Review Not Posted As We Didn't Visit Park

Discussion in 'CGR Site Admin, News and Announcements' started by Cdntravelmom, Jun 23, 2014.

  1. Cdntravelmom

    Cdntravelmom
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    I'm a new member to this site but I think it provides a tremendous benefit to RV'ers. I plan on trying to review many parks we stay at. A very unfortunate situation incensed me to sign up and start reviewing. My review was rejected as we never actually stayed at the park. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me as the reason was because the owner dumped our reservations. I booked 2 sites for 8 nights in Feb for late July, early August. I paid the deposits. Last week the owner said she couldn't take us any longer. She told me her daughter overbooked and she was now reviewing her bookings. She said it was better than turning us away upon arrival!
    Although I never had the opportunity to view this park in person, I believe the treatment I received should be allowed to be viewed by others. If I had read a review where a park didn't honour a reservation made and paid for then I wouldn't count on them honouring mine either. I would book ours and another families vacation time somewhere else. Too risky IMO.
    We are now left without reservations over a long weekend. I just think it should not have been rejected as it's helpful. My rejection email had no way to reply so I thought I'd try here.
    As a side note I'm a top reviewer on a popular hotel review site and not here to blast one park. I have a camping trip planned this weekend and was planning on reviewing it also. Due to the 6 month time limit on reviews I haven't been able to post any other ones yet.
     
  2. dalsgal

    dalsgal
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2007
    Messages:
    459
    Likes Received:
    31
    I think what the owner did was fair. She gave you notice as soon as she realized there was a problem. Many others have posted about this happening after they arrived. It is unfortunate that they overbooked but it does happen on occasion. I also feel that all the rules here are more than fair.
     
  3. John S.

    John S.
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2003
    Messages:
    282
    Likes Received:
    7
    I had Ocean Waves over book and they did not have a site for me when I showed up on the Outer Banks of NC in the summer. Talk about no other options. So they had one night only instead of the week. I was not happy but I also realized that they were the cheapest place for a reason. They used a paper book to schedule your reservations and someone erased the wrong one and you could see it. They need owned up to the mistake and I have never been back. I will pay more not to have my vacation ruined again. So Camp Hatteras gets my money now. I had been going to Ocean Waves for years but oh well, I am sure they will not be around much longer as soon as they get enough money front he mega big builders to put up huge houses. So, chalk it up to a larding experience and that they called you to tell you ahead of time was the right thing to do. Mistakes happen but I had already driven all the way there about 450 miles at 7 mpg in DC traffic too made me mad so I headed to Texas and had some service done on the coach and saw some friends. It was ok in the long run but different then what i planned. I guess we can now understand the bigger campground systems like the National parks using a computer.
     
  4. Cdntravelmom

    Cdntravelmom
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Yes, I totally understand mistakes happen. I don't believe this to be the case in this instance however. We corresponded a couple of times before booking and she assigned us site numbers when I paid the deposit. The park has only 21 sites! She took the booking, deposit and cancelled 4 months later. I believe that she decided to take on people who wanted to stay the entire summer instead of 1 week. At $47 per night it's not what I'd call a you get what you pay for scenario. All of this aside, I do think this type of review is valuable as who knows how many reservations this park honours? I reviewed the park on tripadvisor which allows it.
     
  5. Fitzjohnfan

    Fitzjohnfan
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2010
    Messages:
    742
    Likes Received:
    547
    QUOTE(Cdntravelmom @ Jun 23 2014, 10:00 PM) [snapback]37022[/snapback]

    Due to the 6 month time limit on reviews I haven't been able to post any other ones yet.


    I think the only restriction on posting a review in 6 months is if you try to post a review of the exact same park within 6 months or less. You can post any number of reviews in any number of days as long as they are different parks.
     
  6. Texasrvers

    Texasrvers
    Expand Collapse
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Messages:
    9,201
    Likes Received:
    739
    QUOTE(Fitzjohnfan @ Jun 25 2014, 12:38 AM) [snapback]37044[/snapback]

    I think the only restriction on posting a review in 6 months is if you try to post a review of the exact same park within 6 months or less. You can post any number of reviews in any number of days as long as they are different parks.



    Actually, here's how it goes:

    We do not post any review that has a stay date older than 6 months from the date we receive it.

    And reviewers cannot post a review for the same park within a 90 day period.
     
