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Old 04-27-2005, 05:29 PM   #1
jrgwdenner
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Short term vs. Long Term stays

When you arrive at a new but untested campground or RV park, how long do you usually stay before deciding to stay and pay for the monthly rate? Have you ever cut a visit short, before the month is over? Judy
 
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Old 04-27-2005, 06:19 PM   #2
vickir
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Judy ... Before we commit to a month's stay at an RV park, Steve does tons and tons of research, including asking for recommendations on this forum and telephoning possible RV parks. That being said ... for the first time since we've been full-timing, we left after just a week of our month's commitment because the wi-fi situation was not as advertised. We were fortunate that the park was willing and gracious enough to give us a refund for the unused days.

I guess the key is to spend the time researching and learning which questions to ask ... then cross your fingers!
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Old 04-27-2005, 06:33 PM   #3
jrgwdenner
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It was really great that you were able to get a refund. My biggest concern is finding a park that we really like but when we want to extend to a full month, there isn't a site available. But when you're fulltiming, you can just move on down the road, I guess.
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Old 04-28-2005, 06:22 AM   #4
Montana_2779
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We ran across some folks, recently, who have a plan for this issue. Like Steve and Vicki, they check out the park first. They then book an overnight or weekend stay. If they like it, they extend that stay to a full week, month, etc. They noted that 9 times out of 10, they are able to stay in the exact same space AND, in almost all cases, the park manager/owner will let them upgrade to the long-term rate from the day they moved in. In some cases they have had to pay one day at the daily rate and then go to the monthly rate starting the day they notify the manager of their intentions. These folks indicated that they normally have a pretty good idea if they want to stay at that park after about 24 hours. Being new, our home park was WIDE OPEN. As such, these had no problem at all keeping their space for a couple of weeks. Since Cheryl and I tend to be more reclusive than most, we've always figured that a park that is too full to take us for more than one night is actually doing us a favor. We generally prefer to move on to another park if we can find one with fewer neighbors.
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Old 04-28-2005, 07:42 AM   #5
jrgwdenner
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That sounds encouraging, Pete. I would certainly not want to commit to a month before I had a chance to try a park. We have a cabin booked in Salt Springs for next January sight unseen, but I did a lot of research before we chose to book there. I look at ratings on the internet on a lot of items before we make a purchase. But I'd rather try out a campground first.
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Old 04-28-2005, 11:37 AM   #6
sreigle
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One time a park might require you to move to a different site when you decide to stay for a month is when that park charges monthlies for electricity. Some do that but have a very attractive monthly site rate.

In some parks, they put long termers in a different part of the park. Frequently that's the nicer part of the park. I don't think I'd mind moving in that situation.

We've had a couple of parks where we had to fill out an application and get approved for the month-long stay. One where we did that was Austin Lone Star RV Resort in Austin, TX. That one also had a free breakfast for "guests". When Geneb and Faeb visited us the same time as did RandomLine, the six of us went to this "free breakfast" just to find out that they were guests but as long termers (one month) we were not and we had to pay for our breakfast. .

I've frequently said maybe we should do as you folks suggest and book a park for a few days while we check out all the parks in the area and then select one for our month stay. But we've never actually done that.

Also, some tourist areas you will need to book the monthly stay well in advance or you'll find nothing left but the parks you probably don't want to spend a month in, except maybe during their offseason. This is not a problem everywhere but it does add some challenges. So in tourist areas we research, make the booking, then hope we made a good choice. So far we've been pretty fortunate.
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Old 04-28-2005, 03:37 PM   #7
Iowafan
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It is challenging to make a reservation at a park that you've never seen. But I've had to do that for our long trip to Alaska. For one thing, it saves us money to book ahead, especially if it's at a Corp of Engineer park. The idea of staying in Alaska for $8.00 per night is worth the risk. It's great to have access to all the reviews and opinions on the internet, especially if you're making a reservation for a month or more.
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Old 04-28-2005, 05:06 PM   #8
Parrothead
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Besides first person recommendations we use Good Sam's ratings on parks. They are usually pretty right on. even though we don't use the showers and bathrooms, we still look at those ratings because I figure any place that doesn't keep them clean doesn't do good other places. We have left campgrounds when we thought that is where we would stay but they didn't measure up.
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Old 05-01-2005, 02:48 AM   #9
Potvin
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Hi
Stewart and I own a 2003 3295 RK Montana. We are new to this site and I am not sure how to navigate it but I was hoping that someone can give me a bit of information about buying into a home park and being able to camp for much cheaper rates than regular. We now live in Ontario Canada and are planning on full timing in the near future and I have searched the internet and it is a bit confusing. We have heard about Thousand Trails park , Roads of Distinction, and Western Horizon resorts. I hope someone can explain this to us and maybe make some suggestions. My email address is lois.potvin@sympatico.ca

Many thanks
Lois
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Old 05-01-2005, 11:12 AM   #10
sreigle
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Welcome aboard, Lois and Stewart! You have the same Montana we do.

Up at the top you'll see an underlined "New Topic". If you'll click on that it will open a new box where you can enter a subject and then enter your question. When you post it, your subject line will be available for everyone to see. That way more people will probably see your question.

We travel quite a bit, staying in one place anywhere from one night to two months. We've found the longer the stay, the better the rate. Monthly rates are a whole lot cheaper than daily rates. Some parks will give you an even better rate for stays of 3, 6, 12 months or whatever. Best bet is to ask them.

If you're more interested in memberships to rv parks, I'm sorry I can't help you with that. I don't know much about them. But others here should be able to help with that.

For short term stays we use Passport America (50%off), Escapees (15% off) and Good Sam (10% off) but those are almost always just on stays of one night. Sometimes they're for longer but not usually.

I hope you get some good answers from the folks here. Try posting a new topic. I think more would see it that way.
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Old 05-02-2005, 11:34 AM   #11
DiananColin
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Woodalls, Trailer Life Directories are reasonably accurate (we have found a few glaring exaggerations - can only assume it is either that they paid big bucks for advertising and/or they have not been inspected recently or the Inspector had blinders on the day they visited). Adding to these we use http://campgroundreviews.com/ and we are accumulating our own reference list with comments. Anybody is welcome to check on our list of resorts but it is (as yet) quite short and it is from our perspective - which may not be everyone's idea of perfection.
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Old 05-02-2005, 12:57 PM   #12
jrgwdenner
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I've also used 'rv park reviews' and it's been very helpful. Thanks for the reminder.
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