"To the poster who is concerned with the “fancy” campers, you need to realize that the people coming are what pays your salary and if it wasn’t for those pesky customers, you wouldn’t have any food on the table. All customers need to think they are special and in this world of internet review sites, any negative attitude can really affect the bottom line." Lindsay you obviously missed the point of my comment. I have no problem with fancy campers but with those that drive them that seem to think they are better than those that drive older and less fancy rigs. They seem to think because they spent lots more on their rigs that they deserve a lower price. I don't take kindly to people that think because they can afford a rig like that that they are better than me or anyone else. I also send out personalized thank you notes to every person that comes in here and spends the night no matter what their rig cost them. Also, "I would just remind him of how much I have invested to just be in front of him at this very moment, with an RV that is depreciating by the second, that I am there to reach an agreement that could benefit us both. The rest is up to him". I would then remind you rqatijnet that the campground owner has a lot invested so that you can bring your rig in and quibble about our rates.
QUOTE(dalsgal @ Aug 24 2010, 03:18 PM) [snapback]23704[/snapback] Also, "I would just remind him of how much I have invested to just be in front of him at this very moment, with an RV that is depreciating by the second, that I am there to reach an agreement that could benefit us both. The rest is up to him". I would then remind you rqatijnet that the campground owner has a lot invested so that you can bring your rig in and quibble about our rates. The big difference is that your park stays where it is, and I can motor on down the road. Once we both agree to the fact that we have a lot invested in our own items than I would think it would benefit both parties to come to an agreement. By the way, as opposed to what some park owners may think, a lot of coach owners DO NOT use your water and sewer every time we park our rigs. I usually go a week before I have to empty my waste tanks and fill my fresh water. Any coach owner knows that it is foolish to dump your waste tanks every day. I will use your electric. If you are one of the very few parks that I go to that has a nice level concrete slab that I can park on, I will not ask for a discount. If you are one of those that only has grass or dirt for me to park on during the rainy season, then I do not feel too guilty about asking for a discount, since that may offset the additional work on my part to keep my coach clean. If you offer a first rate product, I pay your price. If you offer a second or third rate product, I'll ask for a discount. We usually travel 15-20,000 miles a year and have experienced all kinds of parks. Most owners feel that their park is fantastic. Some are very friendly and the atmosphere is great, but compared to some of the nicer parks, they fall short, especially if we are only staying overnight, or looking for a place to park while we leave the park in our dingy. In that case, your pool, clubhouse, etc, has no real value to me at all, hence my asking for a discount. As I said, I will ask and you can always say no, or you can make me an offer I can't refuse. It's nothing personal, just business.
I think it's petty to ask for discounts unless you have a particular problem with the site you are on that was advertised differently (i.e a broken utility). People who think they are somehow doing RV park managers "a favor" to grace our presence at a reduced rate or pull out, I too would say hit the trail. :lol: I don't care how empty the park is. Do you think that justifies a reason to beat a business owner down when he's not making much revenue? I mean either the park is worth staying at and paying the full rate whether you use all the amenities or not, or you can go find a Walmart or a rest stop. If I visit Disneyland and don't ride all the rides, do I deserve a cheaper ticket? Hotels & RV parks are apples & oranges. Hotels are open 365 days a year to make revenue. They can discount their rates because they know by just getting you to come in, chances are you'll visit the bar/restaurant/room service/etc. and spend money that increases the overall revenue of the property. RV'ers staying for two nights at an RV park won't spend diddly squat. RV Parks have a 3-4 month window to generate cashflow for the entire year and their only main revenue stream is the rental income. I don't follow the whole "the RV park is empty/not nice enough, so I will ask for a discount" concept. Do you go to restaurants on slow nights, just to tell the waiter that you'd like to order dinner, but you want a discount on all your food and drink or else you will leave that table empty? Or if the restaurant isn't nice enough, that you should get a discounted meal? I mean there's more to the cost of the restaurant business than just the cost of your food, he's paying people to cook & serve and pay rent/mortgage on the building. As a Park owner, this is why the no-reason discount is strictly a no-no at my properties: 1) Say I agree to a discount as an RV park owner/Mgr. Next time you visit, I'm sure you will ask for the discount again. The customer is now in the driver's seat and will ask for the discount every time he comes in or threatens to leave. How much future revenue am I going to lose just off you? 2) Campers talk. "What rate did you pay?" Want to see an angry mob outside of a Manager's Office? Offer a discount to someone just because they didn't want to pay the full rate, or the park is too empty, or or or ... 3) Referring to #2, now anyone who was in line behind you when you received your discount, or people who happened to hear of you getting a discount will also ask for a discount. It snowballs. Now how much future revenue am I losing, because everyone knows you can haggle the price? So what do the rates at my RV park mean now? Obviously nothing, because I'm now the discount park. All rates negotiable. Pay whatever you feel is fair. It's just business. I don't mean to sound too defensive and if I do apologize. It's a slippery slope and a bad move for RV Park owners to just start throwing out discounts for no reason.
