For many people, buying a campsite or holiday park represents more than just a business investment. It can mean moving somewhere new, working outdoors and building a business that becomes part of your family life.
But what does the day-to-day look like for the owner of a campsite or holiday park? And what information do you need to make your dream a reality? In this article, we speak to some real-life entrepreneurs who made it happen.
If you’d like to jump straight into exploring campsites and caravan parks for sale in the UK, click here.
Do you need hospitality experience to buy a campsite or holiday park?
In short – no. Plenty of entrepreneurs have made the jump from corporate jobs to camp life without previous hospitality experience. What matters more is actually a bit of savvy when it comes to sales and marketing. Remember that once you buy a business, its promotion is entirely in your hands, and you need to stand out in a crowded world of AirBnBs.
That was the secret to success for Canadian couple Nathalie and Martin, who purchased Upper Clements Cottages, a holiday campground and RV park, through BusinessesForSale.com in 2016. Although their business was based in Nova Scotia, the same lessons apply across the UK.
Nathalie was a nurse and Martin an IT director when they decided they wanted to work together and spend more time with their daughter. Martin's IT experience helped with marketing and data, while Nathalie's nursing background gave her strong people skills. It also became particularly valuable during the Covid pandemic, when they adapted their cottages to accommodate people who needed to isolate.
The couple revamped the business’ website, while simultaneously focusing on local marketing and collaborating with other local businesses. This kept a steady stream of customers coming in both locally and internationally. They also paid close attention to what their customers wanted, and were generous with re-investing earnings into developing new features and expanding their offering.
Nathalie and Martin’s experience shows both the appeal of the sector and the work behind it. If you're currently looking at buying a campsite or holiday park, here's what you should consider before buying.
Understand exactly what you're buying
No two campsites are quite the same. At one end of the market, you might find a relatively simple rural campsite offering tent pitches and basic facilities. At the other, a holiday park might combine touring pitches, static caravans, lodges, glamping accommodation, shops, food and drink and leisure facilities.
Start by establishing exactly what's included in the sale. Does the business own the freehold or operate from leased land? How much land is included? Which buildings, accommodation and equipment belong to the business? Are some caravans or holiday homes owned by customers?
Then look at the site's accommodation mix. It might include tent pitches, touring caravan and motorhome pitches, electrical hook-ups, static caravans, cabins or lodges, and glamping pods, yurts or safari tents. These can have very different occupancy rates, operating costs and earning potential.
Don't assume that bigger automatically means better. A park with 100 pitches isn't necessarily a stronger business than one with 50; what matters is how much those pitches earn, how often they're occupied and how much they cost to maintain. Upper Clements is a useful example: its seven cottages provided a different kind of accommodation from its 33 RV sites and could be rented throughout the year, so each part of the business contributed differently to the overall operation.
Look closely at the location
With a campsite, the location isn't just where the business happens; it's part of what customers are buying. Proximity to beaches, national parks, walking routes, lakes, visitor attractions and popular towns can all help generate demand, but buyers need to look beyond whether somewhere simply feels like a nice place to spend a weekend. Look at why people actually travel to the area, when they come and why they choose one campsite over another.
It's also worth comparing nearby sites, their prices, facilities and reviews, as well as checking practical considerations such as road access for caravans and large motorhomes. A beautiful remote location loses some of its appeal if customers struggle to reach it.
Nathalie and Martin understood the importance of their surroundings at Upper Clements. They built relationships with local tourism organisations and promoted the business through visitor guides and even nearby electric-car charging stations. Nathalie estimated that, at one stage, around half their customers were finding them through tourism department and provincial websites. Their experience highlights an important point for a UK buyer: you're not just buying a campsite, but its place within a wider destination.
Check the numbers - especially the seasonal ones
A busy campsite on a sunny August weekend can look like a fantastic business, but it doesn't tell you how that business performs in February. Ask for several years of accounts and, where possible, monthly booking and revenue data so you can see the extent of seasonality rather than relying on annual headline figures.
Look at occupancy by month and accommodation type, average nightly rates, staffing costs, maintenance expenditure and any additional income from shops, food, activities or other services. You should also investigate where bookings come from, how much business arrives directly through the campsite's website, how much comes through third-party platforms, and what commissions are being paid. Repeat customers and forward bookings can also give you a clearer picture of the strength of the business you're buying.
When Nathalie and Martin took over Upper Clements, improving its digital operation became one of their priorities. Martin used his IT background to analyse which online sources actually generated customers and reviewed their marketing spend every January. They also made it easier for guests to search, book and pay online as they adapted to increasing competition from Airbnb and other accommodation providers.
Do your due diligence on the site
Some of the most important parts of a campsite are also the easiest to overlook when you're walking around attractive countryside imagining yourself as the owner. Water, electricity, drainage, sewage, access roads and toilet blocks can all become expensive problems, so inspect the condition and capacity of the site's infrastructure carefully.
That should include electrical hook-ups, bathrooms and showers, wastewater systems, roads, Wi-Fi, fire-safety equipment and any pools, playgrounds, shops, communal buildings or accommodation included in the sale. Don't simply ask whether everything currently works; try to establish what is likely to need repairing or replacing over the next five years and factor that expenditure into what you're prepared to pay.
You also need to understand exactly what the site is legally allowed to do. In England, operating a campsite or caravan site can involve planning permission and an appropriate site licence from the local council, with different rules and exemptions depending on how the land is used. Check the existing planning permission, licences and planning history, including how many pitches or units are permitted, whether there are seasonal restrictions and whether all existing buildings and accommodation are authorised.
If customers own static caravans or holiday homes on the site, examine those arrangements as part of the same process. Find out what fees they pay, what services are included, what rights and obligations exist, whether agreements transfer with the business and whether the site is authorised for holiday use, residential use or both. Appropriate surveyors, solicitors and other specialists can help you verify these points rather than relying solely on the seller's description.
Look for realistic opportunities to grow
One of the attractions of buying an existing campsite is that there may be several ways to increase revenue without changing the fundamental business. Depending on the site, you could add glamping accommodation or cabins, introduce more electrical hook-ups, improve online booking, adjust pricing during periods of high demand or extend the season.
There may also be opportunities to earn more from existing guests through a shop, food and drink, equipment hire, EV charging, activities or partnerships with nearby attractions. However, every addition brings costs as well as potential revenue, and expansion may require planning permission or upgrades to utilities and wastewater infrastructure.
Be particularly wary of paying for potential that hasn't been proven. If a seller tells you that you could 'easily' add more accommodation, check the planning position, infrastructure capacity, likely demand and cost first. Treat future improvements as opportunities to investigate, not profits you've already bought.
Is running a campsite right for you?
There is an obvious lifestyle appeal to buying a campsite in the UK. For someone leaving a corporate career, running a business in the countryside or by the coast can sound considerably more attractive than commuting to an office, and Nathalie and Martin are a good example of that change working.
After eight years, with their daughter grown up, the couple decided it was time for another change. They listed Upper Clements in November 2023 and expected selling the business might take two to five years, but another family bought it around six months later. Looking back, Nathalie described the campground as large enough to provide their family with a sustainable living without becoming so big that they had no life outside work.
She was equally clear that it was hard work, and that's the balance prospective owners need to understand. Campsites are hospitality businesses: guests arrive late, toilets need cleaning, equipment breaks, weather causes problems and the busiest periods are precisely when everybody else is taking a holiday. For the right person, that can still be an enormously rewarding way to make a living, but make sure the reality of running the business fits the lifestyle you're hoping to create.
If you're ready to start looking, you can browse campsites and caravan parks for sale in the UK on BusinessesForSale.com and compare opportunities across the country.
