I have been a member of this site for some time. I use the reviews to help me decide where I would stay. My concern is that we don't apply the same criteria when we rate campgrounds. With a scale of 1-10, an average park is about a 5. I see parks rated 9 or 10 that really should be a 4, 5 or 6 in my mind. I sometimes feel that people use the upper numbers more than they should. Remember 5 is about average. 7 is a heck of a score. Could we have developed some sort of criteria we could use to help in rating a park? I mean, the two best parks I have ever been to are Wilderness and Willow Tree. They are 10's for different reasons, however, unless you have been to that type of CG you wouldn't be able to realistically rate another park based upon the best. What do you think?
As you know, it is all a matter of opinion. You kinda have to feel out the writer. If that person is complaining about everything and rates a place a 1, take it with a grain of salt. They might have been having a bad day and they rated the campground on one experience. Read into the reviews. That 1 would probably be a 4-6 with 3 or 4 different campers and it might be a 9-10 with 1 or 2 campers. Now the way I look at this is: You probably would not get a 1 or a 10 out of me. I would start off at 5 or 6 and go up or down from there. I just reviewed Aces High and I gave it a 7. It was a nice park and I really didn't have any complaints about it (with the exception of it being high priced in the off season). My highest rating would be a 9. I know there are alot more campgrounds that are nicer, cheaper, cleaner Friendlier, etc... which would get rated an 8 and if it was perfect, I would give it a 9. On the other side of the scale, 5 would be staring off and if it was the absoulute worse place I have been to and I have complaints and all, I would give it a 2. If it was a little bad, I would rate it down to a 4 or 3 if I had more problems with it. One solution would be for the reviewer's member number or something to appear with the review. That way if for example I rated 5 or 6 parks an 8 and you stayed at a couple of the parks, you would get a feel for how member # ??? critiques. If you feel that the parks were only a 4 in you eyes, you would be able to see mbr # ??? rated this park an 8 and you would know what to expect when you got there (or you might decide not to go there). As I said, it is each persons opinion and what is good for one person (for example children or pets) might not be good for someone else.
I personally do not put allot of stock in the numbers. I prefer to read the details of the amenities and then see what the person liked or disliked about the place. I know if an RVer has kids they want something a little different than two retired people might. One can usually pick up on this by reading their commentary. Those that can't live by the c/g rules are usually quite obvious, no matter how they try to cover it. I have found most of the reviews are pretty close to reality and I like using them. I have been disappointed so many times with the commercial c/g bibles, this is much better.
