Pros and Cons of Handling Personal Postal Mail at Your Park

June 29, 2023

On a fairly regular basis, the discussion of receiving postal mail for RV Park/Resort/Campground guests comes up.  I would like to take a minute of your time to look at the major pros and cons, IMHO, regarding this issue.

In today’s competitive world of the Outdoor Hospitality Industry, we all recognize that enhancing customer service is a must.  The more you can provide unexpected services, the more you are going to remain at the forefront of your guest’s mind.

At the same time, some services that you can provide can result in losing more on the bottom line.

Let’s look at what I see as the Pros and Cons.

TL:DR. Know your risks before you decide.

Pros:

• Full-Timers are going to appreciate you.

Getting mail is one of the first things that most full-timers learn about.  It can be a bit of a headache, but there are solutions out there.  By allowing a full-timer to receive their mail, they don’t have to bother with going to the post office to pick up their mail addressed to General Delivery or purchase a PO mailbox from the post office, UPS store or any of the other providers.

• Looking for Long Term Stays?

Much like Full-Timers, Long Term Stay guests will need to find a way to receive their mail.  Again, by providing this service, you are saving the guest money and time spent traveling to pick up mail.

• Additional Revenue Stream

Depending on how you structure the service it may be possible to charge a small fee for the service of accepting mail for the guest.  We all appreciate an extra dollar or two, but make sure that you have spoken to the Postmaster of your location.

Now that we have seen the positives, let’s look at the negatives.

Cons:

• Residency

By allowing the long-term guest to receive their mail at your address, you may have just given them tenancy at your park.  This means that if you ever need to ask them to move, you are going to have to get a lawyer and go through the eviction process.  Results?  Big cost in time and money.

• Logistical Challenge

The chore of receiving, sorting, and storing mail can be time consuming.  Leaving the mail out on a table is not an answer as I will talk about in a second.  You will need to establish procedures on accessing mail when the office is closed.  My last issue is knowing who is picking up the mail.  You don’t want to hand someone’s mail over to a stranger.

• Privacy and Security Issues

There aren’t many parks that don’t have their very own Nosy Nellies.  These are the folks that will come in and go through everyone’s mail to see who is getting mail from where.  Now the gossip games begin.

When you handle someone else’s mail, you are taking on the responsibility of ensuring that the mail is delivered to the right person and that it is stored securely until that delivery can be made.

• Potential Liability

Along with the issues we just discussed, there is the potential liability if mail is misplaced, lost or Nosy Nellie picking up someone else’s mail.

Personal mail can contain several items that may be important documents, prescriptions or expensive items that could lead to serious repercussions.

• Payroll

With mail service, you have increased the workload of your staff.  While you may think that they can handle this in their down time, it does have the potential for distracting them from their core responsibilities.

BTW, there is one last con that I didn’t mention.  You are now going to receive a huge increase in junk mail.

Conclusion

I am not going to tell you NOT to accept mail for your guests.  I am going to ask that you look at the issue from all sides and determine if the guest benefit of receiving mail at the park is worth the potential problems.  It’s your call.

If you would like to chat about this issue or any other problem you are facing, we are here to help you.  Just reach out and get time on our calendar, give us a call at 337.735.4070 , or reach out through our website contact page.