RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Exclusive EP Harvest Hosts Acquires Escapees RV Club: An Exclusive Interview with Joel Holland
Harvest Hosts acquires Escapees RV Club, my guest Joel Holland, CEO of Harvest Hosts, shares what the acquisition means for current and future members. This special edition episode (no ads, no breaks) of the RV Life Podcast, I (Patti Hunt) ask Joel Holland, the questions the RV community is asking. With a focus on community and enhancing member experiences, Joel addresses concerns and outlines plans for a seamless integration with no immediate changes to services or pricing. Tune in for an insightful conversation about the future of RVing and the exciting potential of this acquisition.
Questions for Joel Holland email him at joel@harvesthosts.com
Harvest Hosts
Meet the Harvest Hosts Team at the America's Largest RV Show in Hershey PA
and get your tickets for the RV LIFE Hershey After Party
Special Discounts Codes: Click Link & Use Code
•RV LIFE Pro Click the link for 25% off
* AirSkirts $100 off kit order Discount Code RVPOD
• Motorhome Tires: $50 discount FIND MY INSTALLER
•Thousand Trail Membership Specialist
Call/Text Warren & Sharon Lewis 804-366-0798
•CLEAR2O Save 20% w/ Code: RVLIFEPODCAST
• Open Road Fuel Card save on Diesel Fuel
•Open Roads Innovative Tolling Solutions
All 48 states
• Open Road Resorts Mention RV LIFE Podcast
• National Vehicle Buy or Sell Your RV
• National Indoor RV Centers
6 great locations: Buy, Consign, Storage, Service & so much more.
• Harvest Hosts • Bo...
Harvest Host Acquires Escapee's RV Club. What now? I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. This is a special edition to our regular weekly podcast episode, so there's no sponsor breaks. Just using my platform to set things straight, get questions answered and find out what happens now that Harvest Host acquired Escapees RV Club. Joel Holland, owner and CEO of Harvest Host, is my guest today, so we're going to hear all of our answers straight from him Now. He was named one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under entrepreneur under wait. Top 25 entrepreneurs under 25 by Business Week magazine. Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the United States Small Business Administration. Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Washington DC region by Ernst Young. Recognized on the Inc 30 Under 30 list. He's also a husband, father of two young children and an avid RVer. Welcome, joel Holland, to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, patti, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you taking the time out to be with us, so we're going to jump right in. You purchased Harvest Host in 2018, and then you purchased Boondockers, welcome Camper Card, camp Scanner and Brit Stops, but today it is all about Harvest Hosts, acquiring Escapees RV Club and we have you on so you can answer all the questions that are out there. But let's get to know you first Wife, two young children what got you started as an RVer?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my wife and I were living in the Washington DC area eight years ago and I was running a company there called story blocks, and it was a great company with a great team of about a hundred people, um, but I got completely just burnt out on going to an office sitting in a cubicle, fighting traffic every day. The whole nine to five didn't work for me, right? I wasn't productive that whole time. So to be what I felt like trapped in an office was just it ate away at me until one day I couldn't take it anymore and I'd always romanticize the idea of taking the great American road trip. And one day we had a wedding in Manassas, virginia, that happened to be right beside an RV dealership.
Speaker 2:And the day after the wedding, on Sunday, you know, I was hung over and I could not take I just couldn't take going back to the city. I was like I just don't want to do it. And so I convinced my wife like let's just go across the street, let's go look at these RVs and see what's up. And we walked into one, uh, into a fifth wheel. It was a grand design reflection and I was like, wow, this is awesome. It's like got leather seats and a fake fireplace and a kitchen and like a bedroom, like you could live in this thing, and super impulsively bought it because it was kind of the answer to what I was looking for at the time, which was just freedom, and I wanted to be able to just get up and go, and so bought the fifth wheel before we even had a truck.
