Everything You Need to Know to Secure and Protect Your Campground

Here is everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground, imagine walking into your campground office tomorrow morning and finding it completely destroyed. Windows smashed, computer systems stolen, and years worth of customer files and records gone.

Unfortunately, this is not a far cry from reality. Business theft happens every day in some capacity and many businesses left in the wake cannot recover. But still, business owners continue to procrastinate on the improvement of their security and overall protection.

Establishing the proper security systems in 2020 should no longer be a question of “If” but “When”. And the answer is now. An investment in security and protection of your campgrounds will not only increase its value but it’ll give you daily peace of mind that your business is safe.

There are plenty of options out there to fully safeguard your campgrounds. Below we’ve put together a comprehensive list of everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground and keep your business safe in 2020 and beyond.

Implement/Improve Cyber-Security

Cyber-crime is the most prominent form of crime affecting small businesses in 2020. Most businesses aren’t prepared for the repercussions of dealing with cyber-attacks. They also aren’t proactively working to prevent them.

The below statistics taken from several surveys will prove the importance of investing in your cyber-security today:

• The average computer is attacked every 39 seconds
• 78% of organizations have been victim to cyber-attacks in the last year
• 1000 data breaches exposing 147 million records occurred in the first nine months of 2019
• 83% of small businesses do not have the capital to survive a successful cyber-attack
• 43% of all data breaches target small businesses
• Cyber-security attacks on small businesses were up 424% in 2018

Keeping your computer systems and information safe from hackers is crucial to keeping your campground open and running. There are multiple steps you can take to improve your cybersecurity and prevent cyber attacks. A few quick preventative measures you can start today are listed below:

• Use full-service internet security suites to protect from viruses and malware
• Keep your software up-to-date
• Use strong and unique passwords

Thankfully, RoverPass RMS keeps you and your camper’s data secure.

Lockboxes/Safes

While most valuable documentation and information should be well-stored in a safe computer system, other important documents need physical copies.

Investing in a durable, strong, and fireproof lockbox for your campground is a great way to proactively secure highly-sensitive documents from theft or destruction.

Hiring Security Personnel

Appointing an on-site security guard, particularly an overnight guard, will decrease the likelihood of criminal activity on your grounds immediately. The presence alone of on-site security helps to deter crime and mitigate any threat of illegal activity on your site.

Also, the presence of security personnel will improve the overall sense of safety on the grounds for your campers and employees.

In a scenario where a crime does take place while security is present, the response time to the criminal activity will be much quicker than without security on-site. Police can be contacted immediately which decreases the amount of damage done to your business.

Further, security guards that are highly-trained and certified by reputable companies have the ability to detain suspects and work with police to detail the illegal acts.

Hiring security personnel can vary from $10-100/hr depending on the level of training and certifications they have, and the time of day the security guard is required. Check with your local security guard companies for quotes and details.

Video Surveillance Monitoring

As a campground operator, you can’t be everywhere at once. And even with a security guard present, on-site security cannot monitor all places at all times. Fortunately, the technology of video surveillance allows for just that.

Installed video surveillance provides multiple eyes all-around your business to secure the areas you can’t. Much like an on-site security guard, video surveillance security systems are known to deter and prevent criminal activity. Studies show businesses equipped with video surveillance security systems are much less inviting to criminals than those without.

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But what about crimes that take place even after video surveillance is installed? Does adding video surveillance help solve crimes that have directly impacted your campground? The answer is yes.

Security cameras are one of the primary tools police officers use to investigate, corroborate evidence, and solve crimes. Surveillance footage is essential to collect hard, reliable evidence to explain and resolve any criminal activity that may impact your campground. Security footage from your surveillance cameras may be the difference in recovering your valuables or not.

Motion-Sensor Lighting

One of the many highlights of camping is getting away from the bright city lights. Escaping light pollution in cities to see thousands of shimmering stars littered across the sky is an integral part of a memorable campground.

That’s why motion-sensor lighting in certain areas of your campground is the perfect option to keep your campsite secure while still promoting awesome stargazing for your campers.

Installing night motion-sensor lights around commonly used facilities such as bathrooms, showers, pavilions, picnic areas, and main offices will deter would-be vandals. It will also provide a sense of security for your campers all while still keeping the constellations visible!

Install Security Alarms

Installing security alarms in and around your campgrounds is essential to everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground, and improving the security and protection of your business at the same time. Visible security alarms are proven to prevent burglaries and significantly lower criminal activity within businesses by more than half.

A study done of 422 jailed male and female burglars found that 60% of participants seek another target altogether if the presence of an alarm system is noted. The burglars also noted that if an alarm system was noticed after beginning the burglary almost half would abandon the attempt.

Unfortunately, security alarms won’t prevent every break-in. But, they do prevent extensive damage and valuable information from being taken. Once an alarm goes off, most burglars will leave the area immediately. This means time spent looking around for important and valuable company assets is very limited. The alarm will also tip-off police who can be at the campgrounds quickly.

Gated Access

Setting up gated access is another opportunity to further secure your campground. Placing entry and exit gates will make it more difficult for criminals to quickly enter and exit.

In the study mentioned earlier, male burglars, who more often targeted businesses, were deterred from proceeding with their plans if escape routes were not easily and readily available. Installing gated access at entry and exit points provides more difficult entry and escape routes for vandals.

Use an RMS

With cyber-attacks increasing year-to-year, protecting sensitive information of your campers and campground is more important than ever. Using everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground and an encrypted RMS will protect confidential information and simplify the reservation process for you and your campers.

By using the RoverPass RMS, reservations can be completed and submitted through our cloud-based software, which provides more protection of highly-sensitive information of your campers and campground.

Conclusion

The importance of knowing everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground can not be overstated. With many operators ignoring warnings to protect their campground, they leave their business at high-risk.

Keeping your campground secure and protected from cyber and personal attacks is more pivotal now than ever. By being proactive and knowing everything you need to know to secure and protect your campground, you can be sure your campground will be protected and secure in 2020 and beyond.

Interested in how RoverPass can help your campground boost profits, save time, and increase occupancy all at no cost to you? Shoot us an email at sales@roverpass.com or schedule a demo here.