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Our team recently attended the Caravan Industry Association National Conference on the Gold Coast. Kerry Bradford, our Brisbane-based Sales Executive, spent two days on the floor in conversation with park operators from across Australia listening to what’s actually happening in their businesses right now.

The themes that came up were consistent, commercial and worth paying attention to.

Here’s what she came back with.

What issues kept coming up in conversations – what are operators genuinely frustrated by right now? Service, reliability etc.

On the floor, the biggest concern is reliability under pressure. Operators can usually manage a busy site if the equipment is performing consistently, but repeated downtime, slow cycle times and delayed service support quickly create operational stress. The frustration is less about one isolated breakdown and more about the compounding effect it has on guest experience, staff workload and room turnaround. Right now, operators want dependable machines, fast parts availability and a service partner who understands that every hour offline has a real cost.

Rising, energy costs, labour costs, insurance premiums, water restrictions etc – what’s quietly shaping decisions behind the scenes?

The macro pressure being felt most quietly is margin compression from every direction at once. Energy, water, labour, insurance and consumables have all moved upward, while many operators still feel resistance to passing those costs fully on to guests. That means laundry decisions are being shaped behind the scenes by total operating cost, not just purchase price. In many cases, operators are delaying replacement cycles longer than they should, stretching ageing equipment and accepting inefficiency because preserving cash flow has become just as important as improving performance.

Are operators under-equipped, using the wrong machines for their load, or are they just not receiving the service and support they require?

The average on-site laundry setup is often functional but not truly optimised. Many sites are working with a mix of machine ages, limited capacity planning and equipment that no longer matches their peak demand or linen profile. In practice, that can mean under-capacity during busy periods, over-drying, excess water and energy use, or staff spending too much time managing bottlenecks. Efficiency is rarely just about whether a machine works; it is about whether the whole setup is sized correctly, programmed properly and supported well enough to keep the operation flowing consistently.

Were there any conversations where what we offer directly solved a pain point someone raised?

The clearest value moment for DLS or Maytag is when the discussion moves from product to operational outcome. When an operator raises concerns about downtime, the answer is not just a replacement machine; it is the right specification, the right fit for the site and the confidence that service will stand behind it. That is where a true solution becomes obvious.

Different questions, different concerns, different priorities – what’s shifted in the room compared to previous events?

Compared with last year, the conversation is more disciplined and commercially focused. 

Operators are still interested in quality and presentation, but they are asking sharper questions about running costs, payback, support response times and how to get more output from the same footprint. There is also a noticeable shift from reactive thinking to operational resilience. Rather than asking only what equipment they need today, more operators are considering how to future-proof their laundry against staffing pressure, cost volatility and higher guest expectations.

Where’s the investment conversation heading over the next 12 months?

If operators are about to spend money on one area, it will be efficiency-led upgrades that reduce operating cost without compromising output. That includes more energy and water-efficient equipment, smarter controls, and replacement of ageing machines that have become expensive to keep alive. The next 12 months look less like discretionary spending and more like targeted investment in resilience: better throughput, lower utilities, fewer service interruptions and stronger long-term value from every cycle.

Over 55 years helping caravan park operators

None of this is surprising to us.

Reliability under pressure, margin squeeze, equipment that’s functional but not truly optimised — these are conversations we’ve been having with operators for over 55 years. They’re also exactly what we’ve built our business around solving.

As the exclusive Australian distributor of Maytag Commercial, we don’t show up to a site and recommend the first machine that fits the space. We scope the operation – load type, peak demand, linen profile, utility costs – and find the setup that actually works for that site long-term. Then we stay. Parts in stock nationally, technicians on the ground, and a service network that understands every hour offline has a real cost.

If anything in this sounds familiar, it’s worth having a conversation.

Get in touch at dependablelaundry.com.au/contact-us or call us at 1800 629 824.