Harvest Hosts Takes Hershey: Tales from America’s Largest RV Show 2024

America’s Largest RV show in Hershey, PA is always an exciting event both for RVers and vendors alike. It is a must-visit event for any company in the RV industry in September. It’s also very important for any RVer interested in seeing all the new units from the manufacturers and potentially snagging a great deal. It is the largest show in the Mid-Atlantic but also the earliest to show off the new season’s model years for the manufacturers.

During our time at America’s Largest RV Show, we set out to connect with Harvest Hosts Members and chat with prospective Members, spread the word about exciting updates made to Harvest Hosts, reconnect with our industry partners, and more!

Here’s an in-depth look at how we accomplished what we set out to do at the RV show.

Goal 1: Connect IRL with Our Members and Prospects

Setting up our booth is a great way for us to connect with RVers. Oftentimes, people will hear of us online but they like the opportunity to learn more at an event booth, where they can talk to the people behind the product. Many people still want to come and talk to someone, and physically get a brochure or magazine.

Members often want to stop by and say hi and share their experiences traveling with Harvest Hosts. We treasure these interactions with Members. We always like to hand out special Member gifts in the form of SWAG (tote bags, hats, little gifts like bottle openers).

I personally drove up an entire pickup truckload of boxes. It was a great feeling to get all the boxes out of my house but an even better feeling knowing we’d be handing out branded items to thousands of Members.

For our booth this year, we also wanted to try something new. We added a giant, 40-inch touchscreen so that prospective Members can check out our massive list of over 5000 host locations around North America directly at the booth and find exactly where they are traveling and see how many Harvest Hosts locations are on their travel path.

Kina Hill (Member Success Team Lead/Events) and Beni DiVasta (Paid Channels Marketing Manager) showing off our latest show display.

Goal 2: Spread The News About Escapees And New Features

In addition to connecting with potential Members and handing out gifts to existing Members, this year, we had another big mission: to formally announce the acquisition of Escapees RV club into the Harvest Hosts family. It also just so happened to be the first large event where we would combine the actual show-going Staff of both Escapees and Harvest Hosts.

Members of Harvest Hosts and Escapees took interest in the news about the acquisition, but many had a wait and see attitude before passing judgment. Most had a positive response, but we still have plenty of work to do to share our vision for this merger: the formation of a fully-fledged RV community.

Robyn and Larry, Escapees event managers, remarked that the collaboration between the two teams was excellent and the opportunity for face-to-face teamwork since the Escapees merged with Harvest Hosts, and it was a great way to kick off working together for events moving forward!

While the acquisition of Escapees was in the works, our Host, Product, and Engineering teams worked tirelessly to launch new features into our Member experience, with filters to find Hosts that offer electric hookups and extra nights being the most prominent among them. We wanted to take the time to share these improvements to the Harvest Hosts experience with everyone who stopped by our booth.

The Harvest Hosts team noticed a huge difference with the addition of the kiosk. Both Members and non-Members alike had a chance to interact with the map and peruse Harvest Hosts locations. Many users enjoyed being able to see what locations were available to them near their frequently visited destinations and even near their own homes! Having this interactive experience allowed for attendees to understand the Harvest Hosts experience better.

Both Members and show-goers were whole-heartedly excited about our new map feature that allows you to filter to find Hosts that offer electric hookups and extra nights. This new functionality required tireless work throughout the entire travel season to bring it to life!

Many audibly Ooo’ed and Ahh’ed when the badges for electric hookups or extra nights showed up on a Host profile.

This new functionality has shown a positive effect on Harvest Hosts usage. Stay requests are higher than ever now that our Members can filter to find locations that suit their travel preferences. There has also been a decrease in cancellations, as now our Members who are staying at locations with electric hookups are less reliant on the weather to inform their RV camping decisions.

Roybn Schultz, Special Events Manager, Trade Shows plus four members of the Escapees Show team working the booth at Hershey RV Show.

Goal 3: Reconnect With Our Industry Partners

A third but equally important part of the show-going experience was to reconnect with many of our partners, including the influencers and Youtubers, who are imperative to getting the word out about Harvest Hosts to a broader audience of RVers, our OEM and manufacturer partners, and finally, the dealerships and RV products companies that work together to get RV onto the road!

Influencers and Content Creators

A backbone of our partnerships are the Influencers and the YouTube creators we work with. The influencers we partner with have millions and millions of followers that look to them for advice, experiences, honest reviews on products and features. Their audiences also experience a lot of the RV life through the travels of these creators. We’ve been very lucky to have great relationships with a lot of the biggest names in the industry.

Many of them stopped by our booth and we were able to chat with them about the Escapees acquisition and the new features we had just released. We met the couple behind the Bimble Effect, up-and-coming RV influencers, who just so happened to win a free Membership in our raffle! They are "excited to grow their channel with unique stays at Harvest Hosts locations."

And we would be remiss to not name drop all of the vendors and friends in industry that we rely on to help us get the word out about Harvest Hosts!

Here’s Trey and Alex from the marketing team at Jayco!

We met with the amazing marketing team at Winnebago, including Kunal, Kelli, Emaliee, and Duane (who happens to also be a BW host!)

Our BFFs at Cummins were out by the main entrance - here’s Roy with his signature smile.

Here’s Eric, Patrick and the team at RV life bringing you a suite of software products aimed at making life on the road easier.

We also were able to meet with our partners Gretch RV, Girl Camper, Fantasy Tours, Thousand Trails, Open Roads, FMCA, Tiffin and many others.

And last, but not least we were only distracted about half a dozen times by the cutest little RV furbabies.

Major Takeaways

Green Shoots Of Recovery Seen

The industry seems to be rebounding, and we could feel the excitement among the RV dealers and other vendors. Over 47,000 people attended, 5% more than last year. We came into the event each morning and there was always a line outside of the entrances. We also noticed quite a lot of activity within the isles of RVs. Representatives from Keller Marine & RV and CampersInn reported positive sales numbers this year!

Photo from @americaslargestrvshow Instagram

We definitely felt the effects of the increased attendance at the Harvest Hosts booth. Through a combination of underestimating our popularity and being placed in a slightly more crowded area, we often had people lined up two or three deep, waiting for a turn to look at the materials and talk to one of us. The aisle in the concourse was often blocked by our members waiting on some swag or wanting to give us a comment or tell us a riveting story from their travels.

The crowd began forming by 10am, with people filtering into the building from the entrances all the way past lunch until two or 3 o’clock. According to Kina Hill, our Team Lead, “The show was a success in terms of Membership signups and in engagement, we got 124 new Members and counting. Direct signups were key to sales and the ability to look at accounts and make changes on the spot.”

The Escapees show team, who all happened to also be Harvest Host Members prior to the acquisition, were a crucial part of our success at this event. Without their knowledge of the program, their experience as RVers, and their love of both Membership clubs, we would not have been able to chat with nearly as many show-goers as we did. if you chat with someone or a booth, most likely, it was a member of Escapees who you talked to.

Final Thoughts

The Hershey show for 2024 was a great success for Harvest Hosts. Not only were we able to talk with many of our existing members and share in their delightful stories, but we also connected with many of our partners and the creators in the industry to spread the good news about our newest features as well as the acquisition of Escapees.

As a bonus, we got to enjoy a team meal with the new show staff that we just brought on board from the Escapees team. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know one another over a fine meal and boatloads of ice cream. Working together was a win- teamwork makes the dream work!

Cheers to a start to the end of travel season and looking forward to a bright new year in 2025! See everyone in either Tampa or Quartzite!