By Gail Marsh
Right out from under us, our winter Florida RV site reservations were canceled! We’d already paid our sizeable reservation fee, had been assigned our “usual” RV site, and eagerly looked forward to escaping the long, cold Missouri winter. But now what?
I know it seems like summer will never end, but have you checked the calendar recently? January is only a few months away. Good luck finding an open RV site in Florida for January through March 2024, at this late date! We made our original RV reservations more than a year ago!
Here’s what happened. This past week I got to thinking about our friendly Florida camp managers. We’ve camped at this RV park for the past several years and formed close friendships with them and other campers in the park. I wondered how the summer’s heat was affecting the park and was also curious about the summer renovations the campground owners had planned. So, I made the call.
Surprise, surprise!
John answered the phone, and I could sense his tension immediately. I told him who I was and started to inquire about his wife, Lois. He brusquely interrupted to say, “You no longer have a reservation with us. We’ve put you on a waitlist, but it’s a long list. You need to find another place to stay.” It’s an understatement to say I was flabbergasted. I think I managed a weak, “Wait, what?” Then the call disconnected.
A second call
I panicked and called my husband. He felt certain I’d misunderstood and said he’d call the campground back. In my head, I replayed the strange call with John. He’d been very clear, and I was sure I had not misunderstood his words. I just couldn’t figure out why we’d been canceled or why John was so abrupt on the phone.
RV reservations canceled: The explanation
When my husband got home, he sat down with me. I could tell it wasn’t good news. “You understood correctly. Our RV reservations are canceled.” We were both devastated at the news.
“John was frazzled for good reason,” my husband reported. “The campground recently sold and now has new owners. They’ve raised the rates and instituted a new rule. They’ll only accept reservations for a six-month time period. John’s been fielding irate calls for the past two weeks and he doesn’t know if he and Joan will continue to work at the camp. He’s had to tell folks who’ve camped there for 25 years that they can no longer come. I suppose they could come for three or four months while paying for six, but that’s a lot of money!”
First impression
My first impression of the new owners is not a very good one. When did the new owners plan to inform RVers about their raised rates? Would we have discovered our canceled reservation as we pulled into the campground in January? John was only receiving calls, not contacting folks with newly canceled reservations. While I felt sympathy for John’s plight, I felt even worse about our canceled plans.
Supply and demand
Our situation may not be all that unique. 2021’s storms destroyed many campgrounds along Florida’s Gulf Coast. At the same time, thousands of folks were eager to escape Covid restrictions. They discovered RVing and began buying rigs at a record pace. With fewer campgrounds available and more demand for those campgrounds, prices rose. Many people saw an opportunity and purchased smaller Mom-and-Pop RV camps to take advantage of the camping boom.
Inflation hit. With rising operating costs and an abundance of eager RVers, campground owners took a chance and raised their rates. While higher site costs discouraged more experienced RVers, the folks new to RVing happily paid the higher rates. But … back to our story.
Phone chain
We reached out to fellow RVing friends and told them about the campground’s change in ownership. We wanted them to know so they could make different arrangements. Like us, most were shocked and disappointed at the news. I imagine they, too, placed a call to John. Poor guy.
Good news!
The search was on! Both my husband and I called campgrounds all around South Florida until we finally found a campground that miraculously still had an open site. We quickly booked our three-month stay and breathed a sigh of relief.
Bright side
While our “new” campground costs less, it has very few amenities. The gal who took our reservations seemed cordial over the phone and happy to accommodate us.
This “new” campground is well-established. It’s located about 90 miles from our “old” campground. That means we’ll have new areas to explore and new friendships to look forward to, as well. We’ll be closer to a great fishing spot, too.
I like to think that every disappointment offers opportunity for growth. I’m optimistic about our new campground. It will be a new adventure—and that’s what RVing is all about.
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##RVT1118
Why would you not give the name of this rv park? That would allow other rv’ers who have reservations there to call and verify their reservations. The park is not calling the people who have reservations. Give them the opportunity to find someplace else.
She might be concerned of being sued for libel if she names the RV park. While I’d hope that telling a factual story isn’t slander, the resulting legal defense or at least the onslaught of emails and phone calls could be more than she can handle this week. A lot of professionals choose to not publicly shame bad guys.
Isn’t new RV park ownership fun? Not in our experience also. We winter in Texas Hill Country. The previous owner saw an opportunity to go do something else, somewhere else with his son. He sold to a small investment group whose prior hospitality experience was not RV parks. Nice people, but knowing they didn’t have the experience needed, they signed a contract with a newly minted RV Park Management company whose prior experience was in mobile home parks – – the clientele couldn’t be different. And the RPM goal was to minimize expense and maximize income. Hey it worked in the low income mobile home business, right? Every change seems designed to treat the regulars like scum.
