If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been reporting on Love’s travel stops adding overnight spaces with hookups for RVers. This is a huge deal! With the growing number of RVers comes the growing need for more places to safely “camp” overnight.
A few weeks ago we heard from reader Matt D., who said there was really nothing to love about staying at Love’s. He detailed his experience and made it sound less than appealing.
However, if you read through the almost 200 comments on both of those articles, you’ll find lots of good things being said about Love’s, too. And yes, if you need a quick place to snooze for the night and don’t care so much about location, sights, or amenities, perhaps it’s not so bad.
Beware Love’s high cancellation fees
This week, we hear from another two readers, Glen and Patty A., who shared this warning with us about Love’s cancellation fees.
Here’s what Glen and Patty wrote:
Thank you for the work you put into your newsletters. Most of the articles and other info are usually fun to read. Let’s talk about Love’s RV Stop.
About a month ago, the newsletter had a story on the new Love’s RV stops. For my upcoming travels, I booked a reservation for two nights a few hundred miles apart. I was delayed and couldn’t make it to the first Love’s, so I had to cancel.
The surprises came after I received the refund confirmation in an email. Here’s what it said:
For reference, Reservation 244*****
Charges when reservations were made:
Back-in daily $36.50
Sales Tax $3.47
Transient Tax $3.28
Booking fee $3.00
Payment $46.25
Refund request less than 24 hours before stay:
Booking Fee $3.00
Payment -$46.25
Refund $16.25
Cancellation Fee $27.00′
A $27 cancellation fee! When I called to cancel on the morning of the reservation, the person did not mention any fee but stated that a refund would be posted to my credit card. All reservations are done online, and I never saw a cancellation policy. A fee this large should be stated in large, bold print before you confirm and pay for the stay. After getting the email showing the fee, I did a Google search for the cancellation fee today and came up with nothing.
After we complained about the fee, we got a “That’s our policy” response. So we complained again, and our issue got sent up the chain, and we got a full refund.
So, 1) anyone booking at Love’s should be aware of the high cancellation fee.
2) If you don’t get a full refund, ask to escalate the complaint.
Additionally, the charges at Love’s are high for what it is. The spaces are short and very close together, and some have water and some don’t. Without water is less expensive, but you have to pay attention to each Love’s to see what the space offers.
A nonrefundable booking fee and very high cancellation fee are not consistent with reasonable fees at RV parks, so I would not recommend Love’s. Even if it worked out, the $46.25 total for a parking space is much too high for this area. The second Love’s, without water, was about $10 less. We assumed that all the new RV sites had full hookups but when we arrived with empty water tanks we found the sites only had electric.
And lastly, 3) Make sure the Love’s you book at has the hook-ups you want, if you really want to try it.
We hope this information can be useful to other travelers. We’re hoping competition to Love’s RV stops comes along, like maybe Walmart. We weren’t impressed with the prices, sites, or service.
Digging for answers
After reading their letter, we did some digging and went to Loves.com, then clicked on RV locations to run through the booking process. It’s a smooth process—say what you’re looking for, what kind of rig you have, if you have pets or want/need hookups, select a site and you’re done. It’s simple and straightforward and would be a great, easy-to-use interface after a long day of driving.
It isn’t until you get to the very last step, where you input your payment information and click, “Agree and make reservation,” that you’ll notice a small box that says…
If you click on those “Terms & Conditions” you’ll find this:
Yes, the cancellation policy is stated clearly in their Terms & Conditions; however, would the average person, like Glen and Patty, see this? There’s a good chance that probably not (as proven!). And if you’re driving and looking for a place to snooze after a long day on the road, you’re probably not going to spend the time searching through that fine print.
Should it be more obvious? Yes. Should you always read the fine print no matter what? Yes.
##RVT1104
The same cancellation policies should apply to National and State Park campgrounds. But, I’d suggest, make the cancellation fee higher than the actual site fee, double the price. That would help reduce overbooking.
Not trying to instigate anything but given the circumstances, I don’t think the actions of Loves were unreasonable.
Squeaky wheel gets the grease, you were in the wrong…💯
Sometimes the bad thing, especially driving thru Pa. They don’t know how to manage traffic. They’ll do a one day construction on a two lane highway and traffic will back up for miles and miles. Than you have when a bad accident happens. The cops have the road tied up for hours investigating. Just get the accident victims out and to the hospital. Have a payloader just push the vehicles to the side of the road and get traffic moving. Than remove wreckage when there’s not much traffic. When I was in Germany a few years ago they had their act together when a accident happened.
