I thought for an RV Park to become a "Good Sam" (GS) facility it had to meet some sort of acceptable standards that would lead to a good experience for GS member's like me when staying at a GS listed facility. In that vane I would like you to consider your listing of Pikes Peak RV Park in Manitou Springs, CO. The park has new ownership, they do not respond to guest request (at least mine anyway}, the person at the front desk responded with "I don't have the authority to do that", or I will ask the owner on at least three occasions during my stay. The spaces are the most crowed I have experience in my 2 1/2 years of RV'ing, and we have been on many trips with multiple stays. For your reference my wife and I stayed at Pikes Peak park twice before while visiting my daughter and grand daughter. Under the old ownership the park was nice with sufficient room to park your trailer, and a separate place to park your tow vehicle. Now however, under the new ownership the place has become a camper's nightmare. It's over crowded, staffed with people with NO authority to do anything but take your money, and the management is unresponsive to messages left on their phone system. This should not be a "Good Sam" RV listed camp site. Thank you for your time. Ralph Smith

How large of an advertisement in the camping book does this park have?

Post a review Is what many RVers go to to check the current status of most parks. Sorry you had a bad experience.

Ralph6648,Thank you for contacting Good Sam. I am sorry to hear about your experience at the Pikes Peak RV Park. I have sent your concerns and contact information to our Parks team for review.Thank you,StacyGood Sam Care Team

To qualify to be a Good Sam park, the park must meet minimum scores on the scorecard that is published in the Good Sam Directory. You can use the checklist to validate the scores yourself. What you won't find is a score for how fast phone calls are returned or a requirement for the office staff to be able to authorize anything. Each Good Sam park is independently owned and the owner is free to have any policies they wish, as long as they don't violate any law.You say you used to stay in the park and it wasn't crowded. Now it is over crowded. Unless in the last year they jammed a site in between each site, that would indicate the new owners have increased business, which is what I am sure they were hoping to do. Occupancy varies at most parks throughout the year. Are you sure the visit when it wasn't crowded wasn't during the slow season and your recent visit was prime season?

I really don't mean to badmouth Good Sam but there are reasons I don't feel I get enough from them to pay to join. The issue you mention is one. We had a similar experience with a Good Sam endorsed campground on the edge of a city. Really we could have picked a campground at random and it would have been as good or no worse. Actually we mostly stay at state, federal campgrounds.

Good Sam Park Designation | Good Sam Community

Good_Sam_Care_T
Explorer
Oct 15, 2018
Hello,

I am closing this topic due to lack of activity. Thank you for your time and participating. Please feel free to open a new thread on this topic in the future if you wish.

Thank you,
Ella
Good Sam Care Team
1968mooney
Explorer
Sep 30, 2018
Ralph Cramden wrote:
I wonder........ If you qualify as a "Good Sam Park" are you then required to forward the contact info of everyone who books with you on over to Marcus, so they can be included on the Good Sam junkmail O plenty list LOL. :E

Since you don't qualify as a GS member, you should not be receiving any of the junkmail. I don't qualify and I receive none. :R
Ralph_Cramden
Explorer II
Sep 30, 2018
I wonder........ If you qualify as a "Good Sam Park" are you then required to forward the contact info of everyone who books with you on over to Marcus, so they can be included on the Good Sam junkmail O plenty list LOL. :E
Jayco-noslide
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
Sorry, I was referring to the my previous post, not to the original post.
westernrvparkow
Explorer
Sep 28, 2018
Jayco-noslide wrote:
The problems with the campground referred to above were specific and obvious. To use the shower in the bathroom one would lock the door thus keeping any one else from getting in to use the bathroom. Secondly, some sites were occupied by seemingly permanent residents with people coming and going all night (drugs suspected).
Where is any of that referenced in this thread? The park (Pike's Peak RV Park in Manitou Springs Colorado) that is referenced in the original post has 100 reviews. I looked at the reviews from the past few years and there is NO mention of any problems with permanent guests, no mention of drugs and no mention of any problems with the showers and restrooms. The park gets high marks for customer service. The original post was apparently correct that the park is tight and crowded, but that is a common theme that runs for several years of reviews. It stretches the imagination that the OP found the park open and spacious in the past and just now found it to be crowded.
Jayco-noslide
Explorer
Sep 28, 2018
The problems with the campground referred to above were specific and obvious. To use the shower in the bathroom one would lock the door thus keeping any one else from getting in to use the bathroom. Secondly, some sites were occupied by seemingly permanent residents with people coming and going all night (drugs suspected).
TinyoneRV
Explorer
Sep 27, 2018
As Westernparkowner said, the GS rating is objective; that is, it only depends on the score on the rating sheet. Several times we've used those score sheets to rate the park ourselves and have always come out close to the GS score. Once our score was better than the GS score. The rating has nothing to do with whether you or I like the staff or, for that matter, the park.
beemerphile1
Explorer
Sep 27, 2018
Ralph6648 wrote:
...they do not respond to guest request (at least mine anyway}, the person at the front desk responded with "I don't have the authority to do that", or I will ask the owner on at least three occasions during my stay...and the management is unresponsive to messages left on their phone system....

I'm curious what this "request" was about. A request may just be ignored due to its absurdity.

On the other hand, the "request" may have been valid.
DownTheAvenue
Explorer
Sep 27, 2018
If you think Good Sam has the best interests of its members ever on their radar, you are delusional.
Jayco-noslide
Explorer
Sep 26, 2018
I really don't mean to badmouth Good Sam but there are reasons I don't feel I get enough from them to pay to join. The issue you mention is one. We had a similar experience with a Good Sam endorsed campground on the edge of a city. Really we could have picked a campground at random and it would have been as good or no worse. Actually we mostly stay at state, federal campgrounds.