Nobody is talking about “beating down”. The owner presents a price and the camper presents a smaller price all in a nice fashion and the both parties have the option to accept it or reject it. It doesn’t have to be a nasty situation. Seems like the folks thinking we are dirt bags and worse are the ones who keep on getting agitated here. Doing that with your customers will quickly get you some bad reviews and really hurt your business. I mean either the park is worth staying at and paying the full rate whether you use all the amenities or not, or you can go find a Walmart or a rest stop. This is totally wrong and good business folks understand this. Why do you think 2,000 campground owners belong to the 50% discount clubs and many more thousands belong to the 10% discount clubs. It isn’t about emotion, it is about the bottom line and making a living for your family. Discounting and increasing your gross in the right periods increases your bottom line and Most American businesses do it. Most of the RV parks we have stayed are open year around. We have camped now in 44 states and those in the North don’t, but this makes no difference as I suspect they knew when they made their business plan that it was going to snow in the winter. The dinner analogy you used doesn’t work as the restaurant can sell the steak the next night. The campground loses the income of an empty site forever. An unsold campground site has no value. The apples and oranges are you comparing the product business and the service business. As far as the park being empty, I never said that, I said not full. (I have told you a million times not to exaggerate.) There is a huge difference. You have to think like a professional business person. Good owners certainly do or they don’t make it. I’ll go through it again. Tuesday night in shoulder season and you have 45 of your 90 sites full. Harvey and Joanne call up and say, what is your rate, you say $40 and they say, well that’s a little more than we would be willing to pay, How about $30. (They have a list of other campgrounds in their hand.) The campground owner is left with the decision do I want that extra $30 today for $5.00 of variable cost or do I want nothing. It doesn’t have to be an adversarial conversation. This sort of thing has been going on since the cave man traded a spear point for a mammoth hide. The owner decides if he wants to do it. He probably rents months for $500 and $30 is equivalent to $900 a month. Good business people are glad to have that extra $30 of which $25 is profit. It can be a win/win situation. This is especially true when staying multiple nights.
