SDcampowneroperator wrote: The Good Sam and Woodalls rating criteria is stringent, applies to the property itself. . It does not take into consideration surrounding esthetic factors.
How could they propose to rate that?
I am all ears. PM please,
Max
edit. - I have been invited to join an all new GS advisory council meeting in Dallas 4/23-25.
My complaint has nothing to do with the surrounding property. Trailer Life Directory says "All private parks and selected state parks listed in this Directory are inspected annually by our inspection teams." If this is true, the inspectors are not doing their job.
Class C, 2004/5 Four Winds Dutchman Express 28A, Chevy chassis
2010 Subaru Impreza Sedan
Camped in 45 states, 7 Provinces and 1 Territory
I've reviewed the TL rating system in detail since last night. It seems that the rating system, as it is currently defined should pick up both the voltage problem AND the odor *if* they are true, which I still don't know.
The first number of the TL rating system says "Completeness and Quality of Facilities." To me, completeness means "does it have hookups?" yes/no. QUALITY of facilities means something totally different. If the voltage is low, this should be picked up in this item in my opinion.
The last TL number is Environmental Quality. TL's own website states "aesthetics of park and surrounding area.". Therefore, I would conclude IF it is true that there is a strong asphalt smell in the campground that precludes you enjoying sitting outside that this should be reflected in this category.
*IF* these reports are true then I feel like TL / Good Sam needs to tighten up their work because I personally would take their ratings with a grain of salt.
SDcampowneroperator wrote: The Good Sam and Woodalls rating criteria is stringent, applies to the property itself. . It does not take into consideration surrounding esthetic factors.
How could they propose to rate that?
I am all ears. PM please,
Max
edit. - I have been invited to join an all new GS advisory council meeting in Dallas 4/23-25.
In my opinion, there is one specific thing that could be done to make the TL system better. They could add consumer ratings to the TL ratings. I am not suggesting replacing the TL ratings with consumer ratings or even including customer ratings into TL ratings. I'm suggesting reporting consumer ratings completely separately from the official TL ratings.
You see this most often in the consumer electronics industry. A service like CNET.com does product reviews all the time. For every product they have both a CNET Rating and a Customer Rating. Over time, the truth tends to rise to the surface when you have both ratings.
In the case of TL where there is no consumer component, this thread illustrates the potential problem with that approach. When consumers experience these discrepancies they begin to loose trust in the system. Contrast that to RVParkReviews.com which is consumer ratings only. In that case, as a consumer, I can struggle to determine the truth because of a relatively small number of ratings and the unknown factor of the background of the person leaving the comments, their expectations and did they have an axe to grind?
The closest example of my proposal would be the RCI Timeshare system. Their rating system is not near as complete as the TL system. RCI does not rate every property. But they do categorize their properties into tiers of quality (I.e Gold Crown, etc.). But RCI also publishes consumers ratings and comments for every resort as well. So you can search by the RCI rating category then further investigate consumer ratings and comments about the resorts you are considering to try and decide what the truth is.
If TL collected and published consumer ratings alongside their own ratings, it would provide a good picture of the truth over time. If the TL rating is 7/8/8 and over time the consumer rating is 6/9/7 then you can trust that what you are reading is pretty much accurate. If the TL rating is 7/8/8 and enough consumers have an average rating of 4/5/4 then you know something is wrong.
This would also help TL because they could crunch the numbers and have campgrounds where their rating is significantly different from the consumer rating flagged for further investigation.
Excellent feed back Folks. Keep it coming.
A main purpose of the GS advisory council is to revamp the rating system to take into account the TL/Woodalls merger and tech changes.
Max
edit - the consumer feedback connection is an especially worthwhile concept.
Of note- TL/Woodalls Account Representative teams do visit here early in the season every year. They do a white glove inspection,followed with discussion on the same.
* This post was
edited 04/06/12 08:28pm by SDcampowneroperator *
SDcampowneroperator wrote: The Good Sam and Woodalls rating criteria is stringent, applies to the property itself. . It does not take into consideration surrounding esthetic factors.
How could they propose to rate that?
I am all ears. PM please,
Max
edit. - I have been invited to join an all new GS advisory council meeting in Dallas 4/23-25.
My complaint has nothing to do with the surrounding property. Trailer Life Directory says "All private parks and selected state parks listed in this Directory are inspected annually by our inspection teams." If this is true, the inspectors are not doing their job.
