Building a Small RV Park - Year 2

[Jim]

Congratulations Jim! I was just looking at your reservation schedule to possibly book a few days with you. But it looks like you're pretty well booked up for October. Even September is pretty full! Any chance you'll get this new site #9 finished by October??

Thank you, EZ. Sorry about site #9, but Buddy (Glampdaddy) is in it all month.

 

[Neal]

When are sites getting names instead of numbers?? I think we know the name of site 9 already

 

[Jim]

When are sites getting names instead of numbers?? I think we know the name of site 9 already

They've had names since day 1.

Deer Springs – Best RV Park in Franklin NC and the Smoky Mountains

RV Park in Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Full hookups, 30/50 amp services, picnic table, fire ring and private gazebos with refrigerator/ice maker.

deerspringsrvpark.com

 

[Neal]

 

[AuntieDodo]

Wow site 9 is looking good. You make someone half your age look bad.

I’m curious what else beside the Cadillac was in the trailer???

 

[Jim]

I’m curious what else beside the Cadillac was in the trailer???

No idea.

 

[Jim]

I recently became aware of two, 1-star reviews posted about our park. One of them on Trip Advisor was made 4 months ago, but we are not members of Trip Advisor, and didn’t learn about the review until I was doing a google search and stumbled across it.
The second one came through Google, and I didn’t notice it until it had been posted for almost 3 weeks.

The first negative review (posted on Trip Advisor) was from a guy that was unhappy about how he was treated by the new management’s employee, "Yvonne", and how she handled the charging of a occupancy tax. Problem is, he mistakenly made the review about our park instead of the actual park he had the gripe with, which was completely on the other side of the country. The park in question has almost the same name, so it is easy to see how he made the mistake. At the time of the negative review, our park wasn't even open, had no employees except my wife and myself, and we don’t even charge an “Occupancy Tax”. Clearly, we were not the park he intended to bash.

I messaged Trip Advisor and pointed out all these facts, but they didn’t care. Their response was as follows “We have completed our investigation into your concern and have evaluated all aspects of the review in question. In this case, the review complies with our submission guidelines and we have found no evidence to justify moving the review to a new location or removing the review as incorrectly posted on your listing.”

The second review, left on Google, was from a girl who also hasn’t visited our park. A wile back we implemented a policy of no children under 12, and this didn’t sit well with her. So, she wrote a scathing review saying we were discriminating, and even though she had been considered visiting, she wasn’t going to now.

So, one review is bogus as it wasn’t even our park that the fellow was complaining about, and the second review is from someone who hasn’t even stayed here, she just doesn’t like our “no children” policy.

I feel pretty frustrated as we have worked hard to maintain a 5/5 score, and we have been successful doing that until these two nasty reviews were posted.

Do we have any attorney's on the forum that would be willing to share some info on resolving these two bogus reviews?

 

[Rich W.]

I say just roll with it. Its going to happen - on-line reviews are so often petty, inaccurate, or not pertinent. And there’s going to be more. But real potential customers with a real understanding of what they are considering will see beyond this and the rest you probably don’t want at your park anyway. Maybe a brief statement on your website about these reviews, and reviews in general would suffice.

 

[sheridany]

@Jim isn't there an option to put a response in both of those reviews? Sadly this is the negative part of social media and I have a few business owner friends in the same boat. It’s exhausting and a lot of times doesn’t yield the intended results you are looking for because the bogus review is still out there. Knowing you run a great park the good always outweighs the bad, you can ask your guests to leave a review after they visit and I would bet all of them will give you a glowing positive review. Just my 2 cents fwiw.

 

[purring along]

Jim hate hearing things that aren't true, and to say we all know better.

 

[AbdRahim]

That is why I read the low reviews carefully, to see what the complaint was. Often people are complaining about thing that are irrelevant to me.

If I read a complaint about your no children policy, for me, that would be neutral to positive.

I don't think it is worth a lawyer or even any further thought. When you deal with these humaan creatures, you will find that even the best and most popular places get a few horrible reviews. At the good places usually the complaint is about some trivial thing, that others my find to be a positive, or some employee (who could just be having a bad day).

There is a Middle eastern expression that I have used often. "The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on."

Your place is exceptional. Most serious campers will realize this. For the most part, the only customers you will lose, as a result of these reviews, you likely will be glad did not come.

Make it a great day. Control what you can and laugh at the rest. You may call that an AbdRahimism.

 

[Jim]

On a more positive note, Starlink is working very well. Nowhere near the advertised speeds, but more than adequate to handle the current park traffic. Tonight, we'll be full, and with 2 visitors per site, and 2 devices per visitor, Starlink will have to accommodate approx. 30(+-) devices. We'll see how that pans out.

It did my heart good today as I walked up to the pavilion and found Stephan & Sindy doing business on their laptops while talking to their office on their cellphones. I went by Site #9 and John was doing a teleconference call with someone. Down in the park, several others were sitting on their gazebos either talking on their cellphones or working whatever device they had in hand.

A bit later when I did a survey and found that nobody had any issues, not even the slightest. This is phenomenal! But the other side of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. But as it stands now, I'm thrilled!

