Joel Holland Harvest Hosts and Escapees RV Club

Message from Joel Holland: Looking Ahead to an Exciting 2025

Hello Escapees, 

I hope you’re all settling into the New Year. I’m excited for 2025, and I’m already planning my RV adventures for the coming year—including a fun-filled week in Tucson, AZ for Escapade 2025! It’s been about six months since we acquired the Escapees RV Club, and in that time, we’ve been hard at work making sure this wonderful community continues to thrive. We’re doubling down on giving our Members more value—without raising costs—and today, I’m thrilled to share some of what we’ve been planning for you.

First, I want you to know we’re 100% committed to supporting and growing the Escapees community. We truly believe life is better when you find your community and have a strong support network, and Escapees has always embodied that spirit. To help build on that legacy, I’m excited to announce that Chris Smith has joined us as the new Senior Director of Community & Events. Chris brings over ten years of experience from FMCA, where he served as Executive Director & CEO for eight of those years. He’ll be working closely with the team of 18 Escapees employees who joined Harvest Hosts, and with our broader resources, to keep strengthening and growing Escapees. Please join me in giving him a warm welcome, and be sure to say hello to Chris in-person at Bash!

Next, I’m happy to report that we’re not changing the price of an Escapees membership — it’s still just $49.95. In a time when many companies are charging more for less, we want to go the other way. We’re determined to add more value to your Escapees membership while keeping costs the same.

With that in mind, we’re focusing on three key initiatives for 2025, all designed to bring even more value to Escapee Members. These improvements will be launching in March:

  • Rebuilding the Escapees Website & Membership Portal: We’re updating the technology behind Escapees and making it more intuitive, so you’ll find it easier than ever to sign up for events, locate community groups, find discounts and benefits, and more. We’re also integrating the Escapees membership portal with our Harvest Hosts platform, so the tens of thousands of Escapees members who are also Harvest Hosts or Boondockers Welcome members will be able to access all of their memberships with a single sign-on and a unified dashboard. And by this summer, Escapees features will be available in the Harvest Hosts mobile app, so you can easily stay connected and manage everything on the go. It’s going to be a really awesome experience — we can’t wait to show you!

  • Launching an Expanded Escapees Campground Discount Program: Next, we’re combining the Escapees Campground Discount Program (~500 active locations) with our existing CampersCard network (~1,100 locations) to create an awesome network of more than 1,500 campgrounds that offer members discounts and benefits. We’re going to call this network the “Harvest Hosts Campground Partners” program. Every Escapees or Harvest Hosts member will automatically have access to these discounts and benefits when it launches in March.

  • Including Escapees in the Harvest Hosts All Access Membership: Lastly, we’re going to be adding Escapees to our All Access plan, which means you’ll get access to everything Escapees offers, plus nearly 6,000 Harvest Hosts locations, over 3,600 Boondockers Welcome sites, our new Campground Partners program with ~1,500 locations, and discounts on CampScanner — all in one membership with one log-in for just $179/year. By adding more RVers who share the same passion for adventure, we expect the club to grow by ~20%, all while keeping the same core values that make Escapees so special. These new members are fellow RV enthusiasts just like you, and together, we’ll continue to enhance the overall community experience. We’re truly excited to roll out this new combined option and bring the power of Escapees, Harvest Hosts, and Boondockers Welcome together in one easy-to-use program.

And don’t worry — you won’t need to do anything special when these changes roll out. We’ll automatically combine memberships and apply credits where needed, as long as you use the same email across your Harvest Hosts, Boondockers Welcome, and Escapees accounts. We’ll send more details soon, but for now, I just wanted to let you know what’s on the horizon. We hope you’re as excited as we are!

Finally, we’re looking forward to celebrating this next chapter of Escapees together. If you’ll be in Arizona for Escapade in March, I hope you’ll stop by so we can toast these exciting updates in person. Thank you for being part of the Escapees family — we truly appreciate you and can’t wait to show you everything we have in store.

Safe travels and happy camping!

Joel Holland
CEO & Chief RVer

6 Responses

  1. Hello. I have been a member of Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts since October 2019. The past few years we have considered joining Escapees. Should we join now before the merger, or after, and could explain the reason(s) for your recommendation. Thank you

    1. Hi Mary Jane, each person has specific needs in their RV life. We highly recommend an Escapees membership but we are also very biased. That being said, we think you would enjoy our events and community, our campground discounts, digital magazine, RV education offerings, RV products and services, and more (see more here https://escapees.com/join/benefits/). We’d love to have you join us!

  2. Sir, is the All Access fee of $179 in addition to the $49.95 as an Escapee’s member? Thank you in advance for your response and Happy New Year and welcome aboard.

    1. Hello John! Here’s a rundown of what you get at each price point:
      Stand-alone Escapees membership costs $49.95 per year.
      Stand-alone Harvest Hosts membership costs $99 per year.
      Stand-alone Boondockers Welcome membership costs $79 per year.
      All access membership, which includes the three memberships listed above, costs $179 per year.
      There is no requirement to change plans. If you are only interested in Escapees membership, you can continue to enjoy the low annual fee of $49.95. If you choose to keep an Escapees only membership, you will not have access to Harvest Hosts or Boondockers Welcome.

      We hope this helps!

    1. Hello Sandy, thanks for reaching out! Yes, we will be going to the Abq Balloon Fiesta. Stay tuned for more information. You’ll see it first in Member News, our newsletter for members.

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