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Old 12-04-2017, 03:24 PM   #1
mtlakejim
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Campground preview site

It may already exist and if it does clue me in but I have an idea for a website:
An independent website where fellow campers can post VIDEO of campgrounds they visit. Tied into a database where campsites are located on a map of the USA and you can zoom in and click on any campground and view the video of it and get both reviews and searchable critical data (IE: does it have 50amp and how many sites are long enough and pricing info of course). This would allow you to select campgrounds on the fly along your route, very handy for long trips where your itenary might change.

The critical element is VIDEO. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is priceless.

There are a lot of websites out there that allow you to search for campgrounds using specific criteria but I have yet to see one that is independent (as in not bias by someone trying to get you to their location or product) and based on a map. I think one run by a group like MOC, perhaps working in concert with other similar groups would be the way to go about it.

For sure you cannot depend on the websites of the actual campground owners to give you an honest look at their locations. They all use cropped photos that show their locations in their best light. And while there are a lot of resources out there with listings of all the campgrounds, I have yet to see one that has good videos that give you a real sense of what the campground is really like!
 
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Old 12-04-2017, 05:56 PM   #2
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For me that's Google Maps Satellite View. Use it all the time to check out possible stops, but as with all things, it's not 100% all the time.
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Old 12-04-2017, 06:54 PM   #3
JABURKHOLDER
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I have RV Parks Review app on my phone. First you can move the map around on your phone then RV parks will load. Tap on one in a location you are interested in and amenities and pricing will load. Tap the name of the park and you get a satellite view of the park. The zoom is quite good. No video though.
Go to the App Store, download and play with it.
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Old 12-04-2017, 07:04 PM   #4
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You might check out this site: https://www.campgroundviews.com/

Also seconding the recommendation for campgroundreviews.com

Reviews are not controlled by campground owners or managers and folks can load pictures with their reviews.
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Old 12-04-2017, 08:18 PM   #5
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https://www.recreation.gov/ and https://www.reserveamerica.com/ both have information about each campsite and a stock photo for many of the campsites. Video of campsites would be a stretch for most websites as you'd have to have legions of people to field a proper database as well as a huge storage medium. Like mentioned ... Google Maps Satellite View works to get an idea of the layout.
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Old 12-05-2017, 09:39 AM   #6
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Dieselguy,
Isn't rec gov and reserve America limited to government owned campgrounds? I have used both to make reservations. In fact I have reservations pending on them now. They are fairly good sites to use for reservations and do give you fairly good idea of what is available but I have reserved sites on them before that were not well suited for my camper (long enough but had trees that blocked my slides). Generally speaking though the State and COE campgrounds we frequent in Arkansas are well laid out. A few of the older ones were built before modern campers started stretching to over 35' and slides were invented so you have to watch for that but they are updating where they can slowly but surely.


I know the project would be ambitious but I really think Video would make a major difference. How many times have you looked at a website for a campground that made it look spectacular on the one or two carefully angled pictures only to get there and be highly disappointed? If an independent person was taking a VIDEO then you would get a realistic idea.


Legions of people? Yep we have that here at MOC! Add in say Forest River Owners Group (FROG) and a few others and you have an army of folks highly knowledgeable in this subject and invested in it's success!!! I would be more than happy to video the parks in my area for such a project. Considering how our members are spread across the nation and how many of us there are, if everyone just took on one or two parks we would cover the entire nation in no time. The hard part would be getting all the information together and organized on one server.


The videos would be the main think that would need to be added. The mapping and other information already exists. You could simply add pins to goggle map or something similar that had embedded links for the videos. Videos would serve to verify or prove that owners of private RV parks were being honest with their descriptions.
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Old 12-05-2017, 09:49 AM   #7
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I see this coming together if someone developed a site that lets users submit their own videos with say the GPS coordinates of the campsite. The site would have a form you would fill out that would add a pin on a map at the coordinates and when they downloaded the video a link would be attached to it on the pin. Folks taking the video could use audio to give their critique of the site as well.


The idea being to get a site that would build itself and would allow for thousands of people to gather the field data/videos.


The site could be monitored by other users and fake or offensive videos could be flagged for removal.


I'm not the expert to build the site but I am sure that these days there are a lot of kids the age of my grandkids that can do it with ease. I am however more than willing to take videos of several campgrounds (I preview them all the time here in Arkansas (just went and looked at 5 campsites this past weekend to make sure they had sites long enough for our new camper, I had stayed at 2 of those campgrounds in the past but wanted to make sure with the longer camper and more slides in mind). I don't think it will be to difficult to find someone in each area of the country that does likewise.....
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Old 12-05-2017, 10:21 AM   #8
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Great idea �� that would be the best site to look for parks. I for one would love to take videos and submit to the app.
I now use Allstays and it seems to be non partisan and has lots of user reviews.
I don't have the wherewithal to build something like that but your suggestion of getting a grand child to do it works.
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Old 12-05-2017, 03:04 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mtlakejim View Post
I see this coming together if someone developed a site that lets users submit their own videos with say the GPS coordinates of the campsite. The site would have a form you would fill out that would add a pin on a map at the coordinates and when they downloaded the video a link would be attached to it on the pin. Folks taking the video could use audio to give their critique of the site as well.


The idea being to get a site that would build itself and would allow for thousands of people to gather the field data/videos.


The site could be monitored by other users and fake or offensive videos could be flagged for removal.


.

Great minds think alike.

www.campgroundreviews.com is the sister site of this one. Reviews are submitted by anyone who is willing to register an account and reviews are moderated by volunteers who monitor for fake reviews and inappropriate content. The volunteers are longtime rvers. in the past year that site has been seriously updated with more updates to come. One of these is video.
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Old 12-05-2017, 06:51 PM   #10
mtlakejim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janet H View Post
Great minds think alike.

www.campgroundreviews.com is the sister site of this one. Reviews are submitted by anyone who is willing to register an account and reviews are moderated by volunteers who monitor for fake reviews and inappropriate content. The volunteers are longtime rvers. in the past year that site has been seriously updated with more updates to come. One of these is video.
And so there you go. An answer to my original question. Does a site like that exist already and low and behold it does! Problem solved.

When you say sister site what do you mean? Did MOC members have something to do with the creation of RPR? If they did a hardy thank you is due!
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Old 12-06-2017, 07:52 AM   #11
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Do you mean something like this. Sometimes there are videos posted but not always depends upon who uploads it. Reviews are fairly accurate as can be. Generally upto date. Pricing is normally via the campground web site along wit additional info.

https://www.google.com/search?q=campground

Click on the map and you can scroll around
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