Harvest Hosts just signed up its 2,000th location and it has plans to reach 3,000 by year's end. Here's how to find the best camping with the program.

Harvest Hosts is nothing short of a phenomenon in the RV industry, a service that lets you camp free overnight at wineries, farms, distilleries, tourist attractions, and even golf courses all across North America.

While you are expected to patronize and purchase some of the produce or products at the Harvest Hosts locations where you camp, your RV camping is free, covered in the membership fee you pay to belong to Harvest Hosts.

With commercial campground fees of $50 a night pretty much commonplace now, Harvest Hosts is one of the best camping bargains available. Just a couple of stays more than pays your membership fee.

Here's a video we did on one of our stays not long ago:

The latest News from Harvest Hosts

In Episode 337 of the RV Podcast, we interview Joel Holland, the CEO, about his plans for the service in the coming months. You can listen t the complete podcast interview in the player below or on your favorite podcast app. But keep scrolling down for a transcript and video version of our interview with Joel.

And keep scrolling down for a  special offer to our community that will save you 15% off your membership fee.

Here's the video of the interview:

Here's an edited transcript of the interview with Joel Holland, Harvest Hosts' CEO:

Mike Wendland: Joel Holland joins us right now, from Harvest Hosts. And Joel, it's time to go camping again. How are you?

Joel Holland: I'm doing great. And I think like most of your viewers, I'm itching to get back on the road. We live out in Colorado. So, it's been our winter season, but the RV is winterized and I'm ready to de-winterize. So, it's exciting times.

Mike Wendland: And you are going to be traveling with a new companion, a three-month-old baby girl, right?

Joel Holland: That's right. Yeah, Waverley was born on December 8th. She's had all her baby vaccinations now, and it feels like she's going to be a good traveler. You never really know. But as far as driving her around in the car, she seems to like to look out the window and it's very... Really enjoys traveling. So, she got that from us, hopefully, that carries over to the RV.

RVers are Traveling Again!

Mike Wendland: Well, let's talk about this year that is just now really getting underway. In most places, COVID at least seems to be on the decline. There's a general feeling that we're going to be able to travel again. You guys did a pretty comprehensive study, in fact, I think it's one of the more in-depth studies that we've seen anywhere, about travel, RV travel in 2021. And can you give us a quick recap of what you learned from that study?

People are hungry to find the best camping experiences

Joel Holland: Yes, absolutely. So, we had 10,000 RV mainly owners respond to our survey. So, it's a lot of data. And it was very positive for the travel outlook, the high-level data points. 76% of respondents said they plan to travel more this year than last year, which was not hugely surprising. What was surprising was a full 60% said they plan to travel more this year than pre-COVID.

There's a lot of people who are just like, "I'm itching to get out and on the road." So, we're going to see...

2021 is going to be a massive RV travel season

And here's why it's going to be domestic, 81% of respondents said they do not plan to go internationally this year. 69% said they still don't feel safe getting on an airplane. And 56% said they don't feel safe staying in a hotel. No surprise, 99% said they do feel safe traveling in an RV. So, all this data, kind of, points to more travel, it's going to be domestic, and it's going to be in an RV.

Mike Wendland: Now, you guys still had a lot of people that were out using Harvest Hosts locations in 2020. As not every venue, of course, was open, but lots of people were out there using it. So, I wonder how everyone just prepared for 2021. Now, you've been around long enough that everybody knows what Harvest Hosts is, and with campgrounds so full, how are you guys going to handle all that? All those spots that are Harvest Hosts locations, how are they going to handle this demand?

Meeting the demand for more Harvest Hosts locations

Harvest Host locations across North America

Joel Holland: Well, that's what we focus most on, our host locations and increasing that number with high-quality hosts. And so, we added hundreds last year, where we just announced, this month, we passed 2000 hosts in our network, which is great, right? Great geographic coverage.

There are 2,000 Harvest Hosts locations now

And it's a really good compliment to the campground inventory. Because to your point, we're seeing already, some early signs that campgrounds are sold out, state parks are sold out, national parks are sold out. So, I think Harvest Hosts becomes a great tool in the toolkit for finding a location to stay, especially during these busy times when it might be difficult otherwise, but we're working to add hundreds of new campgrounds a month.

