"How About Our Growth!!!"

I imagine I'm not the only one who has taken note of the membership growth over the past few months. When we left on our last trip the end July, the membership count was just over 140,000. It now stands approaching 187,000, a 47,000 member growth in just 3-1/2 months. To me that's not too shabby and goes to show that the sales of RVs have really been booming over this past summer. Admins, correct me if I am mistaken on the figures I quoted as my "older" eyes may have mis-read the late July ones......... Would love to hear from some of these newer members on the forum if they see fit to join in on our "antics" and discussions, etc. How about it "newbies", jump in and tell us some tall tales about your RVing experiences and by all means add your knowledge to our ever growing gang of 187,000. What a great forum this is.........

Happy RVing to all, BankShot.............(aka Terry)

 

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing part of the growth is due to the explosion in RV Trip Wizard subscriptions. Since that program uses CGR's database of campgrounds, I'd think the marriage between the 2 drives new registrations. I believe, signing up for the app come with a CGR's log in.

Lori-

 

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We've notice that also. Places that just five years ago were no problem getting into we now have to book sometimes months in advance to get one of the better spaces. One park we go to each summer we book for the next year before we leave........

Happy RVing Ron..........(aka Paythebill)

 

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Thanks for that input leaf peeper. Makes sense that this would no doubt affect the membership count on CGR. As Paythebill noted, it's getting more and more difficult to secure the better spaces at many parks and campgrounds unless one books months or more in advance.......

BankShot...........(aka Terry)

 

I agree that it has gotten more difficult to get reservations. When we started RVing in 2000, I rarely needed to make reservations. Now we have just recently completed a two month trip, and not only did we need reservations in order to have a place to stay, I have never had as much trouble actually getting a reservation on the dates we wanted. We have always enjoyed not being tied to a rigid schedule, so that we can stay longer in an area if we are enjoying it or moving on earlier than planned if we saw everything we wanted to quicker than expected. This trip we found ourselves having to make reservations and stick to them. However, in all fairness, I will say that in almost every case, the park personnel were very patient and worked with us to find a opening that was not too different from what we wanted to do, and we did appreciate that. As an administrator on this site I am glad to see this growth happening, especially for the park and campground owners. However, as a traveler, it is quite frustrating. Guess we just got spoiled early on.

 

We've always been rather "picky" about the parks we stay at, so we've tended to make reservations more than many other folks. However, as Texasrvers has noted doing this has become almost a necessity if one wants to be assured of staying at a particular park.

In some parts of the country there are plenty of RV parks and you'll still probably be able to stay "somewhere" even without a reservation. But there are plenty of places where there are hardly any other options. For example, when we visit our son in Gaithersburg MD there is really only one well-rated full-hookup RV park within a half hour of his house. The situation isn't much different when visiting our son in Morrisville NC.

 

By any chance is that Association Island KOA? We stayed Labor Day weekend there and in October we received an "invitation" to make next year's reservations "before they are all gone!"

 

What I find really interesting about this thread is that, despite an overall increase in the number of RVs in use, there appears to be a correspondingly large increase in the number of RVers who want to use RV parks and CGs as little as possible. Boondocking among RVers appears to be on the upswing and, to some degree, it's surprising that in the face of that it is still getting difficult to get a site at a quality RV park. Think of what things would be like, if all those boondockers wanted to rent sites!

 

I may have posted this story back when it happened, and if so, I apologize for the repeat, but it does go along with this discussion. About 6-7 years ago we were planning to go to the NY city area for a wedding that was to be held in September, so in March I began researching RV parks north of NYC and down in New Jersey and over in Connecticut and other surrounding areas (trying to stay within 2 hours from the wedding location). When I called my first choice to make a reservation and indicated that I needed a site in September, I was told that they do not take reservations more than a year in advance. I pointed out that September was only 6 months away to which the person replied that the upcoming September was completely booked and had been since the previous September. After hearing this, I thought this might be the case with this park because it was a very popular one, so I began calling my other choices. Bottom line is, every place we wanted to stay at was booked. However, like docj said, there was probably "something" that was available, and I admit to also being picky, but in this case we really needed something that was reasonably accessible to the wedding location, and other than no hookup sites (which was not acceptable to us), nothing was available, so we decided not to go in the motorhome.

