Membership camping

[wa8yxm]

I will give you a PRO for Thousand Trails just now.. NOTE: TT has lost their RPI affilation.

First: a bit about RPI... To join RPI you must first join an RPI park.. now joining a membership campground (OTHER THAN THOUSAND TRAILS) is a bit like getting married.

"till death do you part"

You pay (normally) thousands of dollars and then you are stuck with annual dues every year, every year, every year, and so on till death do you part (or bankruptcy)

Then you can join RPI.. With RPI you can choose to "Drop" the membership and re-instate it if memory serves.

Now: Thousand Trails.. There are some very nasty rumors about TT which I won't go into but this is fact; They no longer SELL lifetime memberships.

They are selling ANNUAL memberships.

This is kind of like living with her for a year, and then deciding you don't much like her after all, and .. you walk away no penality, no problem, no annual dues.. Or not, your choice.. IT is the ultimate Try before you Buy.

Thus, If you are THINKING about membership camping.. and would like a "Trial" membership with no long term strings attached.. TT is the way to go

Oh, tell them 290500308 sent you please. Thanks.

[N.W.Gypsies]

not sure when you was in a T.T. park last but we stayed in one last month under R.P.I the park was very well kept and in excellent shape location was cottonwood Az. We have been full time for 7 yrs and have a membership park and have gotten at least 3x our moneys worth if one takes the price of buying in and the yearly dues and devide that by 365 to figure what the nightly rate is you might find that it is not as bad as some make it out to be. yes one need's to stand a firm ground to get down to the best deal just like buying a house, car, moterhome or any big ticket item. one can get thier money's worth only if you use it !!!

[twocoots]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

I will give you a PRO for Thousand Trails just now.. NOTE: TT has lost their RPI affilation.

First: a bit about RPI... To join RPI you must first join an RPI park.. now joining a membership campground (OTHER THAN THOUSAND TRAILS) is a bit like getting married.

"till death do you part"

You pay (normally) thousands of dollars and then you are stuck with annual dues every year, every year, every year, and so on till death do you part (or bankruptcy)

Then you can join RPI.. With RPI you can choose to "Drop" the membership and re-instate it if memory serves.

Now: Thousand Trails.. There are some very nasty rumors about TT which I won't go into but this is fact; They no longer SELL lifetime memberships.

They are selling ANNUAL memberships.

This is kind of like living with her for a year, and then deciding you don't much like her after all, and .. you walk away no penality, no problem, no annual dues.. Or not, your choice.. IT is the ultimate Try before you Buy.

Thus, If you are THINKING about membership camping.. and would like a "Trial" membership with no long term strings attached.. TT is the way to go

Oh, tell them 290500308 sent you please. Thanks.

TT and resorts of distinction ROD have parted ways. RPI is still available as reciprocal park with TT.

[wa8yxm]

Thank you for the correction.

As I said, there are some nasty rumors about what is forthcoming with TT, but if you decide to buy a 1-year "Zone pass" and as I describe it "Try before you buy" those rumors should not bother you at all.. This makes TT a good choice for someone "Considering".

[rf4]

We bought a lifetime membership in 05 for TT, thinking ahead for our future and full timing, we thought! TT has changed so many times since we joined, I actually called them and asked to see what we were paying for. They sent me a copy of our original contract - well, I already have a copy of that! I wanted to know what I am entitled to NOW, with all the changes. I still have had no response and I started this quest in June.

We have stayed in some nice parks, some 'decent' parks and some I would never return to. It's all a matter of choice. Here in Calif, we have many parks to choose from, so that works for us.

Would I buy a lifetime membership again? Probably not, but if I did, I certainly would be a resale - they are available everywhere for a fraction of the cost of what we paid.

I am disappointed that TT has opened the parks to the public. the biggest selling feature for us was the 'membership'. Most who have spent money on membership tend to treat the parks better, whereas in our experience, others do not. I did not want to see junky units parked in the premium spots. Please do not misunderstand, I am not a snob, heck our moho is 10 years old, but it is taken care of.

[DrScott]

Never considered the memberships. We usually go to State Parks and get the pass for them.

[lfdeluca2]

We are members of Resorts of Distinction as well as Thousand Trails and have affiliated memberships in C2C and AOR. All require membership in a home park and annual dues, and yes, each has its own set of rules and prices can vary greatly. The sheer number of programs can also be confusing and you do need to do your homework. What I can say, is none will be "bargain" priced on the purchase of the membership itself so be prepared. We have enjoyed everyone of the resorts that we have stayed at and do expect to use them heavily once we transition to full time. If you are a full timer or camp 21 or more days a year then these memberships can and do save you a substantial amount of money each and every year; if not then it is not likely that you will recover your investment. Best advice that I can share is check out the Resorts of Distinction network, they have worked out many of the shortcomings of the membership camping experience. Hope this helps.

[wa8yxm]

Memberships are great if you use them, Costly if you do not, Thanks to a pair of Camp Ground memberships for the last several years I have been parking for less than 100/month in the summer and 200 in the winter, Alas, it's now closer to 500 for a while due to a blown engine but that is still cheap when you compare it to say 35/night (around a kilo-buck)

Thousand Trails now offers the ZONE pass. this is a renewable one year membership, comes in basically 3 flavors

1: Single zone (Around 500-600 not sure)
2: Multi zone
3: Nationwide (About 2 grand)

And the renewal is around the cost of a single zone.

This gets you 30 night free and a small fee per night after that (Less than 10 bucks as I recall) My TT membership is an older lifetime one so my fee schedule is different.

[AZCactus]

We bought our first MH in April – started getting the ads and offers for “free” camping to listen to their spiel. Took their names and did online research with “reviews” by owners and also did Better Business Bureau reviews of ratings, complaints, and settlements. Looked at a couple of memberships as examples then went into the resale market sites, eBay, Craigslist, etc. – AMAZING how some people were willing to “sell” for just the owner transfer fee or just a few bucks additional just to get out from under their contracts. Some due to age, health, financial changes, or just plain lack of use of the specific locations.
It is personal choice to justify the costs and commitments. But generally it seems some of the owners I speak to always discuss what they get for the annual maintenance fee and it works out to only “$8.00 or $10.00” a night – fantastic – then I ask how much they paid for the membership… discussion usually changes LOL. Bottom-line do a lot of research BEFORE visiting for your “free” camping. Might be a great deal for you… or might not…

[Ramets]

I guess they're ok IF you travel where one of their parks might be. We don't, so it wouldn't do us any good. I would think you'd feel obligated to go where they have a park just because of the investment you made. Then you'd be going there every year. I really don't like returning to the same place twice. Too many places to go, and people to meet.