Overnight parking at Costco?

[gypsydan]

I was in Missoula, Mt. and parked at a Walmart for a couple of days.  I asked permission, as there was a sign posted, "no overnight parking."  The manager said it was posted, and was also a city ordanance, but the ordinance left it up to the business to enforce it.  This would then allow them to keep out potential undesirables.  I later talked with the local police who were in the parking lot, who confirmed what I had been told.

I guess the rule is, be courteous and respectful and your day will go well.

[bigjim]

I didn't stay but I was in a W/m in Kentucky that only restricted large trucks.  Another I know of does the same  and is used by RVs for overnight quite a bit but if we don't start being considerate I think that one would disappear. They will let the truckes stay for a few hours even though it signed no trucks and if they don't get too many at one time. When I stayed I spent about 15 using my litter picker in appreciation.

[jenandjon]

I wold say if you want to stay at any business you should call ahead and ask. Then patronize that business.  In my trucking days I stopped at many wal marts. Ive only been chased out of one. When the security asked me to leave I said sure I will leave as soon as I return this $300 worth of stuff I just bought. Then he let me stay.

 

Another place to consider is a Mall parking lot. I never had trouble at a mall. Always go to the mall security office and ask. They will even circle by on patrol at night to check on you. I just tell them I'm visiting family in town and there was no place to park.

[richfaa]

On 7/2/2017 at 7:07 PM, Qwimby1 said:

An overnight sleep in a fully self-contained rig that leaves no footprint is far from a campground experience. We have no need for dump-stations or 50 amp,  Most local ordinances prohibiting RONs are the result of lobbying by campground owners associations.  They are using the law to force us to do business with them.

 

We have seen the foot print they leave

[Kirk W]

25 minutes ago, richfaa said:

We have seen the foot print they leave

Sadly that is very true. Those of us who wish to use such parking need to always remember that such stays are a privilege and that we are guests and that the lots are private property. We should treat it as we would any other borrowed item. Even though we rarely spend a night in any parking lot, we still shop mostly in stores like Lowe's and Walmart which have allowed us to spend a night in their lots for free. I will always give preference to businesses that are RV friendly, even when we eventually hang up our keys.

[Trucken]

Folks, If it’s free it’s abused.

Greedy campground owners that invest oodles of money in a campground  and don’t provide overnight parking with no services for a nominal sum. They go by big box stores and see $100k RV sitting for days. There are a few Folks here that volunteer/work as campground hosts, ask them if their parks offer overnight without hookup for $10 a night. OK I’LL ASK. If you worked/volunteered at campground, did this park offer overnight for nominal fee, if not why. 

Have no issues with folks that use their coach to go from point A to B an overnight in Wally world an be gone in the AM. Expensive way to travel, but you do know who sat on the pot before you. 

After 12 years of driving the blue roads it didn’t take many abusers stealthily arriving in parks after closing time and leaving well before birds were awake, to feel unkindly of them. Course they plug into power and water (yippee boon docking in style) saved themselves $30 BUCKS to put to payment of a 100k coach.

We remember the abusers lot longer than the good folks. DRIVE THE blue roads, lots of free overnight stops, an your not sleeping between a lot of idling diesels

 

TRUCKEN 

 

[docj]

3 hours ago, Trucken said:

If you worked/volunteered at campground, did this park offer overnight for nominal fee, if not why. 

With all due respect, if I stay at a hotel while traveling by car, I don't expect to pay any less just because I might arrive late and will leave early in the morning.  I might not use the pool, the exercise room or any other amenity, but that's not the hotel's concern. 

It will incur a nominal cost to have the room cleaned and the linens and towels changed, and will show a nice operating profit off of my stay.  But the true cost of operations includes a lot more than whether or not I used all the towels.  So I pay whatever rate the hotel charges and chalk it off to the cost of traveling.  Why should RV parks be expected to be any different?

