Coast to Coast...No Thanks.

[Oakman]

The Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, MO was acquired by new owners, Ocean Canyon Properties, and reopened earlier this year. Last month they called us and offered us three free nights of camping if we would agree to a tour of their property and a 90 minute sales presentation. Hey, I’m good with that. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been to Branson so yeah, I’ll sit through your presentation. We have stayed at this campground before so I guess that’s how they had our name and phone number.

I figured the sales pitch would be hard sell, but I didn’t think it would be so easy to say NO. The sales pitch was for Premier Membership in Coast to Coast. The “discounted” price was $13,575.00 with annual dues of $495.00. I’m turning 69 years old next month and the longevity gene isn’t in the male side of our family. I’d have to do a heck of a lot of camping before I die just to break even on that deal. No thank you, but I did enjoy the three free nights.

BTW, the Compton Ridge Campground was in worse shape than the last time we stayed there. While in Branson we bought tickets for Le Grand Cirque at the Kings Castle Theater. The show was very good and worth seeing if you visit Branson.

[ReadyToGo]

We went to a different kind of one. This was where you buy a week at their park. Price was about $20,000 with about $500 yearly fee. Since there are 52 weeks, you can see what profit there would be.
Also, the pitch was that this was a premium place so we could get 2 or 3 weeks at other places in their HUGE book. I wonder why they were pushing the 2/3 weeks other places instead of pushing the week here.
Didn't buy of course.

[kakampers]

Oakman wrote:
Ocean Canyon Properties was only mentioned at the beginning of the sales presentation. The sales staff stressed this was membership in Coast to Coast. They also stressed that when we joined C2C we would also get a 10% discount at the many Good Sam parks. When I told them I was already a member of Good Sams they took a $1000.00 off the price. BTW, the starting price was $21,000.00 before they started adding on discounts.

Near the end presentation when I mentioned that camping only costs me $8.00 to $12.00 a night at COE parks with my America the Beautiful card they told me that due to government budget problems all the COE parks and state parks would be sold to private interests over the next few years. Wow!

I found the tour of the park and the sales presentation very entertaining.

Then their sales staff needs better training....Old Biscuit was correct. The $13k and $495 annual dues was to purchase a membership at the park. You MUST have a membership in an affiliated park to join CtoC....which has separate dues of $89...

Most do not understand that there are two parts to "campground membership"...you have the property owners (the park) and the affiliate (CtoC, AOR, ROD, etc.) that connects the parks in their "system"...you pay upfront cost in both and annual dues to both...

[2012Coleman]

Wow! make sure you chock your tires - would hate to roll off that pad. Camping next to a ledge must be fun...

[Oakman]

Mr.Beebo wrote:
Stayed at Compton Ridge in 2009 and 2011. Just curious to what aspects inside the park have deteriorated. Were any improvements made prior to reopening?

Roads were in worse shape than our last visit but there were no chuckholes. Except for the office area landscaping was nonexistent. Erosion has taken a toll on some of the sites and our site had a three inch drop off from the concrete RV pad to the ground. I had to make an extra step with my Lynx Levelers so my wife could get up on the first step of our trailer. The two hiking trails in the campground have not been maintained and were not in hiking condition.

Without the levelers the first step was a doozy.


On a positive note, the cable television the campground offers had the most stations I’ve ever experience in a campground or park. I don’t know if you would call this an improvement but they took out some campsites and brought in park model trailers for rental.

Compton Ridge is an older park so the sites aren’t very long and they’re close together. Also, the roads are narrow. In our section we had to ask our neighbor to move his toad so that we could back into our site. He had to move it again when we pulled out. My Silverback has opposing slideouts so when I backed in I had to do some maneuvering to get the trailer situated between the power pedestal on one side and the roof over the picnic table on the other. The best sites in the park are the pull-thrus.

These were nice pull-thrus and fully paved but if you look at the site on the right you can see the scrape marks on the pavement because of the severe exit angle.


