BTW we were at Elizabethtown KOA when a couple came in and asked what the rates were, and after it was explained, they chose to leave! I think it was the guest fee, and the small difference between full-hookup and e/w sites. We are considering looking for campground/rv parks without pools!
Yes, we stayed as for us it was what we were looking for and we did not know of anyone who would have stopped by to "visit" and us having to pay for the privilege of having friends drop by.
'04 Alpenlite TT 28RL
'08 Suburban 2500 Lt
Home Base: Tri-Cities WA - USA
OlderThanSand wrote: Next I guess they will start charging extra for cream and sugar for your coffee or ketchup for your fries. oops! I probably just gave them an idea.
That is the way it is done everywhere else in the world. Nothing is free. Coffee is sold by the cup or can. Bread, extra salad dressing, condiments, etc. are put on the bill. If you want more, of anything you pay. Kids over 12 are considered “adults.” At least they take up as much space and technically, eat much more than most adults ever should.
That said, us being new to RVing, we are rather surprised at how expensive a spot in an RV park with full hook-ups is.
The only way to counter, IMHO, is to complain in writing.
Intrepida
___________
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
Another example of parks trying to charge for extras not used. We pulled into a park in Montana. Knew the price, would only be there two nights. The lady asked us if we wanted 50amp which would cost us $5.00/day more. I told her no, we were fine with 30 amp. She proceeded to tell me the next day it was going to be hot and that we would be using the air conditioning, so she was going to charge us. Fearing it would be VERY hot, I let it go. The next day the temp. was about 72 degrees - quite confortable. But, not worth asking for a refund. But, I did give the park a not so good rating for others to BEWARE!
Appreciate the concern Jallen4, but rest assured, before I visited this park I had obtained all the financial info before hand.
I'm not entirely new to this business. Most of the expenses for a park are occurred whether a site is occupied or not. Buildings, pools, grounds etc. have to be maintained whether there is 10 or 100 occupied sites. An example for one park....an occupied site has only an increase of expense of approximately $2.00. This is for an overnight stay. Having it occupied even at a discounted rate will make the park money.
As I said earlier I will not stay at places that charge for showers another thing that I noticed that would make me leave is if they charged me extra if I ran my a/c. If you do not want people running up the electric bill then do not offer electric hookups. I would leave if they said they were going to charge me for running my A/C. If your spots are large enough to have a 30 ft or larger TT then you should expect they people will run the A/C. You could say that it increases costs and thats fine but if I pay over $25 a day for the site then I will run my A/C and should not have to pay extra for it. Thats just wrong. The other extras I can live with those two and charging for guests I cannot. You can come up with all the reasoning in the world to do it but its just wrong IMHO.
2010 Passport UL 290BH
2006 Ford Expedition Limited
OlderThanSand wrote: Next I guess they will start charging extra for cream and sugar for your coffee or ketchup for your fries. oops! I probably just gave them an idea.
That is the way it is done everywhere else in the world. Nothing is free. Coffee is sold by the cup or can. Bread, extra salad dressing, condiments, etc. are put on the bill. If you want more, of anything you pay.
I've been around the world, where are you finding this?
aeohio wrote: As I said earlier I will not stay at places that charge for showers another thing that I noticed that would make me leave is if they charged me extra if I ran my a/c.
I agree, especially if the shower is coin operated. Ever get all lathered up and have the darn thing quit and your out of quarters!!! Coin showers and I'm down the road.
grldst wrote: I recently stopped at a KOA that charged 34.90 a night for full hookups, 50 amp service. The reason I stopped, it is for sale and I wanted to check it out inconspicously. There was only 3 other campers that night (less then 10% occupied). Restrooms were clean, staff was friendly, I could not see any reason but price for its lack of customers.
A couple of nights later we stayed at a "Passport America" park, full hookups, 30 amp service, regular price 27.00, discount 13.50. Park only had 5 empty sites by morning (close to 90% full).
The over 30.00 per day price for a destination type resort/RV park may fly but a good majority of travelers are balking at the over 30.00 price for an overnight stay.
