RV Park Reviews.... Red River Valley Fairgrounds

[FL-JOE]

18 hours ago, orca said:

A website doing reviews on rv parks should have some way of reporting odd charges, such as a pet fee or a per child fee or even charge for showers.  The reason for using such a website is so we are not suprised by such outragous charges when we arrive at the park.  Calling all the parks in an area to ask a list of questions is just not practical when all the info you need should be on the review website!

So, if I understand you correctly, when you travel you look up some parks in the target area and then just show up at one?  How has that worked for you so far?  Have you ever arrived and they don't have a spot for you?  I find it hard to believe that most traveling RVers don't telephone the park they plan on staying at in advance.

I only use some different sites for a guide to locate parks and narrow it down.  Any specific information I need has to come from a telephone call to the park.  Rates change, park rules change, heck even places get storm damage and may not even be open or in business any more.   

[chirakawa]

8 hours ago, orca said:

The idea of an rv park review site is to put as much information in front of a user as possible. If i have to wade through a dozen written reviews to find out if pets are allowed i will move to another easier to use site. That is why there is a standard list of amenities on the review site in question. Do most people understand the check mark, the"x" mark or the gray box? I am not rocket surgeon but i do understand check mark good, x mark not good! Dollar $ sign must mean i pay extra!

What's a "rocket surgeon"?

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, docj said:

One additional consideration is that more and more of our reviewers are writing reviews on mobile devices

Which brings a question from Pam...  Does RV Park Reviews have a cell phone app or have plans to add one? 

Just as a footnote, I have added two more park reviews since this all began, which is to say that my suggestion was an attempt to make better, not to derail. I would also point out that the RV Park site now allows the uploading of pictures (they have caught up with the other site that I use on that score) and suggest that we all take time to upload one as "pictures say more than words."  In the case of Red River, I drove by and took a picture of their fee sign and uploaded that picture to the review of that location so if one checks the pictures it is now there. I was surprised to discover that you do not have to write a review or stay in a park to upload a picture of that park. 

[docj]

16 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

Does RV Park Reviews have a cell phone app or have plans to add one? 

RVPR has had apps for both iOS and Android for several years.  

[mptjelgin]

13 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

I would also point out that the RV Park site now allows the uploading of pictures (they have caught up with the other site that I use on that score) and suggest that we all take time to upload one as "pictures say more than words." 

I suppose each of us is looking for different things, but user pictures don't add much value for me. Most folks post a picture of their site with an RV or tent sitting on it. Some will add pictures of their kids in the pool, etc. Pictures like that add little to the site. 

For me the list of park features, amenities, etc. across the top, along with reviews and ratings are what gives me the information that I am looking for. Once I've used that info to narrow down my selection, I will go to the campground website or a call to determine any specific details that I need. RVPR is a filtering tool for me, not the final step. 

[trailertraveler]

4 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

...So, if I understand you correctly, when you travel you look up some parks in the target area and then just show up at one?  How has that worked for you so far?  Have you ever arrived and they don't have a spot for you?...Rates change, park rules change, heck even places get storm damage and may not even be open or in business any more...   

After the first year of extensive travel in 2004, I gave up on making cold stops. The waste of time and fuel to divert from a route only to find a park/campground full, closed or with no sites we could fit in made calling ahead seem like a good idea. Even Walmarts may change their policy on overnight stays.

While popular parks in popular areas get enough reviews to have some current ones, there are many parks that have not had a review in years. In our trip North through the Mid-Atlantic states this Spring, I encountered several parks that had not been reviewed in 2-3 years. A park in Montana that I added in 2010 has not had a single additional review.

A little off topic, but as we travel, we  encounter parks that are not listed in RV Park Reviews or other directory type sites. If we don't stay there, we can not review them. However, I have noted some listings in RV Park Reviews that do not have any reviews. I am curious how these parks got a listing?

[docj]

16 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

However, I have noted some listings in RV Park Reviews that do not have any reviews. I am curious how these parks got a listing?

Fairly recently, we have begun to add parks without reviews when requested by owners or others.  I think that some of this came about through the integration of RVPR with RVTripWizard which is a paid subscription service also owned by Social Knowledge LLC. We see no harm in informing people about a park even if we don't currently have reviews for it.

20 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

I encountered several parks that had not been reviewed in 2-3 years.

Even though this is obvious, I'll say it anyway.  RVPR posts those reviews it gets from our users.  We wish all parks could have current reviews but with nearly 17,000 CG's and parks in the database there's no guarantee that any particular park will have a recent review.

