Hi,
Just got an email from Thousand Trails. Initially it looks like a great deal, basically 499 for two zones. For that you get 30 days free, after 30 days they charge you 3 a day. I checked some of the campgrounds in the north east zone and found that they are the former Outdoor World campgrounds. I checked the ones in my area on rvparkreviews.com and they don't seem to review well. Does anyone who has been to any of their campgrounds think that they are worth the 499?
Todd
Todd, Shirley, and the "Maddawgs" min-pins Precious and Buster Brown
2011 Itasca Cambria 30C
2011 Demco KarKaddy 460SS
TST 507 RV TPMS
"if there is anything left when we are gone, then we miscalculated"
Over the past years TT has been sold and resold numerous times. It seems that every time it is resold the parks go further down hill. Until they can stop the slide I would not suggest them. If you are really interested, you can check resale web sites. often you can find one of their elite memberships for not much more than what they want for that zone thing.
Donn,Lorri,Max (The Rescued Lab)
Resident Know It All
I am a TT and ODW member. The ZONE is the way to go right now. You can actually get TWO zones for the price of one right now. I tell all of my friends that are interested to join that Zone. We have been to a lot of the one in PA and NJ. We have been to Moody beach in Maine. It was beautiful. There are two others up in that area that I have not been to. There is a great Facebook page that is full of members of Thousand Trails where you can get answers to all of your questions. It is called Thousand Trails (Outdoor world) the good and the bad. It is a closed site but Nancy or Christine will welcome you with open arms. Very informative.
In my opinion, you are watching a slow motion crash. $499 for 30 days is $16.00 a day. You might be able to run a park for a while at that rate, but there will not be money for improvements, repairs and upgrades. Also, staffing and ammenities will be minimal. So what happens is the park gradually goes downhill. To compensate, they lower the prices again and cut even more. It is a vicious circle that ends with parks no one wants to stay in, so there are no new members and they just fade away. I doubt you will find very many long time members of Thousand Trails that will tell you the parks are getting better, or even holding their own. However, for $499.00 and 30 nights, the risk appears pretty low. Thousand Trails does work for a lot of full timers and may work for you in your area. I wouldn't make a long term commitment, however. And as others have said, should you want a full membership, the resale market is the best way to go.
westernrvparkowner wrote: In my opinion, you are watching a slow motion crash. $499 for 30 days is $16.00 a day. You might be able to run a park for a while at that rate, but there will not be money for improvements, repairs and upgrades. Also, staffing and ammenities will be minimal. So what happens is the park gradually goes downhill. To compensate, they lower the prices again and cut even more. It is a vicious circle that ends with parks no one wants to stay in, so there are no new members and they just fade away. I doubt you will find very many long time members of Thousand Trails that will tell you the parks are getting better, or even holding their own. However, for $499.00 and 30 nights, the risk appears pretty low. Thousand Trails does work for a lot of full timers and may work for you in your area. I wouldn't make a long term commitment, however. And as others have said, should you want a full membership, the resale market is the best way to go.
Like gift cards, I'll be there is a lot of spoilage with these. How much? who knows, but it would really change the economics in the actual redemption rate was, say, 50% (16 days).
Hi, Thanks for the replies. I used to belong to Outdoor World and had stayed at the now Thousand trails parks in my area 10 years ago. The parks were not great then, very tight and not well maintained. From the most recent reviews I could find, mostly on rvparkreviews.com they are not much better and probably worse. I was hoping to hear from current users of the Thousand trails zone pass system on weather it is worth the 500 bucks. I don't mind spending the money, I just don't want to spend it on bad parks.
Todd
we are now full timing
have been looking at 1,000 trails for over year
problem for us;
every 1,000 trails we visits is not a place we'd like to stay
either they are "out in the sticks" or "run down" or "too crowded" for our likeing
so we have not purchased and likely never will
regards, pdq
_____________
peter & larry
itasca 2009 suncruiser 35P
pontiac 2009 G5
we're here... http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=12260
Pay the $500 dollars, camp for as many days as you want because the more you camp the better the value is. Travel to the campgrounds and see if you like them. If at the end of the year you dont, just dont renew. The cost to camp at private campgrounds is what, 45-75 dollars per night? Two weeks of that are you have spent $500.
Offline
Online
