"permanent Guest", same Options

[zavsgran]

Why do a lot of reviewers complain about "Permanent Guests"? I think this is just pure snobbery!!!
I have permanents who are very good guests,more so than short term guests, i.e. School Teachers, College Professors, Policemen, Senators & Congressmen, just to name a few. The permanents are always very good neighbors who clean up after their dogs(pets) & keep there sites very nice, will maintain their own yards & enjoy being able to add their own beautiful landscaping, where the short term guests let their children & pets destroy trees & other landscaping & think it's my responsibility to clean up after them & their pets. I screen my permanents very carefully, I do not rent permanent space to anyone I think may be a problem to me or other guests! Unfortunately I would go bankrupt soon if I only rented to short term campers, especially in this economy! I would like to know how other RV Park & Campground Owners feel about complaints about "Permanent Guest"!

[fistymc]

I like this discussion A LOT since we've run into this weird issue a few times. We are full time, stay in one place anywhere from 2-4 months depending on our situation. I have experienced the "snobbery" of some parks where other long-term snowbirds or retirees shun my family because they think we are going to stay too long in "their" park. It's silly. We are a quiet family that chooses to live this way and put away several thousand dollars every month as we wait to buy our dream property.

We have a beautiful rig, keep our space neat and try to avoid the clique-ish nature of some locations. I can see both sides- I've seen some long term people who are downright trashing a camp but I've also seen caravans of hunters partying it up, being loud and destructive. They may only stay a few days, but their "footprint" lasts for weeks.

This past summer I was at a park where we had to go on a waitlist for a certain spot. The couple who was occupying the space comes every spring for 6-8 months and she has apparently been landscaping for the past 10 yrs. When word got out that we were on the list for the spot, she came to me with a bag of grass seed, fertilizer and written instructions on the upkeep of the site, lol. This was not a park that allows any of that but there's a sort of silent code among the 55+ crowd who go there. Because we moved into the best spot in the park, we had a lot of people suddenly coming to us with questions about how long we would stay, our plans, etc...what seems like a normal private non-membership park is sort of like a secret little club. Our young, unfamiliar family was not exactly welcome when people realized that we weren't just vacationing. The manager/owner is not a resident, but the camp host seems to run that place like it is his own personal backyard. So, even though that park doesn't allow full-time residency, it happens in a passive manner and there's really nothing anyone can do. We got the hint, were tired of gossip and rumors, stupid stuff like that and went elsewhere. I do think it is important to put the vibe in a review for this reason. Just because a park has lots of pretty rigs doesn't mean they're not full of jerks.