[remoandiris]

10 hours ago, orca said:

 If i have to wade through a dozen written reviews to find out if pets are allowed i will move to another easier to use site. 

And there ya go.  You have options.  

[Mr. Camper]

3 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

Which brings a question from Pam...  Does RV Park Reviews have a cell phone app or have plans to add one? 

Just as a footnote, I have added two more park reviews since this all began, which is to say that my suggestion was an attempt to make better, not to derail. I would also point out that the RV Park site now allows the uploading of pictures (they have caught up with the other site that I use on that score) and suggest that we all take time to upload one as "pictures say more than words."  In the case of Red River, I drove by and took a picture of their fee sign and uploaded that picture to the review of that location so if one checks the pictures it is now there. I was surprised to discover that you do not have to write a review or stay in a park to upload a picture of that park. 

Perhaps RVPR can consider holding a contest to see which reviewer can post the best photo of a campground...Oh wait, that was previously suggested and not considered professional.  Never mind.

[trailertraveler]

1 hour ago, docj said:

...Fairly recently, we have begun to add parks without reviews when requested by owners or others...We see no harm in informing people about a park even if we don't currently have reviews for it...

I wasn't being critical, just wondering how it happened and how to do it when I find  a park that is out in the middle of no where and is not listed in any directory or review site I can find.

1 hour ago, docj said:

...Even though this is obvious, I'll say it anyway.  RVPR posts those reviews it gets from our users.  We wish all parks could have current reviews but with nearly 17,000 CG's and parks in the database there's no guarantee that any particular park will have a recent review...

Again, not being critical of RV Park Reviews, just trying to make the point that the information listed may not be current and that a phone call is cheap insurance against wasting time and fuel chasing down campgrounds that won't workout.

[docj]

2 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

I wasn't being critical, just wondering how it happened and how to do it when I find  a park that is out in the middle of no where and is not listed in any directory or review site I can find.

If you encounter a park that is not in our database you are welcome to bring it to our attention via the Contact RVPR link that you can find on the bottom of every page of our site.   Please provide as much information as you can so we can correctly identify the park.  

[Kirk W]

6 hours ago, docj said:

We wish all parks could have current reviews but with nearly 17,000 CG's and parks in the database there's no guarantee that any particular park will have a recent review.

Any idea how many review contributors the site has? While it probably helps to remind folks here to take time to do a review at each park that they visit, I doubt that we are a very large share of the reviewers. I try to always give a review to both of the review services that I use at every park we spend a night at. None of these services will be any better than the support given by users. 

[docj]

2 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

Any idea how many review contributors the site has?

There's no way for me to get the system to tell me how many registered users we have, but the last time I asked the question I was told  that it was more than 50,000.  But the number of active users who post multiple reviews each year is significantly smaller.  Maybe as we get more younger reviewers who are accustomed to posting social reviews the percentage of active reviewers will increase.

[remoandiris]

8 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

I wasn't being critical, just wondering how it happened and how to do it when I find  a park that is out in the middle of no where and is not listed in any directory or review site I can find.

The system also allows you to add a park not in the database.  Once you login, go to the top of the page and click on "Add Review or Park".  Then follow the instructions.  I've done it a couple times.

[trailertraveler]

28 minutes ago, remoandiris said:

The system also allows you to add a park not in the database.  Once you login, go to the top of the page and click on "Add Review or Park".  Then follow the instructions.  I've done it a couple times.

I have done this a number of times over the past 14 years, but never for a park I did not stay in and could not review. Does the method you describe work if you do not include a review?

[docj]

30 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

Does the method you describe work if you do not include a review?

Yes, we will consider including a park even if you haven't stayed at it.  You can't post a review without staying there, but that's not inconsistent with telling us there's a park we don't have in the database.

[DKRITTER]

I regularly use several websites and apps that primarily derive their information from user input. It is very much an inexact science so separating the wheat from the chaff is paramount. 

Waze is invaluable to me almost daily it has saved me over and over but good lord is it inaccurate. It's well worth sifting through for the little nuggets.

Gasbuddy is another I usually find it to be accurate but on a regular basis it's not. Sometimes I think it's intentionally incorrect from either an individual or a competitor.

RVParkReviews is our #1 RV Park resource it tends to be pretty much on top of all the parks we visit. Is it perfect,  not even close but is almost always better than the others.

The greatest thing about all of these things and the worst thing about all these things are they all count on user input. So as they say, buyer beware.