[Chalkie]

6 hours ago, docj said:

With all due respect, if I stay at a hotel while traveling by car, I don't expect to pay any less just because I might arrive late and will leave early in the morning.  I might not use the pool, the exercise room or any other amenity, but that's not the hotel's concern. 

It will incur a nominal cost to have the room cleaned and the linens and towels changed, and will show a nice operating profit off of my stay.  But the true cost of operations includes a lot more than whether or not I used all the towels.  So I pay whatever rate the hotel charges and chalk it off to the cost of traveling.  Why should RV parks be expected to be any different?

Exactly right! I am not trying to poke the bear here but why is it that people expect something for nothing, or put differently they somehow expect a business to change its business model to suit them whereas the business model has been designed around the 60-80% (?) of the potential customers that will turn them a profit. It is totally impossible and for that matter totally unreasonable to expect a business to satisfy 100% of its potential clientele.

[Kirk W]

14 hours ago, Trucken said:

ask them if their parks offer overnight without hookup for $10 a night. OK I’LL ASK.

I guess you have never been to one of the Escapee parks? They do exactly that.

[bigjim]

Keep in mind Skp parks do limit this which is more than reasonable.

[Chalkie]

12 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

I guess you have never been to one of the Escapee parks? They do exactly that.

Yes, they do but they also have land set aside for the purpose, which is a nice thing.

However, .it seems to me that most "for profit" campgrounds would rather have their land set aside in full paying spaces. I am not saying this makes total sense but I can see the viewpoint. Sadly, some campground owners almost seem perverse in their logic. Case in point: We were recently going to stay at a park that offers PA discounts. The owner told me they only offered that discount when they were nearly full in order to fill it the rest of the way up. When they weren't nearly full then they didn't.  Really? We ended up driving past that park and it was indeed almost empty. I guess somehow an empty park was better than one with customers getting a discount.

 

[Kirk W]

1 minute ago, Chalkie said:

The owner told me they only offered that discount when they were nearly full in order to fill it the rest of the way up.

Most park owners that I have spoken with on the subject, offer the PA or the Happy Camper discounts to bring in customers when they are mostly empty!  

[bigjim]

Sometimes there are local issues we are not aware of.  I know at least one area  that try to get people that are staying at least 90 days due to local taxes.  The one I am in now leans toward long termers for that reason. His taxes are much higher on each spot that is less than 3 mo. especially daily and the paperwork involved is a bit more troublesome.  I have stayed here fairly often and didn't know it for several years.  Another issue that hit him a few years back is he got hit by a new fee for emergency services based on the number of electrical meters he has. If he had individual meters at each site he would have had to bump rates significantly.

I really would like to have some inexpensive no hook up sites for overnight but I get that if they don't make enough they are gone altogther and I can't call that greedy.  If they try to knock out all other competition for free parking overnight then I have a different view.

I don't use PA but I think I am correct that many parks have a limited no. of days on the front end. I have found that to be true with SKP discount parks I have used.

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, bigjim said:

I don't use PA but I think I am correct that many parks have a limited no. of days on the front end.

Some do. Some offer unlimited days. Some offer only weeknights. Some only offer off-season. You have to check on each park to see what their terms are. Fortunately PA's website is easy to navigate to get this information.

One park I stayed at several times only offered PA discounts on weeknights but they gave me 10% off for my AARP card on weekends. At that park I just laid all my discount cards on the counter and asked them to pick what would get me the best deal. I never would have guessed AARP would have been one of them.

Linda Sand

[bigjim]

I doubt I have as much experience with commercial parks or cards as Linda but often the person checking me in has done exactly as Linda stated and picked which one will help me best.  IE there are a couple of local stores that do  a senior discount on one day and a veterans discount on another and they will use whichever one is best.

[SWharton]

We have found that the PA discount is negotiable. Many times we will call and ask if we can get the PA discount on a non-discount day and the answer is yes. I always take what is written in the PA book as a guideline, not cast in concrete.

Years ago, when we wrote checks at businesses there would be a sign "no checks". It was just CYA so they could refuse your check if you looked questionable.