 

[Jim]

@Jim isn't there an option to put a response in both of those reviews? Sadly this is the negative part of social media and I have a few business owner friends in the same boat. It’s exhausting and a lot of times doesn’t yield the intended results you are looking for because the bogus review is still out there. Knowing you run a great park the good always outweighs the bad, you can ask your guests to leave a review after they visit and I would bet all of them will give you a glowing positive review. Just my 2 cents fwiw.

Yes, now that I signed up for Trip Advisor, I can respond to reviews. Before I signed up, which I did for the sole purpose of being able to respond, I wasn't aware that the bogus review even existed. Once signed up, they have my email address and I am now notified of the reviews.

So that bogus review sat out there for 4-months, with me being unaware of it. And now that I am aware of it, and I've brought it to Trip Advisors attention, the don't give a damn. There is -0- interest in making the record straight.

But I will say, now that Trip Advisor has my email information, they haven't missed a day in spamming me about how great my life will be if I join up for their business services.

 

[J&JD]

So that bogus review sat out there for 4-months, with me being unaware of it. And now that I am aware of it, and I've brought it to Trip Advisors attention, the don't give a damn. There is -0- interest in making the record straig

Ya gotta just chill Jimbo (easy for me to say). I would be pissed too with the Trip Advisor scenario. One thing to think about is if all you ever got were 5/5 ratings, people would tend to wonder if the ratings were for real. I think how busy you are tells you what people really think of your snazzy rv paradise.

 

[GlampDaddy]

One of the ways to dilute a bad review is to add more good ones. I just did!

 

[Neemer]

@Jim , resubmit your gripe to TripAdvisor. It will probably go to a different 19 yr old for adjudication this time.

 

[Jim]

@Jim , resubmit your gripe to TripAdvisor. It will probably go to a different 19 yr old for adjudication this time.

I did, several times. Got different messages back each time. The last one said they would notify the poster (guy that left the review) and ask him to read my response. They continued by saying that if the poster didn't want to remove it, they wouldn't require him to.

I checked on it today, and it had been removed, leaving us with 5 positive reviews. But that didn't reset the counter, so we still show 4 5-star reviews, even though there are 5-5 star reviews.

And every morning, a new spam message from Trip Advisor shows up, telling me how much better my life will be if I give them some money. I have unsubscribed twice, but to no avail. (Message says it can take up to 14 days to take effect.)

Seriously, Trip Advisor is such a horrible company.

 

["EZ"]

Glad to hear the bad review is gone. Sorry you are having such a horrible time with Trip Advisor but it's about what I expected. Maybe you could leave them a 1 star review??

 

[Janrey]

I recently became aware of two, 1-star reviews posted about our park. One of them on Trip Advisor was made 4 months ago, but we are not members of Trip Advisor, and didn’t learn about the review until I was doing a google search and stumbled across it.
The second one came through Google, and I didn’t notice it until it had been posted for almost 3 weeks.

The first negative review (posted on Trip Advisor) was from a guy that was unhappy about how he was treated by the new management’s employee, "Yvonne", and how she handled the charging of a occupancy tax. Problem is, he mistakenly made the review about our park instead of the actual park he had the gripe with, which was completely on the other side of the country. The park in question has almost the same name, so it is easy to see how he made the mistake. At the time of the negative review, our park wasn't even open, had no employees except my wife and myself, and we don’t even charge an “Occupancy Tax”. Clearly, we were not the park he intended to bash.

I messaged Trip Advisor and pointed out all these facts, but they didn’t care. Their response was as follows “We have completed our investigation into your concern and have evaluated all aspects of the review in question. In this case, the review complies with our submission guidelines and we have found no evidence to justify moving the review to a new location or removing the review as incorrectly posted on your listing.”

The second review, left on Google, was from a girl who also hasn’t visited our park. A wile back we implemented a policy of no children under 12, and this didn’t sit well with her. So, she wrote a scathing review saying we were discriminating, and even though she had been considered visiting, she wasn’t going to now.

So, one review is bogus as it wasn’t even our park that the fellow was complaining about, and the second review is from someone who hasn’t even stayed here, she just doesn’t like our “no children” policy.

I feel pretty frustrated as we have worked hard to maintain a 5/5 score, and we have been successful doing that until these two nasty reviews were posted.

Do we have any attorney's on the forum that would be willing to share some info on resolving these two bogus reviews?

 

[Jim]

Well this is pretty cool! Last year in October, Trish bought a bunch of pumpkins and put them just below Site #7 (The Holly Tree). She called it the Pumpkin Patch.

Fast forward to the end of the season and I was to dispose of the pumpkins before the rotted. But I didn't. And as the winter progressed, the pumpkins melted away into a gooey mess and eventually they were either eaten by bugs or they soaked into the ground.

So about a month ago, I noticed some huge leafed plants growing below Site #7 and it turns out, they are pumpkin plants! Apparently from the seeds of last years pumpkins!

And then today, I noticed there was actually some small pumpkins growing on the vines. This is really cool, especially if the cycle continues each year.

It's the little things, right?

Picture 1 is last years pumpkins (from Walmart) in the "Pumpkin Patch". The next 2 pictures are the pumpkin plants growing today, direct decedent's of last years pumpkins!