When the pandemic forced many to find creative travel alternatives, many looked to recreational vehicles as a fun, safe way to get outdoors. Ed Unger III, the regional director at Campers Inn RV, joined Cheddar News to discuss how his dealership adapted to the surge in interest during the pandemic.


Opening Bell

How RV's Made a Comeback During the Pandemic

And as we said, the RVS are making a comeback when the pandemic forced many people to find creative travel alternatives. Many look to recreational vehicles as a fun, safe way to get outdoors and sales are booming. RV sales are up 19% from 2020 and are expected to continue the surge into 2022 maybe 2023 we're going to talk to an expert about that. So for more on this, increased demand for Rvs. Ed Unger the third who is a regional director at RV dealership, campers inn RV joins us now with more on this, thank you so much for being here with us, said, you know, I wanna talk a little bit about your journey and what your company has gone through. You know, earlier days in the pandemic when many kinds of travel was discouraged or just shut down totally. What happened to the RV demand and how have you all been able to navigate that? Well, good morning Shannon. And yes, it was crazy early on during COVID in 2020 and when all the businesses started to shut down and the pandemic really took hold, I don't think anybody really knew what was gonna happen and America, let alone business in the R. V. Industry. Uh but as businesses started to open up, the RV dealers started to get traffic and we started to get more and more customers that were interested in the RV lifestyle and purchasing and buying a motor home or travel trailer, fifth wheel and before long every month we started to see increased demand and the RV lifestyle and the RV industry just exploded here in America. And what we found was that customers were looking for a safer vacation alternative RVs give them an opportunity to have their own bathroom cooking bedroom and they can get outdoors and socially distance. And so during the pandemic, the RV industry was actually actually benefited from Covid and we saw a huge surge in demand and new customers and new buyers purchasing RVs. Yeah, my family, we love our being and we looked into buying one but during the pandemic it was hard to find one or delivery was gonna take a year or so to get them. And we know that RV sales surged during the pandemic as you mentioned, but now the air travel is pretty much back to normal but also level of gas prices are so high. What sort of demand are you seeing right now? And is there still more of a heightened demand like there was before for recreational vehicles? Yeah, that's a great question. So 2021 was the all time best year for the RV industry. And so we knew at some point that things were going to normalize and uh travel and vacation would get back to, you know what it was like before. But during Covid there were so many first time buyers and new customers that got into the market uh that we feel when you've experienced the RV lifestyle, you want more of it and you want to uh come back, get another RV, you want to get your friends and family to go with you. And so we feel like the strength of the RV industry and uh that has some staying power our there. Um and so we think that the industry is going to be strong for many years to come. But yeah, there's a lot of people that are going back to normal vacations and so with fuel prices going up a little bit, it does affect us. But what we've also found is that customers find uh unique and creative ways to still be able to enjoy their RV instead of taking that cross country trip or multi state trip, they may stay in their own state or in their own region and stay close to home, but they're still able to get out and enjoy the RV lifestyle and the RV experience. So things are starting to normalize a little bit, but the outdoor lifestyle and the interest in RVs is still very strong. And even when you think about outside of vacation, we've seen this, so called Digital Nomad as a pandemic brought about increased working flexibility. People from working from home or wherever they want to work in the country. So how has, you know, remote working affected the, you know, RV industry and maybe people are able to work from these RVs. How easy is that. Yeah, it's actually amazing how many different types of people are interested in RVs, it's not just for vacations anymore, there's a lot of professionals that buy an RV and they travel across the country, they travel around to different states, the RV has everything that you need for a home office and it's amazing how many different campgrounds and places to stay have wifi hookups with the speed of cellular and data plans these days. You can do all your meetings, you're zooming meetings, all those things right there from the comfort of your RV. And so there's been a lot of professionals that have purchased an RV and they worked from it and so that's actually absolutely been away that they've been used. Yeah, well I know the inflation surges have caused many americans to kind of pull back a little bit and save the money, They're not buying big ticket purchases. So are you worried about people pulling back on sales of RVs and saying, you know what, it's just too big of an expense right now? Well there's no doubt that the RV, the average cost of an RV has grown over the last couple of years significantly and there were times where we thought man, the increased cost of the RVs is gonna catch up and people are gonna stop buying but what we've seen this whole thing is that customers have still wanted to come out and purchase an RV and when you compare the cost of a vacation RV vacation too, you know say a cruise or resort or flights or planes, it's still a very affordable vacation in comparison. Uh, and uh, the average length of an RV loan is longer than what it is in the car business. And so you can afford a very good monthly payment. And we've also seen customers that may have bought a new RV in the past and with the increased cost of that new RV, they decided, hey, I still want an RV, I still want to go camping, but maybe I'm gonna get a good clean pre owned RV. And so, uh, there's still people out there that are finding a way to get that RV. Well, if they are gonna get it, let's talk about the actual RV experience. What are some of the most sought after features in RVs. So there's so many different things that are in RVs these days. And the first thing that the top three, All right, I'll try to narrow that down. Well, some of the coolest things here lately is, uh, solar panels, A lot of the RVs come, uh, pre prepped for solar panels and so you can add those on top of the roof and it allows you to, uh, what we call dry camp, which is basically camp without electric hookups and water hookups. And so you can go off the grid really anywhere with some of the amenities that you have an RV and that trickle charge that you get with the solar panels, uh you have uh wifi hotspots in RVs now and what we found is a lot of customers they want to get away but they want to stay connected and so those wifi hot spots are really neat nowadays, the smart technology that you have with appliances and awnings and jacks allow you to control those with an app on your phone. So that's another pretty cool feature there on an RV. Yeah, I love how easy they've made it for the novice to be able to go out and go camping and hook up the sewage tank and everything, it's so simple now, but what advice would you give to those people who are purchasing their first ever RV, especially if you have some tips on saving money. Well, you know, I would give the advice that go ahead and buy your RV now and start enjoying your time with your family because you know, we live in such a beautiful country, there's so many places here in America that you can get out and see and experience the RV lifestyle, the outdoor, it's an awesome time to connect with family and friends and uh you know, my advice would be to, you know, don't wait get out there and experience uh the RV now and uh you know, like you said, they are very user friendly and you know, basically you're not really roughing it anymore when you get out there camping because RV has all the capabilities that you really have from you know, your home and so uh that's important. And the last advice I would give you and this happened to me one time is when you break up camp make sure to get your awning your jacks uh in your slide out in so you don't pull out of the campsite with any of those out, you know, So I'll leave you with that. Alright, good advice there and Unger with campers Inn RV. Thank you so much for that awesome advice.