Version 1.0 — April 2026
Brian Searl Insider Perks ORCID: 0009-0005-3589-0669
The Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Index (OHPI) is a monthly benchmark measuring the cost of overnight stays at private campgrounds, RV parks, glamping properties, independent outdoor hosting sites, and public campgrounds in the United States. The index provides a standardized, reproducible measure of price levels and price movement across the outdoor hospitality sector.
The OHPI fills a measurement gap. Lodging industries such as hotels (STR/CoStar), residential real estate (S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller), and short-term rentals (AirDNA) have established pricing indices. Outdoor hospitality — a sector encompassing thousands of properties, millions of site-nights, and billions in annual consumer spending — has had none.
Geographic scope: United States. State-level reporting requires a minimum property threshold to ensure statistical reliability.
Property segments: The OHPI tracks five distinct market segments, each representing a structurally different product and competitive set:
Segment | Description |
|---|---|
OHPI Composite | Traditional private campgrounds and RV parks operating on commercial booking platforms and property management systems |
OHPI-Public | Federal recreation areas on public lands (Army Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service) |
OHPI-Glamping | Standalone glamping properties offering experiential outdoor accommodations (cabins, treehouses, domes, yurts, etc.) |
OHPI-Independent | Peer-to-peer outdoor hosting — private landowners offering campsites, RV hookups, and rustic structures directly to consumers |
Accommodation sub-indices: Within the composite segment, three accommodation-level sub-indices are maintained:
Sub-Index | Coverage |
|---|---|
OHPI-RV | RV sites including pull-through, back-in, full hookup, and partial hookup |
OHPI-Lodging | On-site accommodations including cabins, cottages, yurts, treehouses, and other bookable structures at campgrounds |
OHPI-Tent | Tent-only campsites |
Source types: Pricing data is collected from consumer-facing booking platforms, property management systems, federal recreation reservation systems, glamping-specific marketplaces, and peer-to-peer outdoor hosting platforms. All data reflects published, consumer-visible pricing — the rate a guest would see when searching for availability on the booking platform.
Collection method: Automated collection systems observe published availability and pricing across standardized date windows. Each observation captures the property, site type, check-in date, check-out date, nightly rate, availability status (available or sold out), and available site count where provided by the platform.
Date windows: Each monthly observation period includes multiple weekend windows, weekday windows, and holiday-specific dates spanning the forward calendar. This design captures the full seasonal pricing curve in every observation period, enabling forward-looking analysis in addition to spot pricing.
Frequency: Data is collected continuously with monthly index publication.
Multiple observations may exist for the same property, site type, and check-in date due to repeated collection cycles. The OHPI retains only the most recent observation for each unique combination of property, site type, and check-in date. This ensures every data point is counted once at its most current price.
Properties that appear on multiple booking platforms are identified and attributed to their primary booking system. The priority hierarchy assigns properties to their property management system or brand network over third-party aggregators. Aggregator-sourced records for cross-listed properties are removed to prevent double-counting.
Site types are normalized to a standard taxonomy: RV, lodging, tent, and other. Classification is performed using platform-provided category codes, with fallback to raw category descriptions where codes are unavailable. Approximately 95% of observations are classified into the three primary categories. Records classified as “other” are excluded from accommodation-specific sub-indices but may contribute to composite calculations.
Excluded categories include monthly rentals, storage units, and non-accommodation site types.
Within the composite segment, lodging site types are scanned for glamping-specific accommodation keywords (yurt, dome, treehouse, tipi, A-frame, airstream, safari tent, etc.). Matched records are flagged for comparative analysis against standalone glamping properties. These records remain in the OHPI-Lodging sub-index — they are campground lodging products — but are also reported as “campground glamping” in the glamping analysis section.
Price observations above $1,000 per night are excluded from the composite index. Glamping observations above $2,000 per night are excluded from the glamping index. Additionally, properties classified as vacation rentals (large houses, villas, private islands) are excluded from the glamping segment. Platform-flagged outliers are excluded across all segments.
State names are normalized to two-letter US postal codes. International properties and US territories are excluded from state-level reporting. Properties without identifiable state attribution are excluded from state-level analysis but remain in national calculations where applicable.
The headline OHPI Composite is a category-weighted average. Within each monthly observation:
The index value is expressed as a ratio to the baseline observation multiplied by 100:
OHPI(t) = [WeightedAvg(t) / WeightedAvg(baseline)] × 100
The baseline observation period is April 2026 (OHPI = 100.0).
Category weighting prevents compositional drift from affecting the index. If a new data source adds disproportionately more RV sites than lodging, the weighting mechanism ensures the index reflects price changes, not mix changes.
OHPI-RV, OHPI-Lodging, and OHPI-Tent are computed identically to the composite but filtered to a single accommodation category. Each is baselined to 100.0 in April 2026.
Computed using the same methodology as the composite but restricted to federal recreation properties. An outlier cap of $500 per night applies (lower than the composite cap, reflecting the narrower price range of government campgrounds). The private-to-public pricing ratio is reported as a measure of market displacement.
Computed from date-specific pricing observations of standalone glamping properties. Properties classified as vacation rentals or luxury categories (large houses, villas, private islands) are excluded. The glamping index reports average, median, and breakdown by accommodation type.
