I am asking the moderators to consider taking some editorial liberties, as required, with some of the first time reviewers. Case in point is the latest review for the Flagstaff KOA. The reviewer has no other listed reviews, they gave the park a "1" rating when the lowest rating prior was a "3". The reviewer indicates they return to the campground just to see if "they have done anything". The reviewer appears to have a personal ax to grind and I question if this type of review is of any benefit to a campers web site that I personally have found to be very useful. Please note that I am not affiliated nor have even stayed at the Flagstaff Campground or even care if they receive a positive or negative review. My only concern is the integrity of the reviews on campgroundreviews.com
I will try to answer this item as best I can. We have a lot of people here that only rate a park at a 1 or 10. I do not understand it and never will but people do this as we see it all the time. We were in Flagstaff short time ago at a different park close by. We made a run in and out of the KOA to check it out for future trips. The comments are correct to me. This park has a long list of comments and you will see the same information over and over. I agree with all the remarks other RV people have wrote up. On the ax to grind, now we are back to the 1 or 10 rating system only so I doubt this is true. This person has other reviews in system that you can not see and reviews are on hold due to a problems. This person may live close by Flagstaff and use this park a lot, we do not know this information. Keep in mind this KOA had been in business a long time and they will be around in the future as well. We do look at all reviews and look for pattens in persons track record to keep down poor reviews to shut down a RV park. All who work here are RV people and we all know most of the tricks people try to pull. I hope this will help.
I think it is a natural tendency to be sure to review a park you don't like rather than a park you do like. I have rated a small percentage of parks we have stayed. This is due to just not taking the time to do it or being away from the Internet for a while while traveling, Generally, if we don't have internet, I don't even set up my computer as I have a handheld WiFi detector. With my new Droid, this might even get worse. I can check my banking info without WiFi. I also usually don't look at one bad review as a problem. There are always some yo yo's out there. In general we are also not nearly as critical as some people.
Chickenpants, Thank you for your concerns and suggestions. I read the review you mentioned, and I also read numerous other reviews for this campground. While there is a wide mix of ratings, with most of them being fairly good, many reviewers (even those who gave high ratings) mentioned tight roads and/or sites (especially so for big rigs), unlevel sites, and overpricing. The rating may have been a little harsh, but the comments do not seem to be out of line with the other reviews. Also just because someone is a first time reviewer does not necessarily mean they are an inexperienced judge of campgrounds. The reviewer may have stayed at several other campgrounds, and in this case he cited several conditions which caused him to give his low rating. If he had been the only reviewer to mentions these things I might agree that he had an axe to grind, but when these deficiencies are mentioned by several people I tend to believe that there is some validity to the comments. As for editorial liberties, review checkers are not supposed to edit reviews except for grammatical errors and minor errors in wording. If the checkers made lots of changes to the content of a review it would no longer be the opinion of the reviewer, but rather that of the checker. If it is any consolation most members on this site are very adept at recognizing and disregarding “get even” reviews. Again we appreciate your input and look forward to your future posts. Texasrvers
I read a lot of reviews on here everyday because I am just getting back into camping and want my family to have a great experience each time out. You do have to read between the lines on a lot of reviews, because some people do like to oversell a place, where some people do nit pick the smallest things. For instance, a lot of the reviews talk about bad cell phone reception in many parks, when campgrounds have no control over that sort of thing. As a sidenote fine, but it really isn't something that should bring a park down. You just need to read a few reviews and you will find where people repeat the same things and you find what is right and wrong for you. What may not work for a motorhome may work for a tent or a pop up. Best Regards, Norm
Norm, We wished other RV people would do the same as you. Read all the comments and you will see the patterns jump out. Also look at the reviews this person has wrote up did he or she rate all parks up or down? What is the count on reviews? Is this the first one? If you see the old timers who have been all over North American a good number of times then you know this person has the best information. That is the ones I use to pick my campgrounds. Pays to read the reviews. In our thousands of miles of travel per year it is rare that we land in a poor campground.
I agree. I completely rely on this site to select campgrounds, and have been pretty happy with what we've gotten thus far. I think the reader has to filter out the negatives in reviews in which the poster is just venting about an unfortunate, personal experience "that cashier was so mean!" A comment like that is far different to me than, "there is no parking near the laundry and the pool appears old and dirty." Also, I've found that my experiences at campgrounds is usually not too far off what other reviewers have posted. When I add a new post, I try to include new details that others might not have included, or add things from a different perspective that might be useful to another mom (the playground is small and the swings were broken). I agree with others, it's all about patterns you read in several reviews. I so appreciate that others have taken the time to post reviews to help me plan ahead, and promise to keep reviewing so as to keep sharing with others. What a great system...how did we ever leave the house before the internet?
