5d • General discussion
If You’re Doing Everything Yourself, You Don’t Have a Team—You Have Assistants
Most campground managers I talk to sound exhausted before we’ve even finished the first cup of coffee.
They’re:
- Taking guest calls,
- Covering the front desk,
- Coaching (or correcting) hosts,
- Answering owner emails,
- Babysitting maintenance schedules,
- And, somewhere in there, trying to have a life.
The story is always some version of:
“I have staff, but I still end up doing everything myself—because if I don’t, it doesn’t get done right.”
Sound familiar?
The Real Problem: You’re the System
It’s not that your people are useless. It’s that:
- Everything lives in your head.
- You are the:
- Policy manual,
- Training program,
- Complaint department,
- Safety officer,
- And HR department.
So when something goes wrong, everybody comes to you:
- “What do I do with this late check‑in?”
- “Guest at Site 14 is mad about the wifi.”
- “We’re low on TP—who orders that?”
- “Is this an emergency, or do I leave a note for maintenance?”
You never get past react‑mode because your team doesn’t have:
- Clear authority lines,
- Simple systems to follow,
- Or the training to make good decisions without you standing there.
Three Pain Points I Hear Over and Over
“Everything bottlenecks at me.”
Managers get stuck:
- Approving every refund,
- Weighing in on every complaint,
- Answering every “Can we move them to another site?” question.
Result:
You can’t step away for half a day without your phone blowing up.
“My hosts and staff don’t take ownership.”
From your side it looks like:
- No one notices problems until a guest complains.
- People do the bare minimum of the list and call it good.
- “It’s not my job” energy whenever something falls between job descriptions.
Sometimes that’s attitude.
More often, it’s unclear expectations and zero training on how to think like an owner.
“I’m always in fire‑fighting mode, never improving anything.”
You want to:
- Tighten operations,
- Improve guest experience,
- Boost reviews and revenue.
But most days you’re just:
- Dealing with broken stuff,
- Calming angry guests,
- Plugging staffing holes.
By the time your shift ends, there’s no gas left in the tank for higher‑level work.
What Actually Helps (And It’s Not Just “Hire Better People”)
“Hire better people” is nice in theory, but in this industry you often get:
- Retirees who’ve never worked a structured job,
- Workampers bouncing from park to park,
- Seasonal college kids,
- Locals who’ve never seen an SOP before.
You can’t change who’s available in your labor pool, but you can change what you put in their hands.
Managers who get out of whack‑a‑mole mode usually have three things:
Job roles with real boundaries
Hosts know what’s theirs vs. the office vs. maintenance.
- Everyone knows:
- “If X happens, I handle it,”
- “If Y happens, I call [name].”
Basic playbooks for recurring situations
- Late arrivals, double bookings, bad behavior, refunds, emergencies.
- Written as simple steps:
- Step 1: Do this
- Step 2: Say this
- Step 3: If [condition], escalate to [person].
Staff who’ve actually been trained, not just “walked around” the park once
Training doesn’t have to be fancy. But it has to be:
- Repeatable,
- Consistent,
- And something more than “ride along with me for a day and copy what I do.”
How Camp Host Central Can Take Some Weight Off Your Shoulders
Inside the Camp Host Central Classroom, there are already 28 short, practical courses you can use to train both hosts and managers, so you’re not reinventing everything yourself.
For managers specifically, you’ll find:
“Campground Manager Mastery” – walking through:
- Delegation and role clarity,
- Staff communication,
- Turning complaints into systems fixes,
- And how to stop being the bottleneck.
- “Digital Marketing for Campground Owners & Managers” – so getting more bookings doesn’t mean you personally living on Facebook and email.
For your team, there’s step‑by‑step training on:
- Camp Host 101 and Camp Hosting Success – so you’re not teaching “how to host” from scratch every season.
- Site turnover, bathhouse checks, yellowjacket nests, golf cart maintenance, workamping taxes, RV & boondocking basics, winterizing, off‑grid setups, crisis response, and more—each broken into short modules people can digest between shifts.
You can:
- Assign a course to a new hire,
- Tell them, “Watch these three modules before Friday,”
- And then use your check‑ins to coach, not re‑explain basics every time.
Your Turn (Manager Edition)
If you’re managing a campground right now:
- Where do you feel most stuck in “doing it all yourself”?
- Hosts not taking responsibility?
- Office staff constantly needing your approval?
- Maintenance falling through the cracks?
- Owner breathing down your neck while you juggle everything?
Drop one specific example in the comments.
I’ll use your answers to:
- Highlight the right courses in the Classroom, and
- Build a few manager‑only resources here (like “What You Should Stop Doing Yourself This Month” and simple delegation templates).
You’re not lazy. You’re overloaded. Let’s start peeling some of that off your shoulders.
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If You’re Doing Everything Yourself, You Don’t Have a Team—You Have Assistants
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