And, if you are truly thinking of buying a park, have you done the math and figured what price nightly would make sense to invest? Many of the older parks charging low rates would not possibly pencil at today's cost of land and improvements. They only survive based on debt being retired and lower initial cost. There is a lot more involved than a casual observance of occupancy on any one given night.
I've priced a number of RV parks/campgrounds near where I live. We are talking a half million to well over a millions of dollars for what they are asking. And the profits are not there! It is like buying your own low paying job. And we don't even want to talk about the many taxes involved!!!
* This post was
edited 10/12/09 10:51pm by wny_pat *
Wow, I have been Rv’ing for over 26 years, and you guys always find something to complain about. When I started, the Class A's always complained about RV parks charging a full rate for just the over night. My letter to Trailer Life at that time, was for campgrounds to only offer an area which had someplace to park and no power/water/sewer; if they needed to dump it was another 3 dollars. No parks to my knowledge created that option. Now people stay in Wal-mart, or someplace else, hence the cities, counties and locals outlawing over nighting in any RV period.
Now you complain about guests, pets, 50A service, etc. The way I see it you have several choices:
1. You can pay the fees making a travel log and not staying at that location again.
2. You can do as one poster has (us as well), join Thousand Trails, and plan your trips using their park system map, and ELS parks are part of the package, so you have a lot of choices.
3. You can join Passport America, and pay half the normal fee for staying for a few nights.
4. Meet guests in town for dinner, then you won't have a fee, and won't have anything to complain about.
5. Get rid of Fido, Fofo, or Lady, and then you will save money on vet bills, food for the pet, and the extra fees parks charge for them.
6. Give up RV’ing completely, and then you will find; a barely decent room in a good motel, is going to cost you 100 a night, this would not include the costs of gas to get there, and food in the restaurants you will eat in.
So if you figure it all out, RV’ing is cheaper by a long run. But my friend who is full timing it, says on average, it’s about 100 a day overall. I am hoping to half that amount, but until I start, I don’t know what for sure my expenses will be.
We don't have kids, guests, or pets, and if I need 50A for something, I will let the park know I have my genset automatically set to come on, if I need additional power. So if they have a problem with that, they can through in 50a for the price I'm paying, again I make a note to not stay there again.
Although a lot of us are again traveling, being ripped off is not part of the package I signed up for, and so if I don't like the rate structure, I keep moving. I try to stay in casino's free area if I am only over nighting, and then I shoot for a TT park so I don't have any other charges. ELS might charge me for the 50A, but I really only need that for the washer and dryer, otherwise I'm good for the 30A price.
And if you think about the current rate structures, we have sort of brought it upon ourselves, how you ask, well first we avoided parks because we were in transit status and did not want to pay. So those parks have had to raise rates because less people stop. Then everyone’s taxes are going up, and electricity cost more, because energy costs have also gone up, so again the parks have raised rates or created tired rate structures to cover those additional costs.
Someone has to be paid to keep up the grounds, and even though you may be a considerate owner of pets, many people are not, and someone will have to clean up all that crap, you as a pet owner are paying for those people who don’t.
Now the guest thing is just in my opinion being rude, but then the owners have to keep up the interior roads, and facilities the guest use, so again, it costs them money for those services.
You choose this lifestyle, it’s going to cost money, and so now you need to determine if you want to pay that money for the services you receive. If not, stay someplace else or find another way to travel.
So before you jump on me, yes I own a Class a Motorhome, but I started in a truck camper, and gradually moved up. And unlike many, we control our costs down to the penny, and still have fun traveling. We have a TT membership, which lets us stay 21 days and go park to park.
We don’t have pets, because we don’t want to take care of them, pay for them, and have to manage them; we have enough trouble taking care of us.
When we visit friends, and yes we have them, and we are traveling, we meet them someplace because it’s easier on them and us.
The old adage applies when in a Class A: Drinks for 6; food for 4; sleeps 2 – but this would only apply to those places where I don’t pay a fee for the visitors, even TT parks charge for visitors, so we don’t have any.
I see no problems with this at all. It is well within their right to charge for these things. It is not at all their responsibility to cater to people that are to cheap to pay for these. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. You have that right.
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