Harvest Hosts: Company pairs businesses, RVers for unique travel experiences

Sampling craft beer and wine flights at a Hill City micro brewery or touring an eco-friendly farm in Caputa — then spending a night at those locations — are the kinds of unique experiences RVers can find with Harvest Hosts.

Harvest Hosts is a company that developed a nationwide network of small and local businesses that welcome RVers for unique overnight stays. South Dakota has more than 40 sites statewide that are part of Harvest Hosts; the complete list of locations is available only to Harvest Hosts members. When they spend the night at a Harvest Hosts site, RVers support that business by purchasing products or items from it.

“It’s a very unique, fun program. Harvest Hosts is a club for RVers. For $99 a year, our members can access a database of 5,000 small businesses and nonprofits that participate,” said Ashley Fox, marketing manager for Harvest Hosts. “These locations offer our members a safe place to stay overnight, and the members are really grateful to the small businesses. When our members patronize the business they’re staying with, 100% of what is spent onsite goes directly back to the small businesses.”

Harvest Hosts, based in Colorado, prides itself on the variety of destinations members can choose from.

“We partner with farms, wineries, breweries, distilleries, super cool museums, drive-in movie theaters. We’ve got a really good mix right now. It can serve a diverse audience, depending on the experience they want to have,” Fox said. “It’s exciting to see so many small businesses getting to benefit from Harvest Hosts, and we’d love to add more in South Dakota.”

“Our members are really passionate about supporting small businesses,” Fox said. “Last year, our members spent $50 million, and (we’re expecting) another $50 million to be driven to host locations this year. … Our members love that they get to support these mom-and-pop shops, and mom-and-pop shops get to tell their stories, too. It’s a really special community.”

Sick-N-Twisted micro brewery in Hill City became a Harvest Host several years ago, and owners Kim and Rob Livingston are glad they did. The business has hosted about 500 travelers, and the Livingstons are looking forward to an upcoming busy summer.

“We’ve met people from all over the world. That’s a real treat. They hang out and become our friend for an hour or so. It’s been a really fun experience,” Kim Livingston said. “It’s been great. They come in and they have lunch or dinner and buy some wine or beer to go.”

Visitors love to relax in the micro brewery’s courtyard, Kim said.

“We have a fire pit on our patio. We had really fun guests from New Zealand. We ended up sitting by the campfire for hours talking to them,” Kim said.

“We usually have music on the patio and some games out there. Within the courtyard we have beautiful grapevines. It’s a nice, cozy setting, and guests love our stone-baked pizza,” she said. “We have a creek that runs behind the winery. That makes for a peaceful setting at night.”

What may surprise locals and tourists is that, despite the micro brewery’s name, it’s family friendly. While their parents are sampling wine flights of the Naughti Wines served at Sick-N-Twisted, there are activities specifically for children, Kim said.

“We make it fun for the kids. Kind of like their parents do a wine flight, the kids can do an ice cream flight,” Kim said. “We have coloring books and games for kids, too.”

Kim said the Livingtons became Harvest Hosts after visitors asked if the micro brewery was a participating location. Now, Kim said even in the fall and winter off-season their business attracts Harvest Hosts travelers.

Harvest Hosts destinations aren’t intended to replace traditional campgrounds, but they do allow travelers and hosts to have experiences they might not otherwise.

“Harvest Hosts provides these unique experiences you get to pull up to a super cool brewery and try different flights of beer, or pull into a beautiful winery and get to enjoy its products. There are farms where maybe you get to take a tour and cuddle some cows,” Fox said. “Those are such amazing experiences and the stories that come from these experiences – it’s really special.”

Becoming a host is free. Harvest Hosts offers businesses control over how often they host and how many guests they can accommodate. The Harvest Hosts website, harvesthosts.com, has a section for small businesses who might be interested in becoming host destinations.

“We have a full team dedicated to small businesses and making sure they have the resources they need,” Fox said. “We make this super simple. We want to help drive revenue to their location.”

Harvest Hosts encourages its members to share photos and reviews of places they’ve visited, Fox said, to further spread the word about great destinations.

“We hear time and time again how much (members and hosts) enjoy getting to know each other. Our members get to meet the locals and talk about fun travel experiences,” Fox said. “In a technology-driven world, this program is creating those human connections that can so often get lost.”