How much more if you would not have cancellations ? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

travelinbob · RV-Dreams Family Member

How much more if you would not have cancellations ?

Howard · Host

Bob,

There is no question we had a great couple of months. smile

The profit for the Rally itself was $3,800. That did include the raffle money donated back to us and the amounts provided for various events by sponsors (expenses we planned for that we didn't have to pay). If not for the sponsors and that very special gift, we would have netted under $2,000. Way too much work for that amount of money. smile

We were hoping for about a $4,000 profit this first time out, so we're not complaining. It ended up working out okay based on our initial expectations.

But the research we did (after we announced the rally and the pricing) showed that we should have expected to earn somewhere in the $8,000 range. We priced the package a little too low to really take care of ourselves for the amount of time & work. smile

The cancellations probably cost us about $2,000 in pure money profit and probably a little more in lost RV-Dreams product sales opportunities. In addition to the registration fees lost, we had to eat the cost of a couple free RV sites and meals for our seminar speakers. Those were originally covered by the campground based on the number of reservations we made, but we lost them when the total sites went under a certain threshhold. Also, the sheer number of cancellations caused us untold hours of unexpected time.

We're not upset about the cancellations at all under the economic circumstances, so I don't want anyone that canceled to feel bad. smile

Plus it is largely our fault for making it so easy to reserve a spot with so little risk of canceling. We certainly learned some good lessons from our first experience. smile

Next time, we will 1) include a little more in the registration fee for our efforts while still making sure it is reasonable, 2) require a larger non-refundable deposit, 3) make sure we don't collect any money up front for t-shirts (it was a real pain to refund that money), and 4) require payment-in-full farther in advance (if not completely up front like other rallies do).

Now, with all that said, we actually believe the cancellations made for a better Rally. We would not have had room for everyone during the events. And I think all that attended will attest that it was great having it smaller and a little more intimate.

Well, I've probably provided more information on this than I should, but in our usual open way, the bottom line is we need to make more money for future rallies while still trying to maintain the level of fun, learning, and value of the first rally. That won't be an easy thing to accomplish, but we're willing to give it a shot. biggrin

travelinbob · RV-Dreams Family Member

Howard,
Thanks for the complete detail.
Good Luck on the next Rally.
Bob