{Private} Park Fees = = Wish or Rant?

MuttonChops

Have been researching a last minute trip this afternoon at a destination that only has
Private, "resort style", parks/sites/spot in the general area.

Wish is - - - - that these parks would price spots based on more than dry vs power/water vs full hook-up that seems to be the standard pricing matrix.

In this age of super huge 5th wheel and Class-A rigs it would be nice of the parks priced the <25 foot trailer length, 30A only spots a few bucks below the 50A 60+ foot spots.  But no the numbers of sites times the maximum possible daily rate is used for everyone.

Yet, when we pull-in with our 15 or 18 foot LOA trailers without slide-outs and very comfortable even on 20A power (if needed) we pay the same as a 45+ foot 5th wheel with two 13kBTU A/C units running 24/7 on 50A power with its three slide-outs . . . .

To make the situation worse, these Park Managers (owners) get extra happy that they will be renting out one of those 'tiny spots' so they won't be turning away the next 5th wheel or Class-A that stops in.

If only there was a clear way for the 'small trailer' and Van Camper (class-c) travelers to communicate our frustration and create change.

Of course as we all know; in a consumer based economy the consumers have no voice and the businesses focus on chasing the flashy bigger is better

P.S.
    Another rant is the out-dated reservation system used by the RV park industry.  It is crazy to still have to telephone call a park . . . which in general don't answer . . . it is also sad that we have to pay 'processing fees' for on-line reservation considering the human labor costs savings on-line service provide for a business.  Yes, I do understand the position of governments in charging 'processing' (user fees) to save tight tax dollars.  Yet the hotel/motel industry has had free reservation and easy cancellation policies for decades.

3rd party companies pulling in $8/10 per reservation is outrageous . . .

Denny16

The marine industry only charges by the length of the dock space or the boat, which ever is longer, so you pay by the foot, and additional for 30A or 50A power hookup. If you are a visiting yacht, using a guest dock for 1 or 2 days, you pay by the foot.  This seems fair.  The RV industry has us over the barrel when demand exceeds supply, and they get away with overpriced practices like this.  

So doing the same with trailers and RVs would be grand.  If I am going to pay the same as a 40-foot rig, I want that 40 foot space.  If you are offered a smaller 20 some odd foot space, that the charge should be less.  One of our local RV resorts at Clear Lake, charges by the space/rig size, and has different size spaces to accommodate different Size rigs with a sliding scale.
 Cheers 

Jake_Elwood_and_us

On our last trip we drove up into the Sierras on a 5 mile spur road to 7000 feet. We drove through two very crowded U.S. forest service campgrounds with large RVs and continued to the end of the road. There was a sweet spot about 200' from a very well stocked stream and nobody else camping around for at least 3 miles. Free camping compared to $30 at the campgrounds. The area ranger came around on day 3 and said the area was closed to camping but since we were all set up and self contained we could stay. He was totally chill. These are the places we search out, I would have to be in a pinch to want to stay at a RV park which caters to the large RV crowd.

Denny16

You and me both, we prefer to camp out in areas with few if any neighbors.  We did stay in two campgrounds last year out of necessity, because of our location.
 Cheers 

screwlose

One thing I love about Maine, tons of totally free open space.
As long as you know how to get there and can actually get there.
With the size of the T@B and being fully contained opens a ton of possibilities.