RFT Federal Tax $8 at Holly, MI KOA

[Superslif]

I have seen at a few higher end campgrounds an added charge called a "resort fee". One of the campgrounds was a KOA in the Smoky's...

Not to get off subject, in our local paper there was a front page article called "fee fatigue" or Banking "fee creep". Talked about new "fees" being added from your cell phone, electric, gas bill to banking fees...

I just think KOA's or whoever are thinking if owners of higher end RV's can afford multi 100k RV's surely an extra $8 a night they would blink an eye.

A few years back a campground charged me a "bed tax"...The problem I had with that is I was bringing the "BED"? I think it was 4% or 8%.

[Dunner]

You see a lot of those extra fees on cell phone bills.

[CaptBill]

Originally Posted by Kdjay

When reserving sites in Michigan State Parks on the DNR site, there is an $8.00 non-refundable reservation fee. If you made a reservation online, I wonder if it was through the same system that the DNR uses. If so, that would explain the 8.00 fee. Did you make your reservation online or did you call the KOA directly?

Would you pay an $8 reservation fee for each night of your stay? e.g., you book for a week; are you OK with a $56 reservation fee?

[Pepper2]

We live in M.I. and go camping almost every weekend. Mostly privately owned,state and city parks. We have never seen a $8 tax charge. We have seen $8 reservation fee's for the State parks, but only one charge for the reservation, not a nightly charge. The State parks have a private company that handles reservations.

[focker]

Well I took it upon myself to call the Holly MI KOA and nail down what that fee was to satisfy my curiosity.
First she said it was a tax, so I pressed on to ask what government agency the tax was paid to and she than admitted it was a fee they sent to the corporate office of KOA. I pressed further and asked if it was really a franchise fee and not a tax and she said yes. She said the corporate KOA charges a fee and they decided to break it out on the bill. I told her that telling people it was a Federal Tax was just plain wrong to do and she didn't know what to say.
My interpretation of this is that KOA corporate must charge a fee for each day a site is rented and instead of the Holly MI KOA calling it what it is OR even better just charging a flat rate for the night they are playing foolish games with the invoice customers receive. I would have to guess they thought it would be better to claim it is a tax so people will think the rates are lower and the government is responsible.
Next call when I have time is to KOA corporate...

[RickO]

Originally Posted by focker

Well I took it upon myself to call the Holly MI KOA and nail down what that fee was to satisfy my curiosity.
First she said it was a tax, so I pressed on to ask what government agency the tax was paid to and she than admitted it was a fee they sent to the corporate office of KOA. I pressed further and asked if it was really a franchise fee and not a tax and she said yes. She said the corporate KOA charges a fee and they decided to break it out on the bill. I told her that telling people it was a Federal Tax was just plain wrong to do and she didn't know what to say.
My interpretation of this is that KOA corporate must charge a fee for each day a site is rented and instead of the Holly MI KOA calling it what it is OR even better just charging a flat rate for the night they are playing foolish games with the invoice customers receive. I would have to guess they thought it would be better to claim it is a tax so people will think the rates are lower and the government is responsible.
Next call when I have time is to KOA corporate...

Thanks for the follow up. What a crock!

I'm guessing somewhere there's a law against a merchant telling customers that they are collecting tax money for the feds when they knew all along that wasn't true.

I think your assessment of the situation is right on.

Rick

[motohomer]

Holly-Crap!
KOA corporate gets $8 a night, no wonder the rates are so high.

[NLOVNIT]

Thanks for the persistence, focker.

Well, now that any iRV2 member who reads this thread knows the Holly, MI KOA is passing a corp tax onto it's customers as a federal tax, there will be even FEWER of us staying at that KOA (& carefully scrutinizing/asking questions of any future bills for any KOA's elsewhere we happen to stay).

Ahhhh, the power of internet forums!

Lori-

P.S. @TeJay - If you want, I would be happy to move this out of the Winnebago Forum & put it as a sticky at the top of the Camping Locations & Information Forum for greater exposure on this topic. This way more members, outside of Winnebago owners, will see it & beware.

[chuckinthebus]

Originally Posted by focker

Well I took it upon myself to call the Holly MI KOA and nail down what that fee was to satisfy my curiosity.
First she said it was a tax, so I pressed on to ask what government agency the tax was paid to and she than admitted it was a fee they sent to the corporate office of KOA. I pressed further and asked if it was really a franchise fee and not a tax and she said yes. She said the corporate KOA charges a fee and they decided to break it out on the bill. I told her that telling people it was a Federal Tax was just plain wrong to do and she didn't know what to say.
My interpretation of this is that KOA corporate must charge a fee for each day a site is rented and instead of the Holly MI KOA calling it what it is OR even better just charging a flat rate for the night they are playing foolish games with the invoice customers receive. I would have to guess they thought it would be better to claim it is a tax so people will think the rates are lower and the government is responsible.
Next call when I have time is to KOA corporate...

Break out in the bill may also be the way they have it set up for accounting purposes.

[ronjhall]

I checked out Holly KOA for reservations on the KOA site. Regardless of what site I selected they all had a RFT charge of $8 per night. But it does not show up as a Tax. It is a per night charge. I checked several other KOA's in MI. None of them had a RFT charge. Holly's per night rate with RFT seems to be inline with what similar KOA's in MI charge.

[topdownman]

Someone please post a review on campgroundreviews.com noting this added "tax".

[focker]

Originally Posted by motohomer

Holly-Crap!
KOA corporate gets $8 a night, no wonder the rates are so high.

We don't know that for sure so please don't think it is set in stone, just what the same person that said it is a Federal Tax said.

In other news I called KOA corporate and after speaking with customer service I was connected to a person in the accounting office named Judy (who I should mention was very pleasant), and she offered to look into this further for me and give me a straight answer. She asked if I would send a copy via fax email of the bill that TeJay received from the KOA they would give me an honest answer. Not sure how to proceed, TeJay are you interested in getting more info?

[wa8yxm]

One thing, when they call a corporate fee a Federal Tax.. Someone should notify the federal taxing authority (Treasury) that is fraud and misrepresentation. IT is a crime in all fifty states and in this case may be a federal crime. (I am not a lawyer and do not know)

Telling the truth is always the best idea for honest folks.

Lying, is what CROOKS do (and one other class of person we are not allowed to talk about here.. Though there are those who seem to think they are Crooks too, no comment from me on that.. I've helped convict one or two)

[garykk]

Originally Posted by RickO

Thanks for the follow up. What a crock!

I'm guessing somewhere there's a law against a merchant telling customers that they are collecting tax money for the feds when they knew all along that wasn't true.

I think your assessment of the situation is right on.

Rick

Its called Fraud and I'm sure the Att. General of that State would like to know.