  7. kcmoedoe

    kcmoedoe
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2008
    Messages:
    314
    Likes Received:
    1
    The problem with such reviews is the reviewer is seldom satisfied just posting the facts. They are emotionally involved and the temptation to spice up the review usually is irresistible. In this instance, the review that should say "We made reservations in February for August. In June they called us and said they made a bad mistake and have overbooked and could not honor that reservation." To me, that would be fine and valuable information. Too many people, however, have to embellish and rant on about how that destroyed their lives. How it is beyond the realm of human contemplation that anything so heinous could occur. That the park is a dump anyway, etc. And since it is highly unlikely the park did it on purpose, and made it a part of the daily operating procedure, it is probably not going to happen to most guests of that park. Unlike the fact that most guests of a park will experience pot-holed roads, bad electrical services, filthy facilities and the smelly slaughterhouse next door.
     
  8. Denali

    Denali
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2005
    Messages:
    1,575
    Likes Received:
    22
    Very well put, kcmoedoe.
     
  9. Luvtheroad

    Luvtheroad
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2010
    Messages:
    248
    Likes Received:
    17
    Well, we don't know what cdntravelmom's review said about the park......so it's hard to say whether she just stated the facts or went on a rant, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say I'd be pretty ticked off, too, and would want to complain about it. If she made the reservation in FEBRUARY and they "just discovered" within the last two weeks that they were overbooked, I personally would suspect that they got a "better" booking and jettisoned her reservation.

    Yes, mistakes happen. But if a deposit has been paid, then this isn't a mistake, it's poor business practices. I have a feeling that if the shoe was on the other foot, and she showed up a day late because she "made a mistake" about the date she was supposed to arrive, they would want her to live up to her end of the contract.

    I would certainly want to know about a park that "mistakenly" overbooked and left someone possibly unable to get into another park during the time she had planted to camp. I would be leery of staying there.
     
  10. Texasrvers

    Texasrvers
    Expand Collapse
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Messages:
    9,201
    Likes Received:
    739
    A true review is not a complaint about one particular thing. It is an overall description/assessment of the park which may include both favorable and unfavorable comments about numerous, diverse aspects including the appearance of the park, the quality of the sites, the condition of the utilities, the service provided by the staff, the amenities that are available, etc. One could claim that the reservation process is service, and it is, but there are many other aspects which contribute to the total picture of what the park has to offer, and to focus on just one of those aspects is a disservice to our readers.

    In the past we have posted "No Stay" reviews when someone went to a park, but did not actually stay there for various reasons. However, because these reviewers saw the park, they could provide comments about the items mentioned above. If a person never even lays eyes on the park, how can they provide this same firsthand knowledge of what the whole park is like?

    This park in question may or may not have handled the cancellation correctly, but that is only one piece of the whole. The park may have a lot more to offer, but no will ever know if we allow reviews to focus on one (either positive negative) incident.
     
  11. kassielynn

    kassielynn
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2014
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have to agree with you, you should be allowed to post your concerns.
     
  12. Fred1609

    Fred1609
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2011
    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    0
    Posting that the CG lost your reservation does nothing to help my camping experience. I would ignore it asit falls into the category of "things sometimes happen to nice people". I generally throw out the highest and lowest review and then read the rest of the reviews. It happened to us on the Oregon coast and we had made our reservation in December for August. Well .... things happen...first time for me...probably not the last time.....I would write about it but not make it the focus or my review because your then helping no one. When your angry at a business there tends to be nothing they can do right.
     
  13. docj

    docj
    Expand Collapse
    RVing Expert

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2010
    Messages:
    4,957
    Likes Received:
    526
    QUOTE(Fred and Adele @ Jun 27 2014, 06:06 PM) [snapback]37079[/snapback]

    Posting that the CG lost your reservation does nothing to help my camping experience. I would ignore it asit falls into the category of "things sometimes happen to nice people". I generally throw out the highest and lowest review and then read the rest of the reviews. It happened to us on the Oregon coast and we had made our reservation in December for August. Well .... things happen...first time for me...probably not the last time.....I would write about it but not make it the focus or my review because your then helping no one. When your angry at a business there tends to be nothing they can do right.



