Chip Smith – Monticello, IA
We got into the Jellystone brand at the beginning of last year. This is the end of our first season. We are pretty excited about it.
What I like most about the brand is the fact that they are drawing in families from three hours away. They all know what we’re there for, and they’re willing to spend a longer time at our park than just the weekend.
The investment we have in the park with adding Jellystone was pretty minimal, compared to the people that it brought in. We are currently up 22.5% this year. In normal years, we’re up 3 or 4%. We just never saw the spike in camper nights that we have with Jellystone.
Rick Spear – Estes Park, CO
We’ve been in the Jellystone franchise system for 20 years this year. It was a family endeavor to begin with, but over those 20 years we’ve seen significant growth of our campground. In particular, just the last three years in a row we’ve been up double digits, 10-11% points three years in a row. We’ve really been coming on strong, and continue to see good growth coming out of the brand.
What I like most about the Jellystone brand is that it caters to families. We’re a family-oriented park, and the customers that come into our park are a lot like us. We have fun with them. We interact with them. In the end, that turns into a good profit and a great value to our customers.
Jellystone corporate is always looking out for us. I feel like they do a good job in seeking new opportunities for us, in educating us, making sure we know what’s coming down the pipe.
Bill Pott – Cave City, KY
I really like the way it brings me a nice class of customers. I get happy families. I get people who want to come and to spend money to have fun. They enjoy our park. It’s just wonderful they way they come in, and you get so many that want to meet the other guests, they want to go have fun on the Jumping Pillow, then they want to go to the Splash Pad – and they want to come back again.
We invest in our park. I buy a cabin, and I get almost half of my money back the first year. We’ve built and added to our park every single year. We’ve been here 13 summers. We’re grossing now three times what we the park grossed when we started. We were doing 7,000 site nights to begin with, we did 19,000 this year. And if I didn’t have faith, I wouldn’t be in the process of starting a $10 million dollar expansion this winter. I expect to double my gross in the next three years. I’m going to be happy. I think Jellystone is going to be happy. I KNOW my campers are going to be happy!
Theresa Isaacson – Caledonia, WI
We’re going to be entering our 13th season, and I sure would hate to own a property without being Yogi branded. The reason we really like Jellystone Parks is because of the support behind us. With 80 other parks in the system, we have 80 sources of question-and-answer type people to go to. The support is wonderful. The franchise, the LSI system itself – their support is abundant.
We have grown every year. I don’t think we’ve ever had a down year. We just continue to grow. We need more cabins, we need more sites. Financially, it’s done well.
Denny Quigley & Tami Alessio – Harrisville, PA
2011 was our first year as a Jellystone Park™. Since then, we have definitely noticed that we are attracting a lot more guests from a much larger radius that extends nationwide. And we are seeing more guests from Canada. Over this three year time period, our store sales have increased almost 45%! The increased business also helped to allow us to double the number of rental units we had from 6 to 12, and this has increased rental unit income 154%! Thank you Leisure Systems!
Brent Fannin – Delaware Beaches
2011 was our first year as a Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™. We saw record occupancy levels with increases of more than 35% year over year! The addition of nine cabins to our park yielded occupancy levels well over 90% each weekend! The conversion to a Jellystone Park™ did exactly what we expected – it grew our business.
Bill Pott – Cave City, KY
I really like the way it brings me a nice class of customers. I get happy families. I get people who want to come and to spend money to have fun. They enjoy our park. It’s just wonderful they way they come in, and you get so many that want to meet the other guests, they want to go have fun on the Jumping Pillow, then they want to go to the Splash Pad – and they want … Read more
Erv & Marilyn Banes – Frankenmuth, MI
We decided to convert to the Jellystone Park™ system in 1996 because the market conditions were changing. Several of our colleagues had converted and grown in the process. We found that by changing our customer base to families, rather than seniors, we expanded.
The advantage of a Jellystone Park™ is that it is so much more alive than the average park. Plu… Read more
Rick Spear – Estes Park, CO
We’ve been in the Jellystone franchise system for 20 years this year. It was a family endeavor to begin with, but over those 20 years we’ve seen significant growth of our campground. In particular, just the last three years in a row we’ve been up double digits, 10-11% points three years in a row. We’ve really been coming on strong, and continue to see good grow… Read more
Chip Smith – Monticello, IA
We got into the Jellystone brand at the beginning of last year. This is the end of our first season. We are pretty excited about it. What I like most about the brand is the fact that they are drawing in families from three hours away. They all know what we’re there for, and they’re willing to spend a longer time at our park than just the weekend. The investme… Read more
Theresa Isaacson – Caledonia, WI
We’re going to be entering our 13th season, and I sure would hate to own a property without being Yogi branded. The reason we really like Jellystone Parks is because of the support behind us. With 80 other parks in the system, we have 80 sources of question-and-answer type people to go to. The support is wonderful. The franchise, the LSI system itself – their … Read more
Roger & Anna Barry – Fremont, IN
When we joined the Jellystone Park™ system in 1980, we were a small operation without a plan. What we have learned through the years from LSI and our fellow Yogi Bear™ owners and operators has been extremely valuable. We now have over 500 sites, RV Sales, waterslides, and a seven family member team of owners and operating managers. We couldn’t have done it w… Read more
Joey Coleman & Rick Coleman – Tabor City, NC
In 2001, we began a unique challenge to build a campground on our family farm 35 miles inland from Myrtle Beach. People responded to our design of large concrete pads, full hook-ups, plenty of open space, and ultimate customer service. But we soon had “growing pains” with procedures and operations.
In 2003, we joined Jellystone Park™. The operations… Read more
Denny Quigley & Tami Alessio – Harrisville, PA
2011 was our first year as a Jellystone Park™. Since then, we have definitely noticed that we are attracting a lot more guests from a much larger radius that extends nationwide. And we are seeing more guests from Canada. Over this three year time period, our store sales have increased almost 45%! The increased business also helped to allow us to do… Read more
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