booking journey, with profound impacts to established distribution models." The question is how to stay visible. Our answer: get sharp on what makes your park different, write descriptions that cover what guests care about, use imagery that shows rather than tells, and stay consistent everywhere your park shows up online. If AI reflects whatever it finds, scattered information teaches it the wrong story about you. Angus's point about remaining the human connection to guests holds here too. It's not just about what AI tools you deploy, it's about everything you put on the internet, because AI agents will crawl it and use it to represent you whether you've reviewed it or not.

Consistency ties everything together

Whatever you promise online has to hold up the moment any guest walks in. A family on a school-holiday trip, a younger traveller passing through for a night, a grey nomad who's stayed the longest and comes back the most, each is booking for a different reason, but all of them expect the park they arrive at to match the one they booked.

The strongest operators don't rely on heroic individuals; they build repeatable operating rhythms. What your online presence promises, what you actually deliver, and what your guests say afterward add up to a good reputation, only if all three tell the same story. That's a harder thing to get right than implementing any single new tool or feature. It's the actual advantage the parks doing well have built for themselves and we don't expect that to change.

Where this leaves you

Resilience, AI and consistency turned out to be one conversation, not three. Nobody at CRPVic was debating whether these shifts are real. The conversation has moved on to what you do about them.

Costs are rising, but so is the opportunity. AI is reshaping how guests find and book you before they ever call. Underneath both of those, the parks doing well are the ones treating consistency, in what they promise online and what they deliver on the ground, as a discipline rather than an accident.

To start making the most of the AI revolution, start by making small changes:

• Write out your amenities and policies in plain text rather than only in a downloadable PDF or brochure: If it's only in a downloadable file, it'll be harder for AI to find it.

• Answer questions the way guests actually ask them: Writing "Do you allow pets?" as an actual question with a direct answer underneath maps directly onto what someone types into a search or chat.
• Keep details consistent everywhere you appear online, not just on your own site: Your Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor listing and OTA pages should say the same thing as your website.
• Write real alt text on every photo: If "IMG_2041" becomes "Saltwater pool with sun loungers," AI knows exactly what's in the photo without having to guess.
• Stay current and update your site when something changes: A closed amenity, an old phone number or last season's rates actively feed AI tools outdated information that they'll confidently repeat as current.
• Post content regularly to boost your online profile: A steady stream of updates, blog posts, offers, whatever it is, gives AI more to draw on

Want to talk about how RMS can help your property? Get in touch.