After many years of RVing, I am sure that rvparkreviews should offer 2 Rating categories. There are many working families, just getting away with kids and pets for a weekend. There are also many retired and a growing number of baby boomers like us that go on RV excursions for weeks or months at a time. Each group has different needs. I rate campgrounds entirely differently than I would when I was in my 20's or 30's. Young folks are interested in having a fun time with their kids. They don't care as much about WiFi, TV, or maneuvering with larger rv's. On the other hand, our group MUST use the Internet to keep up with issues at home/busines, and research and make plans for where we are going next. We care about good WiFi and also good TV. I hate giving lower reviews for campgrounds which I suspect that young people with kids would enjoy. On the other had, these campgrounds do not meet my needs.
It seems to me that the items checked under "Amenities" and "Recreation" for a given campground are a pretty good indicator of its appropriateness for a given camping style. If items like "Family Friendly", "Playground", "Recreation Room", "Arcade Games", "Putt-putt Mini golf", and "Water Park" are checked, it's pretty likely that this park is not geared towards the long/full-timer geriatric set.
With all due respect you are totally wrong with respect to younger families not caring about WiFi. The modern family travels with a whole slew of internet-connected devices, often with more than one for each family member. As an administrator of this website I can attest to the fact that WiFi is the single most-requested and complained about amenity at RV parks. To many in the older generation the internet is, as you said, a way of paying bills and doing banking. For the younger generation it is literally embedded in their lives. Don't make assumptions as to what people do when going "camping"; for many it's not all just sitting around the campground.
I fulltimed for 11 years and used Park Reviews a number of those years. I could read the comments about the park in the reviews and decide if I wanted to stay there or not. I see no need for different types of reviews if the comments are read.
I can't think of a more ephemeral criterion for rating a park. Wi-Fi that is good today is down tomorrow. Wi-Fi that didn't work worth a darn yesterday when the park was full is going full-tilt today. I would like to know about walking trails and dog parks. If they are good when the review is written, they'll probably be good when I get there. If everyone writes in an informative manner, I'll distill my own rating.
Thereby lies the problem. Many reviews are not informative in the free text portion of the review. "Nice campground, would stay again," doesn't give me much to work with if I'm trying to make an informed decision about my plans to stay there. Let me know why it is nice. Give me some descriptive details I can work with. It might be a nice CG to one person if it has 20 - amp electric, a fire pit and is made of grass or gravel and has good satellite reception and a dog walking area. For me, I couldn't care less about a dog walking area (other than knowing the dogs will be in there and not across my site), I don't need satellite or a fire pit but I do like reliable 50-amp power, a good sewer connection, clean water to hook up to and I'm on a long, level, solid base. Equally saying the site has 50-amp but then in the free text not mentioning that it spikes or has low voltage isn't too useful either. There are a great deal of good reviews and the admin staff work hard to cope with the volume of reviews submitted but reviewers MUST make some effort to make their reviews useful and the content helpful and as descriptive as possible.
I have noticed there seems to be a learning curve between the newer reviewers and the one's that have used this site for many years. Keeping this site up to date with todays expectations will hopefully keep those future long term Rvers/campers here. Mike
+2 to that. motorboater, you can help by writing a good review about the campgrounds you've stayed in. Usually when I write a review, I try to include what groups I think the campground might be geared towards: families, partiers, seasonals, dog friendly, etc. Of course those groups can certainly overlap.
Motorboater said: "There are many working families, just getting away with kids and pets for a weekend. There are also many retired and a growing number of baby boomers like us that go on RV excursions for weeks or months at a time. Each group has different needs." We find this suggestion (or a derivative) interesting and perhaps something worth considering in the future as part of a site update. An alternative location such a scale might be incorporated is in our profiles where a predescribed scale of one through five stars might exist. Thanks for thinking outside the box Motorboater.
