Good Sam - what's in it for the campgrounds?

Before the internet was a "thing", you had to rely on things like Good Sam or AAA to tell you which spots were the best rated. I'm in my mid-30s, and I remember my mom planning our trips using the AAA guidebook when I was a kid. Nowadays, you can go on various websites and read reviews from actual people who stayed there recently, to see if the spot is worth a stay. Once a book is published it can become immediately out of date. So I don't blame RV park owners for wanting to ditch it and just rely on internet advertising and word of mouth since that is more up to date and in many cases, free or low cost.

google pretty much is the go to for on information anything nowadays, as with amazon.com with goods and such. not sure if thats a good thing but what the public dictates.

i use the reviews on google and tripadvisor to help us make a decision on a campground we have never stayed at before and its never let us down.

I halfway think that the big book could make something of a comeback. We were doing some boondocking with no signal for the phones and of course no WIFI. I prefer to look ahead on our next planned road segment using Campgroundreviews or that free public cg site and generally drag some potential stops into a text file on my desktop. I found that it is getting very difficult to find open WIFI spots in town anymore so we used the big book to fill in those spots. WIFI security is up everywhere.

I have to say that my new, not very impressive, notebook may have caused a lot of this trouble. It was hard to connect to WIFI using it and it randomly turns off WIFI all together driving the wife mad. It has one of those hybrid SSD/HDD drives and when I got home the HDD part is gone just vanished.

bobsallyh wrote:
westernrvparkowner, it is only an imagination to you, a park owner. Ask the consumers to compare the rating and what is really there. Same with pictures, the pictures very rarely match what you see when you get on site. We were in a western Montana RV park several years ago when the Woodall ratings group pulled in. Had plenty of time to watch them. Next morning I approached one of the folks and asked how the laundry graded out. Couldn't tell me because they never set foot in it. Unfortunately to the consumer but fortunate to the park owner, low power so consumers just kept pouring quarters in it to get clothes semi-dry.

This is exactly my point.. The raters don't judge whether or not they think a laundry is good, bad or indifferent. The criteria is only whether or not one exists.
You may not like or agree with the policies of the guidebook, but they are pretty clearly spelled out if you were to take the time and read them. They are that way to take personal impressions and emotions out of the ratings. There isn't a way for a rater to run up the scores for parks they like and lower the scores on parks they don't. It is also why the idea that parks pay for ratings is mistaken. If the way Goodsam chooses to rate parks doesn't work for you should ignore them and use other resources when looking for a park.

Well, as a customer just like with the KOA moniker, you come to expect certain standards and amenities to be met or available by a Good Sam Park. In both cases there may be the occasional disappointment. However when looking for a park in an area if there are several and one is a GS they get the first call.

westernrvparkowner, it is only an imagination to you, a park owner. Ask the consumers to compare the rating and what is really there. Same with pictures, the pictures very rarely match what you see when you get on site. We were in a western Montana RV park several years ago when the Woodall ratings group pulled in. Had plenty of time to watch them. Next morning I approached one of the folks and asked how the laundry graded out. Couldn't tell me because they never set foot in it. Unfortunately to the consumer but fortunate to the park owner, low power so consumers just kept pouring quarters in it to get clothes semi-dry.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

bobsallyh wrote:
What we have found, when the book was "the thing", the bigger the ad purchased also got that park a better rating!

This is brought up often, but it is a false impression. First, the rating team rates a park prior to advertising sales. Second, a copy of the actual rating sheet is in the directory. You can rate a park yourself and you will come within a point of the actual rating if you follow the guidelines. Personal opinion doesn't count. A pool is a pool and it is a point. Olympic size or postage stamp size doesn't change the point. Same with road construction materials, site materials, playground equipment, office, laundry etc.
Common sense will tell you a poorly rated park isn't going to buy a big ad. Having a low score means having a park with poor infrastructure and few amenities. If the owners aren't sppending on their park they aren't going to spend on advertising. Plus, what would be the point to spend advertising money to trumpet how great the park is only to have the ratings indicate otherwise? It is pretty much a given the big ads are going to be the higher rated parks because they are the parks that are invested in the business and have the resources to both advertise and keep a nice facility.

We have always traveled with the Good Sam directory and have rated parks using the pages in the book. As you said, we've come out very close to the published rating and in some cases rated the park higher than the published rating. We like the objective rating system since opinions are left out of the system.

I'm not sure, but it saved me $46.80 at north Beach Resort in St Augustine in July.

bobsallyh wrote:
What we have found, when the book was "the thing", the bigger the ad purchased also got that park a better rating!

This is brought up often, but it is a false impression. First, the rating team rates a park prior to advertising sales. Second, a copy of the actual rating sheet is in the directory. You can rate a park yourself and you will come within a point of the actual rating if you follow the guidelines. Personal opinion doesn't count. A pool is a pool and it is a point. Olympic size or postage stamp size doesn't change the point. Same with road construction materials, site materials, playground equipment, office, laundry etc.
Common sense will tell you a poorly rated park isn't going to buy a big ad. Having a low score means having a park with poor infrastructure and few amenities. If the owners aren't sppending on their park they aren't going to spend on advertising. Plus, what would be the point to spend advertising money to trumpet how great the park is only to have the ratings indicate otherwise? It is pretty much a given the big ads are going to be the higher rated parks because they are the parks that are invested in the business and have the resources to both advertise and keep a nice facility.

What we have found, when the book was "the thing", the bigger the ad purchased also got that park a better rating!