Remember when businesses couldn’t afford to treat customers like dirt and customers who were treated like dirt had the power of word of mouth to put said businesses out of business?
Like the others here, I think the name of the campground should be published so others aren’t subject to such abuse by the new owners in the future and they suffer consequences for their shady businesses practices.
What’s the name of the campground? Or at least the city.
My thoughts, exactly what’s all the hush-hush? You could at least mention the site that caused the situation that took so much time To explain from emotion To financial but we still don’t have an defined area It’s just a state that doesn’t help anyone Present or future please enter the name of the The r v site
Was the original payment on your stay refunded. It is a contract and has to be honored under the terms signed.
A sizeable deposit…. You have a contact they are in violation.
At the very least I would expect a full refund with credit card rate interest applied to the refund. They had your money they used it you deserve that at the minimum
See my comment about a business purchase vs. an asset only purchase. New owners may not have any liability for old owners debts.
But someone does. There’s a breach of contract here. Either the new or old owners are in breach depending on the terms of sale of the property.
Regardless of the legalities, this story is a great example of just how far down the lack-of-ethics-toilet our society has gone. The fact that current reservation holders were not even notified is obscene. Proper ethical behavior would have been to make NO changes for the currently reserved people. Notify them that their reservations are being honored, but any future reservations would be under the new terms. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of human scum out there that has no honor.
What is name of RV campground that cancelled your reservation?
We usually camp in the NJ, PA, DE & VA area. Sun Outdoors Inc. has bought up most of the campgrounds we try to go to. The rates have skyrocketed and our only savior is that we camp from Sunday-Friday and normally do not book a site unless a nice discount is offered.
Like so many other business transactions, it depends on whether it was a business entity purchase or an asset purchase. The former buys the business including the liabilities and pre-paids. The assets only purchase has no obligations to former liabilities of the old business. Hence, if someone is owed a refund, it is from the former owners.
Nothing more ignorant, than informing people of your disbelief in this campground without naming the facility.
People should know about this place!
I wouldn’t use the word ignorant, but yes, what is the point of an article which omits that one useful fact for the rest of us to know? Just a personal rant, might as well keep it to oneself. And no I don’t want to hear ‘liability’. Facts are facts, if a park or a chain indulged in this behavior, name it so we can all avoid it.
Facts don’t stop you from being sued and your lawyer won’t take them as payment…
We totally gave up on Florida for the same reason also the crowding, traffic, red tide that just burns my lungs, and other issues. Some years we may stay for 5 months and others somewhat less. I do not want to be in the position of 6 months at an extremely high monthly rate for a minimum of six months when we want to pull out and go somewhere else. Last year we bought a RV site in a nearby state in a beautiful resort that has many activities and we can rent out when we do not use it. Yes it will be a little cooler however we both hate the heat, the initial cost was high and we do pay a POA fee and taxes however both come to less than 3 months in a Florida park that we feel like sardines and need to worry about crime, full time residents that have crap spread out everywhere, and etc. We don’t have to worry about reservations being canceled and no more frustration trying to get one in the first place, we can stay however long we want, even a whole year.
Gail, I am not going to post my email address here, but as a staff writer, you may be able to get it from Emily or Chuck. If you can, email me, I may be able to give you a couple of good suggestions for seasonal RV sites.
Thanks, Carl. I’ve emailed your comment and email address to Gail. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Head to the Rio Grande Valley for the Winter
Lots of sites available
Much less expensive than FL
And much easier to get around to great Dining and entertainment
It’s TEXAS!
And they love Winter Texans!
You neglected to say if you got a refund and if so, was it a full refund or did they help themselves to a service fee also?
I agree with Cindy, some people don’t want to say anything because they don’t want to get involved because they are self serving….yes, self serving….and the previous owners do not want conflict and really don’t care about people down deep…. again all about themselves….it takes so little effort to help in this situation….laziness….that’s how I see it….
I sympathize your shock and”now what?”.
But here is our story of how now what worked out.