The goal is 3,000 by the end of 2021

Our goal this year, in 2021, is to add 1000 new locations and end the year with over 3000 Harvest Hosts locations.

Mike Wendland: Why so much interest in these Harvest Hosts locations? Besides the fact that they're free. They're free basically, except for whatever you purchase there.

Joel Holland: Totally, You know what's interesting? I think that the free factor is the least compelling reason that Harvest Hosts has been so successful. I think what travelers are looking for are unique experiences. And campgrounds are super important, they provide a lot of utility and I use them hundreds of days a year, but Harvest Hosts locations are truly unique.

And I've seen from some of your travels with Jennifer, an alligator farm, right? Alpaca farms, staying at wineries where you can both indulge in the tastings and not have to drive anywhere, parking among the vines, or parking in a lavender field. These are really memorable experiences.

And I don't want to speak for everyone, but one of the reasons that we got into RVing was to see the country and come away with stories, and you really get this really unique experience and storytelling experience from Harvest Hosts.

So, I think that's why it's been popular for members, for hosts. We have so many joining the program right now, and it's because they love our members. In fact, when we survey our hosts and we ask them, "Why are you in the Harvest Hosts program?" The number one response is that they enjoy meeting our members and sharing their lifestyle with them.

I thought that was really touching because the number two answer was the additional revenue, which I expected, right? You expect a business to participate in a program to make more money, it's a business. But really, our hosts love our members because we have wonderful members. And I think that just translates, RVers are just typically wonderful people.

Mike Wendland: I think about this alpaca farm that Jennifer and I visited in New Mexico a couple of years ago now, and it was about this time of year, and it was just truly a unique experience. We got up close with those alpacas. We got to learn about them. And the wonderful woman who runs that farm told us that she was so glad to be on Harvest Hosts. She said that she couldn't travel as much as she would like, at all, really, because she's caring for the animals, but through Harvest Hosts, she got to vicariously travel through all the people that she had met.

And we've stayed in touch with her throughout the years, and I think that that's just been multiplied so many times. You hit the word experience. It's an experience, and I'd even use the word adventure, so many of those spots. Talk about your favorite places. And we mentioned a few, but you also are a participant, as the CEO of Harvest Hosts. What are your favorites?

The CEO's favorite Harvest Hosts locations

Joel Holland: That's a fun question. So, we, of course, love wineries because we love wine, and I love the setting. So, I'd say, on any and every trip we go on, we always sprinkle in wineries. More and more recently, breweries and distilleries have started joining our program, and we're up to a few hundred of them now.

And they're really... That's a kind of, a lot of fun and a whole different experience. And then we like to add in, kind of, our museums and other attractions are what we call them.

But I'll give you a couple of examples. So, when we drove across Kansas last year, we stayed at the underground salt museum, the Strataca Underground Salt Museum. And actually, you take an elevator 400 feet down into the ground and you see how salt is made, and you see them blasting it out of the walls.

That's pretty cool. I had no idea how my table salt arrived at my table. Now I know. So, very educational. Driving through Nebraska, we went to the Golden Spike Tower, which is the world's largest train yard, and they have this huge observational tower. You can go up and sit in.

Hundreds of thousands of trains couple and decouple every day. I mean, the scale of this operation is mind-boggling, and it, kind of, brought out my inner child. Everyone loves trains, seeing it was really cool. And the last one, I'll say, Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire, it's a railway that's been there since the 1800s. And this thing, at a certain point, is on almost a 45-degree angle, chugging up a hill using coal. I mean, it's cool. So, these are the unique experiences that I love talking about.

Harvest Hosts just got $37 million in investment funding

Mike Wendland: So, the big news for Harvest Hosts in the last couple of weeks though, I saw in all of the trade publications, was a $37 million investment. What was that all about? And what will you do with all of that?

Joel Holland: Yes, it was a big announcement, and it's very exciting.