" Poor Business Practice??? "

I just finished reading a review of an RV park that stated a reservation had been made a year in advance for a special month long stay over the holiday season. A specific space was requested and the reviewer was granted and told it would be there for them, etc. Just prior to their arrival date they were told the space had been given to someone else due to lame brained excuses about the other party being "bigger, newer (whatever that has to do with it???), and staying longer". We have stayed at this park ourselves and when we made our reservations we were also told that the spot we had picked and that was empty during the time of our planned stay, was in fact available but that we were not guaranteed we would have that spot upon arrival. This was over 6 months from our planned arrival. Anyway, I ended up speaking with a manager and told them that I was not about to drive a 1,100 + miles to stay over a week at their park unless we had this space ,or a very similar one with a view. I was finally able to get them to send me an email telling me that this space was going to be held for me and it was. We got there and all went fine from there on. I have to scratch my head wondering why some RV parks will do this. If I make a reservation for a week or more and the space I request is open that entire time why does this happen as it does? If someone else makes a reservation after mine and wants the same space why should they be given priority over us??? Why wouldn't the park tell those folks that the space is already reserved from one date to another and that they can move into it after WE leave. To me this just isn't a very good way to run a business. The folks that posted the recent review on this particular park said they would not ever return and I can't blame them, I sure wouldn't. Hopefully someone from this park will read that review and maybe even my post here and get some business sense and stop this in the future. I am not meaning to bad mouth this park as it is a really nice one but hey, we are all, for the most part, in the same boast and I doubt there are too many RVers that wouldn't be upset were this to happen to them. If we had only been staying one or two nights then I can understand why but when we book a space for over a week, or in the case of these other folks, a month, this just isn't right If those folks that got booted out of their space happen to read this, I am in your corner and completely understand your being upset...............

BankShot.....................(aka Terry)

 

I can understand an occasional extenuating circumstance requiring a site change after a reservation, but I agree it's a very poor business practice to not honor a site specific advance reservation otherwise. And excuses like "bigger, newer, and staying longer" do not fall into the "extenuating" category by any measure. We once lost out on a specific reserved site we loved due to an ongoing fire investigation of the unit already occupying the site, which was understandable of course. The owner did go to extremes to accommodate us without inconveniencing anyone else though. He even gave us two free nights as compensation for accepting a less desirable site. That's just good business, and we went back to the park numerous times, as well as recommending it to others. Unfortunately, the owner passed away two years ago, and his family elected to sell the property to an industrial park developer at the end of the season.

 

Thank you for your response to my review of Distant Drums RV Resort. It is good to know that we are not alone in thinking this is a ridiculous business practice. We have stayed in many other Good Sam 10/10/10 rated RV Parks that give the customer the requested site if available. In fact we have had to change sites if someone had reserved the site we were in, if they had reserved it before us. That is only right. Distant Drums is one of only a small handful of parks who only guarantee a site but not a particular one. We will be taking our business elsewhere next time we are in the Camp Verde Arizona area.

 

I'm not saying you were treated fairly in the situation you described, but in all honesty our experience has been that most parks will guarantee a site if you have a reservation, but not a specific site.

 

We have traveled the west coast as well as into Nevada and Arizona many times and have used many different parks, running the gamut from a 2 or less to a perfect 10. This park has been the only one we have experienced where we were told that we could make an advance reservation for a specific site but then said they would "try" to save it for us but there would be no guarantee it would be there when we arrived. To me that is not a good way to attract or keep customers coming back. No doubt there are other parks that use this method but we sure haven't run into one as yet. And if we do when we make our reservation we will simply let them know that if the space we have requested and reserved is not there when we arrive due to giving it to someone else, etc. then rest assured we will not be going back again to that particular park. This is just the way we travel, others may think and travel differently and that is their right of course. Different strokes. We do plan on staying at this park again down the road and will handle it the same way I did the first time. It really is a very nice park and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay................

