Award Winning KOA in Utah

  Brigham City/Perry South KOA Journey

For Kristan and James Settlemire, the beauty of owning a KOA campground – especially one of the oldest KOA campgrounds still going (60 years, in fact), goes far beyond developing wonderful relationships with campers, renovating outdated sites, working with KOA corporate and making money.

In what is going to ring true for all campground owners, Kristan unveils the true beauty.

“This job … this life … it is about 98 percent good and 2 percent bad,” she said. “But that 2 percent can make you question your decisions. That’s why you have to be rooted with people in the same world as you. So you can call another campground owner at the end of a bad day and say, ‘You are not going to believe what happened today.’ Just being able to do that makes the 2 percent bearable – because they understand. They get it.”

The couple owns the Brigham City/Perry South KOA campground in Perry, Utah, which they have lovingly nurtured into an award winning campground—earning KOA’s prestigious Icon Award and recognition for World Class Customer Service. They are entering their 8th summer this year.  Kristan went on to say the campground ownership club is … well, special. “Nobody else knows what you are doing and going through,” she said. “When James and I bought this campground, my family thought I was crazy. You have to build those relationships. I don’t care if it’s other KOA owners, corporate or other campground owners who are local … remember, nobody else understands what you are doing. Think about it – we don’t compete with other campground owners. I can’t think of another business where that is the case – like, we actually share trade secrets. Where else could you do that?”

Both James and Kristan brought a passion for customer service to their newly-found adventure of owning a campground. “I was in retail, and Kris was in banking and finance,” James said. “And we knew we were looking for something where we could work toward our strengths.” But both James and Kristan also knew there were going to be challenges – and hard work. “I was skeptical,” James admitted. “I was especially skeptical about a franchise deal. Here we were, trying to get out from someone having a thumb over us … but every campground owner said the same thing about KOA – ‘they don’t tell you what to do. They show you the way to do it best. ’I think the biggest mistake I made coming in was that I didn’t leverage KOA corporate as much as I could or should have. We could have achieved more if we had reached out more and more often.”

The process of becoming new owners was one of adventure … and a big leap of faith. “We were driven by the dream of owning our own business,” James recalled. “We just reflected on the things we enjoy and how can we do that. It was just a drive that told us we just have to try something … where we were – we just wanted to take the leap. We had people tell us, ‘why don’t you just wait until you retire and then buy a campground? If what I do now is called retirement, I never would have retired. It’s so much work.”

“It’s crazy,” Kristan said. “We were on this business trip, and we were asked what we wanted to do, and we both knew we wanted to host and serve people. As a little kid, I wanted to own a bed and breakfast, and I guess that kind of started my journey, at least. We both camped a lot growing up, but buying a campground wasn’t our first thought. And then, when we started looking around, we knew THAT was what we should do. I think 6 months later, we got in the car and did a road trip. It was a 5-day, 5-state, 5-campground tour, and the one we decided to buy was the second campground on that trip. We just fell in love with the area. Every time we stayed at a KOA, every single owner told us, ‘hey, you are going to work hard, but if you are into the lifestyle, you will have the time of your life.’ I think we just bought in.” And so they did. And the leap of faith? James recalled it. “We were in San Diego and we just went all in,” he said. “We didn’t know anyone – no friends, no family … no safety net.”

And now? When they look back, what moments stand out? Kristan remembers one in particular. “It was a moment where I thought, ‘what the hell have I got myself into?’” she recalled. “It was during the first week of ownership. James had to go to Home Depot. It was February. We had just had a storm, and it was freezing. Mind you … cold to me was 70 degrees. It was 19 degrees … 8 in the morning, and somebody was knocking on my trailer door. Well, this man, who had stayed with us before. He was disconnecting his hose from the water spigot, and he slipped and grabbed the spigot to stabilize himself, and it snapped. There was this massive, geyser of water, and it’s 20 degrees outside. And I don’t know where the shutoff is for that site. And this man was the nicest. I knew where the main shutoff was to the park, so this guy – who was a camper and who paid me to stay there – is down there, in the mud, helping me turn the water off to the campground. And as I’m apologizing, and he is saying, ‘oh my gosh, I broke your water spigot.’ Man, where else … in what other job, could you be in where someone who is paying you – and you can’t help them, and they are in a hole with you? This man was in a muddy hole with me, helping me. But it’s true. Every time we have a problem at the campground, campers are there, saying ‘hey, do you need a hand? ’It’s a beautiful thing about the camping culture.”