Well, I have a question. I just reviewed a park and put down the total cost per night. It was 161 dollars for two nights with tax. That works out to $80.50 per night. The published rate is 69 bucks a night and the rest is taxes. So I put down 80 dollars in the review. It seems that there are more and more taxes levied on spots as they are treated like hotels. The question is, do you put down the cost of the site with tax or the published price?
Yes. I put down the price with tax. If it was $80.50 per night, I would put down $81.00 Now if we stay a month and they charge electric. I won't add the electric. Just the monthly cost with tax divided by 30 days. But I do/will put down how long my stay was. Where the heck did you stay at a RV park that was $81.50 a night? Ouch!!!
QUOTE(John S. @ Jul 19 2014, 05:15 AM) [snapback]37356[/snapback] Well, I have a question. I just reviewed a park and put down the total cost per night. It was 161 dollars for two nights with tax. That works out to $80.50 per night. The published rate is 69 bucks a night and the rest is taxes. So I put down 80 dollars in the review. It seems that there are more and more taxes levied on spots as they are treated like hotels. The question is, do you put down the cost of the site with tax or the published price? I note the true cost. Taxes plus the dog, plus extra people if we have the Grand Kids, plus plus plus. I have not seen the "plus" to be a big trend but it bothers me when I get to a park and the price is not as "quoted". I understand that taxes are not the operators fault but it's the other extras that bother me. Darrell
Slight bunny trail here, don't mean to hijack the OP's post, but has anyone ever taken their RV down to the Florida Keys? Talking about park prices, we thought it might make for a real fun trip to drive across the country and do just that. That is until we checked out the prices in the various RV parks in the Keys. YIKES!!! And it isn't just one or two, it's all of them. Now then to respond to the OP's question, we put down the end price per night including the taxes when we review a park..............
I put down the price I remember when I am writing a review. If I paideia over $10 a night in taxes I think I would remember that. And yes, some fees do get you. Love the resort fees, here is the price and our name now includes the word resort so we will charge an extra $5. Pet fees at $5 a night etc. anyway, that part if just to give others a heads up. If you put down $69 others might wonder what they did wrong to be charged $81. On a side note, have paid that before but sure hate it. We try to stay in the $40-60 range when possible.
When we started full timing 11 years ago you could stay in a nice park for about $20. In the last few years the cost has gone up and up and that was one reason to quit traveling though not the main one ( health issues ). We stayed at PA parks as much as we could and Corp of Engineers as much as we could with our old fart pass or any US Govt campground. That kept the cost down. Also we could do 30 amp with no problems. Not that that has anything to do with this thread but I needed to add my 2c worth LOL.
Generally I tend to divide the total bill by the number of nights and show that as the price. If this includes a discount for a weekly reservation or a GS discount then I mention that in the review. More often than not there are only two of us but if we have an extra person with us (son, daughter or my mother when she's over on a visit ) then I factor that into the review as well.
QUOTE(Hutch333id @ Jul 20 2014, 01:11 PM) [snapback]37380[/snapback] Generally I tend to divide the total bill by the number of nights and show that as the price. If this includes a discount for a weekly reservation or a GS discount then I mention that in the review. More often than not there are only two of us but if we have an extra person with us (son, daughter or my mother when she's over on a visit ) then I factor that into the review as well. I do the same and I think that's generally a good approach. Unfortunately, simply posting the price paid without some understanding of whether or not this was a daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal rate or whether it was a pull-through with full hookups or a back-in with just water and electric, actually provides the next reader very little real useful information. The current software platform has no way of dealing with this complexity; hopefully, the new platform being developed will provide more flexibility.
What to report as a nightly rate has been discussed before, and it is still a problem. I absolutely agree that there needs to be some sort of explanation as to what the reported amount covers. Was it a weekly/monthly rate? Was it for full hookups? Were there extra charges for children, or pets, or cable TV, or whatever? Was a discount given? What taxes were charged? All of these things can cause the same site to have many different nightly fees. If two people stay on an electric/water site with a Good Sam Discount and pay $25 a night (for example), the next camper will be disappointed, if not down right mad, if he is charged $35 a night for a one night stay on an electric/water/sewer site with 4 adults and 6 kids and 2 dogs and cable TV (all extra charges) and no discount. Without some type of explanation as to what each fee covered, this can (and does) lead to misunderstandings. In the past I have leaned toward listing the "base" rate and then letting readers figure how the discounts or add-ons will figure into their cost, but even that figure is insufficient if there is no list of what is included in the "base" rate. I have no perfect solution, but as docj said, I hope the new platform will provide a more equitable way to report the nightly fee.
Put down full price I paid. After all what comes out of your bank account is what counts no matter what they call it. Fee, Tax, or service.