When I first retired, we lined up 2 volunteer positions to fill our winter between stick and brick houses. The campground host job was off grid so there was some investment in solar with a backup Honda generator. About 10 days from the start of the 2nd “job”, we get an email from the supervisor of the campgrounds( new since the one who hired us retired ) saying he didn’t have time to supervise any hosts, there would be none. After we pressed our mouths closed, we called every opening on volunteer.gov before we did an attitude adjustment and decided to just explore, learn and enjoy. We traveled around Arizona, learning to love the state, how to go without a plan ( remember I just retired after having a daily plan for decades),how to boondock and cheap camp to adjust for the fuel increased use. Although we didn’t like the reason, it was great! Incidentally, Mr Too Busy’s boss didn’t like his decision and he was forced to call us back 3 weeks later and ask us to come and “help HIM out”. By then we were empowered to say it didn’t sound like we’d enjoy working for him. Arizona is a big and wonderful place.
Had the same thing happen to us about 2 years ago, but we didn’t find out until we arrived at the RV Park Arizona Charlies on Boulder Hwy in Las Vegas. I went in the office to check in, I told the lady at the desk that we have a reservation and wanted to check in. She told us the park was full and we could wait to see if anyone left. After waiting in our RV for over 2 hours we left and found a RV Park down the road to stay at and have never went back to Arizona Charlies RV Park.
Yikes! Very sorry, Gail. Congratulations on finding a 3-month site!
We go to south Texas where we are welcomed with open arms by the area. The rates are 1/4 of what you would spend in Florida! You get the same great weather!
Last year we foolishly decided to move to FL. Our daughter and SIL had bought a park model home in Holiday RV Village in Leesburg, FL. “ it’s such a wonderful park” she said. So we bought a home and moved in. In a few months they decided to remodel theirs and sell it. The park sold to new conglomerate owners, the monthly lot rental went up, they changed the rules about part time seasonal home owners where they had to pay the same as full time owners causing many owners to sell out. They were paying $699/month only when living there and $150/month when away. Now the rent goes up 3% every year no matter what, we’ve listed our home and moved back to TN. Never to do that again, that only cost us about $16,000 to find out.
Maybe I read this wrong but John doesn’t strike me as qualified to represent the park or its customers. In fact, it sounds like he’s already quit and just forgot to leave. There is no professional reason for his rudeness and if you’re truly friends, you disclosed no personal reason.
If the park went under new management and the new group refuses to honor commitments of the prior owners, that’s their prerogative. For all we know, “prior commitments” might be why the old owners failed.
If they had proactively sent a note, text or voicemail of cancellation to all that had reservations exceeding the new 6 month limit, it wouldn’t increase their income or the customer’s displeasure. It would have been cause to publish the anguish of cancellation sooner and maybe even the chosen communication disparaged
Part of RV’ing is nothing’s concrete, permanent, predictable or perfect. The best part of the story is you got a chance to mix it up and maybe find an even better “future spot”.
TLDR: Canceled reservations can certainly be an annoying beginning to a traveler’s story but we’re all empowered to create a positive ending….
Wow, that’s a pretty crappy take. Poor customer service and poor care for existing customer so rarely the way to start new ownership of an established business. I think sending out a notification as early as possible would be the least the new owners, and certainly John, could have done.
It’s clear that the new owners couldn’t care less about the old clientele, or their dollars. Karma usually gets people like that sooner or later.
Hey Gail, who bought the RV Park? If I had to guess, I’d say Sun Communities. They’re the death star, gobbling up everything in their part, and often not for the better. Certainly not for the cheaper either.
South Texas seems determined to be a best kept secret in many ways. Winter Texans often develop long lasting friendships with locals whom love the visitors from the north. I know the Winter Texan community in the coastal communities are particularly tight where they tolerate the summer visitors but love the Winter Texans.
Lol why go to florida when so much more is out there ?
You lost me at “long Missouri winters”. I’ve lived in Wisconsin my whole life (62 of 69yrs 60 miles from Lake Superior). Though I do sympathize with your plight. Unfortunately since we can’t get the government worry about climate change etc they aren’t likely to help you though they should.
Seriously? The Sun controls our environment/climate; how is government supposed to control that? They the can’t even control robo calls, but I’m certain that a new tax is guaranteed to save the planet.
If our government is good at anything, it’s at throwing other people’s money at imaginary problems while ignoring the real and harder ones.
Who is Joan and what happened to Lois?
Recycled article from August, 2023? Is there no current news on campgrounds?
why run this outdated article?
Thank the Lord that you were able to find an alternative Location. Your outlook (finding new friends and being near a great Fishing spot) serves you well. When life serves Lemons, make Lemonade! Good luck and Happy Camping here in Florida. We reside in Florida when not on an RV Adventure!
Thank you for the cautionary tale, Gail! I hope that you had no such disturbing news this past summer and are, or will soon, be safely ensconced in your wintry digs. 🙂 Have a great day, a good Thanksgiving, and safe travels!