Good Sam campground guide

[Shearwater]

We just took our first trip using the new Good Sam campground guide instead of our old Woodall's. What a disappointment! Only the Good Sam campgrounds are rated and they are not necessarily any better than non GS. A lot of campgrounds, including KOA's have only an address, no phone number or directions. Worthwhile info such as distances between sites etc. has been omitted. I am now sorry that we threw away our last Woodall's it was far better even being out of date.

[4X4Dodger]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
Hello All,
The 40 inspection teams who visit and rate every private park listed in the guide are contractors, without agenda influenced by rating or advertising.
They inspect and rate first, not review , then discuss listing with the camp. Their rating cannot be influenced by the listing or advertising. In my experience, they are above reproach.
The travel guide lists public camps at no cost, free,

with their provided information as a public service and that is what you pay for when purchasing the guide.
Max

While I am willing to agree that MOST of the contractor raters are honest folks just making a living and doing the best they can I find it incredibly naive to describe them as "above reproach" and "without agenda". Not even the Pope is above reproach and everyone has an agenda hidden or otherwise.

Are you really willing to contend that no rater has accepted gifts, free stays or other considerations for their reviews?

As, apparently from your name, you are an RV Park owner I find it astonishing that you don't seem to recognize that making the guide better, easier to use and more fair to all parks by correcting the rating flaws is in YOUR BEST INTEREST. Further if you are Paying for this listing in the guide it would make even more sense to make sure the book is as good as it can be...and it is surely not at this point.

Your almost blind defense of everything GSE puzzles me especially when you can read the comments of people who are your customer base telling you there are problems....???

[SDcampowneroper]

Hello All,
The 40 inspection teams who visit and rate every private park listed in the guide are contractors, without agenda influenced by rating or advertising.
They inspect and rate first, not review , then discuss listing with the camp. Their rating cannot be influenced by the listing or advertising. In my experience, they are above reproach.
The travel guide lists public camps at no cost, free,

with their provided information as a public service and that is what you pay for when purchasing the guide.
Max

[2gypsies1]

I would think everyone could tell where you are: read signs - Kingston: 10 miles ahead, etc., look at a map and know what town you just past through then you can easily judge what's coming up. I don't recall ever not knowing where I am!

[4X4Dodger]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:
I think my main complaint is wading thru all the superfulous information to find a campground. When I am traveling an looking for my next stop I find it confusing to find a campground on the road that I am on.

That is actually a legit concern, but how would someone change it? Couldn't be just by roads, I mean I-70 is several thousand miles long. By cities? That's how it is now, unfortunately you need to know the name of every Tom Dick and Harry suburb to find a park in the big cities, but if you changed it to list all the parks in Los Angeles area, the park you locate might be 5 hours away from you even though you are in that trade area. Thankfully, the internet, GPS, smart Phones and mapping software solves those problems. The big problem is probably that Paper anything just isn't going to be the best source of info.

You make some very good points about the guides use-ability. And I think many agree with you. So many parks are in small towns or suburban areas with incorporated names that it is very hard to find a particular park at times in the area you want to be in.

[4X4Dodger]

Ray-EOD wrote:
My wife and I are new the RV world and as young (50+) cyber techs we went the smart phone app rout. First time in camper world and looked at the good sam guide, we know that would never work for us.
We are extremely please with the app we are using and can find most (nothing has them all) RV parks quickly.
I would like to see Camping world come out with an app with search features and routing info like some of the other smart phone apps, but for now we are happily using our phones and tablets with the other apps.

Eventually Online Apps will be the way GS Guide will be forced to go. However it will require them to make many of the changes discussed here. Mostly in readability and use-ability ways. And there wont be all those Ads. (The way the book is set up now I actually rely more on the park ads then I do on the text or the ratings....It's scary when the ads are more accurate than the ratings in giving you a "feel" for a place.):)

[4X4Dodger]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

4X4Dodger wrote:

ETyson wrote:
Hello Shearwater,

I am sorry to read you were not satisfied with the Good Sam RV Travel Guide.

