It was nearly five times more difficult to find an available campsite in 2022 than in 2019, according to the 2023 Camping Report from The Dyrt, an app dedicated to camping information and booking. Last year was the most booked-up year on record as campsites were twice as scarce in 2022 than they were in 2021, the report said.
In 2019, just 10.6% of respondents said they had a hard time finding a site to book because reservations were full. That percentage ballooned to 58.4% in 2022. The Camping Report also found that there are more than 80 million campers in the United States, a number that has risen by 15.5 million over the past two years.
“I tried to book a campsite as far out as possible for an event. I set an alarm and even then, when I logged in and tried to book, the sites were already taken,” said The Dyrt camper Clair Jones of Colorado. “It felt like trying to buy concert tickets.”
Responding to the surge, camping property managers and private landowners across the country told The Dyrt they are increasing capacity, adding dates and offering new types of camping. The report found that 35.7% of property managers added campsites in 2022 and 18.6% of them expanded their calendar. Also, 48.6% raised rates in 2022 and 46.4% said they planned to raise rates in 2023. As for the property managers who chose to offer a new type of camping, 44% of them added glamping.
While campgrounds are sold out and booked up, cancellations happen frequently. In response The Dyrt said it recently launched The Dyrt Alerts, which are availability scans that send text notifications when a sold-out campground gets a cancellation. Campers select up to five sold-out campgrounds, choose the dates, and they’ll receive a text message when there’s been a cancellation.
