What Occupancy Rate Should a Profitable RV Park Have?

August 12, 2026 · RV park investing, explained

No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

There is no single occupancy number that proves an RV park is healthy. The right benchmark depends on whether the park runs mostly on transient travelers or mostly on long-term monthly tenants. For a stabilized park with a mix of transient and seasonal business, 55% to 65% average annual occupancy is a reasonable healthy range. For a park that leans heavily on monthly or long-term residents, healthy occupancy looks more like 85% to 95%. If a park falls well below its category's range for more than a season or two, that is worth asking hard questions about.

The short version

Where transient-heavy parks win

Transient parks, the ones built around nightly and weekly stays near lakes, mountains, or tourist corridors, can post lower average annual occupancy and still be very profitable. That is because the money is in rate, not just fill. A park that averages 50% occupancy annually but sells peak summer weekends near capacity at premium nightly rates can outperform a park that stays fuller but charges less all year.

This is where a lot of new investors get confused. They see a 50% occupancy number on an offering memorandum and assume it is weak. But if that 50% comes with strong RevPAR (revenue per available site per night) and a defined peak season, it can represent a well-run, profitable asset. The occupancy number by itself is incomplete without knowing the rate structure behind it.

The tradeoff is seasonality risk. A park that depends on 90 days of strong summer traffic needs enough cash reserves and off-season revenue (storage, events, extended stays) to carry it through the slow months. Occupancy swings from 20% in February to 100% in July are normal for this category, and that swing itself is not a red flag if the annual average and cash flow work.

Where long-term/monthly-heavy parks win

Parks built around monthly or long-term tenants behave more like small apartment communities. Occupancy should be high and stay high, because turnover is lower and rents are typically renewed month to month or under longer agreements. Here, occupancy is a much more direct proxy for profitability. If a monthly-heavy park is running 85% or better, that generally means steady, predictable cash flow.

These parks win on stability. There is less seasonal swing, less marketing spend chasing nightly bookings, and less exposure to weather or gas prices affecting travel. The revenue per site is usually lower than a premium transient site at peak rate, but the occupancy is more consistent across twelve months.

The risk on this side is different. Occupancy that looks strong on paper can mask underpriced rents that have not kept pace with the market, or a tenant base that is aging out with no pipeline of new long-term renters behind them. A monthly park sitting at 95% occupancy with rents 20% below market comparables is not necessarily the win it appears to be.

What this looks like in practice

Most real parks are a blend of both models, and that blend is exactly why a single universal occupancy target does not exist. A park with 60% long-term sites and 40% transient sites needs to be evaluated as a weighted mix, not compared flatly against either benchmark above.

When reviewing occupancy on an actual deal, a few things matter more than the headline percentage:

• How occupancy is calculated. Some operators count a site as occupied if it has a reservation, even for a single night in a month. Ask whether the number is site-nights occupied divided by site-nights available, which is the more honest measure.
• Whether the trailing twelve months includes a full seasonal cycle. A park's occupancy from June through September tells you almost nothing about its annual health on its own.
• How occupancy trends year over year, not just the current snapshot. A park moving from 45% to 55% occupancy over two years is a different story than one that has been flat at 55% for five years.
• Whether rate growth is keeping pace. High occupancy with flat or declining rate can mean an operator is afraid to raise prices, which caps upside for a buyer.

Occupancy under roughly 40% annual average for a transient park, or under 75% for a monthly-heavy park, generally deserves a closer look. It does not automatically mean the deal is bad, but it means you need to understand why: new supply nearby, deferred maintenance scaring off return guests, poor online reviews, weak marketing, or a market that genuinely cannot support the site count. This is the kind of underwriting question we work through with investors at Invest With Zac when evaluating a park's real occupancy story versus the headline number.

FAQ

Is 100% occupancy actually a good sign?

Not necessarily. Sustained 100% occupancy, especially in a monthly-heavy park, often means rents are underpriced relative to demand. If people can never get a site and nobody is raising rates, that is lost revenue, not a strength.

What occupancy rate do lenders typically want to see?

How does occupancy differ from RevPAR, and which matters more?

Occupancy tells you how full the park is. RevPAR (revenue per available site per night) tells you how much money that fullness is actually generating. For transient parks especially, RevPAR is usually the better single metric because it captures both occupancy and rate in one number.