Computed from date-specific pricing observations of peer-to-peer outdoor hosting properties, with sub-breakdowns by RV-capable sites, tent sites, and structures.
For each index, month-over-month point change and percentage change are computed against the prior observation period. The baseline issue (April 2026) reports null for MoM fields.
The DPI estimates minimum occupancy across the dataset using a conservative inventory baseline methodology.
Capacity estimation: For each unique combination of property and site type, total capacity is estimated as the maximum available site count ever observed across all collection cycles, capped at 600 to prevent anomalous readings from inflating estimates. This is a supply-side estimate analogous to STR’s approach to estimating hotel supply from the demand side.
Binary fallback: For site types where no available site count has ever been observed, capacity defaults to 1 and availability defaults to binary (1 if available, 0 if sold out). This affects approximately 2-3% of observations.
Occupancy calculation: For each latest observation per property, site type, and check-in date: booked = capacity − available. Occupancy = sum(booked) / sum(capacity) across all observations in the period.
Conservative bias: Because the capacity baseline can only equal or understate true inventory (we can only observe what was available, not what was never available), the DPI represents a floor. Actual PMS-reported occupancy at the property level would be higher.
Measures the dispersion of price changes across properties between consecutive observation periods. Computed as the coefficient of variation of park-level percentage price changes. A high RVI indicates heterogeneous price movement (some parks raising rates significantly while others hold or drop). A low RVI indicates uniform movement.
The interquartile range (P75 − P25) of all composite pricing observations, expressed both in dollars and as a percentage of the median. Measures market stratification — the gap between budget and premium segments.
Ratio of average weekend pricing to average weekday pricing within matched date windows of the same observation period. Measured using platform-defined weekend and weekday date windows.
Per-holiday comparison of holiday date window pricing against regular weekend pricing within the same observation period. Reported individually for each observed holiday.
Within the RV sub-index, sites are classified as premium (pull-through, 50-amp service, or sites with premium/deluxe designations) or standard (all other RV sites). The spread between premium and standard average pricing is reported in dollars and percentage.
Among observations showing zero available inventory, the time gap between the observation date and the check-in date is measured. This represents the lead time at which sell-out was observed — not necessarily when sell-out occurred, but the earliest observation of zero availability.
Cross-segment price comparisons expressed as ratios: tent-to-lodging, tent-to-glamping, and the private-to-public ratio. These track relative positioning of market segments over time.
Because each observation period captures pricing across all forward date windows — spanning the coming 12 months — the OHPI publishes a forward pricing curve in every issue. This curve shows the average nightly rate for each future check-in month as observed in the current period.
Month-over-month comparison of the forward curve isolates demand-driven price movement from seasonality. If the July average rate shifts from $107 in the April observation to $110 in the May observation, that represents real market movement for the same future month, not a seasonal effect.
This methodology is analogous to term structure analysis in fixed income and commodity futures markets, where forward curves reveal market expectations independent of calendar effects.
Published rates only. The OHPI reflects consumer-visible booking platform pricing. It does not capture direct-booking discounts, membership rates, loyalty pricing, unpublished seasonal adjustments, or negotiated group rates. To the extent that direct booking rates differ from platform rates, the OHPI may overstate or understate true transaction prices.
Coverage variation. Property coverage varies by geography and market segment. Some states and regions have deeper coverage than others. Coverage is expanding continuously as additional properties are discovered and indexed. State-level rankings should be interpreted with awareness that coverage depth varies.
Platform representation. The OHPI captures properties listed on consumer-facing booking platforms. Properties that operate exclusively through phone reservations, walk-in traffic, or proprietary direct-booking websites not indexed by the collection system are not represented.
Cross-listing residual. While cross-listed properties are identified and deduplicated through a priority hierarchy, some residual double-counting may occur where properties appear under different names or identifiers across platforms.
Capacity estimation. The Demand Pressure Index relies on observed maximum availability as a proxy for true capacity. This methodology systematically understates capacity and therefore understates occupancy. The DPI should be interpreted as a minimum occupancy estimate.
Forward curve attenuation. The forward pricing curve for months 8-12 out may reflect a smaller set of properties (those with longer booking windows) and should be interpreted with awareness that the sample composition shifts at longer horizons.
The OHPI is not revised after publication. Each monthly issue represents the data as observed during that collection period. If methodological improvements are implemented, they are applied prospectively and documented in the methodology version history. The baseline (April 2026 = 100.0) is permanent.
When referencing the OHPI, the recommended citation format is:
Searl, B. (2026). Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Index (OHPI), [Month] 2026. Insider Perks. https://insiderperks.com/ohpi
For the methodology:
Searl, B. (2026). Outdoor Hospitality Pricing Index: Methodology, Version 1.0. Insider Perks. https://insiderperks.com/ohpi/methodology
Brian Searl, Founder & CEO Insider Perks brian@insiderperks.com ORCID: 0009-0005-3589-0669
© 2026 Insider Perks. All rights reserved. This methodology document is the intellectual property of Insider Perks. It may be referenced and cited with attribution but may not be reproduced in full without permission.
