Anyone else having issues with any of the Equity Lifestyle Properties, Thousand Trails, Encore RV parks? My membership is at the Rondout Valley Resorts in Accord NY and has gone way down hill after Thousand trails was purchased by Equity Life Style Properties (ELS) It is so bad that many members have not paid maintenance fees because no or little maintenance is being done. I even made a complaint with the better business bureau and ELS was non responsive and ELS also has an F rating. Things have gotten so bad the members started a facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/rondoutvalleyresortsmembers. Just wondering if its just in NY [attachmentid=223]
They appear to be struggling, as indicated by: 1. $499 yearly membership to anyone ($249 for a tent camping membership), 2. Open to anyone to camp for a nightly fee, 3. Yearly site rentals, usually take up the best spots (and allowing people to build sheds, deck, look junky, etc), 4. CG not open as much as in previous years, 5. Maintenance not as good, 6. Raise my dues 10% every year since 2008 (Now $521), 6. Open to Passport America 1/2 price camping (though limited times) Partly the economy, but mainly poor management in my opinion.
This company (ELS) has a habit of taking advantage of rv parks where the existing ownership has run into difficulty. They buy the parks at depressed prices and then increase fees, reduce the actual maintenance that is taking place and blatantly disregard contractual obligations in setting up new business models. They have done this at the Outdoorworld campgrounds in south Jersey, sea pines and Williamsburg VA. They take the attitude to "sue me" since they have a large group of in house lawyers to delay any and all actions against them. The conditions at these parks have become horrible and they have opened the parks to night rentals instead of the memberships that were sold in the 80's. I will be walking away from my membership instead of enduring the bad conditions. The contract I have is a "right to use" and has no termination provision, however; I have been told that I must notify them in writing that I have no intention of using the property and thus it will nullify the contract. I could sue for breach of contract but it would cost as much as I have already paid for my membership and would probably be delayed ad infinitum by their lawyers.
QUOTE(Notahappy camper @ Apr 15 2012, 08:23 PM) [snapback]29269[/snapback] Anyone else having issues with any of the Equity Lifestyle Properties, Thousand Trails, Encore RV parks? My membership is at the Rondout Valley Resorts in Accord NY and has gone way down hill after Thousand trails was purchased by Equity Life Style Properties (ELS) It is so bad that many members have not paid maintenance fees because no or little maintenance is being done. I even made a complaint with the better business bureau and ELS was non responsive and ELS also has an F rating. Things have gotten so bad the members started a facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/rondoutvalleyresortsmembers. Just wondering if its just in NY [attachmentid=223] I have been with TT for years and most of the parks are going to the area of no return.(up keep) The parks at one time were the best. We as owners must keep a writing campaign to the Owners and express our thoughts. Just think if the TT parks and the ELS parks were joined so that we could use as one park system, the potential is outstanding. The camping era that was is coming back and families are finding that it is a better value than motels/hotels/resorts. If ELS would renew the parks the return would be greater than they know. I love the parks and would help in the restructure if needed. ELS please start paying attention to your people that paid good money to join.
The RV parks seem to be run by gestopo. Run out so many pass holders by made up violations they conjur up. It's sad to see so many members lose their membership and rite to the parks for staff's personal reasons. It's a huge scam. Complaints to the manager is a joke. They just treat anyone they want very badly while others get to do whatever they want . It's obvious to see in the park we stayed in. Horrible staff . Lie in your face and suspend your membership. There are at least 6 RV out on the road that lost membership for bullshit reasons. The Calif Russian River Park. It's not a nice park.
