What is it with campgrounds nowadays?

joe b. wrote:
We have a number of campground owners that are members of this forum but I don't believe I have ever heard any of them mention going camping, owning an RV or ever having owned an RV. I like to talk to the staff/owners/managers while I am in their campgrounds to see what their back ground is regarding running a CG. Most had little or no experience with RVing, it just looked like a good way to make a living to them. My wife and I many years back considered buying a campground, even attended a seminar in Montana at one of the big franchise chains. After about two days we were asking ourselves why we would give up RVing to run a campground and put up with RVers? LOL

I did a lot of travel with my last job prior to retiring and usually stayed in hotels/motels, and found most of the management had prior experience at that line of work, or had at least stayed at a hotel themselves and knew what people might want in a hotel. But not so with campground owners, many have never camped at an RV park because they have never owned an RV.

My pet peeve, especially when we are towing our 5th wheel, is to request a level site from to back and side to side, when making our reservations. But only to arrive at the campground to find the, so called level sites anything but level, in any direction. For a one night stop, we often will not unhook our rig for the night, but when they are unlevel you end up having to do so.
When discussing this with the campground owner, to him, a non RV person the site was level. If I held my head tilted to almost touch my shoulder and looked down, I could almost make it look level also. LOL

I often will ask to see the site prior to committing to rent it. As someone mentioned above, some owners/managers will load up their bad sites first, so if someone later asked to see the sites, they have some good ones to show.

Seems to me, on this forum we read more complaints from campers regarding how they are/were treated poorly at some campground than complaints about actual physical problems at the campgrounds.

The lack of training of some of the campground staff is appalling, at some places. No one in the office seems to have ever walked through the campground, have no idea which sites will work with the different sized RVs, which sites get muddy when it rains and the list goes on. Others are well run and have great employees, but it is all up to the owners to see which group they have at their campground, IMHO.

We tend to spend about 100 nights a year, in our RVs and have done so for many years. I was looking at my KOA account and saw that last summer, we spend nights at 27 different KOAs over the summer months and one of them we stayed at a month, in western Colorado.

I talk about my rig often. I know several other park owners who post here mention their rigs as well. There isn't a business that doesn't have all the problems you mentioned. Every talk to tech support for your computer or your phone? Ever deal with an airline? I am not sure the problems don't have less to do with incompetence and more to do with overly optimistic expectations. The front desk doesn't need to know exactly which sites are what, they can call the outside staff for help if there is a question. You wouldn't expect the receptionist at the doctor's office to diagnose your ailments, you expect them to get you to the doctor. Even something you see as simple, leveling sites, is not all that easy. What is pool table level at the start of a season can be several inches off after a few rigs have parked and there has been rain and heat and cold. Ideally, sites are slightly crowned and slightly sloped so they drain quickly. Perfectly level isn't all that great if it is under 4 inches of water after a rain.
And why would someone need to be an RV'er in order to understand running a park? Going back to my doctor, he doesn't need to have cancer to know how to treat it. I am pretty sure the guys who work on Gulfsteam Business jets don't have a personal one in the garage. Running a quality park isn't rocket science. Most anyone with ambition, patience and some common sense can handle the day to day operations. It's running the business side that separates the wheat from the chaff. That's were many parks falter.