Speaker 2:I told the dealer hey, I got to come back to get this thing, cause I literally don't have a thing to tow it with Went to Rona, bought an F250, came back and so began the journey. But that's what got us into RVing, is? It was pretty impulsive. We got in thinking we'll do this for a little bit on a whim and then we'll get back to quote unquote real life. But instead what happened was we totally fell in love with RVing in the community and ended up RVing through all the lower 48 states over the course of two years and then moving to Colorado and pulling the RV up in front of a house and never looking back. And so that was eight years ago.
Speaker 1:Wow, what an incredible story. And then, a few years after that, in 2018, is when you decided to buy Harvest Host. So tell us that story. Obviously you're impulsive, but tell us the story about buying Harvest Host.
Speaker 2:Yes for sure. So yeah, we took that two-year road trip, ended up in Colorado. The first year here I felt like a kid in a playground, right, I essentially retired, sold the last company, moved on to playing and I was skiing every day and bicycling in the summer and camping and hiking, Like you name it. I was just a kid in a candy store and that worked really well for a year and I had a blast. And then after a year the fun started to wear off a bit and it was like it was like all fun with no work, felt pretty gluttonous and I started.
Speaker 2:I started losing its luster, Like I needed a purpose, I needed something to work on. You know, at the time I was like mid thirties and so obviously too young to retire, and so I was like, what's next? And I started thinking about, you know, I could start another business, right Like my first business I built from the ground up. It took 12 years and it was an overnight success story and like what could be next? And the more I thought about it, the more I thought I love RVing, I love building businesses that are in passion-driven industries, and my last business was in one as well. So how can I do this RV thing? And my expertise at the time it was technology, right, Building technology products and marketing them.
Speaker 2:Memberships I knew a lot about memberships from my last business and so I said, okay, how can all this connect in the RV world? Then I came across Harvest Hosts and it was awesome. Like I just loved the concept. I love the spirit of the program. It was something that I wish I had known about earlier, right?
Speaker 2:So we'd been RVing for years, stayed in every state, and I had never heard of Harvest Hosts, and as soon as I heard of it, I'm like this is brilliant.
Speaker 2:Stay at wineries overnight where we can taste together and then not drink and drive, and then go to a farm and pet animals Like holy cow. This would have made our trip so much cooler, and the fact that I hadn't heard of it said to me there's an opportunity here to grow this program right, Get more hosts and get more members. And so I reached out to the owners, Don and Kim Green, and I said, hey, I love this concept. Would you ever consider, you know, selling it, retiring and letting me kind of carry the torch? And that and that was beginning of 2018 took a few months of getting to know each other, we found, um, you know, a price that worked, in an agreement that I wasn't going to come in and ruin the company. Right, they had me present them with a plan for what I would do, and that again was improve the technology, grow the host network and then grow the membership base to fit. And I'm pretty proud, six years later, that's what we've done.
Speaker 1:Wow, and again, you're impulsive, as we've already established. Now, for me, when I started RVing over three years ago, we had bought Harvest Host, boondockers Welcome, escapees RV Club, as we're going to talk about. We had all of that, and Harvest Host and Boondockers Welcome was one of those things that really made travel so much easier, so much more enjoyable. But let's talk about the breaking news. It's July 2024. And just a week ago, the news of Harvest Toast now acquiring Escapee's RV Club. So let's just for our listeners that might also not be familiar with Harvest Toast, let's talk about what Harvest Host is. Let's give a brief overview for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Harvest Host is a membership program for RVers and as a member, for about $100 a year, you have access to over 5,500 small business locations all over the country and that's wineries, breweries, distilleries, golf clubs, museums, special attractions like drive-in movie theaters, and as a member you can go and stay at these locations overnight for free, unlimited. So it's 24 hours, but you can stay at any of these hosts as many times as you want in different places, and there's no cost to stay overnight. But there is an expectation that you'll support the businesses that you visit places, and there's no cost to stay overnight, but there is an expectation that you'll support the businesses that you visit, right, and that's kind of the social contract. Go to a winery, buy some wine, which you would anyway If you go to the Underground Salt Museum in Kansas, take the tour, go underground, see what it's like, and so that's the business. It's a very simple business.