I realize this thread was started eight years ago but the above response from yesterday caught my attention this morning so decided to stick in a quick comment. We thought about joining TT or one a couple of other such "resort" RV parks but decided to check out a few before we did. Long story short, we checked out about four different ones in various areas we like to go to (one just up the interstate about 25 miles) and found every single one of them to be run down, and with rude and ignorant managers, etc. One had bathrooms so dirty and disgusting they looked like a family of raccoons had been living in there. I won't drag this out, suffice to say after seeing what we saw and also after having talked with several RVers who had once been members but got out and started using normal parks and campgrounds, we decided there was no way we were going to shell out hard earned retirement money to stay in one of these garbage pits. No thanks, those that do are more than welcome to any space/site we could have been roped into staying in. In saying what I just did I also realize that there are possibly some well run and clean membership parks "somewhere" but we sure haven't noted any in our travels................... BankShot............(aka Terry(
I'm posting a late update on the Equity Lifestyle Properties brand. I purchased a 12'x33' park model cabin through them in 2015- prior to being asked to sign a lease (and I'm not the only one). Apparently, when the economy tanked in previous years (and due to their inability to keep up the units), they decided to liquidate these and close certain amenities at various parks. I purchased my unit in Massachusetts at a fair price for a used RV. The first lease I signed, I never received a copy because they were "out of printer ink and paper". At the time, there was no acting manager. This park has probably had 4 managers since then- there's little retention on staff or annual/seasonal visitors and the effort to maintain the property has been minimal. The seasonal/annual residents have fundraising events which pays for needs around the park (stocking the pond). A former clubhouse/activity center has been shutdown since I first arrived with the understanding that they had to get it "up to code" to reopen. Now it's never going to reopen. There are two playgrounds- one that was donated by a member and not in good shape. The other is nice. Children- including toddlers- are often running around the park unattended. Parents don't seem to mind their little ones wandering off. The complaints and poor reviews are numerous. The management acts more like the mob sometimes than management. Their annual lease runs April 1- April 1 the following year (the park used to be open year round for weekend access to it's . members- allowing them to use the clubhouse, pool and hot tub with their families while overnight visiting). There is no reason to continue with these lease types, but the park will use it to it's advantage. They're obviously hurting financially, because they demand another $500 deposit for your site around Christmas- even if you paid until April following Christmas. This is supposedly to "hold your site" or else they'll "sell it" without offering you a list of sites for sale. This is clearly a strongarm tactic to get even more money- in case they get shutdown due to covid-19 or bankrupt- either way, the members lose. The previous management allowed certain "residents" to live their year-round and the local food delivery drivers have made statements about the permanent residents they deliver to in the dead of winter on the other side of the lake (pond). The pool is almost always out of commission- as is the hot tub- which is either frigid or boiling. Fishing is catch and release, but the fish seem to be disappearing. The putt-putt golf is almost always filthy, the arcade is usually full of broken down games (which are all disappearing). The store is open very limited hours. The management does not keep up with sales of the rental units they sell/sold. They have a list of demands, but never enforce them (unless you threaten to lawyer up like I did). They suddenly felt the urge to not allow you to sell your unit if it's over 15 years old- although both my neighbors sold theirs last season at 26 years old. They want to corner you like the mafia. They act like trailer nazis. They are disrespectful, arrogant and rude if you have an issue. They have zero empathy or desire to improve the conditions of the park or for it's members that have loyally held out hope that they'll actually improve the park or hold up on their end (I waited 3-4 years for cable and well pump repairs). There's always excuses- next week, end of season, before reopening next season. Until you hold back $$- you won't get them to do anything. I've recently notified several advocacy groups and state/government agencies regarding ELS. I'm hoping an internal audit will get them to sell to someone who'll care for the place or force them to "buyout" some of the members they've disadvantaged. I have more photos, documents and records to list- but I'm leaving them to my attorney until he determines the best route of action. Thousand Trails (a division of ELS) sells more memberships than it can house. People buy new memberships with promises all the time, but unless you upgrade to the pricier (read: tens of thousands of $$) memberships- you only get a short timeline to book a rear (60 days) compared to the more expensive memberships that can book ahead further (180 days). This leaves many members with annual dues they're contractually obligated to pay for- without a place to camp. ELS has a lot of unsatisfied customers and poor business practices. They are more like a timeshare scam. They used to be a private, privileged club of full time RV'ers- and they swear by background checks (which they never do) because anyone can come in and camp for a night or two at their resorts without memberships. The parks have more and more drunks and junkies coming in- lessening their already low standards. Anyone who's already sold and got out feels the weight of the world off their shoulders. The rest of us lose sleep, lose hair and some may even lose their minds. Some are smart enough to lawyer up. I'm hoping that a group will get together and go forward with a class action settlement that will force them to liquidate to a company with positive goals for this organization.
