Let’s say you found this article because you own an RV park. You know it’s not the same as other types of rental ownership. It’s a big chunk of land and maintaining the services for every space can be rough. It takes a lot of work and it’s a full time job. Even when you have everything running smoothly, there’s always the possibility that your tenant will just up and drive away. You can’t say that about traditional apartments or even other forms of manufactured housing.
So, you’re always thinking of ways that you can add services without adding a hassle to yourself. Well, I have a great one.
Satellite TV for RV parks
Why not give every space an option for live satellite TV? It’s a crowd-pleaser, even today. Giving people dozens of live channels that they can’t get from antenna or streaming is going to give you a lot of happy customers. And it’s not as hard as you think.
Most RV park owners have this vague idea that you can’t do satellite TV without a lot of trouble. I’m here to tell you it isn’t true. There are two options, and one’s incredibly easy.
You can pre-wire each space for satellite TV using a central dish. This is going to make it easy for tenants to choose satellite TV for themselves. They can opt to subscribe, get their own equipment, do whatever they want. This is the most flexible option but it’s also the most expensive for both you and your tenants.
Or, you can choose something like the COM3000 headend system from DIRECTV or Smartbox from DISH.
COM3000 and Smartbox
This is a COM3000:
and this is a Smartbox:
Both are small devices about the size of four pizza boxes stacked on top of each other. Both will give you over 100 channels on a single cable that can be distributed to each RV space. Depending on a number of factors, that cable can go straight into a TV or can use a simple and inexpensive box that you can supply your tenants.
This sort of “compact headend” as they call it is a higher expense for you but it builds a lot of value into your RV park and it’s likely to be seen as a better benefit to your tenants.
Satellite TV? Isn’t that dying?
People do ask that. I get it. But it’s just not true. Combined, DIRECTV and DISH have a bigger slice of the pay-TV pie than any other provider. That “pie” may be shrinking here or there but it’s still millions upon millions of people. Satellite TV is still a proven crowd pleaser. That’s a simple fact.
Yeah but wouldn’t it be better to supply internet and Wi-Fi?
This is another question we get a lot. I would think you might want to supply both, but if you could only supply either satellite TV or Wi-Fi, I’d suggest satellite TV. A lot of people have strong cell service and that gives them what they need. Maintaining enough internet capacity for everyone can be expensive and it can take a lot of equipment that you might not know how to maintain.
On the other hand, satellite TV is generally a “just works” kind of proposition. If you bury the cables, they generally go years without problems and you only have to worry about people not knowing how to connect up. Teaching them to screw in one cable isn’t really that hard, luckily.
Count on the satellite TV experts
Our Signal Connect division has over 20 years’ experience helping owners like you get the satellite service they need. We will help you figure out the best option, find ways to make it affordable, and even recommend an installation professional in your area. We’ll do everything we can to make it easy for you to attract and keep your tenants. We know there’s a lot of stuff in this world is hard. We want to make this decision easy.
Call the experts at 888-233-7563 during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll get right back to you!