Lesson; if a site has “Terms & Conditions”, and you have to click you agree to them when you never read them, then I’m sorry… you’re ignorant and get what you deserve.
Plus 1 on that. And I don’t blame Loves for having a cancelation policy. Too many people today make multiple reservations knowing full well they’ll cherry pick the one they eventually want and forget about the rest. Glen simply said he was “delayed,” not that he had a mechanical breakdown. “Delayed” can mean anything, including poor planning, which isn’t Loves’ fault. It does sound like he’s had some experience in complaining about refunds, though…
When I first heard that Love’s was setting up RV sites I thought they were just designating an area for RV’s so they weren’t taking up valuable truck parking area. Now I find out they are setting up reservable sites with hookups – like an RV park. Some truck stops (I’ve heard) even require truckers to make reservations. I thought the idea of Love’s setting aside some RV parking area was just that. A parking area.
While I haven’t had the opportunity to stay at a Loves yet, I can understand the high same day cancelation fee. In an industry plagued with no shows at campgrounds, the fee may deter those that book several stop overs along the way “just in case” and then don’t use them, limiting access to those that do. As for the high fees, the sites are one night and convenient to the amenities I need (the interstate, gas and snacks). If I’m stuck and my other options weren’t available, I’d seriously consider a Loves stop over.
People will b*tch about anything.
That fee may be high, but the tone of the article is that there should be *none*. Really? Interesting how this same group is often heard screaming that “something has to be done about the no-shows” . . .
Good point.
I feel as though Loves’ cancellation policy works against their interest. I’m starting a 2,500 mile journey (over the course of a week) in two days and there are numerous Loves along my route. However, I won’t reserve a Loves RV Spot at any of them because, as we know, the best laid plans can (and usually do) change. I don’t want to be nailed down to a fixed schedule knowing that if weather or other issues slip my itinerary a day or two all of my downstream Loves’ reservations will keep 50% or more of my payments.
48+ hour cancellation should be free; less than 24 should be full credit on future stay. Same day cancel should be $10.
To me, cancellation policies are a 2-edge sword. I have received full refunds and was very grateful. I’ve also lost my payment when I couldn’t make it to the site. If I owned a RV Park and lost $30 of the $40 reservation income, would I be happy? Probably wouldn’t stay in business long if this happened a lot. Yet, I am empathetic to the ‘stuff happens’ conundrum. Campers that reserve 2 full weeks to get the one weekend they really wanted at the end of the reservation period should pay for all two weeks as far as I’m concerned. Their selfishness makes it very difficult for other campers who would love the time they reserved without any intention of using. But to expect a business to just give everything back through no fault of their own, with no guarantee that someone else will make up for the lost occupancy is a tough discussion.
People shouldn’t expect a full refund when they reserve a space somewhere and then suddenly can’t make it for whatever reason. It removes the option for others to rent that space while also putting people out.
You won’t catch me staying at ANY Love’s or even any RV park or campground just for one night when I can stay for FREE at many different locations along my routes. YMMV.
We’ve stayed at a Loves RV Stop once and will probably do it again. It was perfect for what it was, an overnight place with hookups. Loves is not a destination. I think they would better serve the RV community if they only allowed you to stay one night (IMHO). I mean, there’s a reason why overnight parking in most rest areas isn’t allowed. Rest and move on so others can rest.
I can agree, although I’ve not witnessed it yet, that Loves probably has problems with their RV Stops, but they’re new, and all things new have problems to be worked out. Stop beating them up and applaud them for doing what so many have not.
If you don’t like the terms (not Loves fault if you don’t read them) or the price, move on.
We stayed at a Loves once.. will not do it again. Price was over 40.00 and had to move to a different spot as the 2 of the ones.. had to be redone, No big deal.. returning east.. we found a rv park cheaper and better in the same area
Imagine that, a RV park not overcrowded. As I’ve said before, I believe only the RV parks in high tourist areas are overcrowded. Those same parks were overcrowded back in 1978 when I first started camping with my family, they’ll be overcrowded in 2050. If you don’t mind driving 30-40 miles for your entertainment you can usually find decent and cheaper parks.