The listings you refer are complementary listings, and include public parks (state, national and provincial). These listings do have limited information, but all include a phone number and either an address if a private campground, or directions if a public park, and we offer the park the option to enhance their information in their listing. We always encourage users to call ahead to confirm amenities and if space is available before arriving.

Please note that ALL private campgrounds, whether Good Sam or not, are rated and inspected each year.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and we always take it seriously when we begin working on future editions of the Travel Guide.

Kind regards,

Ellen
Sr. Marketing and Product Manager
Good Sam Enterprises

With respect, at the price of that book and the amount of very expensive advertising that is in it there is little excuse for not having complete ratings on ALL included campgrounds.

I am sure you are aware that the real reason for the minimal attention to NON Good SAM parks is that the idea is to drive people to the good Sam parks and not others. While I agree with this premise to a point it is completely out of balance in this publication. The book has many many flaws that make it hard to use and not very useful unless you are looking to staying in a big resort type park with the Good Sam seal of approval.

I think many feel as I do that it is a good idea poorly executed and could be so much more useful. (I use mine to stop up the heater vent in the bathroom of my TT.)

I think Mr. Lemonis might want to lessen his TV appearances and focus more on his customers. There seems to be a growing sentiment that Customer service and the needs and ideas of the customers are not a priority at GSE.

Camping World sells the 1664 page book for $11.95. If you consider that to be expensive, you should really find another hobby. The book and Good Sam make it very clear the book is intended to rate PRIVATE campgrounds and RV parks. The ratings criteria are designed to rate those campgrounds. From what I can tell, all the private campgrounds listed in the book do have a rating, an address and a phone number. Most have a bunch of additional information. Local, state, and federal parks have addresses and phone numbers. They are not rated, nor should they be, since they are not private parks and they are built much differently. They generally do not have showers, utilities and the like. A state park or national park would score very low if rated using Good Sam's criteria. It would do them a disservice if they were rated, not help them.
This is America, if you think the world needs a book that rates state parks, create it. Nothing is stopping you. If this thread is an indication there are two or three customers just pining to get their hands on the first issue. You grouse about Marcus Lemonis wasting his time on TV when he should be reviewing campgrounds, yet you are wasting your time complaining about someone's business plan when you should be writing and compiling your own guidebook that apparently would be the cat's meow.

I am not sure why you exhibit so much hostility over this issue especially with my post. But you might want to stop and think a minute about all of those that agree with me. They are YOUR customers westernrvparkowner and it might behoove you to listen to the issues being brought up here as they affect you too.

I never claimed Mr Lemonis was wasting his time...only that his focus should be more on his customer base. The landscape is littered with former "celebrity" CEO's that eventually lost their companies because they lost their focus on what is truly important.

You seem to react almost reflexively to any criticism of GSE, the Guide or any other arm of The Conglomerate and rush to their defense. You risk sounding like a corporate apologist.

Just for clarification the retail price of the book is $25.95. Yes you do get a discount as a gsc member but that is not it's actual retail price. I also did not mention state or national parks.

And if I was inclined to write my own book...an entirely unrealistic undertaking for one person...you can bet it would be easier to access, to handle, more complete, more fair not only to parks like yours but all the others and with a rating system that actually informs instead of advertises. As I have said before GSE has a good thing here just poorly executed in some significant ways. However since there is virtually no competition they have little incentive to make the changes.

You seem to cherish the staus quo. I look for ways to progress.

[Ray-EOD]

My wife and I are new the RV world and as young (50+) cyber techs we went the smart phone app rout. First time in camper world and looked at the good sam guide, we know that would never work for us.
We are extremely please with the app we are using and can find most (nothing has them all) RV parks quickly.
I would like to see Camping world come out with an app with search features and routing info like some of the other smart phone apps, but for now we are happily using our phones and tablets with the other apps.

[Redterpos3]

Bob Vaughn wrote:
I find it confusing to find a campground on the road that I am on.

Online!! After Lunch the DW whips out her ipad and begins searching 3-4 hours down the road. Sometimes our requirement is that it is close to our road, not wanting to waste time trying to find the campground 20-30 miles off our planned route. Other times we are more flexible, and interested in finding an unusual campground, in a nice location. Sometimes we want hookups, other times not needed. Books have their place as does online. We are all in the middle of the switch, though, from books to online. I've not had a valuable phone book for some time now. But now I don't have a home phone so it makes sense, but the way we are used to doing things is going to change! Being able to make that change will transform businesses and travelers.

