KOA pricing

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We usually avoid KOAs because they are usually over priced for what you get; sometimes, uneven sites, hookups too far, not always well maintained, etc.  However, we had a medical emergency on the road in a small town off the freeway.  Hubby was taken in to er and friends helped to find cg.  KOA was the only one available in the small town we were sent to.  At the time of sign-in I had no idea how big the emergency or how long we would be there, so I originally took it for a week.  Had the card and used it.  When it turned out hubby would be admitted to the hospital and the stay undetermined, the cg offered to move me to a more permanent site, and price turned out to be about $10.00/day.  Whether they all do that, or this was a humanitarian gift to us, I have no idea, but see what they offer for a monthly rate.  Needless to say, I was shocked.

Daisy
 
We're new to RVing and have stayed at KOA for both of our trips so far.  I know the quality I'm going to get at a KOA.  I have four kids so knowing there will be a good playground and activities for them.  That is worth the extra cost for me.  That said, I am researching more rv sites.  I'm not opposed to going elsewhere, just a little nervous.  Some of the places I have seen are really trailer parks where people live year round in campers.  That scares me a little bit.
 
Some of the places I have seen are really trailer parks where people live year round in campers.  That scares me a little bit
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haha  ;D  funny thats exactly what my family is considering, intentionally. And i'd say up until considering this notion, we'd be described as a fairly 'standard' family if there is such a thing. Not sure if we'll stay at one park or bounce around between a few.. depends on where we're working.
 
brojack17 said:
Some of the places I have seen are really trailer parks where people live year round in campers.  That scares me a little bit.
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Not sure what you mean by a "camper", but most all parks, including KOA's will welcome permanent monthly RVers - "especially" those that will pay rent on a continual basis year round. Many banks base loan approval for the purchase of a park on how many year round tenants are in the park - and want the park to have at least enough of them to pay the basic monthly loan payment.

Usually the park will keep "permanent monthly" rentals separate from overnighters and weeklies. That gives the overnighters easier in and out to their sites. And also, permanent monthlies prefer not having overnights parking next to them because of the noise and such of them setting up and leaving early in the AM.

Not sure if the year round permanent monthlies are "scared" of none year around RVers, but am sure some are . . .  :)
 
Usually the park will keep "permanent monthly" rentals separate from overnighters and weeklies. That gives the overnighters easier in and out to their sites. And also, permanent monthlies prefer not having overnights parking next to them because of the noise and such of them setting up and leaving early in the AM.
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thanks bob for that insight. this is something my wife and I had wondered about, with us being total newbies. Some campgrounds, judging by their Rates, look to be welcome to 'long-termers' - and some don't (could just be my perception of course- its just that some campgrounds list only daily rates almost to the point of seeming anti long term, i've noticed this at some of the branson, mo area sites). Again, maybe they do welcome longterm staying and its just an oversight of their Rate info.
 
zoemorn said:
Some campgrounds, judging by their Rates, look to be welcome to 'long-termers' - and some don't (could just be my perception of course- its just that some campgrounds list only daily rates almost to the point of seeming anti long term, i've noticed this at some of the branson, mo area sites). Again, maybe they do welcome longterm staying and its just an oversight of their Rate info.
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A park will make more money on overnighters if they are in a prime location for that type of traffic and have the draw to have enough of them. Otherwise, they want more permanent monthly rentals. So that would be why some do and some don't. The general idea is to have enough PM's to pay the mortgage payment and basic bills.

I recall a park in Gila Bend, AZ that had only been open a few months. They had several hundred sites and everyone was full with PM's. They had set aside a few sites for overnighters but when I arrived they were all taken. So I stayed down the street at another park. The following year I noticed that park almost empty - with signs advertising great rates for long term stays. What had happened was that they had filled with construction workers on a project in the area. When the project wound down, the PM's left.

In Sacramento,  a nice older park in the North area was once a Mobile Home park only. However, as RV traffic increased when a Mobile Home tenant would vacate, he would turn that site into an RV site - simply because he could make more money that way. His location insured the nightly RV sites would be taken every night.

It will most always be a function of traffic in the area. Monthly rentals give the owner a fixed amount of income but less overall, whereas overnighter's can be a toss up as to volume, but give the highest income possible per site.
 
Hi,
We use KOA's fairly often, particularly when new to a location. Why? Because Woodalls seems to base opinion on $ paid rather than reality. Similarly, web sites are very misleading and often misrepresent. Even when they are accurate, long term residents range from the nicest people in the world to simply scary.
Often we adopt the KOA as standard: Louisville - its about the only game in town and a nice park, South Padre - its next to the County Park and is nicer by far. Mystic, CT - I hope I never have to go back but its ok and almost the only game in town.
JM2C
 
Ernie n Tara said:
Even when they are accurate, long term residents range from the nicest people in the world to simply scary.
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My experience as a 15 plus year full timer -- "Even when they are accurate (websites), over night and weekly RVers range from the nicest people in the world to simply scary." And that's a fact . . .  :)

One reason for this fact is that state law requires rental contracts and background info on anyone staying over X number of days, whereas overnight campers can look great, but sometimes wind up trashing the park -- and scaring full time residents. 
 
One of the more interesting reasons for monthly rates (or lack thereof) is state laws governing eviction. Depending on the locale, sometimes it is next to impossible to evict someone who has a monthly contract. Other places make you leave the park to break the 30 day rule and you have to be gone 48 hours (ran into that in New Mexico).

In other cases, there are hotel and leisure taxes on the shorter term stays, making the monthly rate cheaper per day, even if you leave before the month is up. Again, depends on the jurisdiction.

It's complicated....

We try to find a monthly rate because we tend to be in an area for awhile and usually you can vacate it after 20 days and still come out ahead. Everybody does it their way and nobody is wrong. And we have found several places that were easily worth staying a month or more.... 8)

All monthly campers are not equal.  ;D
 
I sure didn't meant to offend anyone with my comments.  I don't have a time with long term campers.  I drive by a RV park in town that looks more like a trailer park with rv's in it.  It's pretty run down.  I wouldn't want to stay there.
 
We have stayed in 1 KOA, we liked the service and we liked how nice everyone was, but it was 45 dollars and not particularly excellent.  Experiences like that encouraged us to purchase a RPI Preferred  membership and leave all the KOAs behind us.  Not all membership parks are excellent, but not all KOAs are either and I prefer to be out 10 bucks a night for a bad place than 50 for the same bad place.

Jeff Brown
 
Basic rule of thumb, if you are not comfortable with a park, keep moving on.  We've only had one or two of those places that we moved on in over ten years of full-timing, because it was not to our liking.  Beware of your surroundings.  If in a run-down part of town, if the park looks run down with really old trailers, mobile homes, you may want to reconsider.  Just saying.....Use your smarts, or at least your inner voice.

Daisy
 
Ha  :D
I kinda figured that's what you meant.


course people are people regardless  :) but yea, some places seem a little more desirable to stay than others.
 
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