Speaker 2:We have 5,500 hosts and we have a quarter million members and those members spend this year over $50 million directly with those hosts. We don't take any of that. We only make our revenue off of the $100 membership fee. You can also you can upgrade, you know, you can add a little bit and get Boondockers Welcome. And then Boondockers Welcome opens the door to over 3000 personal properties and these are homes, you know, people's farms or land, and they're welcoming you in. And that's more community based. And I think that was kind of our first taste of community and it was awesome because our viewers are just very community driven people and so it's neat to see how well community worked, which ultimately led to you know your next question of escapees. Right, escapees is all about community in my mind. I joined escapees like you years ago, went to Escapade, loved the people I met and one of my goals with Harvest Host has been to broaden the program from just camping to camping and community and that's what Escapees does.
Speaker 1:Right, and I had the great pleasure of interviewing Travis and Melanie Carr. They're the co-CEOs or I guess they're still the co-CEOs of Escapees RV Club, and it is all about community, and I've had the pleasure of attending the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with escapers and it was that, that sense of community. That is truly what it's all about. So, again, give people a little bit. Let's go back, because, look, the Internet's blowing up with what happened. What's going to happen? To happen, and we are here to clear that up. Escapees is going to maintain the mail service, as well as their eight campgrounds, and then Harvest Toast is going to take over the events. In your words, why don't you explain more of what that looks like for people?
Speaker 2:That's right. Yep, so we're taking over the escapees brand and all the community aspects, the membership, the events, and Travis and Mel are keeping mail servicing and their campground, you know, getting to use it at that preferred price. So that will not change. Going to those campgrounds, they'll continue to get discounts that are reserved for escapees members and that will not change. And so I think that that is kind of a good segue into this concept.
Speaker 2:At first, and probably for quite a long time, nothing going to change. That's, that's the. You know the headline. Um, I like to, you know, joke, escapees has been around longer than I've been alive. I feel no rush to come in and change things overnight. That makes no sense. It's a great program already right, and I can and I say that as a member of escapees who's attended events it's a great program. So I'm not trying to change the, certainly not trying to change the spirit of the program, the name, nothing. I'm not coming to change the price. All we're doing is taking over and in fact we just finished onboarding all 15 escapees employees into Harvest Hosts parent company on Monday. So we now have these wonderful employees that are on our team, but they're going to continue running the show. So there will be no change to anything at all.
Speaker 2:And now, over time, I want to get to know the members and ask them how can we improve the program, just like I did with Harvest Hosts? We never changed the spirit of the program. Six years later, it's the same program, but with 10 times more locations, a much better technology product where you can now book through an app more members. We just grew the program and improved the technology. So I want to ask the Escapees members what can we do now that we have resources? We have now close to 80 full-time employees in our company. We have money. We like to spend it improving our products. What should we do next? And that's how we'll decide what that product path looks like for 20 years.
Speaker 1:So being clear is something that I think is needed. Again, a lot of conversation out there about this acquisition. You're not looking to change the name. You're not looking to change the price. You're not looking to change anything, as you said, right now, as you're learning more about what is needed to enhance what's already there, you incorporated all of the escapees employees, so they're going to continue to do what they have been doing and again, I just want to emphasize that because that's you know, look, anybody could go online and say what they want, and that's some of the conversation online that I want to be really clear on for people that you're going to sit back and look at what's needed. How can you improve.
