Not given site reserved

You have no control over what anyone does, but you have control of what you do! Personally I would never stay there again.

I've been in the "service" business my whole career and we were taught:If you please a customer, they may tell 2 or 3 people...if you displease a customer, they will tell everyone!

Good luck in reaching a "resolve" in this most unpleasant event.

We use to visit a campground in the Suttons Bay Area in MI usually every year. The owner had a reputation of treating people crappy of which we were warned. One year we stayed the whole season. So the next year we reserved a specific site and confirmed by the owner in documentation. Our deposit was due 6 months prior to our arrival date of half the fee, so $1600 dollars was sent.

It was a 5.5 hour drive from our home. When we arrive he had a "friend" in our site which was half paid for by us. I suggested an alternative site to the lady in the office. She needed to clear it with the owner. Well he come roaring in with his big 4x4 diesel all in a huff. He jumps out of his truck yelling and waving his arms that the other
Site we suggested was already reserved and he wasn't putting someone else out for us ( yet he had no issues putting us out). I thought I was trying to help him resolve the conflict he caused. He tried to stick us in every crappy spot he had.

I told him what I thought of him as a man and that he could have and should have contacted me before our arrival date to discuss this as he accepted out initial agreement and he just cost me $300 in fuel. I demanded a full refund of my deposit and left to never return unless it passes to new owners.

And I did write a review online. Some campground owners don't give a rats rear end about what people think.

Thanks for all the responses, I will be posting a review when we get home on rv park reviews and I will post the good with the bad in the comment portion. To 2gypsies I'd like to thank for the response on not being between them, that was possibly a benefit we didn't see and we are secluded away from everybody else so that worked better for us. And I think we'll take Scottiemom's advice and try out the KOA next time.

bigdogger wrote:

Fulltimer50 wrote:
From campground web site:

"Please Note -- We try to honor your site location request when able but cannot guarantee sites."

Which is a reasonable policy and one that is probably necessary. Since there is apparently a limited number of the prime spots along the river, it would be pretty foolish of the park to reserve one of those for one night when there is probably another party who would reserve it for a longer period of time. If that one day was say a Saturday night, that would preclude the park from renting the site for a much more lucrative 3 night rental for the entire weekend. Probably would chap the rear end of several other guests in the park if they were there for 4 or five days and the site was only occupied one night. If the park had lots of people reserving specific sites for one night, the entire park would become a checkerboard of sites occupied for one night and vacant for the next few and people wanting to stay for longer periods of time would either be out of luck or would need to move several times during their stay. They should have explained the policy to the OP since they made the reservation in person, but it was disclosed in what has become an accepted delivery format, their website.

I would have to disagree. If they are not going to honor a specific site that someone reserves, then they need to change the policy. Either they need to not let people reserve specific sites and let the park assign them. Or they need to make it where you have to reserve for a specific amount of nights for specific site reservations, if that is the issue.

Fulltimer50 wrote:
From campground web site:

"Please Note -- We try to honor your site location request when able but cannot guarantee sites."

I'm sorry, a request is a request and can understand not being able to guarantee; but a PAID reservation is NOT a request and should be honored.

If this happened to me, I wouldn't be back. My Dad used to say, "First time a mistake, second time a sign of stupidity and he didn't raise stupid kids!"

Fulltimer50 wrote:
From campground web site:

"Please Note -- We try to honor your site location request when able but cannot guarantee sites."

Which is a reasonable policy and one that is probably necessary. Since there is apparently a limited number of the prime spots along the river, it would be pretty foolish of the park to reserve one of those for one night when there is probably another party who would reserve it for a longer period of time. If that one day was say a Saturday night, that would preclude the park from renting the site for a much more lucrative 3 night rental for the entire weekend. Probably would chap the rear end of several other guests in the park if they were there for 4 or five days and the site was only occupied one night. If the park had lots of people reserving specific sites for one night, the entire park would become a checkerboard of sites occupied for one night and vacant for the next few and people wanting to stay for longer periods of time would either be out of luck or would need to move several times during their stay. They should have explained the policy to the OP since they made the reservation in person, but it was disclosed in what has become an accepted delivery format, their website.

Teacher's Pet wrote:

docj wrote:

rwjejits wrote:

alnal326 wrote:
Yes we paid for the first night and had a printed piece of paper saying that we had reserved that specific site, but upon arrival she gave me a piece of paper with a different number on it and I showed her the paper she had given me 2 weeks prior. Also said the site we were moved to was 40 foot and it barely fit our 30 foot on it.

What a rip off. I'd be steaming. Please share your experience on RVPARKREVIEWS.

I agree that you should submit this to RVParkReviews but I would like to point out that the site's policies require you to write about more than just this bad experience. Since you did stay at the park there are, no doubt, other observations you can make about it and share with others.

We do this to ensure that all reviews have at least some information that is applicable to other RVers. Hopefully, few of them will experience the reservation problem you had, so having your review contain additional information will ensure that it will have relevance to them regardless of that.

If you are a moderator at RVparkreviews and if it is as you say that there must be a positive portion of the review, even of a place that is a dump, ripoff or misrepresented. As of late I've noticed some my submitted reviews haven't been showing up. I guess I won't be wasting my time adding anymore honest reviews to my over 270 at your web site. I often check the reviews and have wondered on occasion why things seemed "off".

Nowhere did I say that reviews had to have a positive portion. All I said was that reviews had to have something other than a rant about a particular bad experience. You could say that the sites were gravel and narrow; the restrooms were old and dirty and the one washing machine didn't work. All we're asking is that you provide information that would be useful to others in addition to your bad experience.

As I said previously, it is likely that most other people won't have the same exact bad experience you did. If your review contains only a recount of it, then it is of little use to anyone else who doesn't share this experience. By adding additional information you have ensured that your review will be significant to others.

alnal326 wrote:
This is the first time we have visited this particular campground but 2 weeks before our visit we drove through and stopped at the office and made reservations and paid for 1 night. We reserved a nice looking site with the creek running behind us and were looking forward to camping on it. Upon arrival they had us moved to another site that was not as nice and no where near the creek. It was explained to me that a group of campers had come in and they gave the site to one of them. I was wondering if this had ever happened to anyone else and how they handled it? We will be back here since our daughter is in college near this campground so we don't want to upset the owners.

as jerry Seinfeld said, and I paraphrase..."they know HOW to make a reservation, they just don't know how to KEEP a reservation".

Yes….it has happened…..James Island in Charleston. The person in the office said, “Can’t have the site you made reservations for because of mechanical failure”. She then tried to give me what looked like a tent site. To make a long story short it took a manager to free up some of the better sites for me to choose from. Not the best of check-ins; especially after 6+ hours of traveling.
The only “mechanical failure” I saw with motor home parked on my original site must have been in has lawn chair.

Dog Folks wrote:

Fulltimer50 wrote:
From campground web site:

"Please Note -- We try to honor your site location request when able but cannot guarantee sites."

That says it all. The campground will TRY but there is no guarantee.

Maybe the campground should make that policy clearer, with printing on the receipt and a sign at check in.

It is not an unusual policy, some state parks will guarantee a spot but not a specific site.

They made the reservation in person. What if they didn't see the website?