Here's an interesting full hookup site. Don't fall off the edge hooking up to the sewer. Be sure to watch out for the trees too.


Here's another view of some of the sites.


It amazes me that this campground continues to get excellent reviews. I must be missing something.

[Mr_Beebo]

Stayed at Compton Ridge in 2009 and 2011. Just curious to what aspects inside the park have deteriorated. Were any improvements made prior to reopening?

[Oakman]

I was told by the sales staff at Compton Ridge that once enough memberships were sold the park would become a members’ only park. Take that for what it’s worth since that is info from the sales staff. Since the park just reopened a couple of months ago it makes sense to keep it open to the public for the purpose of cash flow.

[square_dancers]

Being one their properties it is. Being a membership property it is not. The Compton Ridge park is open to the general public and is not selling memberships to that park as OCP does it's other properties where you can stay for free as a member of a particular property and pay a reduced rate at their other properties.

OCP and C2C are not the same but do share their membership lists and promote each others business interests.

[Oakman]

Ocean Canyon Properties was only mentioned at the beginning of the sales presentation. The sales staff stressed this was membership in Coast to Coast. They also stressed that when we joined C2C we would also get a 10% discount at the many Good Sam parks. When I told them I was already a member of Good Sams they took a $1000.00 off the price. BTW, the starting price was $21,000.00 before they started adding on discounts.

Near the end presentation when I mentioned that camping only costs me $8.00 to $12.00 a night at COE parks with my America the Beautiful card they told me that due to government budget problems all the COE parks and state parks would be sold to private interests over the next few years. Wow!

I found the tour of the park and the sales presentation very entertaining.

[Old-Biscuit]

According to their website....it is one of seven of their properties

Abita Springs RV Park/Louisiana
Compton Ridge RV Park/Missouri
Millwood Landing RV Park/Arkansas
Mountain Lakes RV Park/Alabama
Styx River RV Park/Alabama
Texoma Shores RV Park/Oklahoma
Tres Rios RV Park/Texas

Website.....LINK

[square_dancers]

Compton Ridge Campground is not a membership park for Ocean Canyon Properties. We left Branson in May and looked into Ocean Canyon Properties purchase of Compton Ridge when they claimed ownership on the sign out front. They informed us at that time they would not be a membership park format there.
We have been members of OCP for over 7 years. We went to their sales presentation and it sounded like something we could use. It was sold to us as an investment in the local park where we affiliated. After a couple of years we saw no improvements to our local park, in fact we saw reduced services there but OCP keep buying more parks and selling memberships for them. Since we were locked into our contract we paid our contract off in full and they keep billing us for that yearly maintenance fee, ours is $365 per year. When we informed them we didn't intend to use their parks at all they said okay and keep right on sending the yearly maintenance fee bill. It's there view that the maintenance fee is forever and you can not opt out.
Keep in mind as well that once you purchase your membership you can not sell or transfer it with out OCP approval. They maintain complete control over who their members are.

[Old-Biscuit]

Just for a little clarification.......

C2C is an 'affiliate' camping program. The annual dues to maintain the 'affiliate' camping program are $89/yr (Classic) to $149/yr (Premier)
You have to have membership in a private campground '(home resort) in order to get C2C (AOR, RPI, ROD programs)

That “discounted” price of $13,575.00 with annual dues of $495.00 was to become a member of The Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, MO. It was the price of your 'home park' NOT the cost of C2C.

Buying a campground membership only is beneficial if:
1) You are a FT'r
2) You buy CHEAP---------RESALE
3) You use it a LOT!

Our 'home park' with C2C & RPI via resale was $950 Total.
Then after 1st year our home park dues are $59/yr---frozen and the C2C was $129/yr and we used it frequently while traveling FT.

RESALE/CHEAP/USE IT.........otherwise FORGET IT!

[DutchmenSport]

OMG! I haven't spent $495 yet for this year for ALL the camping I've done so far this year at State Parks and Private Camp Grounds all over Indiana ...