Kampgrounds of America Inc. said it reached a major milestone on March 28 when the final three campgrounds were added to KOA’s innovative K2 reservation management system.
“I want to congratulate our KOA technology team on this monumental achievement,” said KOA President and CEO, Toby O’Rourke. “The development and launch of K2 have been several years in the making, and now all KOA campgrounds have been transitioned to the new K2 system. I appreciate our team’s diligence, focus, long hours and grit in not only building a formidable software, but in bringing our entire organization on board.”
Andy Metroka, KOA vice president of Information Services, said all 520 KOA locations are now on a single operating system for the first time in several years.
“It’s a huge benefit that we no longer have to support two systems,” Metroka said. “Now everyone is on the same modern system and we can all move forward together.”
Kampgrounds of America Inc. said it was the first outdoor company to offer campers a real-time reservation system prior to 2010 with its original KampSight software. The new cloud-based K2 system adds several new features that Metroka said brings it to “the front of the class” of campground reservation platforms.
“If you look across the camping industry, there are a couple dozen reservation management systems targeting campgrounds,” he said. “K2 and the KOA technology suite offers robust functionality for owners and operators that holds a leading position in the marketplace.”
He added that training KOA owners and front desk staff on the new K2 system is quick and easy, and utilizes a series of video training modules that walk users through every step from setup to use of every K2 feature.
KOA began transitioning parks to the K2 software in 2017, when the first eight campgrounds were added. By 2018, the number of K2 parks had grown to 90 “early adopters,” and the number jumped to 275 (more than half of the KOA system) by the end of 2019. The development of additional K2 features continued at a rapid pace even as more campgrounds continued to adopt the system.
COVID-19 slowed migration progress in 2020, but Metroka said the transitioning of campgrounds to the K2 system never stopped. By the end of last year, 465 campgrounds were on K2. The remaining campgrounds were added during the first quarter of 2021.
“The K2 reservation management system has completed millions of transactions a year for the past two years,” Metroka said. “It’s been stress tested, and it works.”