I agree @Pgh_AL, I've had a lot of older rigs at the park, and very few of them were ill kept. I've got a beautiful coach myself, and in two years it won't be welcome in a lot of parks. Their loss, lol.
Just for the record, I was never considering having a park that was 55 or older. I just wondered how many of our members were seeing this trend, and what they thought of it.
I'm with you Kevin! We hosted for three and a half summers at a Provincial Park. It was great until too many COVID campers ruined the experience. Sadly, most had no idea that rules and regulations existed. We quit mid way thru 2021. It was impossible to get a lot of them to respect the campground and their fellow campers. I doubt if we would ever try again either.
Does being host require you to be security also?
We were not supposed to be required to play police. But being on the front line, we were to "suggest" rules be followed by campers that were not. Most people used to comply once given the "suggestion" prior to COVID. Very seldom did we have to call for a back up. The park we hosted was 100% reserve only. One had to "click" that rules had been read and understood before the reservation could be confirmed. During COVID, it seemed that most just clicked "read" and completed the order. The biggest problems were overloading a site. Max 6 people per site, Max 1 sleeping unit and 2 vehicles per site so long as they fit was the rule. If campers did not comply to our "suggestions" then we would provide them with a hard copy of the rules. If that didn't work, then we would call for a Ranger to assist. Most times there were just not enough Rangers to go around as other camp host were dealing with the same crap. We did have to play the heavy on occasion. Our final straw was a site that had 5 sleeping units set up on and around the pad so there was no room for vehicles. Vehicles were parked randomly in the surrounding forest (vehicles and sleeping units must fit inside the designated camp site space). We counted 18 people on site but there were more. The person registered to the site gave me such a blast when I told her she needed to read the rules and get things sorted. Sadly, no Ranger was available to assist so I was told be be the heavy and get things sorted. I went back to the site and was then threatened by the crowd. "I was ruining their first camping experience!" said they. I replied that I was trying to protect everyone else's camping experience, the campsite and surrounding area that they were destroying. It didn't work. Mr. Ranger came the next morning but by then we had had enough. There were complaints from neighbors next the their site that we could not deal with so we were done.
yes, I do take it into consideration when I see photographs of the campground with playgrounds in children happily splashing in the park swimming pool - definitely family oriented and that's fine, but we try to steer clear. When I see negative reviews "no amenities - 1 star! I think "and your point is?"
This is a great idea for several reasons:
Can’t say I blame you. I would have done the same and never looked back.
make that 40 in 100 of today's young on #6 and I agree with the rest.
I agree that I likely grossly underestimated. I was being kind-ish.
we've only stayed at one 55-and-older, in Santa Fe New Mexico and It was nice and quiet, but so are most parks we visit. We tend to go by overall ratings and reviews, and avoid certain state parks. I think it's more important to have good facilities (handheld showers are nice, plenty of hooks in bathrooms, adequate privacy and room to dress, attractive campsites, shade, and GOOD internet - how hard would it be to provide decent Internet? And reasonable enforcement of rules.
