Park Reviews

bukhrn wrote:

2g's wrote:
We like http://www.campgroundreviews.com/ much better. The public rates them; not an organization. You do have to sort them out though. What one person may not like may not bother you, such as weak wifi. Most people carry their own wifi nowadays and don't use the park's. Someone may dislike the weather, bugs, lack of pavement, etc.

X-2 100%, i'd rather take the opinions of my fellow campers, but as pointed out, you need to take some with a grain of salt, like the one that gave a low rating because of all the leafs... in a fully forested CG. :R

We volunteered in Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park and were at the exit booth to the campground. We asked a party how their stay was. The answer? "We would never come back here. It's such a dirty park". I asked what they meant. He said "dirt is falling from the trees and got all over everything". I explained that at that time of year the trees are dropping pollen. It's not dirt. The reply was "Well, I'm rating this place as low as I can"!

I also look at the reviewer , some of them have seen have all negative reviews . Just saw one the other day they posted 3 reviews in last months all 1 star or less.

I have found Good Sam reviews sometimes reliable but all too often not. We've stay in some GS parks rated a 10 that I would have not given a 5 to at best. I have found this forum and rvparkreviews.com more reliable than Good Sam when planning trips.

I'm a top reviewer at Amazon (top 1000 out of ~60 million reviewers) and it's shocking to me to see how corrupt most reviewing systems are. Vendors offer me free stuff and cash all the time for positive reviews. (I never take it.)

The GS reviewing system doesn't seem as corrupt to me, but there's still a fundamental flaw when the CG owners pay to join GS. Are the GS reviewers really going to come out and write objective reviews that are critical of their own clients?

I also view the critical bashers through a skeptical lens, just like tossing out the scores from the Romanian judges in figure skating. Don't just look at the scores or number of stars, but read the negative reviews to see if they had an axe to grind. Most people's writing tells you a lot about themselves, so read their reviews to see if you agree with their POV or not (same goes for Amazon). Odds are that those negative reviews are from people you wouldn't want to camp with anyway: "Their parking was horrible and they had rules against me bringing my ten kids and cousins for a family reunion in our spot."

RICK-ards Red wrote:
Not sure if this is the right forum for this but... how often are campgrounds reviewed by Good Sam? One place I was looking at was rated 10/10/10 and most reviews were good but I like to look at the bad ones too to get a feel for the place and the bad ones all mentioned the manager was mean, rude etc. Yes everyone has a bad day and some guests can bring out the worst in people but the dates spanned a couple of months, most recent was Feb 2021.

Just thinking - should I consider this park still or move on?

I have no experience with GS, but maybe compair the campground to campground reviews.com or others. Check the profiles:
how many reviews online, how much info is on the profiles, are the reviews consistent? This all paints a picture of the reviewer. Paints even a better picture if the campground has multiple reviews. Just my 2 cents.

Mike

campgroundreviews,com, formerly RVparkreviews.com was purchased about 8 years ago by Andy Robinowitz, web master of socialknowledge.com Andy changed the format and installed algorythyms to make older reviews less weighty on review # , to make RVparkreviews.com the leader, until about 3 years ago when he changed the name to campgroundreviews.com. Appropriately.
This led to a battle with Mark Koep, webmaster of campgroundviews.com,
I know both personally, and mediated the battle with the reasoning that they are not competitors and any confusion would lead each to the other. A verbal review with a photo view is the best combination . They compliment each other.
Max

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
Good Sam account representatives visit every Good Sam park every year. They do not 'review', they ' rate' based upon the 10/10/10 point system which is divided into 3 sections, that evaluate camp amenity, facility and sites.
Usually when they arrive in camp its unannounced, except for an email up to a week before that they will come soon. They drive and walk the camp and rate based upon their observations. When this is done they sit down with management, present their rating, proceed to listing and advertising.
In our 19 years, there was no discussion allowed on their rating. It cant be bought or altered.
One year after we had done extensive upgrades to all 3 categories our rating jumped 6 aggregate points. Within a week Ed and Jan Thierfelder, Good Sams Quality Assurance team checked in unannounced rated the camp, to verify our 9.5/10/9.5 .
Reviews about the camp on the GS link are from guests.

Ratings amd Reviews are apples and oranges apart. Opinions about rudeness or some other slight may be construed differently. Some want to be led by the hand, some are offended if help is extended. The customer is not always right, its why businesses have the right to refuse service.
Consider the region. being a extensively well traveled westerner, I would not call the New Yorker rude for being what is percieved for NYC. A New Yorker might be put off by the graciousness in the south, thinking it, intrusive.

^^^^^ This. There is a very big difference between a RATING and a REVIEW.

Ratings takes a more objective view. There is a check list. Does the property have this? Does the property have that? Does the property have something else? A list of items to be checked off; the more checks, the higher the RATING. In a nutshell.

A Review is much more subjective and in many cases more detailed. It is an opinion based on an experience and a first (or more) impression. When I do a REVIEW of a location at campgroundreviews.com I try to be factual about the amenities as well as giving an opinion about how those facts translate into an enjoyable camping experience. Having water/electric/sewer are factual; they either have them or they don't. How nice the site is, is more opinion based on expectations. I have a different opinion and expectation of a USFS or National Park campground versus a commercial campground/RV resort. Both can be highly favourable based on EXPECTATIONS and does the property deliver on that expectation.

We've been burned a few times by the Good Sam 'ratings'. The parks were not at all like they were rated. I took photos and sent them in and watched the ratings for those parks for 3 years and nothing was changed. That's when we quit using Good Sam parks. We then went with 'reviews'.

I for one, am more interested in the campground and what it has to offer and how it is maintained. I don’t let people that have poor people skills ruin my day. I also don’t care about poor WiFi or cell phone signal as I’m camping to get away from that stuff. I do understand many people work remotely these days and need that stuff and that’s important to them. For me that’s not a deal breaker. I use RVParkReviews. If the campground offers what you want than by all means go and enjoy yourself.