Isn't there something kind of ironic with the statement: "I told you a million times not to exaggerate". :lol: And belonging to PA is not smart for business for many of those 2,000 parks. For you the consumer, great deal. But for some of the PA park owners? Bad deal. I wouldn't touch PA with a 10 ft. pole. The numbers only work if you can squeeze out a lot of volume to justify getting 1/2 rates, when you could be getting a full rate on the same site from a different consumer who's not a PA member. Many of the Passport America RV parks are mom & pops, family-owned, and tend to be a few decades behind in the marketing & advertising department and need to rely on Passport America to increase occupancy. What many of them don't realize is if they weren't PA parks, and instead spent a little money on upgrades on the park and decent marketing/advertising ... that they could get full rates with just as high of an occupancy, if not higher. As you mentioned, it's all about the bottom line. And on a $30 rate, you are most certainly not taking a $25 profit. You are simply subtracting your utilities cost from my rate LOL. What about mortgage on the land under your RV? What about the website, print ads, signs that helped you find the RV park? What about the payroll for the persons who checked you in, cut your grass, cleaned the pool, managed the property? And yes, the value of an RV site is one that can never be re-cooped, and I understand why you think that getting at least some money rather than none is a great deal. But you completely missed my point. Why would I get $30 a night tonight, when I know you'll ask for $30 a night next time, and then the guy in line behind you says "Hey I want $30 a night too", and the lady buying milk decides since they pulled in 30 minutes ago and they paid $40 a night and want $10 back ... but she's willing to settle for a free gallon of milk and some bread. :lol: And if someone called me on the phone to make a reservation, and I told them the rate was $40 and they told me, "Well I'll give you $30" .... I'd be embarrassed for them, tell them I'll be happy to give them a site here for $40, politely decline that offer for $30, and recommend them to the run-down, dumpy cheap place down the highway LOL. And next time you come to the area, you'll remember paying $30 for the dumpy place and decide to come back here and pay $40. You see what bugs me is that you haven't even stepped foot in the park to even see how nice/terrible it is, and instead you are going to haggle the price over the phone without even checking the property out? This isn't a used car lot - No soup for you! LOL
As I said, if your park is first rate, I would never ask for a discount. Here are the amenities at one park in Texas. You mention $40/night, how does your park compare to this one? Their normal price is $25/night, with no upcharges, and, on my last visit, if you stay two nights, the third night is free(total 16.67/night). I've stayed there at least twice a year for the past three years and have driven 100 miles out of my way just to stay at the park. It is a few miles from a major city and 1/2 mile off of the interstate, not out in the woods accessible by rutted secondary roads. This is a park that obviously has a large investment, and it shows. They treat their customers like members of the family and have concierge service available for anything that you need. Now, as opposed to what this park offers, I have been to parks that do not have paved roads, and have unlevel dirt parking sites. Some charge extra for 50 amp, or cable, and have an iffy WIFI, if they have WIFI at all. These parks do not look like the owners have invested much other than what it took to get electricity and sewer to the RV site. All buildings are run down and the owners seem to like things this way. Since they are in an area with few RV parks, the others are equal in their quality level. These RV parks I visit once and it does not bother me at all to ask for a discount. The features of a nice RV park that I use regularly. All roads and approaches are paved concrete The 30' x 20' concrete pad is guaranteed level on all 188 sites. 7' x 14' concrete picnic patio. You have plenty of room to access your service bays without stepping off the pad. The pedestals feature 20/30/50 amp electric, and cable TV. The waste drop features a hinged cap, no cross threading here. The hydrants are nice and tall, and frost proof. You have WIFI anywhere in the resort. You can wash your RV or they have people at the park to do it for you for a modest charge It has three private Comfort Centers. Each with fifteen sparkling clean, private tile baths. Ice, Soda, and Candy vending. Free Laundry, with state of the art Maytag equipment. RV repair techs on site – air conditioning, heating, plumbing, engine, tires, awnings. Read a good book in the Great Room, warm yourself by the fire, enjoy one of three plasma screen TVs, and on movie night, be prepared for a 100" screen surround sound theater experience Work out the kinks from the road in our exercise room Watch the kids splash in the pool or kiddy spa They also have an adults only spa just west of the Club House A $40 per night charge was mentioned, but as you can see, some parks set the bar pretty high, and they remain profitable at their advertised rate of $25/night. If any of you would care to list what your park offers, and what you charge, I may change my mind about ever asking for a discount in the future. Since I never make reservations, the "over the phone" asking for a discount will not happen. When I ask for a discount is when I am sitting in your front office, after pulling into and looking over your park and comparing apples to apples.
Isn't there something kind of ironic with the statement: "I told you a million times not to exaggerate". This might come to a shock to you, but I was trying to be humorous. That joke has been around for decades. I got it from my father. I guess it just went right over you head. I will explain them for you in the future.