    If a CG bumps my reservation by accident, that's one thing. If it decided that someone else's extended-stay reservation was a better business deal than my shorter one I would be furious. You may be willing to turn the other cheek about losing your reservation but I would want to make sure that anyone considering advance reservations at this park understands that their reservations are subject to being bumped if the park decides it can make more money off of someone else.

    I just made a reservation at a park for 5 weeks for the summer of 2016 in order to get the site I wanted at the park I wanted in the town I wanted. Nothing else will substitute. I know that this park will honor that reservation; I would be livid if they didn't.
     
  14. Cdntravelmom

    Cdntravelmom
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Thanks Docj as this is what has happened to us. Unfortunately I can't comment on the facilities at the park as it's about 6 hours away from my house. It's a long way to go without somewhere to stay. I understand their current review policy somewhat but I also think people are smart enough to realize that I have nothing to say about the facilities. They can make their own decision if they want to chance it. This park is very small and combined with a motel. They are in a very popular spot with nothing else nearby. If I had arrived and they turned me away, which the owner said I should be grateful that she didn't do, we'd be stuck sleeping on the side of the road. In BC every weekend in summer books up every where. I'd like to think this was a 1 time thing for this park but without this type of review we will never know if I'm the minority or the majority.
    At this point, we've made other arrangements for the 8 nights and we're moving on. B)
     
  15. tiffinman

    tiffinman
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2014
    Messages:
    100
    Likes Received:
    0
    Reading some of these unbelievable posts about c/g losing reservations....overbooking the park....getting turned away at the last minute.....just plain screwing up. I often wonder how fast they would find you a site if you told them because they messed up you have no where to go....and started to set up in their parking lot or in front of their office . Would like to try it some day. :)
     
  16. dalsgal

    dalsgal
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2007
    Messages:
    459
    Likes Received:
    31
    tiff, I have never made that type of mistake before but should it happen and someone set up in our yard/drive they would be towed out by the police.
     
  17. mdcamping

    mdcamping
    Expand Collapse
    Member
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2007
    Messages:
    1,252
    Likes Received:
    799
    I've read a few horror stories on the camping forums about reservations being lost. This said I'll try to get a reservation# or if I can't get a reservations # I will call a few days before to confirm my date of stay.

    Certainly not a guarantee but gives me better odds.

    Mike
     
  18. Happy Camper X2

    Happy Camper X2
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    May 21, 2004
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    10
    It is funny but the first review I read tonight start with, we have never stayed here but I thought you should know...

    So it makes you wonder why.
     
  19. Luvtheroad

    Luvtheroad
    Expand Collapse
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2010
    Messages:
    248
    Likes Received:
    17
    QUOTE(tiffinman @ Jul 1 2014, 12:42 PM) [snapback]37121[/snapback]

    I often wonder how fast they would find you a site if you told them because they messed up you have no where to go....and started to set up in their parking lot or in front of their office . Would like to try it some day. :)



    Not a camping story...but an acquaintance of mine did that on a cruise ship. Her cabin smelled like sewage and the carpet was wet. The crew told her that there wasn't another cabin on the ship available for her. So....she put on her nightie and robe, took her pillow and blanket and proceeded to make a bed on a seating area in the main lobby area. A crowd gathered, the crewmembers were horrified and told her she couldn't do that. She told them she didn't have any place else to sleep and that she WAS going to sleep there. She had another cabin in less than a half hour AND a free cruise. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
     
  20. Texasrvers

    Texasrvers
    Expand Collapse
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Messages:
    9,201
    Likes Received:
    739
    QUOTE(GaryWT @ Jul 1 2014, 09:39 PM) [snapback]37128[/snapback]

    It is funny but the first review I read tonight start with, we have never stayed here but I thought you should know...

    So it makes you wonder why.




    Since you did not mention which park the review was for and since I was unable to locate a review which began that way, I cannot say for sure why it was approved if the reviewer did not stay there. However, I can say that we have posted "no Stay" reviews when the reviewer provides the same information about the park that we require when they do stay there--things like the appearance of the park, the quality of the sites, the condition of the utilities, the service provided by the staff, and the amenities that are available. Unless someone actually goes to the park, it would be difficult to report on these items with any accuracy. However, there have been occasions when a reviewer went to a park, but did not stay for some reason. In this situation, the reviewer did acquire first hand knowledge of the park and can give an accurate report even though they did not stay overnight.
     

Share This Page