4 Tips for Successful Recreational License Management

What Is Recreational License Management? 

Recreational license management is helpful to landowners who lease out their properties, but keeping track of large volumes of users, licenses, and the acres involved can sometimes be difficult. Especially when multiple properties are involved.

Landowners have the authority to choose what happens on their land. Requiring people to obtain recreational licenses in order to partake in hunting, fishing and other nature-based activities helps reduce the potential for safety incidents, and also provides liability protection for landowners since leasees assume risks for activities when obtaining licenses.  

Allowing recreational access to your property is also a great way to leverage asset and property investments. Approximately 39 million hunting licenses, tags, permits and stamps were issued in the United States in 2021. Recreational licenses, also known as leases or permits, allow landowners and asset managers opportunities to maximize their investments while providing outdoor enthusiasts use of their property for various activities. For large landowners, the high volume of recreational licenses and the responsibilities that come with them can be challenging to manage without the proper resources. Following these four tips can help ensure successful recreational license management.

Tip 1. Outsource Administrative Tasks and Customer Service

Landowners and asset managers are responsible for administering licenses, taking care of operational expenses and completing administrative and accounting tasks. This can include various forms of customer service such as email and phone communication, managing and processing license and renewal fees and overall strategic planning of how the land is used. 

These responsibilities can easily become overwhelming when a landowner has multiple properties in different geographic areas and multiple leasees with different needs. Depending on the recreational activity offered, license renewal seasons vary in length and timing. Therefore, communication with leasees is crucial in terms of staying on top of collecting payments as well as providing up-to-date information on property access.  

Save time and resources by outsourcing administrative tasks and customer service to trusted industry experts that focus on recreational license management. You won’t have to worry about missing renewal deadlines, tracking down payments, or fielding daily leasee calls.

The right recreational license management team will have a full understanding of your property as well as surrounding area laws and restrictions. They can also focus on helping with:

• Marketing available land 
• Processing licenses and renewals
• Customer service support 
• Collecting payments
• Notifying land users about events like land sales and timber harvests 
• Providing digital record keeping of your properties and leasing activities

Your team can also implement and manage online payment systems to make transactions faster and more secure for both you and your land users. This helps provide efficiencies and reporting that are vital to your business.

Tip 2. Utilize a Recreational License Management System

Efficiency is critical to managing hundreds of acres successfully. Improve your workflow by using a recreational license management system (RLMS) that automates and streamlines tasks. This kind of application can also take your business entirely online, allowing land users to access licenses, payments and FAQs digitally at their convenience. 

Using a recreational license management system is a great way to increase the profitability of your investments. The system makes it easy to administer more licenses, reduce operational expenses, and attract more land users.

Tip 3.  Leverage the Cloud and Internet

Recreational license management systems are cloud-based and provide landowners with easy access to the information they need along with a high level of security. This digital portal replaces a paper trail and allows land users to make secure, easy payments online. The system also ensures that land is leased, renewed and managed without downtime. All data will remain safe in the cloud but will be available to landowners and land users 24/7.

It’s also essential to have a digital presence that attracts land users and maximizes your return on land investments. As technology advances, having an online presence such as a recreational license management system helps make this possible, as these applications are designed to function like easy-to-navigate websites.

Tip 4. Offer Diversified Lease Opportunities

In hunting, many leases are legacy leases, meaning the same land users have leased the same property for a long time. Unfortunately, this practice can make it difficult for newer users to get access to the land because there are fewer leases available. Plus, as a landowner, you may be missing out on additional income because your lease may be more valuable than what your current long-term lease is bringing in.

Resolve these issues by diversifying your offerings to include shorter leases like monthly or even weekend leases. You can also adjust leasing prices based on the changing market and provide more opportunities for users to enjoy your land. 

Lastly, consider expanding the recreational activities your land can be used for.  Depending on the season, pairing short-term leases with uses such as birding, camping, beekeeping, and more can help better maximize your investment’s potential.

Conclusion

Recreational licensing is easier to manage when you take steps like outsourcing administrative and customer service tasks and utilizing a cloud-based system. Doing so gives you more time to focus on offering more diverse lease structures that bring in more income and allow more users to enjoy your land.

Orbis Inc.’s recreational license management system, RLMS, is a cloud-based tool that connects landowners and land users. Our infrastructure, staffing and expertise can help you increase leasing revenue, decrease administrative work and get more out of your land assets. Contact us today to learn more.