Careful review of reviews

Staying at Nevada Treasure in Pahrump, NV. Almost didn't stay because of a review by user3026. Then looked at all of his/her reviews and EVERY one was a negative review. If you are just going to knock campgrounds, please don't use this site. I use it for every stop I make and will not make a reservation is it has any bad reviews.

 

With all due respect, different people view the world differently. Some see always their glasses as half empty rather than half full. We encourage our users to read multiple reviews before making a decision as to whether or not to stay at a particular RV park. Personally, I always disregard the most negative and most positive reviews about a park figuring that "truth" is somewhere in between.

 

Years ago, I made the mistake of not "reading" reviews. I looked at the numbers and if they fell into the upper or middle, I thought they would be fine. I'm not that hard to please.....or so I thought. I chose a park that had plenty of good reviews but upon my arrival, I was immediately taken aback. I'm not going to go into the negatives I encountered but I was shocked that this place had such high marks. I came back and re-reviewed the messages and all of the negatives had been previously mentioned. Had I "read" the reviews, I would not have stayed. My very negative review seemed to have started a trend for that park but it still does get some good reviews. Different strokes for different folks.

Darrell

 

It's always important to keep in mind that how people perceive an RV park is often very tied to the kind of RV they have and whether or not they travel as adults or with a family. For example, as full-time RVers with a large MH, we pretty much are just looking for a safe, reasonably attractive place to park and connect our utilities. We don't use bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities, pools, dog runs, playgrounds etc. If there are deficiencies associated with those we would never notice them!

 

I used to look at all the reviews of someone if they gave a bad review and others a good one. If they seemed negative on lots of places thay stayed than I would discount them.

 

I always look at the reason why someone (dis)likes a campground. If someone has complaints about a terrible pet area, I don't care because I don't have a pet. If someone likes a campground because they had a nice time, I don't consider that campground therefore to be good.
As long as a reviewer adds the reason for his annoyances, I don't mind to read it.
It even can be humorous to read what other people find a problem.
Maybe that is even the case for you, when you read my thread about 'Resorts' ... LOL

 

You have to read all reviews for a CG - and sometimes certain user's reviews of other places. There was one who gave either a 10 or a 1 based solely on wi-fi - even if they didn't advertise they had wi-fi before they went.

 

I also tend to overlook the worst and best, and concentrate on the majority of the reviews. In addition to those that tend to be negative about everyone, I've also seen the opposite- someone that gives the top rating to almost every park. We all have our personal preferences. If all else is equal I would be more positive about a quiet park away from a noisy freeway whereas someone else might dismiss the noise and give a higher rating to one sitting on the frontage road rather than a couple blocks away. Two types of negative reviews I always disregard are 1) ones that seem to be written by a permanent resident that is upset with the manager and 2) ones where the reviewer has not actually stayed at the park.

 

There are also some that need to be ruled out where the writer tells how nice the park is, how clean it is and how friendly the staff and then give it a 1 or 2 because they didn't have a dog park or a pool. Why such a poor rating when you have praised everything that is there?

 

This is why I put more value in reviews where the individual understands that the purpose of his/her review is to provide others with information that helps them make a decision to use the CG, or not. For me, those that would be those that are decently written, are not rants done in the heat of the moment, and give some info on the facilities, amenities, and services that were encountered.

The new feature "Was this review helpful" provides another tool that can be used to concentrate on the majority of the helpful reviews.

 

We always try to make our reviews as fair as possible and we don't downgrade a park simply because the pet area isn't to "our" liking, or the pool doesn't have lap lanes on the bottom, etc. But we will give a low rating when a park advertises itself as something other than it really is. We ran across this on a recent trip we took and we were not happy paying a ridiculously high price to stay in what was a very tightly spaced and very cramped in park. It had recently been taken over by new ownership and we based our reserving a spot for one night on past reviews and pics of it on their website, etc. BTW, this is one of those "resorts" that ends up being nothing more than a glorified "trailer park" IOHO. We've stayed in a couple of real dumps and both were of our own choosing, and we rated them accordingly. After a few years of RVing we now have a nice "portfolio" of every park we have stayed in to date complete with their park map and amenities. We know where and where not to stay and the spaces in each park that suit our needs. Our travels to date have been limited to the western states but one of these days we will venture out and find new trails to travel, new parks to read reviews on, and in turn review them ourselves on our return.........................

 

I don't know how you found any Negative reviews on this site. Every time I have tried to post a Negative Review, these clowns demand I edit out things. I have had four reviews I have killed because of the censorship on this site.

I have moved most of my reviewing over to Trip Advisor, even if I have to make a new entry.
This site wants only positive pablum and Barf.

 

I'm sorry you feel that this site doesn't permit or encourage negative reviews; nothing is further from the truth. We have many thousands of posts that are far from favorable.

What we do insist on is that reviews that report negative situations also provide some other information that will be useful to others even if they never encounter the problem you are reporting. A review that is entirely a recounting of a unpleasant event would not be considered acceptable since it would be of no interest to someone who didn't have the same unpleasant experience.

All reviews that aren't posted are returned to the reviewer for revision. If you chose not to revise the review and resubmit it or if you resubmitted the review without making any changes then it would have not been posted (would have been "killed" to use your words). However, the site admins would never kill a review without first asking the submitter to revise it.

 

I just easily found 4 negative reviews and all 4 were yours. To me you sound like someone that is almost impossible to please.

 

Does this sound positive to you? This was found randomly on the main page:

"This park is not a resort unless you are a golf lover. Even then that is pushing it. Shower areas are filthy and scary to shower in. Laundry is very small both areas have only 4 washers. Power goes off all the time here without warning. Not very good for electronics in the unit. When water is working the pressure is very poor. Park is over 15 miles to the nearest grocery store so laying in supplies is a must. Office staff makes up rules as they go. Policies change constantly without notice to anyone. I would not stay in this joke of a park again"

 

I seldom give a park review of a 10 mainly because to get a 10 it must meet a number of requirements. However I will state in the narrative what the park is like or what I don't like about the park. I don't think I ever gave a park a 1 either but will also tell why I gave it such a low mark. I am single and travel fulltime so some of the amenities I am not interested in, such as a swimming pool but to get a 10 all of the facilities must be in good condition and the park easy to enter and exit. A park with dirt and gravel drives and sites will not get a 10.

BC

 

I base my reviews and ratings on how well a park meets my expectations for that park. I may rate a park with fewer amenities higher than a park with more, simply because the park with fewer amenities was in better shape with sites more suited to my needs. I think the only time I would likely give a park a '1' would be to note that it's permanently closed.