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What a pitch really earns: the per-type calculation almost no campground does
2026-08-11
Ask a campground operator what a pitch earns and the answer is almost always a price: "the motorhome pitch with electricity, I charge 36 euros in high season."
It is the least useful piece of information there is, because it says nothing about how many nights that pitch stays empty and what it costs you when it is full.
This article does the whole calculation, on a fictional but realistic campground, and arrives at a result that in most campgrounds changes the investment priorities.
The right number is called RevPAP
Hotels use RevPAR: revenue per available room. In the open air the equivalent is RevPAP — revenue per available pitch.
RevPAP = revenue of the type ÷ (units of the type × nights open)
Or, which is the same thing:
RevPAP = average nightly price × occupancy rate
The difference from the list price is that RevPAP automatically penalises the types that stay empty. An expensive pitch that fills 25% of nights loses to a cheap pitch that fills 60%, and the list price does not tell you that.
The example campground
180 units in total, a season of 180 nights (April–September), four types:
| Type | Units | Average price/night | Occupancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tent pitch | 40 | €24 | 38% |
| Motorhome/caravan pitch with electricity | 90 | €36 | 46% |
| 4-berth mobile home | 20 | €95 | 61% |
| Seasonal pitch | 30 | €2,400/season | — |
These are plausible numbers for a mid-sized campground in a tourist area that is not top-tier. Yours will be different: the method will not.
Step 1 — Raw RevPAP
| Type | Calculation | RevPAP |
|---|---|---|
| Tent | 24 × 0.38 | €9.12 |
| Motorhome/caravan | 36 × 0.46 | €16.56 |
| Mobile home | 95 × 0.61 | €57.95 |
| Seasonal | 2,400 ÷ 180 | €13.33 |
First surprise: the seasonal pitch earns less than a motorhome pitch sold by the night. 13.33 against 16.56. And yet almost every campground treats the seasonal pitch as the safe income to defend.
Hold that thought, we will come back to it.
Step 2 — Variable costs, which change the ranking
RevPAP is revenue, not margin. You have to take out what you spend only because that pitch is occupied: water, electricity consumed, waste, a share of cleaning the sanitary blocks, and for accommodation the cleaning and linen at the end of the stay.
Fixed costs stay out — reception, grounds maintenance, depreciation, base utilities — because they are there anyway and do not help you decide between one type and another.
| Type | Variable cost per occupied night |
|---|---|
| Tent | €3.00 |
| Motorhome/caravan | €5.50 |
| Mobile home | €22.00 |
| Seasonal | €4.00 (actual presence ~55 nights out of 180) |
The variable cost has to be brought back onto the available night, by multiplying it by occupancy:
| Type | RevPAP | Var. cost per available night | Margin per unit/night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tent | €9.12 | 3.00 × 0.38 = €1.14 | €7.98 |
| Motorhome/caravan | €16.56 | 5.50 × 0.46 = €2.53 | €14.03 |
| Mobile home | €57.95 | 22.00 × 0.61 = €13.42 | €44.53 |
| Seasonal | €13.33 | 4.00 × 0.31 = €1.22 | €12.11 |
Step 3 — What each type brings in over the season
Multiply by the 180 nights and by the number of units:
| Type | Margin per unit/season | Units | Total margin | % of total | % of units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tent | €1,436 | 40 | €57,440 | 11% | 22% |
| Motorhome/caravan | €2,525 | 90 | €227,250 | 45% | 50% |
| Mobile home | €8,015 | 20 | €160,300 | 31% | 11% |
| Seasonal | €2,180 | 30 | €65,400 | 13% | 17% |
| Total | 180 | €510,390 |
There are three things here that are worth the whole season.
1. Eleven per cent of the units makes thirty-one per cent of the margin
Twenty mobile homes out of a hundred and eighty units — 11% of the campground — produce 31% of the contribution margin. They are the type with by far the highest variable cost, and they are still the most profitable by a distance.
This is not an invitation to replace pitches with mobile homes: that would change the site's classification, the fire safety count, the type of customer and the soul of the campground. But if you are deciding where the next investment goes, this is the number and it deserves a look.
2. The tent area costs about what it earns
Forty tent pitches — 22% of the units — bring in 11% of the margin. They are the type occupying the worst slice of land per euro produced.
Before removing it, though, three things the calculation does not see:
- Tents bring the young customer, who in ten years buys the mobile home.
- They fill the shoulder weeks, when the motorhome crowd is still at home.
- They spend at the bar, and the bar's margin is not in this calculation.
The calculation tells you where to look, not what to do. But it also tells you that if the tent area causes you problems — facilities, noise, staff — the cost of keeping it is not "a bit less revenue": it is 11% of the margin.
3. The seasonal pitch, the awkward number
A seasonal pitch at €2,400 brings €2,180 of margin. The same pitch sold nightly as a motorhome/caravan pitch would bring €2,525. That is €345 a year per pitch, which across thirty pitches is €10,350.
Put like that it sounds as though the seasonal pitch is a mistake. It is not, but it should be chosen knowing what you are buying:
What you give up: about 14% of margin on those pitches.
What you get: money up front at the start of the season, no risk of going unsold, no reception work for six months, no customer acquisition cost, and a stable community that keeps the campground alive in the dead months.
The point is that this is a choice, and most campgrounds make it without ever having seen the 345 euros. If the seasonal pitch earned 40% less the choice would be different. If it earned the same it would be obvious. With the number in front of you, you might also decide to raise the fee by 200 euros and still be the best value in the area.
The two levers, and which one to pull
RevPAP has only two factors: price and occupancy. Which one to work on depends on where you are.
Low occupancy and high price (typical: mobile homes in June, motorhome pitches in May). Here the lever is price, downwards, in a targeted way: rates for long stays, midweek offers, discounts on the periods that do not sell. Taking the mobile home from 61% to 70% occupancy is worth more than raising it by five euros.
High occupancy and low price (typical: motorhome pitches in mid-August, when you have been full for weeks). Here the lever is price, upwards. If you are at 100% for three weeks, you are leaving money on the table, full stop. A campground that has sold out on 10 August every year for five years has a pricing problem, not a commercial success.
What you need to tell the two cases apart is occupancy by type and by week, not the season average. The average says 46% and hides the fact that you are at 97% in the two central weeks and 15% in June.
Margin per square metre, if you are planning
If you have land and you are deciding what to put on it, add a column: the area.
A motorhome pitch with electricity generally takes 80–100 m². A mobile home with its surroundings is around 60–80 m². For the same area, the margin gap you saw above widens further.
It is a calculation worth doing before applying for planning permission, not after.
What you need to do it on your campground
Four figures, per type, for the season just closed:
- Nights sold (not bookings: nights).
- Revenue of the type, net of the tourist tax, which is not yours.
- Available units and nights open.
- An honest estimate of the variable cost per occupied night.
The first three come out of software that keeps the types separate. The fourth you have to estimate yourself, and a reasoned estimate within 10% beats an exact figure you never calculate.
An afternoon, a spreadsheet, once a year. It is the best-spent afternoon of the season.
On CampinGate revenue and occupancy stay separated by type and by period, because that is how a campground makes decisions. See how pitches are modelled.