BankShot...........(aka Terry)

 

I think the point though, is that when a park does accept a site selection on a reservation, they should make every effort to honor that commitment. We have specific site reservations that have been accepted at five state/county parks and two private parks in FL and SC between now and April. We will be very unhappy if any of those commitments are not met. Our one reservation at a GA state park was very clear that site selection was not allowed, only type selection, and we're good with that...

 

Just a short addition to my above posts for clarification purposes. If we arrived with a pre-reserved site and found an RV with mechanical difficulties already in that space and waiting for the repairs to be made, etc. we would of course accept another site without question. This is only common RV courtesy. Problems happen to all of us and in those circumstances we go with the flow and even try to help if asked. We for certain aren't hard nose about that sort of thing............

BankShot..............(aka Terry)

 

Absolutely, and come to think of it, we have stayed 5-6 times at a particular COE park where the reservation has to be made for a particular site. It's just that we have not seen that very much with commercial parks. They usually won't take a reservation for a specific site. That's just our experience.

Hey , we have been that RV. On one trip one of our slides would not come in (one of the cables broke), and we could not get a repair service out until the next day. The site was reserved that night by someone else, but there really wasn't anything we could do. We couldn't even pull into a different site. The park was very nice about it, and they had several other empty spaces available for the other guest, but I never did hear if he was upset or not.

 

At the campground I workamp at in the winter months, if you are going to stay longer then three months you are guaranteed that site number. We will not move you. In fact a lot of people request a certain lot and if the reservation is over three months they get that site number. Under three months stay you can be moved. However you are told this when you make the reservation. The reason is to try to get the park lots filled up.

We have had people say they are going to stay three months or longer and then leave early, not much can be done about it. But for the most part it has worked out pretty good.

This park also has private lots that owners rent out. But most of the owners want four or more months.

We did have one season where a slide won't go in and the people had to stay longer waiting on parts. Had to get the other RVer coming on a private lot. Worked out okay. Don't think anyone was upset, other then the people with the broken slide out, since they had to cancel reservations to other parks.

 

Would you all be willing to pay 100% of the site rental fee in advance, with absolutely no refund if you can't make it, no matter the reason?

I hear all the time about people reserving sites at various campgrounds while making camping plans during the winter, and just canceling various reservations as their camping plans become more definite. They don't think twice about canceling a reservation, and whine and moan if the campground instantly doesn't give them a full refund.

People come onto camping forums regularly complaining about campgrounds who don't refund their money because they had to leave early, or had to cancel for some reason at the last minute.

I do get annoyed when I am willing to pay the rental fees in advance with a no refund policy to reserve a site, but almost no campgrounds will do this - because most of them have a refund policy for site reservations, so to cover themselves they won't give a 100% guarantee about particular sites.

 

I try to put myself in other's shoes whenever I can so my answer to your first question is a yes. If I made a reservation far enough in advance and asked for a specific site, was granted that site, and then cancelled before arriving I would expect to either be charged a cancellation fee or in some special cases even be charged the entire first night's fee. If there was a legit medical reason for cancelling then I would still expect to pay at least for the first night. I would try to work something out fairly so as not to be charged for the entire stay however. If I simply didn't show up and left the park hanging, then I would expect to have the park charge me the full night's fee or even the full stay fee. To me that would only be right. I've talked with a few park owners and managers about this very thing and most are only too willing to work with any RVer who is willing to, in return, put themselves in the park's shoes and realize what a bind the park can be put in not to call in advance and cancel or cut their stay short for no specific reason, etc. One owner told me that he has a "list" of names of those that have burned him in the past and then given him a ass chewing because he refused to give them their full deposit back. He said he doesn't need those types staying at his park as they are more trouble than they're worth. And I understand and agree with him on this. I feel the park needs to make it clear when taking an advance reservation with a deposit as to what their cancellation fee/s are. Most parks do this but that still doesn't seem to forgo problems that some RVers cause when they do cancel without proper notice or simply just don't show up and then expect a full refund, etc.........

Traveling on down the road again soon, BankShot...........(aka Terry)

I ran my own business for many years and I had several customers that I ended up telling that I no longer wanted or needed their kind of business. I wasn't rude but I made myself very clear. And it didn't hurt or keep my business from growing and prospering.