Review issues!

[DavefromAtlanta]

Anyone else having issues with some of the reviews/ratings of campgrounds in the Good Sam site? I've seen quite a few with great "Number" ratings yet the reviews and my personal observations reflect they were not deserved. I've also seen a few with the opposite. Is there a way to dispute the ratings with Good Sam?

Dave (from Atlanta)

[Parrothead_Mike]

I've used RV Park Reviews.com for about 10 years and have to say that the overall ratings are pretty accurate. There will always be someone very dissatisfied or overly happy with a park, but I usually look for the general vibe I get from reading the various reviews. We've stayed at parks far from home and have to say that the comments have usually been on the mark.

[mdcamping]

DavefromAtlanta wrote:
Anyone else having issues with some of the reviews/ratings of campgrounds in the Good Sam site? I've seen quite a few with great "Number" ratings yet the reviews and my personal observations reflect they were not deserved. I've also seen a few with the opposite. Is there a way to dispute the ratings with Good Sam?

Dave (from Atlanta)

This is one of the reasons why I use RVPR, they provide very useful and easly accessible tools to check the history of the reviewer, click on the user profile and what info you have or don't have will give you an idea where the reviewer is coming from.

Also you can like or dislike a review but you have to be a RVPR member, IMO this provides more ballance to the reviews online.

Mike

[Tvov]

DavefromAtlanta wrote:
Anyone else having issues with some of the reviews/ratings of campgrounds in the Good Sam site? I've seen quite a few with great "Number" ratings yet the reviews and my personal observations reflect they were not deserved. I've also seen a few with the opposite. Is there a way to dispute the ratings with Good Sam?

Dave (from Atlanta)

Can people on the Good Sam site "rate" campgrounds just by giving a number without a full review? If so, that might account for the difference.

[drenjoey]

fanrgs wrote:

drenjoey wrote:
Reviews are not always accurate. . . . Goes to show the website owners can decide on what to make visible to the visitors. Can the same thing happen with the campgrounds reviews.....possibly ! Unless you go to an independent site like Trip Advisor maybe !

Interesting. My negative reviews of campgrounds in Alaska that I wrote in 2013 are still on the RVParkReviews.com Website. So I don't think that theory works for that Website.

RVParkReviews is similar to Trip Advisor....... I wonder if it still would be there if you wrote that review on the campground website !!!

[fanrgs]

drenjoey wrote:
Reviews are not always accurate. . . . Goes to show the website owners can decide on what to make visible to the visitors. Can the same thing happen with the campgrounds reviews.....possibly ! Unless you go to an independent site like Trip Advisor maybe !

Interesting. My negative reviews of campgrounds in Alaska that I wrote in 2013 are still on the RVParkReviews.com Website. So I don't think that theory works for that Website.

[drenjoey]

Reviews are not always accurate.
My wife left a dental office to work for another dentist. When she went online to look at the previous dentist website, she noticed a lot of negative reviews regarding that office,...........and suddenly, those negative reviews disappeared, leaving only the positive and neutral.
Goes to show the website owners can decide on what to make visible to the visitors. Can the same thing happen with the campgrounds reviews.....possibly ! Unless you go to an independent site like Trip Advisor maybe !

[rr2254545]

K Charles wrote:
Some people go to the woods and complain about the trees.
Go there and see for yourself, if you don't like it go some where else.

Excellent advise - camped in almost 300 campground since 2009. I rely mainly on Good Sam Ratings - I have only been burned once badly

I will take those odds any day

[TinyoneRV]

We always buy and travel with the GS Campground Directory. The rating criteria is published in the front of the directory. Several times we have taken the rating sheets and rated the campground ourselves. Each time we've come out within one point of the rating in the book. You may not like a campground based on your criteria, but the GS rating has nothing to do with how you feel or how you're treated or whether you liked the owner or the neighbors dog. It's a very specific and objective rating system. Since we are in a Class B, the star rating on the restrooms is the most important rating for us.