QUOTE(rgatijnet @ Aug 25 2010, 06:55 AM) [snapback]23722[/snapback] As I said, if your park is first rate, I would never ask for a discount. Here are the amenities at one park in Texas. You mention $40/night, how does your park compare to this one? Their normal price is $25/night, with no upcharges, and, on my last visit, if you stay two nights, the third night is free(total 16.67/night). I've stayed there at least twice a year for the past three years and have driven 100 miles out of my way just to stay at the park. It is a few miles from a major city and 1/2 mile off of the interstate, not out in the woods accessible by rutted secondary roads. This is a park that obviously has a large investment, and it shows. They treat their customers like members of the family and have concierge service available for anything that you need. Now, as opposed to what this park offers, I have been to parks that do not have paved roads, and have unlevel dirt parking sites. Some charge extra for 50 amp, or cable, and have an iffy WIFI, if they have WIFI at all. These parks do not look like the owners have invested much other than what it took to get electricity and sewer to the RV site. All buildings are run down and the owners seem to like things this way. Since they are in an area with few RV parks, the others are equal in their quality level. These RV parks I visit once and it does not bother me at all to ask for a discount. The features of a nice RV park that I use regularly. All roads and approaches are paved concrete The 30' x 20' concrete pad is guaranteed level on all 188 sites. 7' x 14' concrete picnic patio. You have plenty of room to access your service bays without stepping off the pad. The pedestals feature 20/30/50 amp electric, and cable TV. The waste drop features a hinged cap, no cross threading here. The hydrants are nice and tall, and frost proof. You have WIFI anywhere in the resort. You can wash your RV or they have people at the park to do it for you for a modest charge It has three private Comfort Centers. Each with fifteen sparkling clean, private tile baths. Ice, Soda, and Candy vending. Free Laundry, with state of the art Maytag equipment. RV repair techs on site – air conditioning, heating, plumbing, engine, tires, awnings. Read a good book in the Great Room, warm yourself by the fire, enjoy one of three plasma screen TVs, and on movie night, be prepared for a 100" screen surround sound theater experience Work out the kinks from the road in our exercise room Watch the kids splash in the pool or kiddy spa They also have an adults only spa just west of the Club House A $40 per night charge was mentioned, but as you can see, some parks set the bar pretty high, and they remain profitable at their advertised rate of $25/night. If any of you would care to list what your park offers, and what you charge, I may change my mind about ever asking for a discount in the future. Since I never make reservations, the "over the phone" asking for a discount will not happen. When I ask for a discount is when I am sitting in your front office, after pulling into and looking over your park and comparing apples to apples. Sounds like a lot of value for the money, how about doing us all a favor and letting us in on your secret, what park is it?
QUOTE(kcmoedoe @ Aug 25 2010, 12:43 PM) [snapback]23732[/snapback] Sounds like a lot of value for the money, how about doing us all a favor and letting us in on your secret, what park is it? Oasis RV Park You can get an additional 20% off of the $25 rate by getting their free VIP card. Kinda hard to beat.
Rfatiinet, that park sounds very nice. Sounds like a destination park and the fact that you go there on a regular basis bolsters that idea. To me, a destination park is where you drive to, stay there enjoying the amenities and go home. Many campers are not using parks as a destination park and spend very little time actually at the campground. If I drive across the US to say the Pacific NW, I want to see the sights and the wonders of nature. Many of us (if not most) look at a campground as a place to sleep between exploring the wonders of the US. I haven’t swam in a campground pool in years (kids pee in it). I never use the comfort stations as I have one in my RV that has everything I need. I have stayed at hundreds of campgrounds with dirt sites and have never really have a problem that I couldn’t fix with my levelers in a few minutes. I have seen concrete pads with big drop offs. When we check in I hook up the electric and may or may not use the campsite’s water. I hook up to the sewer when my gray water tank is full (4 to 7 days). I rarely use the TV. Our MO is to usually spend 2 days and see whatever we want and leave. We rarely make reservations. Free laundry sounds nice. We done laundry about every 10 days. We normally try to avoid kids if possible. I don’t dislike them and have one myself, but at this stage of our life, we just don’t need it. We like book exchanges and most of the parks have them. The bottom line here is many RV’ers don’t use the campgrounds amenities and really don’t want to pay for them. From what I see, there are a whole lot of us who want to just use the park to just park, we bring our own entertainment and use nature to supplement it. I’d be just as happy under a tree with a electric hookup. We don’t use and don’t want to pay for all of these things were never use. I would suspect that we are the campgound onwers ideal customer. We use very little and are mainly out of the park. I might add that the vast majority acceept the discount as they understand it is over and above their variable costs. They also love to have cash for obvious reasons and we do offer cash.