[eheading]

My wife and I have used the Trailer Life CG directory for many years and have always thought it was the best, most complete, and most accurate of the various directories. However, we too were disappointed when we purchased our 2014 edition. It seems, as others have said, that most of the non-Good Sam parks no longer have a detailed description of the park, but merely and address and phone number. In previous editions that we have had, this was definitely not the case. We were very disappointed in our 2014 edition - it is definitely not as complete has it has been in the past.

Ed Headington

[westernrvparkow]

Bob Vaughn wrote:
I think my main complaint is wading thru all the superfulous information to find a campground. When I am traveling an looking for my next stop I find it confusing to find a campground on the road that I am on.

That is actually a legit concern, but how would someone change it? Couldn't be just by roads, I mean I-70 is several thousand miles long. By cities? That's how it is now, unfortunately you need to know the name of every Tom Dick and Harry suburb to find a park in the big cities, but if you changed it to list all the parks in Los Angeles area, the park you locate might be 5 hours away from you even though you are in that trade area. Thankfully, the internet, GPS, smart Phones and mapping software solves those problems. The big problem is probably that Paper anything just isn't going to be the best source of info.

[Bob_Vaughn]

I think my main complaint is wading thru all the superfulous information to find a campground. When I am traveling an looking for my next stop I find it confusing to find a campground on the road that I am on.

[westernrvparkow]

4X4Dodger wrote:

ETyson wrote:
Hello Shearwater,

I am sorry to read you were not satisfied with the Good Sam RV Travel Guide.

The listings you refer are complementary listings, and include public parks (state, national and provincial). These listings do have limited information, but all include a phone number and either an address if a private campground, or directions if a public park, and we offer the park the option to enhance their information in their listing. We always encourage users to call ahead to confirm amenities and if space is available before arriving.

Please note that ALL private campgrounds, whether Good Sam or not, are rated and inspected each year.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and we always take it seriously when we begin working on future editions of the Travel Guide.

Kind regards,

Ellen
Sr. Marketing and Product Manager
Good Sam Enterprises

With respect, at the price of that book and the amount of very expensive advertising that is in it there is little excuse for not having complete ratings on ALL included campgrounds.

I am sure you are aware that the real reason for the minimal attention to NON Good SAM parks is that the idea is to drive people to the good Sam parks and not others. While I agree with this premise to a point it is completely out of balance in this publication. The book has many many flaws that make it hard to use and not very useful unless you are looking to staying in a big resort type park with the Good Sam seal of approval.

I think many feel as I do that it is a good idea poorly executed and could be so much more useful. (I use mine to stop up the heater vent in the bathroom of my TT.)

I think Mr. Lemonis might want to lessen his TV appearances and focus more on his customers. There seems to be a growing sentiment that Customer service and the needs and ideas of the customers are not a priority at GSE.

Camping World sells the 1664 page book for $11.95. If you consider that to be expensive, you should really find another hobby. The book and Good Sam make it very clear the book is intended to rate PRIVATE campgrounds and RV parks. The ratings criteria are designed to rate those campgrounds. From what I can tell, all the private campgrounds listed in the book do have a rating, an address and a phone number. Most have a bunch of additional information. Local, state, and federal parks have addresses and phone numbers. They are not rated, nor should they be, since they are not private parks and they are built much differently. They generally do not have showers, utilities and the like. A state park or national park would score very low if rated using Good Sam's criteria. It would do them a disservice if they were rated, not help them.
This is America, if you think the world needs a book that rates state parks, create it. Nothing is stopping you. If this thread is an indication there are two or three customers just pining to get their hands on the first issue. You grouse about Marcus Lemonis wasting his time on TV when he should be reviewing campgrounds, yet you are wasting your time complaining about someone's business plan when you should be writing and compiling your own guidebook that apparently would be the cat's meow.

