Wonderland in Amarillo Good Sam Ratings mislead

murphysranch wrote:
We stayed 2 days at the Amarillo Ranch RV park right next to 40. It was dry, dirt, with a few trees, but thats to be expected in the Panhandle. I rated it very good, as the people were superb, the pool, playground, great room, etc were terrific. They had a lot of full timers/permanent but they were separated from the overnighters.

Murphy's...not the same park. I'm referring to the Amarillo "Best" Wonderland RV park, which is north of downtown off of 287.

We stayed 2 days at the Amarillo Ranch RV park right next to 40. It was dry, dirt, with a few trees, but thats to be expected in the Panhandle. I rated it very good, as the people were superb, the pool, playground, great room, etc were terrific. They had a lot of full timers/permanent but they were separated from the overnighters.

Dog Folks wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
The ratings on rvparkreviews.com are not impressive. Good to check multiple sources.

X2. Reviews are often a year or two old.

In my opinion that makes them obsolete.

You mean like a park with not so good reviews and lots of live-ins suddenly got cleaned up?

We have stayed at 169 RV parks / places in our 16 years part time RVing. Yes, DW keeps a log on this! And many we have been to a few to several times (counts only once).

I started out using the GS ratings but have been told - true or not - that ratings can be "adjusted" depending on how much $$ a place spends in advertising with with Good Sam. Not sure at what level or if even true.

In that we also had found that ratings did not truly reflect what we found when we got to a place we had not been, I migrated to RVParkReviews and use that as my starting point. I throw out anything over two years old; sometimes only a year. Then I throw out the high and the low.

Then, if I cannot make a decision, I come on this Forum which I have found to be extremely useful on all subjects. Even here there I those I know whose opinion I can take to the bank and those who I know I can immediately dismiss.

I will, still only occasionally, check G S ratings.

If torn between two (or maybe three) at a location I call them to ask a few questions. For any RV park owners who might be reading this as well it should be noted that many times decisions are made by a conversation of this nature.

This sounds very complicated and time consuming but it really is not. But also keep in my that I have an engineering mindset to detail, etc, and my personal motto - well, one of them - is that anything worth doing is worth overdoing! :-)

Thanks GSNfor the info. I did check out your rating guide which was why I was dismayed by the Amarillo RV park. Hard to believe that one of your raters visited this place in the last decade and gave it the inflated scores it displays. Hate to think the system is more as Opie431 descibes it above...

Thanks for the email address. I hope I can find it when I need it.
Using the phone number on my membership card would be easier.

Hi Napadiver and TNRIVERSIDE – Good Sam rates each privately owned park once a year using the same Rating Guideline for each park. This Rating Guideline form can be found in the 2014 RV Travel Guide & Campground Directory edition on pages 161-163.

The form is broken up into three areas – these areas are:

1. Campground & RV Parks - Completeness of facilities: The first campground rating evaluates completeness and quality of facilities. In this category we rate interior roads, sites, registration area, hookups, recreation, swimming, security, laundry, store and building maintenance.

2. Restrooms & Showers - Cleanliness and physical characteristics of restrooms and showers: The second rating category concerns the cleanliness and physical characteristics of toilets, walls, showers, sinks/counters/mirrors and floor. If a park achieves a full point in each of the above, it receives a star, indicating exceptionally clean restrooms.

Also rated are physical characteristics of restrooms, including interior construction, adequate supplies/odor free, adequate number of facilities, exterior appearance and location in relation to park spaces, and interior appearance.

3. Visual Appearance/Enviromental Quality - Visual Appeal and Environmental Quality: This category addresses the park's setting and site layout, function and identification of signage, overall exterior building maintenance, noise, trash disposal, litter and debris around the grounds and sites, and appearance of grounds, sites and entrance area.

If you feel a particular park’s rating doesn’t reflect what our guidelines described, please let us know by emailing us with the park name, location, and area of concern at parks@goodsamfamily.com. We’ll pass the information on to our Good Sam Consultant Team for further investigation.

I could write a great review about it if it was owned by a relative.

BB_TX wrote:
The ratings on rvparkreviews.com are not impressive. Good to check multiple sources.

X2. Reviews are often a year or two old.

In my opinion that makes them obsolete.

The ratings on rvparkreviews.com are not impressive. Good to check multiple sources.