August 2022, a report about Home-parks, & Discount Camping Clubs If you have a family and plan on camping often in multiple campgrounds owned by the same corporation then buying an expensive Home-park Membership (HPM) could make sense. However if you are paying a very high amount for a home-park membership in-order to only join the Discount Camping Clubs (DCC) such as Camp Coast 2 Coast (CCC) or Ultimate Camping Network (was AOR) then shop around on the internet and you can find much cheaper campgrounds that will provide a Home Park Membership that you can use to join these DCC. Most Corporate owned (CO) campground chains charge thousands of dollars for a (HPM) so before you write them a big check think about how many times you will use it in the future. Then price compare what it costs to join these DCC and what you will be expected to pay for yearly dues (YD). Then ask yourself how often you will use them. If you are a full timer that keeps moving you can get some use out of them, but be aware that these DCC have less member campground as time goes on, and the cost goes up ever year. For instance: Camp Coast 2 Coast (CCC) had 400 parks @ $6 a night and 594 Good Neighbor parks (GNP) @ $11 per/nt in 1999, 351 in 2000, 340 in 2002, 310 @ $8, and 229 GNP @ $13 in 2004, 149 @ $10 plus extras, and only 51 GNP in 2019. in 1990 they had 300,000 members but by 2019 it was down to 151,607 members. Today in Aug 2022 CCC has 139 parks @ a stated price of $10 per/nt. However they allow their member parks to add extra fees (energy fees, etc) until I have recently paid not $10 but $27, and the Good Neighbor parks can charge what ever the traffic will bare. Inflation had a part in this but I think the big change was Corporate Ownership of CCC by the Affinity Group (Camping World) who bought CCC in 1993. FYI: CCC was started in 1972 and it was a flat $1.00 per night until 1997 when it went up to $4 then in 1999 it went up to $6. AOR has followed an even sharper decline. Till today they only have 53 parks at an advertised price of $9 per night but again the parks add extras. They have 88 parks that they call the Star Lite Network that can charge whatever they want. So the value of the Discount Camping Clubs (DCC) diminishes every year. See the attached State listings, Check the Clubs website and the parks websites then call the clubs and parks and educate yourself before you spend money that you might regret. Camping in general is getting ridiculous. With the cost of fuel to get there and the fact that most parks are full on Friday and Saturday nights and with some campgrounds asking for $100 a night! My friends that's $36,500.00 a year: you could be in a very nice hotel or on cruise for that kind of money.
i dont belong to any discount clubs, but the one i hear about frequently is Escapees, followed by Harvest Hosts. these seem to offer good discounts and end up paying for themselves (or so ive heard). i did belong to FMCA for a while and ocasionally you would find a park that would offer a discount to this club, but not very often.
We stayed at North Ranch Escapees last march. We are NOT members but still received a good discount. We paid 24.15 per night (inc taxes) but this is a weekly rate. The park was not great but the price made it bearable. We have no intent to join Escapees or any other DCC but I will not shy away from staying at on of their parks if it fits my needs. Darrell
$36,500.00 is insane, that is on top of the price of the camper etc etc etc! I have noticed that RV parks that have services like electricity/showers/washrooms/sewer/wifi are very expensive. But I guess if you can afford a Class A you can afford to stay in these places. I have a VA pension that is modest so we out of necessity need to be frugal. In 2018 we did a cross Canada trip and we stayed at Provincial/state/recreation sites/parks with no services. We also used iCamper and iOverlander to find boondocking sites that were near the routes we were taking which were free and absolutely gorgeous. Boondocking will be harder for Class A's or large motorhomes and campers. We also spoke with campers/back packers/truck campers/tent trailer folks at gas stations, tourist locations and on message boards like this one for good deals. I find asking locals used to be great intel. We also spend $100 a year for a Territorial camping permit. It allows us to camp in all the Yukon Government camp grounds for the year. If you are over 65 it is less. If you camp more than 5 nights a year it is a great deal. That said no services other than outhouses, fire pit and picnic table. Thanks for the info on the discount clubs as we were entertaining getting one but i think we will stick to boondocking and staying in rec sites or BLM when we come state side as much as we can.
Discount Camping Clubs (DCC) such as Camp Coast 2 Coast (CCC) Ultimate Camping Network (was AOR) and Passport America (PPA) are no longer a good investment; don’t waste your money. CCC lists campgrounds as $10 a night but allows the parks to add extra charges. It started as small amounts ($3) but some parks are charging much more ($27 a night) and this trend will escalate. If Coast-2-coast was an honest organization they would list these parks as Good Neighbor parks (GNP) but then the number of CCC parks would be very small. Now I have run across a CCC park that will not allow you to use your discount on the weekend ala PPA. AOR is a bad joke because they have very few full discount parks and like CCC these are in just a couple of states (see list of states). The rest are in their ‘Star Lite Network’ that charge whatever they want. Passport America (PPA) is another organization that has devolved into a bad joke. PPA advertises that you can stay at they member parks for half price. First the parks list a very high price then cut it in half, then they will not allow that discount on the weekends. It was good Sunday through Thursday however now some parks will limit you to three or two nights and some will only allow you one night. I can not recommend any of these Discount Camping Clubs (DCC). While I am on the subject I will also not recommend Harvest Host (HH) they say you can park at certain vineyards and other places for free. No electricity and only one night allowed so no time to explore the area, make it two nights and you could get some use from it. Also it is not free. If you paid your dues and only used it five nights a year you are paying for the right to park overnight in a parking lot; such a deal ! I have RV-ed since 1998 so I have seen hundreds of campgrounds and I have seen the value of these Discount Camping Clubs (DCC) decline to the point that they are not worth the cost. The current state of affairs in the RV lifestyle are becoming intolerable; I will give it up. ----------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------
We've never belonged to any of the discount camping clubs, although we did use PPA enough to pay the annual fee for enroute one night stops for several years. For our usual travels now, none of our enroute parks are members. We have used our Escapees RV Club membership to good advantage over the years though. Besides the other benefits they offer, staying at any of the eight low cost club owned parks is well worth the membership. At $24/night member price for full hookups in winter in Florida, it's hard to beat. The monthly rate is even better.
