hakespeare Ghost Town — so named because “it sounded English,” according to one tour guide there — is one of those pieces of Americana that most people read of and few ever see. Found by following a dirt-packed road a few miles southwest of Lordsburg, New Mexico, the National Historical Site is often called “The West’s most authentic ghost town,” a place where visitors can roam dusty streets once walked by John Ringo, “Curly Bill” Brocius and the Clantons and where a skinny blonde teenager once washed dishes at the Stratford Hotel before gravitating to Lincoln County, Arizona, and a date with destiny as Billy the Kid.
All this, and more, can be learned during any of several daily tours held during the seven hours the town is open daily — but as full-time RVers Bob and Lynne Livingston discovered, the real beauty of Shakespeare doesn’t reveal itself until long after the site closes for the day. Newly minted members of Harvest Hosts, a membership program that invites self-contained RVers to enjoy free overnight stays at upwards of 2,000 oftentimes unique locations across North America, the long-time RVers used their membership for the first time to boondock at Shakespeare after embarking in April on their 50th anniversary six-month tour de force.
“The tour is amazing,” said Livingston, a history buff who absorbed virtually every nugget his gun-toting (“for protection from rattlesnakes”) tour guide shared about the well-preserved town. “But at night, the view of the town from our RV was phenomenal. It’s so quiet and it’s almost as if the stars come down right on top of you. We had a fantastic time, eating outdoors and sharing stories with a few other members.”
The experience was such that, the next morning, the Livingston’s eastern sojourn included yet another Harvest Hosts location: Licon’s Dairy Azaderos, in San Elizario, Texas. Like Shakespeare, the dairy has limited space for boondockers (the ghost town can accept a maximum of five RVs, while the dairy can only accommodate two), but it, too, proved well worth the visit. Aside from the tranquil setting, the small dairy located near the U.S.-Mexico border features a small petting farm and, said Livingston, “truly delicious” homemade cheeses for sale. Like many other Harvest Hosts locations, it also was within a short drive to a number of other local attractions, including the Presideo Chapel of San Elizario and Socorro Mission in Socorro.
Based on their first two stops, the travelers noted that there will be additional Harvest Hosts stops in their future.
“You have few choices when you’re on the road and there are no local campgrounds available,” he added. “You can stay at a noisy rest stop — most of which are usually filled up with trucks by the time you get there — look for a vacant parking lot in a questionable part of some town or stop at a truck stop and eat fast food. Or, you can stay at a Harvest Hosts location, where you can have a little fun, overnight in a safe place, learn something about the local area and support small businesses. Plus, we’ve only stayed at two Harvest Hosts sites and we’ve already recouped our membership cost!”
When asked, Harvest Hosts CEO Joel Holland would doubtless say Livingston’s experiences were exactly what he envisioned when first planning the company.
“When someone asks who we compete with, I say, ‘We compete with the Walmart parking lot,’” Holland told RV Enthusiast. “We’re very friendly with campgrounds and we’re not a competitor to campgrounds because our customers are boondocking. The reality is our members either go to a campground before or after they go to a Harvest Hosts location — and when we open up a new location in an area, the campgrounds in that area end up seeing a lot of extra business because a lot of new traffic comes to town. It ends up benefiting the campgrounds in the surrounding area quite a bit. But I don’t think anyone should stay in a Walmart parking lot. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Sitting in the infamous Washington D.C. traffic every morning and evening eventually weighed on him, however.
“I just fell out of love with that lifestyle,” said the young entrepreneur. “When I was driving to my office, I wanted to just drive past my exit and keep going. The office was in Reston, Virginia, which is surrounded by beautiful countryside — and all I saw was the inside of my cubicle.”
In short order, the Hollands had purchased a Grand Design Reflection fifth wheel, Ford F-250 truck and were off to the races. “We didn’t have a plan,” Holland recollected. “I kind of assumed we would travel for a few months, get tired of it, maybe sell the rig and try ‘normal.’ Instead, we absolutely loved the RV community and the lifestyle and the freedom.”
The Hollands — along with their three rescue cats and two “mischievous” ferrets — ultimately spent two years on the road, with the goal of seeing every one of the lower 48 states. “We were considering moving out of D.C. but didn’t know where to go. We decided to visit every state for ourselves and determine what resonated with us. I knew we wouldn’t love each state the same, but I was convinced that only boring people could find any state boring.”
Eventually, they fell in love with the mountain lifestyle and settled in Vail, Colorado — but all those months spent on the road convinced them there had to be a better way to spend nights when traveling.
The original idea, developed by Don and Kim Greene of Prescott, Arizona, grew out of the concept of agritourism RV networks in Europe, where campers could stay overnight at farms and wineries in return for patronizing the business. In 2010, the Greenes founded Harvest Hosts as a mainly West Coast entity, with locations in California, Oregon and Washington. By the time Holland reached out to them in 2018, the program had grown to about 600 locations throughout the U.S. along with a few in Canada and Mexico. While the Greenes weren’t really interested in selling, they were impressed with Holland’s tech-driven ideas to improve the business. In May 2018, Holland purchased the company — and started growing it.
In short order, he also purchased RV Golf Club and integrated and absorbed its locations and concepts into the Harvest Hosts program. He also focused on making Harvest Hosts technologically friendly, revamping the website and adding an interactive map showing all of the locations that are available.
More than anything else, however, he committed to increasing locations and membership. Today, the company boasts more than 2,100 locations and a membership roster exceeding 170,000.
“We’re adding more than 100 locations a month,” Holland told RVE. “Our goal is to add more than 1,000 this year — my hope is we’ll be at 3,000 by July — because I think a big part of the success with this program is expanding the host network. There are so many great small businesses all over this country that have products to sell and beautiful land for RVers to stay at. It’s just a natural fit.”
To help fuel the company’s growth, Harvest Hosts recently raised a significant amount of funding from a prominent private equity firm. The investment has already begun showing benefits: Harvest Hosts continues to invest in new technology, creating or improving its tools for planning trips and discovering places to go and 10 new employees were brought on in March and April to assist in increasing sites.
“Every month we ask our members to suggest hosts (considered warm outbounds) and we’ve received thousands of recommendations. Our team uses those recommendations to reach out to the potential host and explain the program to them. We also work with winery associations, tourism bureaus and the like.”
The program is simplicity redefined. Members pay a flat rate of $99 annually for the ability to overnight at any of more than 2,000 locations (depending upon availability). There is no charge for the stay (which are one-night reservations unless the host asks the member if they want to stay over) and there is no limit on the number of times a member uses the program. In return, members are asked to frequent the businesses hosting them. There is no charge for a business to sign up for the program.
According to Holland, the company surveyed members and business to find out how much was spent during location visits. As it turned out, members were spending about $50 per night when they visit a location. “It came out to about $40 million in revenue to our hosts, or about $13,000 per host, and we took none of that. It’s just extra revenue for them,” he said. “So it’s really good for small businesses.”
“I’d love to see us have 10,000 incredible small business locations all over the country and then make them available to any and every RVer who wants to have this unique RV experience,” Holland said. “It’s an exciting time, because so many new people are trying RV lifestyle, and I hope that they get to try our hosts because I think it just creates this new category of experience that is really addictive.”