KOA, Good or Bad? Options

[easyrider65_01]

I am relatively new to owning an RV and I was wondering if KOAs as a whole are nice or if it better to stay non-franchise cg s. I f have stayed a few KOAs and I get the feeling that KOA does not monitor the cgs that are not in the more tourist areas. I plan on doing a lot of traveling and KOA has a great website to locate a cg. I hope that my poor experiences have been the exception rather than the norm. So, as a whole are KOAs to be avoided or enjoyed ?

[popup6]

I am a gold card KOA-er, and I have to say that I much prefer KOA's over private campgrounds.
I like the gift certificate idea they have, we get enough in gift certificates through out the year
to pay for a campsites for two weeks a year and earn credit toward our next gold card and the 15 per cent discount is a plus in our minds.

I feel with KOA's there is a standard that needs to be met and in my experience the KOA's that I have stayed in met or exceeded that standard, as opposed to the private ones in which I have had bad experiences on a whole. Yes you do pay a bit more to stay at a KOA as opposed to some of the private ones, but at least I know with a KOA that if I do have a problem and the owner/manager does not address it I can take it to the headquarters where I will be heard.and I don't mind paying extra for the amminities that KOA offers, there are not many places you can get a hotel for yourself and family for about 40 bucks a night and if you do find one I am sure
that the "guests" will be coming and going all day and night.

The only KOA that I found did not meet the standards set by KOA was Rapid City, but in consideration I was staying there it was jammed packed and Sturgus Bike Rally had just ended the day before, so it's not fair to judge the campground at that time due to that fact. The staff was working there tails off with a smile trying to keep everything up to par, the guests on the other hand were working just as hard to trash the place, I am sure if I had visited it a few weeks before or after it would of been much different.

I know that if Billings gets enough bad comments about a campground and the issues are not addressed that KOA will no longer carry the KOA name or depending on where it is located
it will be bought out and run by KOA such as the Virginia Beach KOA, and brought back up to the standards.

At private campgrounds I have run into to many owners who need major attitude adjustments
it's a chore to even check you in, some police the grounds like a jail warden. I had one yell at me because my 3 year old son found that the bathroom echo'd and it was 2 pm in the afternoon
and he was getting a kick out of saying Hi and hearing it said back, yet a seasonal camper
could blast there music well into the night and nothing was said.
I had one scream at us for the way we backing the camper in and I mean scream! No one showed us to our site and we sat there for about 5 to 10 minutes trying to decide which site was which, and just where the sites were as the distinction between the two was non exsistant, so we decided to give it a whirl, and the owner/staff must of been watching as soon as we got backed in (luckily we were not all set up) he came flying over on his golf cart and screamed
at us and then and only then in no uncertain terms told us where to put the camper.
Due to this I tend to shy away from private owned campgrounds.

[Sunflyer]

To each his own, but shying away from private campgrounds because of a few bad experiences.......well if you have a couple bad experiences at a KOA will you stop going to them?

One has only to look everyday at the new reviews coming in to see that private campgrounds appear to get 4-5 stars more often than the KOA's. A lot of private campgrounds must be doing something right in this consumer driven market.