work camping

I know there are quite a few work campers here. Has anybody worked at a KOA or other chain?

How does it compare to an indiviually owned park?

Other than comparing compensation from one park to another (KOA or any other), what are some of the things you look for when deciding what park to apply to?

MODS: I thought I remember a section just for work/camping. If there is and this in the wrong spot, please move it where it belongs. Thanks

My DW worked at a KOA (down the street from out house) several years ago. She was not workamping but a full time employee. The bad part about it was it was a privately owned KOA and about half the time the pay checks were late and a couple of times the pay checks bounced. Needless to say that KOA is not in business anymore. It was a decent job though.

Wow Jim, never thought of late and boucning paychecks. I hope your DW never lost a check becuase of that.

But how do you know if afer driving 400 miles you wouldnt be in the same boat or you just stepped onto the set of "Deliverance"?

We went to a KOA open house at their national convention in the Woodlands. We found out that we would have to pay a $35.00 fee to be able to access the KOA website to see where job openings are, and although there were several attractive parks represented, we decided that it was wrong to have to pay a fee to take a minimum wage job. We were told that there are no free sites for a certain amount of work but all hours are paid. This means we would have gotten a 10-99 and had to pay more taxes, and depending on how much we worked, take the chance that the income would have been enough to interfere with our social security benefits.

We did work in a Texas state park and it was very easy. The hardest thing about it was being available to sell firewood and ice until almost 10 o'clock at night. We got a free site and easy working conditions and would recommend it to others.

One other thing to consider is does the Campground you are working for consider your "free" site as part of your income or living expenses. If they give you a 1099 which includes the amount of your site then you could end up paying the government to work there. Bottom line is ask questions and get everything promised in writing. Remember if you promise to work a certain length of time and pull out early you could be sued for breaching your contract.

I figured the 1099 would reflect the campsite. Is that not always the case?
I also see alot of campgrounds saying they pay a bonus for a fulfilled contract. Is that a sign that maybe the working conditions are less than desirable?

Our workcamping experience has been good. No 1099's to worry about. We received our site and electric last winter in Indio. In Corpus we got the site, elec, laundry bonus, wifi bonus and a shed if we desired. Our contract in Indio read it could be broken by either party without recourse. If we worked more than our required hours, we then would have to deal with taxes.

The Escapees webstie has quite a bit on Workkammping and there is a website/newspaper(?) for workkamping. I have heard it is better to get jobs on the outside rather than workkamp. You easily make up the cost of the campsite and have better hours. There is also seasonal workkamping Disney, Dollywood, Amazon(at Christmas I understand). Probably a lot of others are out there also.