Good sam coast to coast resort

[Hideout17]

Went to a "you won something but you need to listen to our seminar" today. It was concerning good sam resorts coast to coast and all the perks that go with it. The yearly costs are 500 and a one time fee of 5 to 6k dollars. With this i can stay at any gold resort for 10$a night and 10 to 15 a bite a regular good sam campgrounds. They also said about cabin rentals being less, travel costs like cruises flights etc being alot less. Has anyone joined one of these and if so was it really worth it?

From my thinking my wife and I wouldn't really recoup our initial investment with yearly dues. My family could benefit from the perks and overall the savings would or could be worth it. I figured over a ten year period I would have to save over 1200 from this deal to make it worth it. Any info would help. As of now I am deciding against it.

[Hideout17]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
We bought the 'same' C2C membership with home park for $950 TOTAL cost

Used it when convenient in our travels for 7 yrs FT Travel.

Key........buy RESALE and USE it


You may been 'prohibited' from buying via RESALE due to going to the promo.
Some have a 1-2 yr. probationary period after presentation

But other memberships with C2C are available.

Check out rvparkstores.com

Thanks for the link. I did go there and talked to someone about the lesser expensive option. About same price you said. 995 initial and 250 a year. That investment I can make it pay for itself.

[Hideout17]

Thank you all for your responses. Your info has backed up what I thought. Way too much up front. I did look at the site that was posted in a previous post and some of those seem to be similar to what they offered minus the 6k up front. I have sent for more info. I may have more questions later.

[Old-Biscuit]

We bought the 'same' C2C membership with home park for $950 TOTAL cost

Used it when convenient in our travels for 7 yrs FT Travel.

Key........buy RESALE and USE it


You may been 'prohibited' from buying via RESALE due to going to the promo.
Some have a 1-2 yr. probationary period after presentation

But other memberships with C2C are available.

Check out rvparkstores.com

[noplace2]

We have been FT for 16 years in May. During the course of our journey we had as many as 5 of these types of arrangements, all purchased steeply discounted on the secondary market. ALL of them paid for themselves within the first year, a couple within 6 months.

The key to that happening was that we USED THEM. The first 5 years or so, we traveled extensively and spent an average of 250 nights/year in membership CG's, mostly "free", a few with a small stipend. Of the 5, 3 averaged $60/year each in annual dues, 1 was no dues, and the last was $125.

Again, if you're going to buy into one of these situations, sit down and do the math. Pick a period of time over which YOU (not others) are likely to utilize the membership and amortize the total costs of the package over that period. Then decide REALISTICALLY how many nights/year you are likely to use the services. Even purchasing deeply discounted and minimizing annual costs, you are likely to find that, unless you are using what you bought more than 100 times/year, you won't be saving any money.

Good luck and remember that nearly everything in this realm is negotiable.

[missourijan]

X2 on what others said. Buy a resale membership. You are hoping to recoup your investment in 10 years?? Never happen. These types of memberships are only worth it if you can get in cheaply upfront. Look at one of the membership campgrounds, they have lists of resale memberships on their websites or call them. As an example Treasure Lake in Branson, MO posts a list of resale memberships on their website, what the costs, including transfer fees, are. Your Coast to Coast membership fees are on top of that.

[BarbaraOK]

an you use the parks for 100 nights or so a year, if so, you will probably save money IF you use them. We do about 100 nights a year, have been doing so for the past 10 years, save about $3000 a year over 'rack' rates.

If there are a number of Thousand Trails in an area you like, you should look into a Zone membership, it is ~ $500 for a year, no contract, 30 nights included in that cost, then $3 a night after that. Easy way to try membership parks to see if they are for you.

Barb

[westernrvparkow]

Hideout17 wrote:
Went to a "you won something but you need to listen to our seminar" today. It was concerning good sam resorts coast to coast and all the perks that go with it. The yearly costs are 500 and a one time fee of 5 to 6k dollars. With this i can stay at any gold resort for 10$a night and 10 to 15 a bite a regular good sam campgrounds. They also said about cabin rentals being less, travel costs like cruises flights etc being alot less. Has anyone joined one of these and if so was it really worth it?

From my thinking my wife and I wouldn't really recoup our initial investment with yearly dues. My family could benefit from the perks and overall the savings would or could be worth it. I figured over a ten year period I would have to save over 1200 from this deal to make it worth it. Any info would help. As of now I am deciding against it.

If they stated any membership included a $15.00 rate or discounted cabins at all Good Sam Parks, they are lying, end of story.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

Membership camping has advantages for some RVers. And big disadvantages for others.

1) Do they have owned (not affiliated/ Good Neighbor Parks) resorts where you expect to be for much of the year?

2) Have you tried camping at one (preferably three) of their resorts. Do you like the way they run the resorts?

3) What are their stay limitations - how many consecutive days can you stay at one resort, can you travel directly from one resort to the other, do you have to go 'out of the system' for a number of days in-between?

4) Be sure to fully understand the various levels of resort. If your home resort is a 'Classic' and the one where you want to go is a Deluxe or Premier - there might be different costs or you might not be able to stay there.

5) Almost all membership camping programs can be resold, and there are companies which specialize in reselling those memberships. It is very much to your advantage to talk to a broker with one of the resale companies. They understand possible problems, exactly how the programs work, how to use the program best, etc - much better than anyone on a website like this. And much better than anyone who is selling new memberships.

IMPORTANT NOTE - Almost all the membership camping programs use individual contracts. So the contract one person got last year might have some hard to find but important differences than the contract offered today. Brokers know these differences and can help you decide which is best for you.

Membership camping is a valuable option for many people, and it is also a horrible waste of money for many others.

It is not a decision to make after one sales pitch or one forum post/ search.

[edbehnke]

waste of money. as for your 'family' benefiting 'don't ever buy this because of your family.'

this is just another type of time share rip off.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

Look at the membership resale market. Example Escapees RV Club Forum. Many can be had with paying transfer fees only after that annual fees. Read the conditions of the contract and the contract number to find out the actual cost and limitations of the membership from the membership organization. Not all are the same, and can vary greatly in what you get for your money.