I think there will always be variances with different inspectors. Once they only gave us 1/2 a point on the quiet line. When I asked why, since the park is renowned for being off the highways, railroads, landing patterns etc., the inspectors told me that while they were waiting on our deck for us to get some people checked in there was a lot of noise from the diesel motorhomes entering the park. Couldn't argue with that, and didn't want to become a bicycle only park, so we lost a half point that year. Thankfully, they were replaced the next year. BTW, as far as I know the reviewers and their ratings are not challengable, for what that is worth.
I have stayed in GS camps across the nation, also KOA and Escapee parks. I have to say the GS vary from resort level parks to really rough interpretation of quality parks. In all the places we've stayed however, the Escapee system had the lowest quality parks. I think the new GS park idea will provide nothing but a better idea of what you are getting when you go to one. I applaud Marcus and GS for this concept if it works out.
John
"Motorcycle Jack"
Life time Good Sam Member
Blog: My RV
5th Wheel Blog
Full timing isn't "always camping". It's a different life style living in an RV.
SDcampowneroperator wrote: The Good Sam and Woodalls rating criteria is stringent, applies to the property itself. . It does not take into consideration surrounding esthetic factors.
How could they propose to rate that?
I am all ears. PM please,
Max
edit. - I have been invited to join an all new GS advisory council meeting in Dallas 4/23-25.
Trust me a CG with 1 star rating versus a 5 star rating across the board.....esthetic factors will follow the ratings. I've yet to pull into a 1 star rating that was real pleasant to stay at! And I've yet to pull into a 5 star that was a dump.
IMHO if you are traveling and just staying the night it is not an earth shattering experience to find out you have just pulled off the road into a dump! Hookups and a good nights sleep was all you were looking for so why get your panties all up in a bunch?!
On the other hand if you are reserving for a week or two for vacation? Research on your part should be your first action including a satellite search, website pictures, CG reviews of the CG etc should be done BEFORE you reserve. With all what we have available to us today in the world of the internet, CG surprises are a thing of the past if you do your preliminary research.
* This post was
edited 04/08/12 07:52am by rockhillmanor *
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us".
Rockhillmanor, you are right about research. What I foresee is GS updating their ratings to include the finer points of the more flexible, yet less informative system used by Woodalls reps ,
make it easier for everyone to do research by providing links to the connections you mention, or even better building a site that is a cross between rvparkreviews.com and Guest Rated.com, that is the consumers objective rating. A sort of 'Campsite Advisor'
Thus in time you might see 2 sets of #s. A system of that nature would cover the aesthetics of the camp and the surroundings from the visitors view and protect GS and the camp from litigation.
Thanks to you all, these are thoughts i'm developing to take to Dallas.
Max
Edit- camps between the runway and the city sewage plant will resist change.
That one is in way south Texas. ask me how we know. that was before google maps.
* This post was
edited 04/08/12 08:31pm by SDcampowneroperator *
Even the printed books have gone to the way side. I threw my TL/Woodalls 100 lb books out last year. Too small to read, pain in the butt to thumb thru. Listed alphabetical with no reference to where you actually are at, discontinued phone numbers and directions that lead to nowhere.
Woodall's on line CG website is IMHO the bomb when traveling.
Plug in your perimeters, it comes up with 'all' the CGs in the area you need, where you are at. It provides all the info you need, phone numbers that work, and links to their websites and even the link for rvparkreviews. I don't reserve CG's like many full timers. How long we drive and/or what directions we might choose change like the time of day sometimes! So being able to view all what CG's with one click that are available 'when' we decide to come off the road as far as I am concerned is priceless!
I can be on the road in between destinations and in a minute I know where all the CG's are and what they offer and how far on down the road they are. For me the new website vs the old book has eliminated any/all the stress of wondering where I will pull in for the night!
note: just remember to click the box that says 'show all'.
There's some GREAT conversation going on about campgrounds and ratings and as the Vice President & Publisher of the Trailer Life and Woodall's Campground Directories as well as the Good Sam Park network, I can't tell you how exciting it is to read all of these posts.
There's no doubt that designing and implementing a standard rating system is one of our biggest challenges. Our goal is to define a system that will let you know what to expect and we know that our current system doesn't always paint a complete picture. Which is why we are hard at work finding ways to better describe the type of facility and to fine tune our system. So stay tuned in 2013 for some changes! And keep your suggestions coming my way -- especially your thoughts on user generated ratings as this is a feature we will be rolling out to our websites soon.
We want to make sure our network of Good Sam Parks offer you a host of RV & camping experiences -- from rustic campgrounds to high end RV Resorts. And we want our rating system to be THE source for you when it comes to finding the right place for your next RV adventure -- whether it's an overnight stop or a final destination.
I look forward to learning more about what's working and what's not.
~Ann
Ann Emerson
Vice President & Publisher
Good Sam Family Directory
aemerson@goodsamfamily.com
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