KOA pricing

My subject is overly vague, but being a total newbie, I'm wondering about KOA pricing. I just did a reservation quote via online for 27 days in May and it came out to $40-44 a day = $1k for almost a month of stay there (27 is the maximum amount of days the reservation tool allows - otherwise wants you to call them which I haven't done yet). Now, if you were full timing it, $1k is a little hefty compared to monthly rates i see at other places for less than half that, so I'm wondering if KOA's are 'big in their britches' about their worth or if the price difference is due to being a daily rate vs a monthly rate that i could get by calling. I guess in other words, have any of you gotten extended rates that were much better than what I found by doing the online reservation or is KOA just not a good choice for long-terming it unless you wanna pay the $$?
thanks

KOA'a are always the highest in pricing, except when a place calls itself a "Resort".  Most places will give you a big discount if you are going to stay with them for a month or more.  We made reservations for this coming winter in Texas for $300.00 a month with electricity at .13 a KWH.  Shop around.  Koa parks are geared up for Families with children as they do a lot of things for them.  This is my opinion and only mine.  Good Luck.

Thanks for the nod sundance, I had kind of wondered. I've visited the KOA that I performed the reservation quote for, and I mean, I don't guess there's much wrong with it, but for that price... i was a little shell-shocked, ha! I suppose if they were offering daily daycare as an amenity then I'd be more apt to bite. Wow, $300 is good, I've found some in the $350 range (not around here in the springfield/branson area sadly).

Zoemorn,

Yes, KOAs usually are "fully priced" as they say.  Many have a lot of facilities that are kid-friendly.  We've stayed at several through the years because they've been closest to family or reunions.  If you stay a certain number of days, you can join the club after which you get a discount.  We joined for two years straight because we were using them so much, but then haven't rejoined.  Once there you're in their computer system you can rejoin at the next visit.  I should think a month's stay would get you a much better rate, but this is true at most places, not just KOA.  It pays to call if that's where you really want to stay.

ArdraF

KOA's are high-priced, but do help by being convient. A good example is a trip I have planned to Florida next week. I am driving half-way on Friday and staying overnight at a KOA in Georgia  Friday night and staying at the same KOA on my trip home. All other campgrounds I contacted had a two night minimum stay on weekends. I feel lucky to have found the KOA to stay at eveb thought I have to pay more for each night than other campgrounds would have charged. I have never stayed more than one night in a KOA anywhere in the country.

KOA Reservation System is geared to give the Daily Rate regardless of length os stay.  You will have to call them to get their Weekly, Monthly or Long Term Rate.

KOA is very much like Holiday Inn in that they have a consistant level of quality (not the most lavish but usually more than acceptable).  After three successive trips out West and the poor luck with Parks listed in Woodalls (the number of Stars has nothing to do with quality), we now use KOA for overnite stops.  The exception to that rule is a personal recommendation from either a friend or this Forum.

hi zoe

we do like KOAs
that said, we have stayed at several when there has been no other reasonable option
in our experience, KOAs;
- are significantly more money compared to other places
- have not offered "more" than we have found in other places
- are not well managed (example; noisy, no adherence to rules)
- are not consistency (some are very clean, others not well maintained)

would we stay again? Yes - but only if there is no other place

regards, pdq

I agree with others,  KOA's are generally higher in price and not all are by any means resort quality. We do on occaision stay at a KOA but might just as well stay somewhere else. Most of the time I stay at a KOA because we didn't find something else when I reached my daily driving limit. Otherwise, it just happened to be convienient for an evening stop.

We have not stayed in a KOA, so we have that lack of direct knowledge. We are also full time and I work out of the coach so a kid friendly place is maybe our last choice.

I can tell you, though, we tend to stay a month at time to get the advantage of the monthly rate, and when it is over $600 month, it had better be full and excellent service. We have stayed in a number of places that were very nice and they did not approach your KOA rate.

I recommend you shop a bit harder, if the rate is a concern, and we use rvparksreview.com to sort the wheat from the chaff. However, if KOA's and their type of amenities suit your family's style, there are still winners and losers among them.

We, like many others, have found that the rates don't always equate to satisfaction and service. We are in a great COE park now at $13 a night (Senior Pass) and would stay a month if that was allowed.

Choose wisely, Grasshopper

For a week or month price you'll need to call instead of trying to do it online.  Most websites aren't built 'smart' enough to take the number of days you want to stay and figure out whether a week or month price is what you want. 

Thanks all for your input. The instructions of the koa too do say to call for anything longer than 27 days, but yea does seem kinda unflavorful for the tool to give you a daily rate for all 27 days.... hope noone has actually paid that LOL
good tips and advice from you all as always.  things to remember.

I do agree, I've visited a number of parks, both KOA and others.

KOA's have a minimum level of quality, Some of them go way above that but they they all have at least a minimum standard.. I've seen more expensive parks I'd rather NOT stop at.  That said I've stayed at some very nice non-KOA parks which charged half the price (or less) too.

The recommendation of a friend (or at least someone who's been there) is a very good thing.. I've found a few good parks that way.  in fact both the parks I'm staying at this year and the park I stayed at last year for my "Week out" of the membership park I winter at,,, I found from recommendations.

One of them was a casual meeting while I was internetting at McD's.

