The episode of MC Fireside Chats, hosted by Brian Searl of Insider Perks and Modern Campground, featured a deep-dive interview with Jon Thatcher, the owner of Shady Oaks Camping Resort in Plattsburgh, New York. Due to last-minute scheduling conflicts pulling away the rest of the panel, the episode shifted into an intimate look at the reality of modern campground ownership. Jon introduced himself as a relative newcomer to the outdoor hospitality industry, having purchased his resort in August 2024. Over the last two years, he has been deeply involved in renovating the property, learning the industry's operational nuances, and bringing a fresh perspective to a sector historically dominated by long-term operators. Before entering the outdoor hospitality space, Jon spent over 15 years working in the education reform sector, most recently serving as the Chief Operating Officer for a small charter school network in the Capital Region of New York. He stepped away from that career at the end of 2023, transitioning into consulting through the spring of 2024. The catalyst for his massive career pivot was a personal road trip he took after purchasing an RV. Although Jon had camped as a child growing up near the Adirondacks, he was new to adult RVing. During this trip, he fell in love with the culture, realized he wanted a significant life change, and sought a way to move closer to his aging parents, ultimately placing Shady Oaks under contract before his road trip even concluded. Jon emphasized that his childhood experiences growing up near the tourist town of Ticonderoga heavily influenced his decision to buy a campground, noting that nostalgic memories of a vibrant community and the smell of campfires made the transition feel right. Brian tied this into recent industry research, specifically referencing a white paper on Gen Z camping behaviors released by Insider Perks. Brian noted a historical decline in outdoor engagement over the last two decades, pointing to the rise of social media and smartphone technology as factors that eliminated healthy boredom and disconnected younger generations from nature. Jon, however, offered an optimistic outlook, suggesting that this societal disconnect presents a prime opportunity to build more campgrounds and intentionally broaden outdoor appeal. The conversation then turned toward how the industry can better engage Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and younger Millennials. Jon pointed out that financial affordability is a major hurdle, noting that the rising cost of modern RVs makes them feel like an unattainable luxury for younger demographics. To combat this, Shady Oaks has focused on making the outdoors accessible by expanding and renovating its traditional tent sites. Brian expanded on the psychological barriers found in their research, explaining that unlike older generations who grew up with natural outdoor exposure, many younger people experience anxiety regarding outdoor logistics, such as pitching tents, managing bugs, or dealing with the public embarrassment of making a mistake online. Brian argued that the industry often incorrectly assumes these demographics possess baseline camping knowledge, meaning operators must pivot from basic marketing to active fear-alleviation and guidance. Jon admitted that he had previously viewed the problem purely through a marketing lens, but agreed that treating it as an accessibility and educational gap shifts the business's responsibility. At Shady Oaks, the business model focuses on creating a unified community experience through live music and communal events, regardless of whether a guest checks in to an RV site, a tent site, or a glamping unit. To bridge the gap for socially anxious or highly digitized younger campers, Brian shared an AI-generated concept from their Gen Z report called the Green Lantern initiative. In this setup, campers are given lanterns that can be turned green to signal to neighbors that they are open to socializing, or left off to signal a desire for total privacy. Jon expressed strong interest in this concept, noting that involving Gen Z in focus groups and analyzing regional data variations would be vital to implementing such strategies successfully. The duo also critiqued the static definition of a traditional campground, noting that for decades, standard amenities have remained largely unchanged, consisting primarily of mini-golf, a swimming pool, a small general store, bathhouses, and cornhole. Jon recalled his own revelation from 2024, noting that half the people he encountered at campgrounds were remote workers and peers his own age, yet the parks were still offering amenities designed strictly for older generations. Jon emphasized the need to approach campground design with a blank slate that reflects modern lifestyle demands. Because Shady Oaks is uniquely positioned just ten minutes away from major retail staples like Target and Walmart in Plattsburgh, guests do not have to sacrifice convenience for an outdoor experience. Jon shared his long-term vision of transforming the property into an outdoor hotel, featuring central gathering hubs, remote work spaces, a morning coffee shop, and an on-brand bar designed around a vintage camper. Brian highlighted the value of small, memorable details over large-scale, costly additions, comparing it to a boutique hotel experience. He shared an example of a minimalist motel in Islamorada, Florida, that utilized small, low-overhead food trucks to offer high-quality espresso and lattes to guests in the morning. He argued that campgrounds do not need a full commercial restaurant to elevate their food and beverage game; simple, well-executed trailer setups can completely shift the guest experience. To illustrate further, Brian discussed how micro-amenities—like high-quality, fluffy towels instead of cheap, scratchy ones, or local organic shampoos—drastically improve a campground's organic word-of-mouth marketing and review scores. He even suggested adding indoor hydroponic gardens to registration lobbies where guests could freely pick fresh herbs like basil or parsley for their camp meals, creating an instantly shareable social media moment. Jon shared that for the first 18 months of ownership, his primary focus had to be on unglamorous core infrastructure, upgrading the water systems, septic lines, and electrical grids to ensure reliability and scalability. With that foundational work complete, he is now shifting focus toward creative expansion. When Brian presented a theoretical five-million-dollar windfall scenario, Jon explained that his priority would be to accelerate his existing three-to-five-year plan. At the top of his list is expanding the resort's glamping footprint from a single experimental tent to a village of five or six domes. Citing data from Modern Campground's 2026 Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Report, Brian noted a significant pricing discrepancy in the market, explaining that glamping units located inside standard campgrounds average around $158 per night, whereas standalone glamping resorts command upwards of $300 per night. Jon explained that his strategy to command those higher glamping rates involves treating the glamping village as a distinct business within a business. To justify premium rates, he plans to group the domes into a private, scaled section of the property supported by luxury-tier bathhouses and private hot tubs. Brian agreed, noting that the secret to a $300 nightly rate is the illusion of isolation. Drawing on examples from experiential resorts in Alberta and container-home rentals in Ireland, Brian emphasized that glampers do not necessarily need to be miles away from civilization; they just need to feel disconnected. Simple landscape design choices, such as dense rows of tall hedges or strategic fencing, can completely block out neighboring campsites and create the premium sense of privacy that luxury consumers expect. As the episode drew to a close, Jon and Brian discussed the administrative challenges of managing a multi-faceted park that caters to seasonal campers, overnight RVers, and glampers simultaneously. Jon noted that booking platforms and standard campground websites often fail to properly communicate luxury glamping experiences, forcing him to rely on Airbnb for the majority of his non-RV bookings. Brian explained how Insider Perks uses advanced AI models to help campgrounds solve this multi-demographic marketing puzzle. By leveraging detailed data frameworks, operators can train AI models to understand specific buyer personas—ranging from a 66-year-old retired traveling couple to a young single mother—and generate tailored landing pages for each. Furthermore, with Google recently restructuring its search engine architecture to favor direct AI-driven answers over traditional web links, Brian stressed that campgrounds must expand their websites to include dense, factual data so that future AI travel agents can seamlessly discover and recommend their specific niche offerings.