We head out from Florida every Winter and head West, usually up into Utah and Colorado. Sometimes I go to the Barrett-jacks car auction in Phoenix. On our way out West and back to Florida, we stop at this park. Our last return trip in January of this year had us staying there for three days to wait for the winds to subside. It gave us a chance to have the coach washed and do some laundry. This year, we expect to be stopping there again on our way out West in Late October or early November. Not sure when we will be coming back. Understand that most parks that we stay at are not anywhere near as nice as this. I would say that 80% have grass, gravel, or dirt for us to park on. I was just pointing out that this park has had this level of amenities for several years and they have been able to stay open and profitable with their current rates. It just makes me pause when I pull into a dirt/grass RV park, with few amenities, and they are asking $40+ a day, then they nickle and dime me to death with an upcharge for a pull through, 50 AMP, cable, WIFI(if available at all), extra if you use your AC, and so on. In these parks I have no problem asking for a discount, which is the point I was trying to make. We are also basically overnighters and rarely stay anywhere for more than a few days. This upcoming trip will have us in Mexican Hat and Moab, and several other places in Utah and Colorado as long as the weather cooperates. With any luck I will not need my tire chains, like I did last January, to get into and out of an RV park.
QUOTE(rgatijnet @ Aug 25 2010, 07:55 AM) [snapback]23722[/snapback] As I said, if your park is first rate, I would never ask for a discount. Here are the amenities at one park in Texas. You mention $40/night, how does your park compare to this one? Their normal price is $25/night, with no upcharges, and, on my last visit, if you stay two nights, the third night is free(total 16.67/night). I've stayed there at least twice a year for the past three years and have driven 100 miles out of my way just to stay at the park. It is a few miles from a major city and 1/2 mile off of the interstate, not out in the woods accessible by rutted secondary roads. This is a park that obviously has a large investment, and it shows. They treat their customers like members of the family and have concierge service available for anything that you need. Now, as opposed to what this park offers, I have been to parks that do not have paved roads, and have unlevel dirt parking sites. Some charge extra for 50 amp, or cable, and have an iffy WIFI, if they have WIFI at all. These parks do not look like the owners have invested much other than what it took to get electricity and sewer to the RV site. All buildings are run down and the owners seem to like things this way. Since they are in an area with few RV parks, the others are equal in their quality level. These RV parks I visit once and it does not bother me at all to ask for a discount. The features of a nice RV park that I use regularly. All roads and approaches are paved concrete The 30' x 20' concrete pad is guaranteed level on all 188 sites. 7' x 14' concrete picnic patio. You have plenty of room to access your service bays without stepping off the pad. The pedestals feature 20/30/50 amp electric, and cable TV. The waste drop features a hinged cap, no cross threading here. The hydrants are nice and tall, and frost proof. You have WIFI anywhere in the resort. You can wash your RV or they have people at the park to do it for you for a modest charge It has three private Comfort Centers. Each with fifteen sparkling clean, private tile baths. Ice, Soda, and Candy vending. Free Laundry, with state of the art Maytag equipment. RV repair techs on site – air conditioning, heating, plumbing, engine, tires, awnings. Read a good book in the Great Room, warm yourself by the fire, enjoy one of three plasma screen TVs, and on movie night, be prepared for a 100" screen surround sound theater experience Work out the kinks from the road in our exercise room Watch the kids splash in the pool or kiddy spa They also have an adults only spa just west of the Club House A $40 per night charge was mentioned, but as you can see, some parks set the bar pretty high, and they remain profitable at their advertised rate of $25/night. If any of you would care to list what your park offers, and what you charge, I may change my mind about ever asking for a discount