KOAs are franchises.  In return for the name recognition and a business plan the franchisee pays a hefty fee up front and a percentage of his ongoing revenue to the parent company.  These are expenses over and above what an independent campground operator faces.  They have to be recovered - guess how. 

We see a lot of campgrounds that used to be KOA, but are no longer.

I am seeing the same thing Ned. When I don't make reservations ahead I will stop in a campground when I hit my threshhold for driving for the day and if a KOA or any other campground is handy that is where I stay.

We have stayed at many, in different States, some a number of times (Harpers Ferry, Outer Banks) and always look to see if there is one near our planning.  We feel closer to "knowing what to expect" so keep looking for them on trips.  All n' all... I guess my feeling after staying at a bunch of them is ... "medium".  Not sure if that makes sense to anyone but... have stayed in much better n' have stayed in MUCH worse.  Do recommend the Harpers Ferry WV one for sure, we love going there a couple of times a year if possible.

As Lou mentions, KOA's are franchises - and last summer I learned more detail on how all of that works. I was staying in a park that had used my SW for years. The original owner took the park back on August 1, and I handled the transition between the old and former owners. Was hoping they would continue to use my SW, and they did for several months, then decided to go KOA. Reason being, they needed to generate more income than the park currently was able to draw.

Unfortunately for me, KOA requires their parks use KOA software. It appeared pretty archaic as an old DOS program would display but it does what they want it to do, which is totally control the business, and the monies that come in. Here are some other things I learned during the transition:

o When a franchise application comes in to KOA, they send a rep to the park to do a survey and then present a list of what must be done before their app will be accepted. Items such a picnic table at each site, everything works at each site that is supposed to work - and, a game room for the kids. They want folk with kids to look to KOA when they have kids to be entertained.

o Once accepted, the owner and/or managers are flown to KOA headquarters for about 2 weeks of training - mostly on how they will be operating and how to grow their business.

o In addition to using my SW, the old owners had me build their website, which I also hosted. KOA would have nothing to do with that either. KOA provides their franchises with a website that is part of KOA.COM. They allowed my website to continue during the transition, but on my site I had to change the Reservations page link to the reservation page on the KOA site for that park. ALL reservations via website go thru KOA and require a deposit. If one calls the park direct for a reservation, a deposit is required. Once received via phone at the park, the reservation and deposit info are entered into the KOA SW.

o KOA software is not local to the park - but centralized on mini computers at their headquarters as is all the data associated with the SW. Everything is controlled by these centralized computer systems. All income from stays as well as all sales otherwise, such as propane or a bag of M&M's are entered into the system. If I recall, the KOA part of that is 10%.

o Pricing seemed to be mostly set by the park itself -- and that was based on a study of all pricing up and down the I5 between LA and Redding, CA. Would imagine KOA was involved there as well. The park continued to rent weekly and monthly sites. The weekly went up quite a bit as did the daily's whereas the monthly's were not so bad. I believe that was because they wanted to build that type of steady income. If the park does well, am sure those will also go up.

o Once the franchise is accepted, KOA decides what the new name for the park will be -- and will always end in KOA.

o As the summer wore down early last fall, the park had the game room in pretty good shape, the pool redone, a very strong Wi-Fi installed, and finalized cable TV at each site. In that short period of time, I witnessed a noticeable increase in the business and Kudos rendered by many that were staying there - especially those that had kids. I did photography for many events for the whole park that were happening about once a week or on holidays.

Anyway, the original owner is putting in everything recommended by KOA and has placed an excellent management team. So in this case, if $36/38 is OK vs. the $24 one would have paid before it became a KOA, this will be an increasingly nice park to do a short term stay. When I stay for a night while traveling -- I only need some electric and sometimes water and sewer, and a good price. However, as mentioned by others here, some want more, and will pay a few bucks more accordingly.

Ned said:

We see a lot of campgrounds that used to be KOA, but are no longer.

Click to expand...

When stopping in Lost Hills, I thought I was in a KOA because of the pointed roof building that KOA built in most of their parks - and it turned out it hadn't been a KOA for years. The park I stayed during my recent operation in Loomis, CA had the same pointed roof building, but hadn't been a KOA for years either.

The park I mention in another post here was actually originally (oops, a double adverb  ) a KOA after purchase from the federal government. It was interesting that the owner that vacated last summer hated KOA's and hated that people might think his park was a KOA and would keep on driving when they saw the building -- so, he cut the pointed top of the build off. Now, the new owners have turned it back into a KOA -- but it's a KOA with a flat roof (see the attached panorama image I did for their website)!

The A-frames are a dead giveaway   Interesting they didn't make that park rebuild the A-frame office or maybe KOA doesn't require it any longer.

Bob, interesting stories about experiences with the KOA organization. As you noticed corporations generally like to do things 'their way' with 'their tools' rather than have some sites using different tools than some others, I guess I see both sides of the coin on that subject- sure you'd like a corp to be openminded and willing to try alternatives, yet from their perspective they prolly want to minimize the amount of software they have to support across their sites. but i'd agree it can be painful to see a company using something archaic if something more modern adds value and increases or at least maintains performance.
problem in my world right now is that new management cares more about pushing "new stuff" that isn't necessarily tested and proven to perform any better than old stuff, and HAS proven less reliable and stable, ha! o well... thats the way it goes sometimes. gotta try to be flexible.


now that the post has went totally off topic, feel free to take it anywhere you want