Speaker 1:The big thing, too, that we talked about is community when you and I were talking in our pre-interview. Community is so important for both of us. I think it's an important reason why people go out and are part of the RV. You know, the RV world is the community. I feel like Harvest Toast provided me some of that community in the one-on-one, because when I've gone and stayed at some of these locations, those people become some of my best friends that I'm still connected to today when you go into a Boondockers Welcome and you stay a little longer. There's maybe a little more sense of community With Escapees. You see that big time part of the community. What's your plan there? What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I mean I think, yeah, community is the key theme, and it's neat the way you describe it. Right now, when we ask our Harvest Host members, do you consider us a community, they almost all say yes. It's really interesting Like people our members consider Harvest Host a community even though we haven't built any community fostering aspects, right, we don't have get togethers, we don't have rallies, we don't have any tools for communicating with other members Like none of that exists. And so I think the community they're describing is what you're describing. There's this community between the member and the host, right, who you stay with, and that is real community. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:What I'm excited to do is now also broaden that community to member to member, and I think that's what escapees does, right? Escapade is an example opportunity for people, members included, to get together in person and meet each other and share resources and talk about you know, stories on the road and maybe some of the Harvest Host locations they went to or some of their favorite campgrounds. So that's where I think this gets. Really fun is now we've got a physical presence in every state, right, there's state chapters, there's birds of a feather, interest groups, there's the head out programs, if you want to get together with peers and go, you know, do some cool organized trips. There's all this groundwork that escapees has spent 46 years perfecting that we don't have to now. At Harvest Hosts we can now say, hey, these programs exist, let's help you get more members into them, and I think that's a good thing. Right, like we're not going to, I have no fear of overrunning any of these programs, because with community, the more people you have engaged, the better, right.
Speaker 2:I think that the more dangerous thing with community is ghost towns. If you ever end up in a situation where you've got an interest group with two people and only one of them shows up one time, that's boring, right. But now, if you've got a birdwatching birds of a feather group and there's 200 people in it, that's awesome. That's 200 people you can now share your birdwatching stories with and we bring a lot of members to the table. So over time we're going to find a way to how do we get Harvest Host members more engaged in escapees. That's certainly something we're going to try to figure out. But the key theme is community getting more members connecting with Escapees members, with Harvest Host members, harvest Host members with Escapees members. As you can imagine, there's already a pretty decent double-digit percentage that are both, and so just figuring out how we can make more community, because I think that's what people want these days- Because I think that's what people want these days.
Speaker 1:So is that your main reason, then, for looking into the Escapees RV Club as part of your Harvest Host family?
Speaker 2:Totally. To me, it represents in-person community, and so the way that I simplified in my mind is we had camping, we nailed unique camping, and now we've got camping and community and I think those two things together are extremely powerful because now people can like talk about where they're going to stay and, by the way, if they want to have, if there are interest groups like the you know the, the birdwatching birds of a feather group, as an example, maybe they want to go stay at one of our harvest host locations that can hold 50 members right. Like, hold their, their BOF at a harvest host location, that's cool. Right and pick a location that actually has a lot of birdwatching capability. We've got thousands of them. We have so many birdwatching locations. So, yeah, I think some of the interesting possibilities start to emerge when you match our network with in-person community.
Speaker 1:And birds of a feather, and that's not something I've heard of through escapees. So that's literally people who like to go birdwatching right, Not to minimize it.
Speaker 2:No, no. So escapees. They have these interest groups and they call them BOFs, birds of a feather groups, and they have tons of them and they're all different topics, knitting. They can be state-based, they're interest groups. Birdwatching happens to be one of them, but yeah, birds of a Feather is just the name that they chose to represent those interest groups.
Speaker 1:Okay, got you. I just wanted to be clear because I know there's ex-capers, which is more for retired or working people not retired but working people and convergences, annual bashes. There's so many different things to be part of and again I bring up the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta as one of those, because going there with the escapees group I think it's just an amazing way to experience the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. It's just I've been there twice and being there with that group just really makes a difference. So talk about some of the things that, as you incorporate escapees, what are some things you're thinking moving forward? I know you want to take a step back and just figure out. What are people looking for? How can I make this better? What are some of those? Do you have some of those thoughts that have come to mind?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and again, I'm trying to be good about not making assumptions for what members want us to improve. But I think that's kind of the key phrasing is I'm not coming in to try to make changes, I'm trying to make improvements and as a escapees member, there are certainly things that I would prioritize. Improving First. It would probably be technology right.
Speaker 2:I find the current approach to finding events or birds of a feather groups as an example. You hadn't heard of those right, and there are lots of them, but it's hard to figure that out. It's hard when you go to the website to figure out how do I join a Birds of a Feather group and how do I get together and how do I communicate. The technology needs a facelift. So that's me projecting, but as a member I think that's fair. I would come in and make it a little easier to book events, easier to figure out your membership perks and benefits and use them. So technology improvement is probably one of the first places I would spend time, because that seems like a risk-free approach to making it better.