in the future. Since I never make reservations, the "over the phone" asking for a discount will not happen. When I ask for a discount is when I am sitting in your front office, after pulling into and looking over your park and comparing apples to apples. That is definitely a nice park, but their normal rate there is in fact $40-$50 per night. You have to join their VIP club to get the $25 per night, but there's no cost to joining the VIP membership so it's a pretty good deal for the consumer. Now are they profitable at $25 a night? Unless you are the accountant, how do you know that for a fact they are profitable? I'd be curious to see their margins on $25/night given the amount of amenities they have. Quite frankly they are under-pricing themselves IMO. Texas isn't too hard to find cheap RV parks though, the land in TX is dirt-cheap compared to other parts of the country. Also I found some reviews on their park that differed from your opinion. Interesting comments about it being empty (hence the desperation of $25/night): "We’ve stayed at this park several times. They ran a special this summer. 17.00 a day, with the 3rd day free. Biggest problem, you are pretty much out by yourself. I’ve lived on these praries all my life, and one thing I like about RVing is meeting people. " "I agree with Rick Lamb’s posting. My wife and I checked out this park and feel it operates on a shoestring. We ended up staying at the KOA and were pleased with the campground and the hosts." http://rvbuddy.com/texas/oasis-rv-resort-amarillo-texas/ I suspect that at $25/night, they are going to have cashflow problems to keep all those amenities going (i.e. the post talking about no propane to heat the pool or hot tub and the other poster saying it feels like it's operated on a shoestring budget). So again, that $25/night rate is good for you as the RV'er, but I don't think it's good business by the owners as it appears they are obviously struggling to fill the park when other parks in the area are full .... so they have slashed their rates to try and get more people in. Someone else mentioned that the summer special was $17/day, with the 3rd night free. Free Wi-Fi, cable, and laundry. I guarantee you that they are losing their tails off at that rate and are absolutely not profitable at that rate. While it's a great rate for the RV'er, I'd be willing to bet the farm that they are in financial trouble ... $17/night with the 3rd night free with all the free cable & laundry is a smokescreen of desperation of a mis-managed property IMO. I appreciate the heads-up about them, it'll be interesting to see how they do in the next few years or if they hit the market.
QUOTE(MinnysodaRVer @ Aug 25 2010, 04:27 PM) [snapback]23743[/snapback] That is definitely a nice park, but their normal rate there is in fact $40-$50 per night. I guess you didn't go to their rates page. Their NORMAL rate today is $25 and IF you join their FREE VIP card, you get another 20% discount, dropping the price down to $20/night. For three years I have never paid more than $25/night and in years past I paid less. Out of 50 reviews, you will not find anyone that paid more than $35. You may want to read the archived reviews and look at the prices people have paid going back to 2007, even before any economic crisis. I believe at that time some did pay as high as a $35 rate but they were also a Passport America park and you will see rates as low as $13 that people paid to enjoy everything that this park has to offer. I'm sure that for every park you will find a bad review, which in this case, there were 2 campers who didn't like the July fireworks. The other 50+ were happy. Since they are open year round, the park is not as full during the Winter, when we usually stop by. Then again, snow does that to a lot of parks. We were one of six in the entire Trailer Village RV park in the Grand Canyon National Park this year. The facts are, this park has been in operation long enough to not only stay financially solvent, but, if you read the web page, they are remodeling the restaurant. Not something a park would do if they were in financial trouble. They also allow work campers to stay free if they want to work 20 hours a week. Again, something a park would not offer if they were in trouble. Keep an eye on the park. I have for years. Since you pointed out everything that you thought was bad about this park, why not share what is better with your park?
