RMS survey finds 14% of campers now use AI to plan trips, and 85% want to pick their exact site

RMS has published its 2026 State of the Outdoor Accommodation Report, based on a survey of 1,500 campers across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Two findings are worth an operator's attention: AI has arrived in trip planning but is still small, and site selection at the point of booking has become close to an expectation.

The report was published on 16 September 2026.

The demand picture

Campers say they intend to camp more. Sixty-six percent plan to camp more in the coming year, up eight percentage points on the previous year. Eighty-six percent describe themselves as lifelong or returning campers, which says the growth is coming from people already in the habit rather than from newcomers.

How people find sites

Online search has overtaken word of mouth as the main discovery route. Sixty-four percent use online search to find campsites, against 60% who rely on recommendations from friends and family.

Fourteen percent now use AI tools such as ChatGPT or CampChimp while researching a trip. That is a minority, and it is worth resisting the urge to read it as more than it is. But the breakdown of what those users want is informative: 40% of them are searching for the lowest rates, and 32% are after personalised trip planning.

Booking behaviour

The strongest single number in the survey is that 85% say they are more likely to book when they can select their exact site in advance. This is not a new preference in the outdoor sector, but a figure that high makes it hard to treat site selection as a premium feature.

On technology more broadly, 67% say they notice when a campground invests in new technology and 40% expect properties to have updated systems. Eighty-eight percent say sustainability matters when they choose where to stay.

"Camping remains incredibly resilient, but guest expectations are evolving quickly," said Adam Seskis, chief executive at RMS. "Operators that respond well to these changing expectations will be better positioned to attract new guests."

Reading it carefully

This is vendor research, and it is worth naming what that means. RMS sells property management software to outdoor accommodation operators. The findings that campers notice technology investment, expect updated systems and want to choose their own site all point toward buying better software, which is what RMS sells. That does not make the numbers wrong. It does mean the questions were written by a party with an interest in certain answers.

The methodology detail that would settle it is not published. A sample of 1,500 across four countries is reasonable in size, but how respondents were recruited matters a great deal, and if they came through RMS-powered properties then the sample already skews toward guests of technology-forward operators.

What to do with it

If you run a campground or holiday park and guests still cannot pick their pitch when they book, that 85% figure is the one to act on. It is a concrete, testable change with a clear mechanism behind it.

The AI number is worth monitoring rather than acting on. Fourteen percent is not yet a channel. But 40% of those users hunting for the lowest rate is a useful early warning about how AI-assisted search may treat your pricing, and it is a reason to make sure your rates and availability are accurate wherever machines can read them.