 

I've already made some reservations for next summer, particularly the 4th of July week. I'm also starting on tentative scheduling for our preferred parks for winter 20-21 so I can get in the moment the reservation windows open. It certainly does take away any spontaneity in our travels...

 

After reading Dutch's and Texasrvers posts above I am not surprised. One park we have been going to every summer now for four years we now book for the next year before we leave in order to get a waterfront site, and even by doing this next summer we will have to stay in one site for the first two nights and then move to another site for the remaining five nights. I think as they years ahead pass by it's only going to get a lot more "trickier" to make reservations and get a site that you want, etc. We have found also that in the past couple of years if we don't arrive at our destination by about 3 pm then we will be waiting in a line of from four to six or more RVs ahead of us. This has altered our driving times a tad so we now try to get to where we do have reservations by no later than 2 pm, give or take a nickel. Still all this still beats the heck out of "moteling" it and having to shlepp (sp) luggage from the car into the room and back and pull into gas stations or travel stops to use the restroom..............

BankShot............(aka Terry)

 

That is something we agreed to at three parks on our last trip. However, after we got to the park, management had managed to get us one spot through our entire stay. That is one thing I meant when I said I appreciated that the park personnel "worked with us to find a opening." I'm betting there was a cancellation that allowed them to accommodate us.

We have been able to hold on to our usual arrival time of 3-4 pm without much trouble, but if arriving after 4 pm, there is usually a line to check in.

Amen

 

One "trick" that seems to becoming more prevalent, at least with state parks, is the practice of booking full two week stays with the only the last several days being the actual desired dates. Later on the reservation is changed to only include those desired dates with a refund issued for the other days. That lets them book well ahead of the window for the actual dates. There's usually a small charge for making the change, but it's not much of a deterrent...

 

Another example of "as long as I get mine, no one else matters." Sad IMO.

 

I found a somewhat (maybe) similar issue at Oregon State Parks. This summer we needed an additional night at Fort Steven State Park. When we checked at the headquarters for an empty site they said nothing was available. When we told them that there were several sites empty sites in our loop we were told that they were already paid for so we couldn't reserve them. In talking with fellow campers apparently it's quite common to make a reservation and pay for a week or so but only use a few days; since Oregon State Parks are so inexpensive campers think it's worth it.

 

It seems Texas COE parks have found a way to keep that from happening (sort of). I made a reservation for 4 nights at a COE park in Texas, and we had every intention of staying there the full time. However, on the day we were supposed to drive there, a terrible storm system was passing through, and we did not want to be out on the highway. I called the park office and explained that we would not be in that night, but I wanted to keep the other reserved nights and if possible add one at the end. I was informed that if we were not in the site by midnight that night, the rest of the reservation would be cancelled. I even offered to pay for the first night in order to hold the site, but they would not let me do that either. I was not happy about that, but said that was OK, and I would just do a new reservation for the remaining nights. But as it turned out I could not do that either because reservations had to be made several days in advance. So this left us without a reservation and with a cancellation fee. The very nice man I talked to at the park told me he had to go by the rules, but that the park was not full, and he was sure we could get a site for the next few nights just by coming to the park. He said that our original site would probably still be available because no one else could reserve it since it was past the reservation deadline. Fortunately that did work out: we got the same site for 4 nights, but still had to pay the cancellation fee on the first reservation. This was a few years ago, and I don't know if their rules have changed, but they sure seemed user UNfriendly at the time.

 

I understand why the rule seemed unfriendly at the time, but, I'm sure you would agree that it is less "unfriendly" than reserving a site and intentionally preventing others from using it so that you alone can use it for a few days of the reserved period.

 

True. Unused reservations may be a huge problem that needs to be controlled at these parks, and I understand that they have no way of knowing if I am purposely holding a site I do not plan to use, but I still think it would have been nice if they had had a way to change my reservation or at least let me pay for the first night in order to keep the original reservation.