Why did the KOA's close?

We will very often pick a KOA for an overnite. Never had a really horrible KOA. The same cannot be said for GS affiliated parks

We have enjoyed so many great KOA's on the East Coast. The Bar Harbor Oceanside KOA being just one of them. Most of these KOA's were family owned with high standards in every department.

We do our research before picking a campground and avoid places with consistently bad reviews. There is so much user generated information on the internet that it seems pretty easy to avoid crappy campgrounds.

We do our homework and are almost never disappointed.

Having worked with KOA corporate as well as a number of member campgrounds I have to call BS on this one.

You know this group, they never miss a chance to bash KOA whether it's valid or not. My favorite all-time campground is the Bar Harbor Oceanside KOA but I've seen bad KOAs and good KOAs, bad private campgrounds and good private campgrounds. Same with Good Sam.

I'd also like to challenge the comments that more campgrounds are pulling out of KOA than joining. Give me real data, not perception.

I have to agree with Scott, at least as it pertains to KOAs in WA. We seem to have the worst of the worst. I have stayed in some very nice KOAs in other states but it clearly shows that there are no minimum standards.

I thought ScottG would get a lot of nasty comments from KOA lovers. His first comment is exactly what we've experienced in our 8 years as fulltimers. We try to avoid them like the plague, poorly maintained and a $3 charge for everything. We mostly stay west of Arkansas, in 2011 we traveled to the east coast. In Madison, VA we stayed at Shenendoah Hills KOA because we couldn't find anything else. The 50 amp plug smelled like burning wires, narrow roads and they wanted $3 to get the gate code if we left.

ScottG wrote:
LOL I can say for certain that KOA has never dropped a CG's franchise because of quality concerns. Our local KOA's are a testament to how slum like one can be. KOA clearly has no minimums.
I suspect the only time they have split the sheets with a CG is when the money was not forthcoming.
At some point a CG must come to its senses and think Wait, what am I getting out of this? One epiphany and the love affair is over. :B

Having worked with KOA corporate as well as a number of member campgrounds I have to call BS on this one.

I have seen old "KOA's" that changed their name to "AOK". These were no more than a weedy parking lot with pedestal.

NCWriter wrote:
I can see where operating under the KOA brand was useful to an owner before the advent of lightweight portable computing and easy cellular/WiFi signals.

Long ago, it may have seemed like a challenge to locate a safe, clean place, so RVers perhaps relied on KOA as a quality symbol. Now, you can open the Allstays app, look at your location's choices, and do five minutes' worth of research to find a good place to stay at a fair price.

I think this is probably a lot of it.

30yrs ago, it was an excelent and often neccessary marketing tool and similar to chain restuarants they may not be the best but you generally knew what you were getting. A small campground not right off a freeway really needed a way to get the word out.

Fast forward to the internet age and you can go on virtual tours and read copious reviews. If you don't trust the official website, you can tour via google earth/street view to get an unbiased idea of what to expect.

The koa franchise is simply not as valuable as it once was.

I will stay at Wal-Mart before I stay at a KOA

Dutch_12078 wrote:
I've seen campgrounds over the years that dropped their KOA affiliation for various reasons. In some cases, it was KOA's decision when the CG could no longer meet their standards and refused to upgrade, in others it was the owner's decision when profitability dropped, and the 10% fee to KOA became a burden, and in a some cases, it was because the CG had built a good reputation with many repeat and seasonal customers, and didn't feel that the value KOA added was worthwhile any longer. One other reason is a change of ownership, with the new owner wanting to go in a different direction. On the other hand, the KOA roster of campgrounds continues to grow, so apparently more locations are joining KOA than are dropping out.

What he said.