Travel Resorts of America

Anyone have any experience with Travel Resorts of America? We were at the RV show in Edison. NJ last weekend, and my wife filled out a card to win camping at the Gettysburg Battlefield campground. They called today and said our card was pulled and we won 30 days of camping there and Sycamore Lodge campground in NC. We never win, so I had to check and found out it is TRA.

Looks like a membership campground association? Will I get hounded to join at some exorbitant fee? Should I say thanks, but no thanks.

I know I'll get a straight answer here!

With the exception of one poster, who is obviously a shill, the consensus on this trhead I found is: BEWARE

(Several folks mention the so-called 'free camping' you 'won'!)

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=1583

I am sure someone will answer that knows for sure, but I am betting you have to sit through a sales pitch.

If you can make use of the 30 days and it is "FREE" (read the notice very carefully looking for strings) - then I would go sit through the sales pitch and say no thanks, but thanks for the free camping. Be prepared for some high pressure sales. I was at one in Ft. Lauderdale ages ago (different company) and when I said no they locked the door refused to let me and my wife out of the room. I was not very happy... I had to threaten them will kidnapping charges before they finally unlocked the door.

Frank

(oops someone posted while I was typing - beware of the "free" stuff)

I did find the same review before I asked, we all know one or two bad reviews doesn't mean much, but the more I looked, the more bad I found. If it is 'free' 30 days, I can listen to the sales pitch, but sometimes it's not worth the song and dance they give you.

I told them we won't be camping till it warms up in the spring, so they will call back, and I am sure they will. I may email and ask a few questions and gauge their responses and see how free their 'free' really is.

I usually am very leary of 'free' stuff, that's why I asked here, "The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing".

thanks!

TRA owns and operates exactly two camping resorts, Sycamore Lodge and Gettysburg Battlefield TRA. Everything else they tout. e.g. 300 campgrounds available, comes with an RPI membership, which is an extra fee ($89/year for RPI Plus level). You can get the same RPI membership through numerous other membership campgrounds if any of those would suit you better. Membership camping has plusses and minuses, but there is little point in reopening that discussion here.

Basically the TRA free camping is a bait or come-on to get you to buy in. My guess is that everybody who entered "won" the "free camping".  If you can put up with the sales pressure, you can get the free camping.

Beware high pressure sales pitch, approx $5000.00 join and then they misrepresent themselves. If you want to terminate that will be another $1600.00.

The Gettysburg campground is also a member of Resorts of Distinction, which we're a member of. In fact we're going to be going to the Gettysburg campground this June. Like all membership campgrounds there's an inital outlay of cash. In the end it's all what you plan on doing with the membership. The DW and I bought into the ROD system based on our plans to go full timing once she retires in 5 years. In the mean time, we save about $1000. a year on our camping costs, over and avg KOA cost. As of yet though we haven't totally recoped our initial outlay of cash. It will take about 6 more years before we've recouped our intial investment thru savings on not paying to camp each year. It's a long turm commitment to break even and then really start saving money. We camp on the avg 45 day a year right now. If you join, you'll have annual maintenance dues to your home campground and addition membership fees to the camping system (i.e.ROD) that you join into. They'll probably offer a lower cost membership and then a higher cost one. We went with the higher cost one because 1) it doubled the time allowed to stay at any a park per visit, and 2) it locked in out maintenance fees for life.

I got 30 days free camping when I bought my RV; the dealer did not mention that there were any conditions.  I had gotten several calls from the company but did not have the time to go to PA (which is closest to me), so I assumed I was going to loose most of the 30 days, since it was now Aug and I got the RV the past Dec.  When they happened to catch with a phone call, I finally agreed to go, that's when I found out I had to listen to a sales pitch.  I won't go into all the trouble I had with the campground, Gettysburg or the sales people, so if you want to know email me, however I actually DID NOT actually go to the sales meeting;  I too did not intend to purchase a membership, we will be hitting the road full time in 16 months, so with the 3-4 resorts I was told they had, a membership would do me no good.  I looked through some of the paperwork and saw that there were "dots/notations" of parks all over the country, so I would have considered it, may be !  if they had even bothered to come get me.  I figured that if I was paying for a site anyway, and it didn't cost more that what I was budgeting it might be worth it, but not now . . .  Oh, for all the trouble I had with them for not connecting with me, they gave me the free 30 days card anyway and it started from that day, not when I got the RV, so maybe I'll use it, but may be not;  I only have weekends available and during peak season (Mar to Oct ?), I would only have Sun to Thurs days.

