Halloween arrives on the last weekend of the month, and thus a great time to plan a special weekend and boost your falls sales a notch or two. If you're a family park, then planning for the kids is easy with a little decorations and games. While most kids can operate almost any video game far better than their parents, it is shame they are often not exposed to the games that you might have enjoyed as a child.

Games like potato sack races or racing with an egg in a spoon are great outdoor games, but also crab walk races can be fun, too. (You know, on your back and moving backwards on our hands and feet!)

A great game for young and old alike around an RV park is a scavenger hunt. Everybody has a list of things they have to find, and they have to knock some doors or find hidden items all around the park. Just watch for traffic during the game and seek volunteers to help control the flow of the chase through the park.

Treasure hunts are fun, too, especially since the release of the movie National Treasure. Hide the clues during the week and then give everyone the same list and off they go trying to figure out the clues. If you have a lot of teams, make the first clues different for each list to prevent teams from following other groups.

In case of rain, plan a few indoor games like musical chairs, best costume, bobbing for apples, rent a cotton candy machine, show them how to make carmel apples, and do a cake walk. The possibilities are only limited by our memories or our imagination. If it were me, I'd enter a cakewalk at any age!

If your park caters to the adult crowd, plan a Halloween Dance with a band or a DJ. Create some door prizes and if you can get them to do it, put together the best costume contest.

Use your email marketing list to get the information out quickly, or do a mail-out by sending a flyer. Don't forget to create flyers for everyone that checks in or makes reservations prior to Halloween so they will feel invited, too.

When sending out your emails, always include a discount or service that is only offered to those on the mailing list. This will encourage your guests to keep reading future emails! Below is a great example from our friends at Wales West.

“THIS SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY! We have a very special treat for those of you that have added your names to our RV campers events e-mail list. This Saturday night a group of Fireworks retailers will be having a fireworks shoot out over Lake Victoria from 6 till 9PM. You can expect to see a lot of different fireworks from small ground effects to gigantic class 3 rockets!”

So let's get busy and carve up some pumpkins, and make it a great holiday weekend at your resort!

Copyright 2009 by GTI Consulting