Speaker 1:Okay, and now again, you have already said this, I want to emphasize it. So if I have my mail service, which I do with escapees, that's not going to change. I'm still going to have my mail service through them, which has been great. Being on the road, I've had to call them because I've had an issue and they are very responsive and great about that. But now that escapees is part of Harvest Toast, some of the concerns online are my membership's going to go up. Why would I pay for two different things? Put you on the spot here. Can you address that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, so we, a substantial number of our escapees members, use the mail servicing and that is very important, right? It's? It's one of the biggest and most affordable programs out there and that's why people love it. It works well and it's well-priced. So, yeah, that's not going to change. I think you know and we've spoken to Travis and Mel they don't have any plans on raising price on mail servicing in the short run, right and over time, like I'm sure, they'll have to do what they have to do In the short run, right and over time, like I'm sure they'll have to do what they have to do.
Speaker 1:Cost of mail is actually going up, but on our side nothing changes there. You still have to be an escapees member to use the mail servicing, so that relationship stays in place and we have that partnership agreement in place and we're not raising prices on our end. So, yeah, I mean nothing's changing. So if I'm part of Harvest Host, if I'm a member, will that now include the escapees club part of it then? Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 2:I want to make sure I'm clear. No, so it's a good question At first, nothing, the two organizations stay separate, so they're still exactly the same. It's a good question At first nothing, the two organizations stay separate, so they're still exactly the same. It's different organizations. The employees happen to be, you know, employed by us, but they're going to continue running everything Over time.
Speaker 2:I would love to find a way to get Harvest Host access for Escapees members and Escapees access for Harvest Host members without charging people money. Right, that's, that's my goal. Like I, I'm excited. Like in a year we do, we do an interview and both membership groups say cool, like we have a lot more value from the membership that we already had. And it doesn't, you know, and nothing. The only thing that changed was we got more value out of it. Like that that's what I'm excited about, and I'm and I'm like we have a pretty cool plan to do that. So it's going to take it. It's going to take time. I mean that's the reality. Like everything takes time, especially two different companies with totally different technology, platforms, memberships, everything. It's going to take a long time to put them together and so there's no rush. I mean that that's the beauty of this right, like nothing's going to change for a long time.
Speaker 1:And you said during our pre-interview and I like this quote you said do no harm, but then you added to that. So can you talk about?
Speaker 2:that yes. So Escapees is now the sixth business that I've purchased in the last five years, and our first goal always is the Hippocratic oath Do no harm. All right, we're buying great. We always buy great businesses, right? Every business I've purchased was a great business, and that typically means awesome founders who truly believed in the product they were building, substantial value for the customer or the member and a great ability to like, grow it. And so we buy these great things.
Speaker 2:I don't want to mess it up. That's just the first thing, like, let's not mess this up. And so, past that, it's how do we improve it? Right, cause I don't think it's enough to buy a company and simply not mess it up. I think I like to buy companies that I can also then improve, and so you know that that's phase two of learning, right, how can we make this better? And let's not rush this, because rushing never works, but especially not for something that's been around for this long. People are always afraid of change. Change is scary, and so that's what you know. Again, I like this narrative, like I'm not trying to change anything, I'm just trying to improve some stuff, but, um, I'm confident that at the end of the day, just like harv.
Speaker 2:If you were a harvest host member six years ago. What's changed today is we have an additional 5 000 locations to go to. It's crazy, right, they're everywhere. We also have a booking system. We have an app, we have a website with route planning and filtering and like all these tools that never existed before. So it's hard to say it's impossible to say Harvest Hosts as a membership has not gotten better over the last six years, and that's my goal with Escapees is, over time, people say the same thing it's gotten better.
Speaker 1:And I've been with Harvest Host for three years and have been incredibly happy. I've seen Boondockers Welcome kind of merge together in that time and for me, like I said, I've traveled around the country and it's way better than just staying at a Cracker Barrel. We have had some of the most amazing experiences and we could talk about that in another time, but again, I wanted to give you this platform to clear the air. Is there anything else that I didn't cover that you want to make sure my listeners understand about this acquisition?
