Passport America

[horton333]

Hi:

Looking to be doing a lot more traveling next year, and I am considering getting a Passport America card. My intent is to make a decent $ reduction for my average site cost, while still having access to good quality serviced sites without too much compromise on locations and hassle with booking. I am used to reserving in advance when practical. Looking at their maps the choice seems fine and half price is great, but various comments on some posts, and some cautions on the 10 or so participating campground websites I surveyed indicate this may be more limited than it first appears.

I saw "no discounts with on-line reservations" on 2 websites, with one saying "cash only"?? I see comments from posters on RV.NET that they basically take what they get at the last minute. I think the $44 is a no brainer and I expect there to be some hassle for all that reduced cost, but for planning purposes I was wondering if some people with personal experience would please pipe in with some comments on their experiences, or recommendations for other clubs they feel may be better. I like to stay at least a week at sites, maybe two if I like it. I am guessing this may be a problem too. Should I expect to only use this for short stays, and not expect to do much planning traveling with it?

I've used Good Sam for some years, and will continue to use them as I see them as a different niche.
John

[horton333]

Well as I said I don't know exactly how direct the demand supply relationship is, or how elastic demand is if you prefer, but it will affect demand and that was my point and there are lots of examples in this thread where demand was increased at least some. There are also externalities, like I found a campsite in a region I am thinking of going too that is too small to be on the main search sites and guess where I am thinking of spending a couple of weeks and while it sounds like they are basically unrestricted half price in the time period so it will cost them something it could have been free advertising for them as the site sounds much like I was looking for (not sure yet, email replies seem to be getting routed away from northern Ontario to Arizona this time of the year for some strange reason 😉 )

[westernrvparkow]

horton333 wrote:
How much reducing price increases demand is of course up to debate, but the 'invisible hand' works in mysterious ways and demand will increase with lower price. Can I prove or say how, no but there is hundreds of years of proof when it is measured.

Yes, Adam Smith was right, demand rises as prices fall. But if you made it to the second lecture of Econ 51 you would have learned that demand can be either "elastic" meaning price is very important to demand or "inelastic" meaning it is not very sensitive to pricing.
RV sites tend to be relatively inelastic. The pricing of RV sites is generally not the driver of whether or not someone is going to travel in a specific area.
Then you have consider the relationship of pricing to profitability. If a product cost $9.00, you would much rather sell 100 of them at $20 than sell 10 times as many of them at $10 ($1100 gross profit at $20 vs $1000 gross profit at $10) even though your gross revenue would be much greater selling 1000 ($2000 is sales at $20 vs $10,000 in sales at $10). Lower prices that lead more volume and gross revenue are not always in the best interest of a business.

[wbwood]

Check the restrictions carefully...sometimes they charge extra for things that you would think would be included.

[wannavolunteerF]

used it when I helped my parents make their last big trip. we were traveling in November, through AL, MS and LA.. used it several nights along MS/LA border, ended up staying there for 3 nights... used PPA for 2 nights per their restrictions, but they gave us GoodSam and Sr Citizen discount for the 3rd night. Used PPA for overnight on the way home, we were looking for somewhere close to I10 around FL/AL border. Several parks were suggested at welcome center and we choose the one that was PPA park. Saved more than the cost of membership, just in those 3 nights.

[Gene_Ginny]

GoodSamFamily wrote:
.... CampingWorld.com/passport. Good Sam Club members can join Passport America at Camping World for only $39.95 - a $5 savings off the regular 1 YR membership rate. ...

That link also has 3 years at $99 - $33 per year.

[tpi]

Nobody is in their RV saying we would go to Northern Montana in May if only the RV parks were 50% off.

I can see that-what he's saying it doesn't work for him. But take a place like Pechanga. Big casino, hotel, RV park. Drop the rate to $25 Sun-Thurs. There's times I've popped in for a night or two just because it's inexpensive for a nice place. I'll grab a few meals in the hotel. Some may gamble. In my case they're making some extra $ on some extra visits due to the low rate. I've spent more at Pechanga due to the Passport rate than I would otherwise. I've shifted my priority of camping a bit in their favor.

As a retiree I can travel off peak and that is key to Passport America.

[wbwood]

horton333 wrote:
Hi:

Looking to be doing a lot more traveling next year, and I am considering getting a Passport America card. My intent is to make a decent $ reduction for my average site cost, while still having access to good quality serviced sites without too much compromise on locations and hassle with booking. I am used to reserving in advance when practical. Looking at their maps the choice seems fine and half price is great, but various comments on some posts, and some cautions on the 10 or so participating campground websites I surveyed indicate this may be more limited than it first appears.

I saw "no discounts with on-line reservations" on 2 websites, with one saying "cash only"?? I see comments from posters on RV.NET that they basically take what they get at the last minute. I think the $44 is a no brainer and I expect there to be some hassle for all that reduced cost, but for planning purposes I was wondering if some people with personal experience would please pipe in with some comments on their experiences, or recommendations for other clubs they feel may be better. I like to stay at least a week at sites, maybe two if I like it. I am guessing this may be a problem too. Should I expect to only use this for short stays, and not expect to do much planning traveling with it?

