A KOA trying to be a resort? - this is the best summary I can come up with. Read on if you want to know why. -1 Star for the harassment and lack of knowledge on vehicles. -1 Star for giving me an anxiety attack after having driven from Atlanta to stay here for an entire week to relax and suddenly thinking my $$$$’s, drive down, and reservation notes were for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The Bad: Upon our arrival which was about 25 minutes before check-in, I pulled up to the front office in our Sportchassis truck, towing our 45’ triple axle 5th wheel. A detail that I specifically made note of in our reservation. A woman comes racing up alongside in a golf cart stating, “you can’t stay here, or bring that in here, it’s a commercial vehicle and that’s not allowed!” as I was getting out of the truck, to discover the office is closed from 1-2pm, check in is 2pm. I apologized first for being early and politely said, “ma’am this is not a commercial vehicle, it’s a special made luxury hauler with a heavy duty pick-up truck recreational vehicle registration for pulling our 5th wheel, there’s many of them out there”. It is also clearly marked “Private - Not for Hire” on both sides of the truck, there are no DOT or IFTA numbers on the truck either. She relented a bit and said “well you can’t park it here, maybe somewhere else, where would you park it anyway?” To that triple whammy, I said, “in front of our 5th wheel, just under it like I imagine anyone else would” with a shrug. I guess she realized her error, then she says, “well, ok I can see it’s not for commercial use, and I’m a new manager here” to which I again reinforced, that “I specifically made notes on our reservation stating exactly what we have, with special requests for site size, etc due to our length, and if there was any problem with it, you all should have immediately called me”. Having gotten past that and no apologies, we got our site, set-up and the rest of the stay was generally pleasant for a KOA, except… It is really apparent when your neighbors and many others walking by to do the campground chatter thing all share their stories of the harassment level enforcement taking place. I truly understand wanting to keep the place nice and clean, those efforts are paying off, but this is NOT A RESORT. When you run around bothering everyone about no riding motorcycles, don’t leave that bag on the ground, don’t let your kids talk too loud, and on and on, you very quickly become weary of every little thing you do and that is NOT relaxing, or camping in my opinion, it’s as bad or worse than dealing with the wicked witch living down the street in your HOA neighborhood. The Good: It’s nice, clean, the mechanicals (hook-ups) are in excellent condition, our site was super long, and I have to admit the staff are at least polite. In closure: I do not come to KOA’s for resort level harassment. I come for an experience that is an easy, pleasant stay that is NOT ANXIETY INDUCING. This is exactly why I use KOA’s, for a set of standards and expectations. Are there poorly managed KOA’s out there that probably should not be KOA’s? Yes. This KOA isn’t one of those, but ownership should run in the middle of the rules because that’s the KOA expectation. Not trailer park trashy, yet you’re not a resort by any means and should be accepting - or perhaps better put: non-discriminatory. 10 year age rule on RV’s? That’s a RESORT type discriminatory rule, not a KOA rule and I have never, ever seen it at a KOA before now and I’ve been staying at KOA’s since the days of Family Circus (30 years or more now?). I usually refuse to stay anywhere with that rule, and we are clearly new enough - but that’s not the point, it’s about the discriminatory posture you present. No commercial vehicles, or tractors? Ok - but know your vehicles and you need to define it better - WHAT COMMERCIAL CLASS TRACTOR is not permitted (Class 8, 7)? My truck, a professionally converted Sportchassis (Class 5) is not a commercial tractor like over the road truck driver type rigs which is what I think you really mean to prevent.
3 años ace