Campground Ratings -

Charolaisbreeders wrote:
We find the ratings from Good Sam Club to be getting more and more useless. While we understand you are trying to get a system that has no "personal preference" by your reviewers we are seeing a real bias towards Class A and Large Gooseneck units. The ratings really do not apply to the travel trailers. As an example we just returned from 3 nights in a park with 8/10/10 rating. The lot we were parked on was so off level I had to use a set of stackers to drive on to raise on side of the camper to get level enough so my stabilizers could handle the rest of leveling. The only concreted, level lots were the row reserved for the Class A units!! In addition this park was located with lots starting about 20 feet from a major 4 lane road and the traffic noise on Fri and Sat nights till after 3 am was unreal. I have stayed in lower rated parks on the side of the interstate quiter then this park.

When you shop at Camping world online you have reviews by previous purchasers - some reviews you can tell are sour grapes but MOST give honest feedback that help with the purchase. Why is there not a system for Good Sam Members to leave reviews for other members to help with the ratings by the paid reviewers that now appear to have a rating system biased to Class A units.

One of the main purposes of being a member of a group like Good Sams is to be able to SHARE information - why can we not share our opinions of the campgrounds we stay at on the Good Sam Website?????

Wilford

Hello Charolaisbreeders,

Thank you for writing about your concerns regarding the Good Sam rating system. Our Good Sam Consultant teams (RV’ers like you) inspect and rate each privately owned park in the directory. When inspecting a park, they use the Good Sam approved Rating Form. (This form can be found in the 2015 Good Sam RV Travel Guide & Campground Directory, on pages 185-187.)

There are three main categories that we rated. In each main category there are 10 subcategories. The highest rating a park can receive in a subcategory is a 1. For example: if a park is next to a noisy highway the most we can deduct is 1 point and if this is the only deduction for the "Visual Appearance" category, the park can still receive a 9 rating.

1. Campground & RV Parks - Completeness of facilities: Interior Roads, Registration, Sites, Hookups, Recreation, Swimming, Security, Laundry, Services, and Internet Access.

2. Restrooms & Showers - Cleanliness and physical characteristics of restrooms and showers (if a park achieves a full point in each of the above, it receives a star, indicating exceptionally clean restrooms): Toilets, Showers, Floors, Walls, Sinks/Counters/Mirrors/Hardware, Interior Construction, Supplies/Odor Free, Amount of Facilities, Exterior Appearance, and Interior Appearance.

3. Visual Appearance/Enviromental Quality - Visual Appeal and Environmental Quality: Entrance Signage, Appearance of Entrance Area, Appearance of Park Grounds, Appearance of Sites, Litter and Debris, Overall Exterior Building Maintenance, Trash Disposal, Noise, Park Setting, and Site Layout

We strive to be the best in our industry and appreciate the feedback we receive which is why we are working on a customer review section for our website. This new feature will give those who visit a park a chance to review it. It is still in the works and I don’t know when this feature will be released, but I know it will be a great resource once it becomes available.

Again, thank you for sharing your feedback with us.