I've used Good Sam for some years, and will continue to use them as I see them as a different niche.
John

The more you can use it, the better... I was given a discounted membership from them because I advertised with them. We never used it. But we don't travel a lot. Mostly we get a couple weeks a year and then wweekends (which results in closer trips). I 've looked through the listings to try and find something, but have come across a good bit of black out times. If you travel when everyone else is not, then better for you. I also have seen a lot of limitations on the amount of days you could use it. Many 1 or 2 days max. Also there is a variety of other restrictions with the reservations or no reservations, etc.

I decided not to renew my membership (nor advertising) because neither were worthwhile for me at this time. But for a fulltimer, by all means. You should recoup your money plus more if you will use it.

[horton333]

How much reducing price increases demand is of course up to debate, but the 'invisible hand' works in mysterious ways and demand will increase with lower price. Can I prove or say how, no but there is hundreds of years of proof when it is measured.

[westernrvparkow]

soos wrote:

SDcampowneroperator wrote:

Its a gimmick for both parties. If it was a very good one, you would see more members on both sides. We choose not to be one.
Max

I disagree that it is a gimmick. If you, as a park owner, offer PPA for your slow times, you entice people to stay who might not have stayed without the discount, If you are filling a spot that would have stayed empty, you win, If I get it for half price, I win too.
If I like the place, I might stay on my way through next time, even if I can't get half price. Once again, you win, and I stay at a place I am familiar with.
As a park owner, I don't see the down side- filling spots that would have been empty anyway.
As a bonus, if people like it and put reviews out there stating that, you win again.
Unless you are full all the time anyway....

Sue

Not necessarily true. Most parks wouldn't get a lot more guests no matter what the price. Say the park was at Glacier National Park. Lowering the price from $20 to $40 wouldn't draw any additional people to area. Nobody is in their RV saying we would go to Northern Montana in May if only the RV parks were 50% off. What would happen is a few of the guests that are in the area who would have stayed in that park for full price will, instead, pay half price. That costs the park money. For example, say there are 20 guests in the park at $40.00 per night. That's $800 gross. If 10% are Passport members they would take advantage of the discount if it was available, so the Gross goes down to $760.00 Now the park has to find two additional guests to break even on the gross income line and probably a third new guest is needed before they break even on the net income line, since their costs have risen (to get to the $800 gross they now have to have 22 rigs using services instead of 20 rigs if they just charged full price). If adding that third rig covers all the costs, they don't make an extra dime unless they can attract a fourth new customer (a 20% increase in business, not easy at any pricing level). Now the park has taken on the additional workload of 20% more business, meaning more trash to haul, more restrooms to clean, more sites to clean etc. etc. etc. all to make a fraction of $20.00 (that fourth rig is using utilities too, so they don't net 100% of that twenty dollars either).
That's why we would never consider it. It just moves customers from full pay to discount customers.

[Jim_Shoe]

Stands to reason that the CG owners wouldn't cut the price in half if they could rent them for full price. So, what would make them want to do it? Last minute cancellations. Some sites within a park that are turned down regularly for a variety of reasons, like too short, too tight, too unlevel, too far away from one or more utilities, next to the playground/pool, too far away from the playground/pool, etc. Half of something is better than all of nothing.

[C-Bears]

It is worth the membership. But if you are a full timer and thinking it will save you half your camping fees during the year you will be disappointed. It will pay for itself quickly, but then you may not be able to use it for another month at times.

When we travel we have certain destinations in mind as full timers. There are things we wants to see in each state. There are normally certain routes that take us to those places so therefore we camp along those routes. We first look for PA campgrounds in our targeted areas. But we are not going to add miles to a trip and spend extra diesel to save $20.00 for a night in a campground.

[soos]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:

Its a gimmick for both parties. If it was a very good one, you would see more members on both sides. We choose not to be one.
Max

I disagree that it is a gimmick. If you, as a park owner, offer PPA for your slow times, you entice people to stay who might not have stayed without the discount, If you are filling a spot that would have stayed empty, you win, If I get it for half price, I win too.
If I like the place, I might stay on my way through next time, even if I can't get half price. Once again, you win, and I stay at a place I am familiar with.
As a park owner, I don't see the down side- filling spots that would have been empty anyway.
As a bonus, if people like it and put reviews out there stating that, you win again.
Unless you are full all the time anyway....

Sue

[owenssailor]

GoodSamFamily wrote:
Good evening! Great discussion surrounding Passport America. For more information about Passport America be sure to visit CampingWorld.com/passport. Good Sam Club members can join Passport America at Camping World for only $39.95 - a $5 savings off the regular 1 YR membership rate. Plus, when you join you will receive an additional 3 months added onto your membership for free!

Never saw this promoted. Wish I'd seen before I renewed PPA.

[#15]

Good evening! Great discussion surrounding Passport America. For more information about Passport America be sure to visit CampingWorld.com/passport. Good Sam Club members can join Passport America at Camping World for only $39.95 - a $5 savings off the regular 1 YR membership rate. Plus, when you join you will receive an additional 3 months added onto your membership for free!