Overnight RV parking has always been a bone of contention with some municipalities and businesses. At one time, Walmart became a darling of the RV world by allowing travelers to park on its store lots overnight while en route to places near and far. Unfortunately, problems caused by a few miscreants — coupled with local legislators outlawing the practice in various regions — pretty much killed that Golden Goose. Other establishments with larger parking lots, such as Cracker Barrel restaurants, have picked up some slack, but it’s not nearly enough.

That’s why Harvest Hosts’ (harvesthosts.com) program has been so popular. And so necessary. At a time when sold-out campgrounds are turning away guests, the ability to safely overnight in a self-contained RV can be critical. The fact that Harvest Hosts offers members overnight stays among some of the most beautiful surroundings imaginable, from wineries to farms and more, makes these stays just as memorable as any other part of a trip.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before local governments saw such programs as less about safety and helping to promote local companies — such stays are most often at establishments, which sell their own products through everything from fruit stands to wine-tasting cellars and Harvest Host members are encouraged to frequent them — and more about being yet another untapped revenue source.

Photo courtesy of Harvest Hosts

This conflict came home to roost recently in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, California, where some residents began receiving citations for allowing people to park overnight on their property. According to a report in The Tribune, a local newspaper, 42 such citations were issued for violating a rural camping ordinance between January 1, 2022, and February 7, 2023.

Fortunately, good sense — propelled by an apparent turnout of local business owners — prevailed there. According to a story published February 8 in The Tribune, writer Stephanie Zappelli reported that SLO Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to “set specific guidelines for property owners offering free overnight RV parking to visitors.”

“It supports small businesses,” Serena Friedman, co-owner of Four Sisters Ranch in Paso Robles, said at the February 7 board meeting (as quoted by Zappelli). “The goal of the county is to promote agritourism and economic prosperity, as well as preservation of rural and agricultural lifestyles, as well as job creation — benefiting the tax base of the county. So this is actually a win for everyone.”

According to the new rules, property owners can allow overnight camping of self-contained RVs on their property and visitors can stay at the same property only one night at a time (both limitations are in keeping with Harvest Hosts rules, although some hosts have been known to extend a visit if space is available). Visitors can return; they just can’t stay multiple consecutive nights. Also, free overnight stays are only permitted on land zoned for agriculture, which also has a “permitted visitor-serving use” such as a winery or farm stand (fortunately, farms and wineries are the main SLO locations on Harvest Hosts’ map of available locations).

It’s easy to understand how the supervisors might’ve been conflicted — from what I was able to determine, the county charges a 14.5% transient occupancy tax per night, collected from hotels, motels and campgrounds. It may have helped, however, that campground owners in the area may not have played the same “scorched earth” card previously used by RV parks fighting overnight stays at Walmart. Of course, there’s also a difference between battling with your neighbors and a huge, faceless corporation. Besides, most RV campgrounds are sitting pretty nowadays.

For example, while SLO does have regional parks open for camping, a quick check of a few privately owned parks revealed prices that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Picking a mid-June date at random, I found weekend rates that ranged from $91 to $176 nightly (plus that transient tax) for a pullthrough site, along with minimum-stay requirements that ranged from two nights to a full week — and many were nonetheless nearly full four months out. Heck, at one popular park destination, all the impressive full-hookup sites were already booked for the date I’d selected; the only spot left for my hypothetical 34-foot fifth wheel with two adults was a dry site with no hookups — at a cost of $923 for the week.

Obviously, not all locations can boast the surroundings that make San Luis Obispo County and its beloved Pacific Ocean shoreline so popular (and hence, so expensive) with visitors. According to CalCoastNews.com, in 2021 travel-related spending in SLO County exceeded $1.75 billion. But the prices were nonetheless eye-opening.

Besides, boondocking is only going to increase. Campers aren’t just tired of not being able to find a site at desired RV parks — they’re tired of the high costs and “service fees” now being applied by an outdoor hospitality industry that once cited such expenditures when applied by other industries as a reason to get out and camp. And manufacturers are not deaf to those complaints. An RVer can now find everything from luxury Class A motorhomes and fifth wheels to near entry-level travel trailers built with enough on-board components to power a long weekend off the grid.

As boondocking expands — Harvest Hosts, for example, lists more than 4,200 potential locations — there will doubtless be other municipalities that view overnight campers as an untapped revenue source. Let’s just hope that they saw how SLO supervisors found a happy medium.