Listings in Good Sam campground guide

rockhillmanor wrote:

rk911 wrote:
.....many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.

That's because so many of the CG's have DROPPED their GS affiliation. I am running into more and more of them the past few years.

I got real ticked off with that issue. Pull in to a CG sporting the big GS logo on their sign and expect to get the GS discount...not.

They say they dropped GS. Well take down the dang sign. And after a year when the new CG books are published take them out of the darn GS book.

By the 2nd year out full timing I stopped searching out CG's that have discount cards, don't use CG books, no reviews. All those methods netted me some real crappy CG's.

I now am finding REAL nice pleasurable CG's to stay at. CG's all now have there own websites and one quick and easy google search will show you all of them where you are at.

In my traveling experience on the road, I found over 50% of CG's are NOT listed in RV books. As like I did when I first started out, you all are missing out on some real nice CG's to stay at if you live and die RV'ing by the so called golden book of CG's!!:W

we've been using the GS directory since we started this RV thing back in 1986 and there have always been unaffiliated campgrounds in the book. I doubt that the book was ever intended to show just the GS campgrounds. heck, the GS website will display both GS and unaffiliated CG's when doing a CG search. we've run into former or never-affiliated GS parks that will honor the card but never the other way.

rk911 wrote:
.....many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.

That's because so many of the CG's have DROPPED their GS affiliation. I am running into more and more of them the past few years.

I got real ticked off with that issue. Pull in to a CG sporting the big GS logo on their sign and expect to get the GS discount...not.

They say they dropped GS. Well take down the dang sign. And after a year when the new CG books are published take them out of the darn GS book.

By the 2nd year out full timing I stopped searching out CG's that have discount cards, don't use CG books, no reviews. All those methods netted me some real crappy CG's.

I now am finding REAL nice pleasurable CG's to stay at. CG's all now have there own websites and one quick and easy google search will show you all of them where you are at.

In my traveling experience on the road, I found over 50% of CG's are NOT listed in RV books. As like I did when I first started out, you all are missing out on some real nice CG's to stay at if you live and die RV'ing by the so called golden book of CG's!!:W

I find Trailer Life, the GoodSam directory, to be an excellent first source when traveling. It may not list EVERY RV park, but those not listed may have a reason for not listing, such as not being public. Once I have a few parks in mind I check RVParkreviews.com for peer to peer comments. I also check the campgrounds website for location, direction, and photos. The entire process only takes a few minutes. Finally a phone call to the park verifies that they have available a site that fits my need. I'm not afraid to ask: "Is the pool heated? Are the pull throughs level? Do you get cell phone signal? Park WiFi is always nice, if it works, if the park is not full crowding the bandwith. But we travel with a hot-spot.
Many RV parks are expensive, but give me a super clean park, with a well planned comfortable pad, and I'll pay the rate.
JMHO

rockhillmanor wrote:

aslakson wrote:
RVParkReviews.com - pretty much all you need.al

This doesn't list all the CG's either. Only ones that someone has posted a review on.

neither does Woodalls or AAA but there are many, many CG's listed in the Good Sam book that are not affiliated with GS.

The G S listings are for the benefit of the publisher of the Magazine! As the reader of any publication You must realize that the Advertisers pay a fee to have theirselves listed .

Not everyone is willing to pay or has the Advertising budget available to participate.

Its more like the Yellow pages than the Phone Directory!

aslakson wrote:
RVParkReviews.com - pretty much all you need.al

This doesn't list all the CG's either. Only ones that someone has posted a review on.

CW CG book is incomplete list of CG's also, and ratings so inaccurate you want to meet the people who do the inspections for the ratings so you can rip their heads off.

First year out full timing....after just one month the Woodall's fat book went out the window and I stopped reading rvparkreview.

There are a plethora of REAL GOOD CG's out there that are NOT listed in these camping books. And IMHO they are FAR better than the ones that are listed.:C

Decide what town you are going to spend the night in.
Google the yellow pages for that town for CG's.
Google street view to get a good look at it before heading out to it.

or

Look up the ones listed on your GPS for the area. Which I find the BEST list of CG's in the area you need, address, directions and phone number all right there for you with one touch of the screen.

I have my GPS set to alert me when passing within 10 miles of a CG. It pops up a tent icon which gives me the location and phone number. Easy peasy. :C

Bob Vaughn wrote:
We are finishing up a 12,000 mile trip and used the GS book a lot. We found a lot of campgrounds that were not in the book. The latest campground had been in business since the 70's. It was a nice campground with a very nice pool and a large split lake with catfish in one side and trout in the other. With a nice babbling brook running down one side of the park. My question is how do parks get listed in the book??? Plus why are parks shown as having wi-fi and cable and you have to pay for these amenities.......especially when the per night cost is over the top.....

The amenities are shown, because they have them. Only you can decide if the prices are "over the top", because the last time I looked, the government hasn't set pricing standards for RV parks. Personally, if a park wants to charge for Cable and Wifi, fine, since I have satellite and a 4G phone and benefit if those costs are not rolled into the standard rate, but all I really care about is how much it costs ME. And I realize that park rates are going to be higher some places than others, so a $50.00 a night rate might be either obscene or a steal depending upon where that park is.
There are numerous guidelines for a park to be listed in the book. First and foremost, they have to be known to the book's reviewers. If they don't know the park exists, they can't review it or list it. Second, the Good Sam directory requires the park have a certain number of sites available for general public, overnight guests, so parks that are totally seasonal are not listed, and neither are parks that are completely private, members only parks. Third, a park needs to be a certain size (something like 10 sites minimum). Fourth, a park can opt out of the guidebook. There are probably other requirements and exceptions as well.
I think the "pay for ratings" folks have been pretty much debunked in these forums, but they continue to raise their heads without a shred of proof. In a recent thread about a park's high rating, one of those jokers chimed in about how you should just look at the size of their ad, that will tell you why they had a high rating. Great idea, so I looked and lo and behold the park didn't even have an ad. When I posted that information, the guy who was preaching big ad equals high ratings for some reason crawled back into his hole and failed to explain that apparent disconnect from his mantra. There are thousands of parks listed in the Good Sam Guidebook that do not have ads. That should debunk the myth you have to advertise to be in the book pretty easily.

Check in the back of the book. They explain how the rating system works. And they are reviewing Good Sam CGs. If I remember correctly, they attempt to review every GS park once every two years. There's a lot of them. Any time during that two year period, lots of things could change, starting with owners.

RVParkReviews.com - pretty much all you need.

al

Knowing Good Sam, the campgrounds probably have to pay for the privilege of being listed LOL As far as the WiFi goes, it's usually a case of bait & switch!