Has anyone else been noticing that r.v. parks seem to be charging for "extras" such as wi-fi and cable t.v.? This stuff used to be included in the rent. Also, cable t.v. used to be extensive, but now, they are offering only basic, very basic. Those parks that already charge separately for electric are bad enough, but to add wi-fi and cable is just too much. What is going on here?
We don't charge extra for wifi here. We don't have cable at all because we are outside the city limits and they cable company will not put cable here (same for all CG's in our area). We only charge extra for electric for monthly renters. We didn't used to charge extra but we found that many people were leaving lights on, a/c really low or heat high when they were going to be gone for hours or even days because they weren't paying for it. One couple was using over $200.00 a month for electric which was way over half of their monthly rent. When we dropped our monthly rates and had them start paying their own electric their electric usage suddenly dropped to just over $100.00 a month. It boils down to the fact that people don't care about waste if they aren't paying the bills. Overnighters or weekly renters do not pay extra for electricity.
QUOTE(tiredofit @ Nov 10 2011, 09:11 PM) [snapback]28153[/snapback] Has anyone else been noticing that r.v. parks seem to be charging for "extras" such as wi-fi and cable t.v.? This stuff used to be included in the rent. Also, cable t.v. used to be extensive, but now, they are offering only basic, very basic. Those parks that already charge separately for electric are bad enough, but to add wi-fi and cable is just too much. What is going on here? Although we have not seen a lot of parks charging for cable and wifi, there have been some. Perhaps they are responding to customers who prefer a menu of services to choose from. Quite frequently there are extensive threads on rv forums where people have strong opinions about not wanting to pay for services they do not use. It could also be that as a parks costs increase or their profits decline, this is one way to generate additional revenue or, in the case of reduced cable offerings, reduce costs. Our experience has been that, since parks seem to normally have a lot of competition and our rv has wheels. those charging more than we are willing to pay get left behind as we move on. The marketplace seems to do a good job of regulating campground/rv park costs, IMO.
QUOTE(joez @ Nov 11 2011, 10:21 AM) [snapback]28156[/snapback] Quite frequently there are extensive threads on rv forums where people have strong opinions about not wanting to pay for services they do not use. And this forum has had its share of those discussions. They were a while back, and I have not yet located any of them in the past topics. But they're there somewhere. If I remember correctly the only consensus was that there are two ways of thinking: those that want one simple price that includes everything, and those that want to pick and choose so they do not have to pay for services they don't use. And there probably won't be any agreement as to which way it should be any time soon.
Tiredofit, I'm curious. Are you talking about "regular" RV parks used mostly by transient RVers (those overnighting, en route, or vacationing) or more permanent parks (those where most sites are rented by the month or longer)? Also, are you talking about a specific park you have been to that didn't used to charge for extras and now does? If so, shouldn't you simply as the park's mgmt/owners this question? As others have indicated, there are various reasons for this practice and a variety of opinions by RVers towards it.
We have been full-timing for 8 years and when starting out came across campgrounds charging for Wi-Fi and cable TV. So nothing really new. Have run across a few campgrounds charge an extra $2.00 for our car. Ones that charge for the use of a A/C or electric heater. Even this fall came into one where the rules were you could not use your A/C or electric heaters. These are ones we have only stayed at for one night or a couple of weeks.
QUOTE(dalsgal @ Nov 11 2011, 09:51 AM) [snapback]28155[/snapback] When we dropped our monthly rates and had them start paying their own electric their electric usage suddenly dropped to just over $100.00 a month. It boils down to the fact that people don't care about waste if they aren't paying the bills. Overnighters or weekly renters do not pay extra for electricity. Interesting, the same thing can be said about health care.. I 've known people to get a prescription for over the counter drugs, because in their mind "it's free".
I think we all have to keep in mind, that the RV cost on these products have gone up in last year or so. For those who still have a house look what your cable bill has done, and my DSL service want a 10 percent increase. The Parks have to pay for these services, which is passed on down to us. One way is to lower the package on cable and shop for different WI-FI source, which can lead to a not so good solution
