How to Save Your RV Camping Spot During the Day

One of the problems with having motorhome is that unless you have a tow vehicle (aka a toad), you will likely need to leave your space unattended when you decide to go get groceries or do touristy things.  While this might not be as big of a deal at some RV sites, if you are staying in unattended campgrounds, more than a few people have returned to discover their campsite has been taken over by someone else.

So what can you do to prevent this from happening?

Payment Slip

First, is the obvious, where you make sure you have attached your site payment to the post or stand, if the camping spot has one.  However, this doesn’t always seem to work, especially if it is busy, as the slips seem to either go unnoticed or has a mysterious likelihood to be “blown away” while the site is unattended.

Make Friends With Neighbors

If you are going out for the day, and especially if you are hitting up a grocery store, make friends with your campsite neighbors and ask if they need you to pick up anything for them, and in exchange, you can mention if they can watch your spot while you are out too.  They have invested interest in keeping your spot for you when you are bringing them back something they forgot!

Leave a Cheap Tent in Your Spot

This is my favorite non-confrontational option!  While some people will leave camping chairs or a cooler behind, they are often stolen by people in campgrounds unfortunately, whether or not they were after the camping spot.  Plus, missing a cooler or your nice chairs for sitting outside can be a pain.

What you can do – and which screams “this space is occupied” rather than “maybe someone forgot their chairs” is purchase an inexpensive tent and leave it set up in the space when you need to leave with your RV.  And plus, you have a backup tent if you have someone who wants to visit.

This is the cheapest adult tent that is both small and lightweight (for those concerned about extra weight in their RV).  While the blue is the cheapest on Amazon, I prefer the pink for the sole reason that it stands out and there is no way anyone could miss it in a camp site.

And it is easy for someone to walk off with a cone to steal your spot, it is a lot harder to walk off with a fully set up tent, especially if it is staked down, and will make someone think twice about taking your spot.

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Do remember that if you do not have any weight inside it (since normally there would be sleeping bags etc in it) that you must stake it down if you don’t want it to blow away.

Leaving “Stuff” at your Site

Some people leave coolers or camp chairs behind, or their sewer hose, but many still report that these often get stolen, either by people thinking they were forgotten and not being used to reserve a spot, or simply they are being opportunistic and stealing deliberately.  The rule of thumb here is to never leave behind what you don’t want to replace.

Cones or Rope / Tape

This is another cheap option people use, but there are so many stories of people simply stealing the cone or ripping down caution tape to take the spot that it won’t stop a determined person.

If you insist on a cone, I love this one because it collapses flat for storage which is a big deal.  Plus it can also be used for emergencies on the roadside or just to alert someone to dangers in your campsites such as a line or a hole.

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Remember

Never leave anything in your campsite that you can’t replace when you leave it.  While you might be very trustworthy, unfortunately, others aren’t and sometimes locals target campgrounds as well.  That is why the cheap tent route is ideal for saving a campsite spot when I have to leave during the day.