QUOTE You are simply subtracting your utilities cost from my rate LOL. What about mortgage on the land under your RV? What about the website, print ads, signs that helped you find the RV park payroll for the persons who checked you in, cut your grass, cleaned the pool, managed the property? I was really surprised to see you write this as this is disproven in the first month of any business 101 class. When you have that additional income from the customers you would not have had anyway on that Tuesday night when you will not be full goes straight to the bottom line. Please tell me if you rent that extra space how it makes your mortgage, taxes, website costs, print ads, grass cutting, pool cleaning, and signs be increased. It doesn’t affect them at all. Surely you don’t think so. These are all fixed costs and are not affected in the least by renting that extra site. Only the variable cost like utilities and wear and tear are affected. This is extremely basic business practices. If we have it wrong, please explain. I have stayed all over the US at the 50% discount clubs over 100 times, Good Sam’s many more, have gotten discounts many times, and have never seen this angry mob you are afraid is going to be breaking down your office door. Doesn’t happen. If you want to make it a one time thing, then put it in your discount restrictions; others do. Lots of campgrounds do and take discounters only when they think they will have some vacancies or limit the number of discount sites on any given night. QUOTE Many of the Passport America RV parks are mom & pops, family-owned, and tend to be a few decades behind in the marketing & advertising department and need to rely on Passport America to increase occupancy. Having stayed at more than a 100 of them, I know the quality of their campgrounds is about equal to no discounts campgrounds. I love Mom and Pop and family businesses and I would suspect the average RV’er does also. I have had many a astute campground owner tell me that they use PA to fill sites that would otherwise be empty. Having been in the lodging business I enjoy discussing it with them. They write their restrictions to facilitate this and it makes them lots of money to defray their costs. Most of these folks understand the concept of fixed and variable costs and utilize it in their business plans. Joining PA is free to the campground owner by the way. I do not need to see the park before deciding if I am going to stay there and I would bet that a good percentage of your customers have never been there either before they reserve and give you a credit card number. There are plenty of ways to determine the quality level of a park without looking at it yourself. This review site is a great resource as well as Woodall’s and Travel. Most campgrounds are given stars on three categories. The notion that you have to personally view a park before staying there seems very strange to me. If you keep saying “haggle” you haven’t been understanding what I have been writing. We ask and the owner decides. I would say they say yes about ¾ of the time.
I think the topic is about dead. Those, like me that travel a lot will continue to ask for a discount when we want and those park owners that do not want to give one will say no. Simple really. Best of luck to all in these tough economic times.
I agree 100%. I don't think campers are dirtbags either. Generally, I think campers are a large cut above the average population. We have met so many wonderful people camping. It is one of the best things about camping and I think my wife and I talk about the folks we have met just as much as we talk about scenery. Very few dirtbags out there.
Question: If you were traveling and come in real late at a RV Park and just stay for a couple of hours for rest. Maybe check in after midnight and leave before 6am.... Do you think you should paid the full amount?
That is a very hard question, but I think it should be worked out over the phone prior to arrival. If this is not done, then it could be brought up in the morning. We have never done this as we would normally stop at a free place like Wal-Mart. I have very good batteries and can run AC on generator or propane heater fan via batteries, so this isn't an issue for us. I have seen people post that they go in late, pick a spot, leave early and don't pay at all. This is stealing. If you can not get them by phone, I would just go in with the understanding that you might have to pay full rate, but it is their decision not yours. If you have a reservation and they "hold" a spot for you then, expect to pay. You should try Wal-Mart and get your rig set up for short term boondocking.
QUOTE(Skymessenger @ Jan 7 2011, 06:28 PM) [snapback]25253[/snapback] Question: If you were traveling and come in real late at a RV Park and just stay for a couple of hours for rest. Maybe check in after midnight and leave before 6am.... Do you think you should paid the full amount? You absolutely owe the full amount. Even asking for a discount would be incredibly rude in my opinion. When you stay at any lodging facility, you have agreed to their rate regardless of how little you actually use the facility. I think it applies to many businesses. How would you feel if you had a lawn mowing service and mowed a customer's lawn and then the customer asked for a discount because it took you a little less time than normal? If you are going bald, would you ask for a discount on a haircut after getting it cut? Ask for a discount at the all you can eat buffet, because you weren't really hungry. Some things are not negotiable and the price of a stay after the fact is one of those things.
Even asking for a discount would be incredibly rude in my opinion. When you stay at any lodging facility, you have agreed to their rate regardless of how little you actually use the facility