I know this is an old post, but just in case anyone is searching for new info I write anyway.  Well, we decided what could we loose to sit through the Travel Resorts of America presentation for the Gettysburg campground.  Free lunch, $100 gas voucher, and 30 free nights of camping.  Here's what actually happened.  We told the representative assigned to us right up front that we don't spend more than $500 without sleeping on it.  After the presentation we asked for time to sleep on it.  They sent in a really high pressure closer (the good looking blond)  who got downright nasty with us.  We were escorted off the grounds.  No lunch.  Still waiting for the gas vouchers (and I jumped through all the hoops and read the fine print).  Don't think we'll try any of the free nights just on the suspicion that they have a way to either deny those or make them miserable.  WELL, they have one more trick,  it looks like they sold our cell phone number to many businesses.  Will never fall for that again.  BEWARE!

Remember to old motto TANSTAFL -- there ain't no such thing as free lunch.  8)

I know this is an older thread but my 2 cents... my parents went and sat through the song and dance which they did infact try to pressure them into joining. They kindly said no because a membership is in fact a lot of money but they took the 30 days of free camping. The free nights are good at any of their 6 or 7 locations. My parents went to Gettysburg, and 2 Ohio campgrounds with their free nights. They really had no problems after the initial sales pitch and awkwardly saying no with many attempts by the sales people to convince them otherwise. 

For what it is worth. My Sister and her husband are full timing with their MH and are loving it so far. They bought that time share and they have had no problem with getting what they want and are happy with it. I on the other hand do not like time shares IF you decide to sell a time share you never get back what it is actually worth or you hook up with a company that says they will sell it for you and charge you a high percentage rate. I had a friend of mine that tried to sell her time share and the company strung her along for over 2 years. So investigate before you invest.

Nothing is for nothing. There is no free lunch out there. There are far too many easy to get to campgrounds out there that need no memberships.

Camping memberships are not timeshares (unless you are actually purchasing a percentage of real estate). I belong to TRA and I love it. I use my membership on a regular basis and I save a lot of money for RV sites, cabins, condos, hotels and "glamping" getaways all in 77 countries. Memberships are worth every penny IF you use them. If not, they are a waste of money. Don't be afraid to get involved in a camping membership IF you enjoy traveling and lots of variety. Also, my membership can be willed, transferred or sold
. It's all in writing. Cool deal!

lovetotraveltheusa said:

Camping memberships are not timeshares (unless you are actually purchasing a percentage of real estate). I belong to TRA and I love it. I use my membership on a regular basis and I save a lot of money for RV sites, cabins, condos, hotels and "glamping" getaways all in 77 countries. Memberships are worth every penny IF you use them. If not, they are a waste of money. Don't be afraid to get involved in a camping membership IF you enjoy traveling and lots of variety. Also, my membership can be willed, transferred or sold
. It's all in writing. Cool deal!

Click to expand...

And I have no financial interest in this at all!

lovetotraveltheusa said:

Camping memberships are not timeshares (unless you are actually purchasing a percentage of real estate). I belong to TRA and I love it. I use my membership on a regular basis and I save a lot of money for RV sites, cabins, condos, hotels and "glamping" getaways all in 77 countries. Memberships are worth every penny IF you use them. If not, they are a waste of money. Don't be afraid to get involved in a camping membership IF you enjoy traveling and lots of variety. Also, my membership can be willed, transferred or sold
. It's all in writing. Cool deal!

Click to expand...

I am always skeptical when a brand new poster makes their very first post to support a profit making enterprise.

We are TRA members and Love it. We are Full timers and travel all over the country almost totally free- we have TRA, coast to coast, passport, America the beautiful for seniors, and harvest host. WE are Dimond members. { just upgraded } Cost more money, But now we are able to go to 11 TRA campgrounds as they just bought 4 more..

Hi Bill, and welcome.

It's certainly possible to "camp for free" like that, though the cost of those memberships has to be factored into "free". And of course you have to be willing to camp where your memberships apply, which may or may not suit everyone. We used Thousand Trails, RPI, and Passport for several years and always found enough opportunities to make them payoff. Later, as our travel desires & itinerarys changed, we dropped RPI and Thousand Trails became a break-even rather than a bargain.

pondguy said:

Travel Resorts of America?

Click to expand...

pondguy said:

Gettysburg Battlefield campground.

Click to expand...

If this is the place:


Don't bother. Basically a seasonal place that is very unkept.

We have done a drive through in the past. Yuck.

We were offered to stay for free for a weekend and hear the sales pitch and look around. We didn't waste our time. One drive through was all we needed.

This may be an old thread but the crappy place is still a crappy place today!