I suggest anyone who uses the ratings as a guide do this a couple of times. It helps the user understand the rating system and how to use it to pick a park. For example we generally look for a rating of 7 and above with a restroom rating of 8 or above with a star. It's worked for us. One time we thought the restrooms were not worthy of the star rating for cleanliness. Then we realized it was he last day of a holiday weekend and we were lucky to find a site anywhere. Again, I suggest you use the criteria to rate a couple of parks yourself and see how he system works.

[Veebyes]

RVPRs is the first stop for me also. Everyone has a different way of rating. Some will give a low rating just because the office staff was grumpy or they were expecting a 4 star CG at a 2 star price. I start at a 10 & deduct 1 point per negative item starting with value for money. Ignore the top review. Ignore the bottom review. Pay attention to those who have made many submissions in many states.

Allstays has many more CGs listed but not many reviews unless linked to RVPRs. RVPRs is missing many county parks & town parks which I find to be pretty good for the money most of the time.

[fanrgs]

jplante4 wrote:
We used RVParkReviews on our 6 month trip and found the reviews of the places we stayed were pretty accurate, except one spot. Of course, the places we didn't go because it got panned on the site we know nothing about.

We do the same on all of our long trips.

Before we leave, I generally plan a route based on what we want to see along the way and pick a campground or RV park a day's drive apart using Good Sam Trip Planner. Then I check all those cgs and parks out on RVParkReviews.com and make adjustments if I don't like something about the consensus of those reviews.

I think that a park that gets consistently high praise from dozens of reviewers has a much better chance of being enjoyable for us than one that only has 10 reviews and the last one was in 2015. So I not only use the reviews, I also write reviews for the campgrounds we stay in to provide a 55+, retired, non-pet-owning couple's opinion of each one. And reviews from other "travelers, not campers" like us who stay only a night or two are the ones I give the most weight when selecting a campground.

[padredw]

We have been traveling with a fifth-wheel for 21 years now. Almost every state in the US and a couple of times into Canada.

Sometimes I really disagree with a specific rating either on Good Sam or on RV Reviews, but I have found it very helpful to consult both. It helps me to eliminate some campgrounds and to select others. It is surely good to have these reviews--better than not having anything. I consider both to be valuable tools to be used with understanding of their limitations.

[westernrvparkow]

troubledwaters wrote:

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
GS rates to very specific criteria. Each of the 3 #s are specific to a 1 -1/2 or 0 point with each category possibly adding up to 10 in each. If you walked the camp like the acct. reps do each year with the criteria they use, your Rating would likely match theirs...

So a guy can walk around a campground for a couple of hours and tell you what your experience is going to be like if you camp there for 2 weeks. Fat Chance.

No, a guy walks around for a couple of hours and sees if the park has a pool, what the surface of the roads are composed of, if there is fencing around the property, if there is a sign at the entrance, how many toilets there are compared to the number of sites, whether or not there is an attendant in the office etc. etc. etc. Fat chance that even an idiot could mess that up. Good Sam publishes the checklist and ratings criteria. Maybe people should do a little research BEFORE they start belittling the ratings.
I am not a huge fan of the system myself, but it is accurate for what it measures, much of which really has little correlation to what people will experience.

[troubledwaters]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
GS rates to very specific criteria. Each of the 3 #s are specific to a 1 -1/2 or 0 point with each category possibly adding up to 10 in each. If you walked the camp like the acct. reps do each year with the criteria they use, your Rating would likely match theirs...

So a guy can walk around a campground for a couple of hours and tell you what your experience is going to be like if you camp there for 2 weeks. Fat Chance.

[timandsusan]

I use RVParkReviews and Google Earth to look at the park. I have found that some poor reviews as well as some great reviews are the result of the reviewers particular travel interests. Like traveling with a dog--dog runs are important. Bad dog run= Bad Review. We don't travel with a dog so I ignore those. Again experience is sometimes the best guide or return to parks you like!