Top rated Anaheim RV Park simplifies its name to match Google searches
Anaheim RV Park gets a name change and updated look.
Both the park and Disneyland are located in an area of Anaheim called “Anaheim Resort,” but most people have never heard of Anaheim Resort. Anaheim Resort RV Park has a stack of awards from organizations ranging from TripAdvisor.com and GuestRated.com, two of the top ratings agencies in the country. But from a marketing standpoint, what matters most is how easily it is for travelers to find the park on Google and other online searches. And after conducting research on the topic, park owner Vern Mangels has discovered that Anaheim RV Park comes up on Google searches more often than Anaheim Resort RV Park, even though his park and Disneyland are located in the area of Anaheim called Anaheim Resort. “Many years ago, this area of Anaheim was named ‘Anaheim Resort.’ But most of the people have never heard of Anaheim Resort so we changed our name to match what people are looking for. Effective immediately, we are Anaheim RV Park.” It was also time for a new, updated look as well.
Mangels is the grandson of L.V. and Miriam Bostwick, who originally founded the park in 1956 as Midway Trailer City. In those days, it was a mobile home community. But when Disneyland expanded in the 1960s and bought up RV parks on the west side of the amusement park it created a need for more overnight RV spaces. The Bostwick family eventually decided to transition their park from a mobile home park to an RV resort in the late 1980s.
It turned out to be a prudent decision. Even today, most of the park’s guests are travelers heading to Disneyland. But Mangels said business success—and high customer ratings—require much more than a good location. In the RV business, it also requires exemplary facilities and amenities and a willingness to make continual improvements. Toward that end, Mangels has spent over $1 million in improvements during the past six years. This includes building an on-site 1960s Cafe, updating the RV sites with new utility connections and picnic tables; remodeling the park’s office and swimming pool, adding new areas for guests to walk their dogs, installing programmable swimming pool and restroom door locks and installing a reliable, high-speed, Wi-Fi system as well as upgrading to a cloud-based computer server.
Mangels has also increased the number of people working at the park to handle maintenance as well as front desk check-ins, which will be close to 9,000 in 2015, translating to nearly 40,000 guests. “Camping in Mickey’s Backyard has never been better”, said Mangels. “People receive an incredibly high level of guest service when they go to Disneyland, so I’ve raised the bar here,” Mangels said, adding that his park has also received more than 800 reviews on TripAdvisor.com and been rated the number one specialty lodging provider in Anaheim for the past five years, earning the coveted Hall of Fame award this year. And since the people who stay at Anaheim Resort RV Park are typically heading to Disneyland, Mangels has forged a partnership to sell Disneyland tickets. “We’re the only RV park that sells actual Disney tickets on our property, which means our guests don’t have to wait in long lines to get their tickets,” Mangels said, adding, “We sell a lot of them.”
The park, which is less than a mile from Disneyland, also has an Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) shuttle stop on their property, which offers convenient transportation for RV park guests to and from Disneyland and the surrounding area. Anaheim RV Park has also received an “A” grade in overall guest satisfaction from GuestRated.com for four consecutive years.
Only 34 out of about 4,000 campgrounds, RV parks and resorts across America received all around ‘A’ ratings in the latest GuestRated.com consumer surveys. “If you do the math, that amounts to fewer than one in 100 campgrounds, RV parks and resorts receiving all around ‘A’ ratings in our consumer surveys,” said Bob MacKinnon, a former Disney Company executive who founded GuestRated.com, the nation’s most thorough online rating system for public and privately owned and operated campgrounds.
Indeed, while online surveys typically give consumers the ability to post their comments, most online survey forms ask consumers to rate only a few things, like value, location, cleanliness and service. GuestRated.com, by contrast, solicits consumer feedback on 55 different guest satisfaction questions in addition to providing consumers the ability to post written comments and suggestions.
Three years ago, Anaheim Resort RV Park was also named “Family-Owned Business of the Year” by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce in an awards ceremony recognizing the park’s exceptional business achievements and outstanding commitment to Anaheim’s business community. “We’re obviously very humbled and blessed to receive these local and national awards,” Mangels said.
For more information about Anaheim RV Park, please visit www.anaheimrvpark.com. Other privately owned and operated campgrounds can be found at www.Camp-California.com and www.GoCampingAmerica.com.
