While air travel has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, options like camping and glamping have remained popular as people explore the great outdoors. 'Sun Outdoors' offers a variety of travel experiences from luxury and traditional camping, to tiny homes, to short and long-term rentals.
Nick DiBella, SVP of Operations & Sales for Sun Outdoors joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.



Opening Bell

'Sun Outdoors' Offers Alternative Lodging Options Like Glamping, Tiny Homes

Cheddars, opening bail while air travel has largely returned to pre pandemic levels options like camping and my wife's favorite glamping have remained popular as people explore the great outdoors. Sun outdoors offers a variety of travel experiences from luxury to traditional camping. Too tiny homes to short and long term rentals. So joining us now is nick Bella S. V. P. Of operations and sales for sun outdoors. Thank you so much for joining us. Nick I gotta tell you, I was looking at your site and it was very impressive. Can you explain a little bit more about what your company does to people? Yeah I would say you know in a nutshell sun outdoors is the unrivaled leader in outdoor hospitality with a wide variety of offerings. You know we have over 175 um RV resort campground spread throughout the United States and Canada and like you said we we offer a wide variety of lodging types and stays from traditional RV sites to 10 sites to the glamping that you referenced earlier. Um And like you said whether you're looking for a shorter term stay at a resort that's more all inclusive or looking for a longer term stay because you become a full time RV. I think we covered that gamut of opportunity for any traveler and it seems like the perfect time for a company like yours because the pandemic forced many people to get creative when it comes to the travel plans. So tell us about your growth that you've witnessed over the last two years and how the pandemic really drastically changed the industry. Yeah some outdoors in the R. V. Industry. I'm sure we heard a little bit today. It was already on a great trajectory prior to the pandemic and definitely received an influx of new customers over the last several years as RV and camping became the sort of go to vacation for many americans. You know our campgrounds provided that alternative for those looking to get outdoors first of all in a safe clean and most important convenient manner where they can stay close to home. Right. And the best part is that these new customers for the last two years have become repeat customers for us. Right they've enjoyed their stays and I repeat business is up pretty significantly from last year which is great to see now since you offer so many different types of stays for the outdoor experiences. What experience do you think is saying the most demand this summer? That's a great question I say we're seeing great demand across all of our lodging types this summer and I think it just comes down to the type of outdoor vacation I guess might be looking for. You know as you said we offer something for everyone and continue to see great demand for RV sites as well as our luxury rentals. I think it just depends on where you're at in your journey with outdoor vacationing. You know I think there's if you don't have an RV there's a way to stay in our vacation rentals are glamping options, which has always stayed popular than traditional are being as you've heard with the shipments and so forth, Those numbers continue to skyrocket as well. So like I said, I think we're seeing across demand across all of our site types. The beauty is no matter how you choose to stay with us, you know, you will have a best in class, memorable experience and that's our goal. And I'm curious about the correlation here with housing and rental prices on the rise. Are you saying maybe a growth in popularity for long term rentals, whether that's in RVs or just like cabins and different things that you provide. Yeah, the demand for the longer term stays continues to be a popular choice for many reasons. I think more people gravitating towards the RV lifestyle which offers that sense of freedom and everything that comes along with it as well as more full time Rvs being able to work remotely and having that flexibility, we've always had a strong demand for longer term stays. But you know, we're pleased that when our shorter term guests discover the experience and more importantly, the value proposition of our v vacation at the sun outdoors property, they choose to make it a longer term vacation option. So, you know, it continues to be a popular choice and I don't think that will slow down Well, your company rebranded from sun RV resorts to sun outdoors. Tell us more about the rebrand that you all went through and how you're using that to grow to really accommodate the emerging trends of travel industry. Yeah, the evolution of the industry and the growth of our portfolio, which I said was over now over 100 75 resorts is, has created the need for the sun outdoors rebrand is, you know, mirroring the growing demand for outdoor travel experiences, you know, where it's no longer a place for campers to sleep, but more offering them the entire experience that would sort of have a traditional hospitality stay um for example, and and you know, the outdoor hospitality has never been a more popular option, you know, and their guests are looking for a trusted brand, right, where they can, that offers all the standard benefits in the name that they can trust. Right, And so that's why we recently rebranded last fall to some outdoors, which, you know, it's basically a platform rooted in our high quality resorts, you know, our unparalleled customer service and the exceptional guest experiences, which once again, I think is where the outdoor travel industry is headed. Yeah, well the travel industry is definitely helping those people that wanted to work from home, these digital nomads and they're now wherever they are in the world, still getting the work done, so talk to us about your off the great locations and making it remote work more possible and accessible. Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of our campgrounds RV resorts are in more remote destinations, you know as people do look to try to get away and reconnect with nature and we've always had a focus on offering the best in class wifi experiences, you know, at our properties, you know, we invest a significant amount of capital in order to get to that point. We've always sort of looked at it as a competitive advantage for us in this outdoor space, you know and making sure that our guests, whether they're short term, long term can stay connected and get their work done as needed. And once again we're always refining our strategies with tech and trying to stay ahead of the curve from that respect. But we place a high importance on the ability to stay connected if you're at one of our properties. All right now we only have a few seconds left but I want to get to this question because you guys really do offer something for everyone. So in your opinion, what is the most underrated experience vacation I should know about? It's a great question. I think in my opinion the best part is the ability to connect with others in nature. You know, there's a certain bonding experience that comes with vacationing in an RV, it's a tight space so to begin with and then you experience in the different, you know activities that are synonymous with an outdoors vacation, like hiking, biking, fishing, those types of things. You know, it's a great way of creating lasting memories which can be generational. I've seen many examples of of grandparents camping with their grandkids at the same campgrounds that they were doing it 40 50 years ago. Right. And so those, those types of experiences you really can't find in any sort of industry and I do think once you start doing it you become you really see that. I'm sorry we're out of time. I wish we had more time. We'll just have to hang out on the one of the campsite and we'll talk more. But thank you so much for that. We'll be right back with more opening bell.