[4X4Dodger]

martipr wrote:

ETyson wrote:
Hello Shearwater,

I am sorry to read you were not satisfied with the Good Sam RV Travel Guide.

The listings you refer are complementary listings, and include public parks (state, national and provincial). These listings do have limited information, but all include a phone number and either an address if a private campground, or directions if a public park, and we offer the park the option to enhance their information in their listing. We always encourage users to call ahead to confirm amenities and if space is available before arriving.

Please note that ALL private campgrounds, whether Good Sam or not, are rated and inspected each year.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and we always take it seriously when we begin working on future editions of the Travel Guide.

Kind regards,

Ellen
Sr. Marketing and Product Manager
Good Sam Enterprises

I have heard this spin before and either you are lying about the campgrounds being inspected each year or the people you pay to inspect them are inspecting from their recliners while they watch TV and sip suds. Perhaps the owners are doing the inspecting and rating. I once stopped at a campground which the guide listed the size as 60' x 18'. My 29' TT and pickup overhung the site on both ends, my slide was over the hookups and I couldn't open the awning because it was too close to the next site. I no longer use the guide but often look at it to compare the ratings to the campground I am at. I admit they are often quite accurate but just as often the ratings are so far off that it is obvious that the campground was not actually inspected. I really like Good Sam and also Camping World but the guide is really sad.

I think the use of the term "lying" in your post is uncalled for and ill-mannered. Maybe "misinformed" might be a nicer way to put it??

[4X4Dodger]

ETyson wrote:
Hello Shearwater,

I am sorry to read you were not satisfied with the Good Sam RV Travel Guide.

The listings you refer are complementary listings, and include public parks (state, national and provincial). These listings do have limited information, but all include a phone number and either an address if a private campground, or directions if a public park, and we offer the park the option to enhance their information in their listing. We always encourage users to call ahead to confirm amenities and if space is available before arriving.

Please note that ALL private campgrounds, whether Good Sam or not, are rated and inspected each year.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and we always take it seriously when we begin working on future editions of the Travel Guide.

Kind regards,

Ellen
Sr. Marketing and Product Manager
Good Sam Enterprises

With respect, at the price of that book and the amount of very expensive advertising that is in it there is little excuse for not having complete ratings on ALL included campgrounds.

I am sure you are aware that the real reason for the minimal attention to NON Good SAM parks is that the idea is to drive people to the good Sam parks and not others. While I agree with this premise to a point it is completely out of balance in this publication. The book has many many flaws that make it hard to use and not very useful unless you are looking to staying in a big resort type park with the Good Sam seal of approval.

I think many feel as I do that it is a good idea poorly executed and could be so much more useful. (I use mine to stop up the heater vent in the bathroom of my TT.)

I think Mr. Lemonis might want to lessen his TV appearances and focus more on his customers. There seems to be a growing sentiment that Customer service and the needs and ideas of the customers are not a priority at GSE.

[martipr]

ETyson wrote:
Hello Shearwater,

I am sorry to read you were not satisfied with the Good Sam RV Travel Guide.

The listings you refer are complementary listings, and include public parks (state, national and provincial). These listings do have limited information, but all include a phone number and either an address if a private campground, or directions if a public park, and we offer the park the option to enhance their information in their listing. We always encourage users to call ahead to confirm amenities and if space is available before arriving.

Please note that ALL private campgrounds, whether Good Sam or not, are rated and inspected each year.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and we always take it seriously when we begin working on future editions of the Travel Guide.

Kind regards,

Ellen
Sr. Marketing and Product Manager
Good Sam Enterprises

I have heard this spin before and either you are lying about the campgrounds being inspected each year or the people you pay to inspect them are inspecting from their recliners while they watch TV and sip suds. Perhaps the owners are doing the inspecting and rating. I once stopped at a campground which the guide listed the size as 60' x 18'. My 29' TT and pickup overhung the site on both ends, my slide was over the hookups and I couldn't open the awning because it was too close to the next site. I no longer use the guide but often look at it to compare the ratings to the campground I am at. I admit they are often quite accurate but just as often the ratings are so far off that it is obvious that the campground was not actually inspected. I really like Good Sam and also Camping World but the guide is really sad.