Speaker 2:No, you know, what I love about capitalism is that people get to vote with their dollars and, at the end of the day, I have to build a great product that has great value, or else people aren't going to renew their memberships and they're not going to sign up for new memberships. That's a perfect incentive structure, right? Like why do I have no plans to raise price, because raising price or adding value makes no sense, all that, like, if I'm a member and I'm like now I'm questioning whether I renew again. Right, so I want people to renew, like renewal rates to us at Harvest Host, that is our kind of key metric, right, it's our North Star how many people are renewing their memberships and how happy are they, and we use the NPS score for that.
Speaker 2:Those two things happiness and then voting with their dollars tells us whether we have a good product or not, and we've always had extremely strong retention at Harvest Host and a net promoter score, by the way, that's better than Starbucks, so I love that, right. And so that's what's coming for escapees. We're going to measure people's happiness, we're going to survey and ask them you know, how much do you love this product? And we're going to watch changes over time to make sure that they're loving it more, not less. And then, of course, if we screw it up, no one's going to renew, we're not going to have a business. So that's just what I love about capitalism Incentives are in line.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's like you said. You know change is scary for people. So in that, you know people get to go on social media and say whatever they want. Is there a place for people to reach out if they have questions? Now, certainly, our listeners can go to the RV Life podcast Instagram, facebook page and I can share whatever thoughts they have with you, but is there a place they could go to to ask additional questions about this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. I mean, they can ask me directly. It's just joel at harvesthostcom and I love interacting with our members and our customers. It's great and I also I feel like you know email or phone, whatever like or in person. It's a much more productive forum because people think about their requests and I'm not a huge social media like I. I love social media. In some respects I find it just absolutely abhorrent. In others it's like an outlet for garbage a lot of times. And so if someone wants to reach out to me directly and say I have concerns, here's what I or questions Awesome, that's productive. I don't go down the rabbit hole of reading the comments where people speculate about things that I'm going to do, because that's just unreasonable.
Speaker 1:And I agree with that. And, again, that's why I wanted to give the opportunity to clear things up straight from the person in charge. And one of the things you also said is you do like attending events so that you can interact with the possible customer or the customers. Now, I know you said you won't be in Hershey yourself, but you do have people that will be there. Certainly people could ask questions of them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, we end up. Our company is representative of most of the big industry events now. They're everywhere, whether we have a lot of times we have a booth. But even if we don't have a booth, right, we're there and so it's really, yeah, that's a great place to catch up in person. And then I personally like to attend events also, right, and so I'm really excited, right, I'm already excited for Escapade next March, right, like I'll be there ready to just sit and chat, like let's have a beer and talk. It's so fun, it's a great way to talk. So, but, yeah, we're present. We like to be present in the industry. We're almost everywhere, right, that's always like my goal for the marketing team. I'm like, just make sure we're everywhere, right.
Speaker 1:And that's great that people can go straight to you. I was referring to the Hershey RV show, america's largest RV show. I will be there. I've always seen Harvest Toast there and I'm really looking forward to seeing what's coming next. I personally am excited about the opportunity, the potential for what's coming, and I just want to thank you, joel, so much for being on the podcast with me. I really appreciate you taking the time to clear things up for people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, of course, it's an honor to be here and I think, at the end of the day, I am an RVer. I love this community. That was the reason I got into this business right. That was the reason right. This was not a financial decision. It was because I was looking for something fun to do, and this industry is super fun and passionate. I was looking for something fun to do, and this industry is super fun and passionate, and that's it. And so we're going to keep building really fun things for our viewers, and I'm usually a pretty good like it's fun when I get to build stuff for myself, right. So it's going to be the future is bright.
Speaker 1:That sounds great and as things move along, we'll have you back on to give our listeners updates on what's happening with this exciting acquisition. I think it's very exciting. Well, thank you again, and to my listeners you've been listening to the RV Life podcast. I'm Patty Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.