CampResorts and campground memberships?

[Firefighter Mickey]

Has anyone had any experiences with the CampResorts company which is selling campground memberships? If I understand correctly, these are repo'd memberships that are being resold.

I'm fairly familiar with how timesharing works (we own 2), but know very little about campground memberships. Can someone explain how this works? Is this a deeded property deal similar to timeshares? If not, what is it that you are purchasing? Do you get a fixed number of days, or what?

Thanks!

2001 Keystone-Elkhart Laredo 29BH See our rig!
2001 Silverado 2500HD, Crew cab, 4x4, Vortec 8100, Allison, 4.10 gear, LT trim

[Firefighter Mickey]

Has anyone had any experiences with the CampResorts company which is selling campground memberships? If I understand correctly, these are repo'd memberships that are being resold.

I'm fairly familiar with how timesharing works (we own 2), but know very little about campground memberships. Can someone explain how this works? Is this a deeded property deal similar to timeshares? If not, what is it that you are purchasing? Do you get a fixed number of days, or what?

Thanks!

2001 Keystone-Elkhart Laredo 29BH See our rig!
2001 Silverado 2500HD, Crew cab, 4x4, Vortec 8100, Allison, 4.10 gear, LT trim

[Firefighter Mickey]

Been doing some research - feel free to comment on any part of this offering corrections or whatever. There seems to be lots of info on the benefits of membership resorts, but very little info on the nuts-and-bolts of how it works at a resort, which leads me to suspect that it probably varies significantly from resort to resort.
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What is membership camping?

Membership camping is similar to Timeshares, in that you purchase a membership at a particular camping resort. This membership entitles you to stay at the resort (your "Home" resort) for a certain amount of time each year. Time limits vary from resort to resort??? In addition to the initial purchase fee, you pay annual dues to the resort (again, similar to Timeshares), like the initial purchase or membership fee, annual dues vary from resort to resort. Many resorts also belong to a reciprocal exchange program which allows you to stay at other resorts for a minimal nightly fee. Unlike Timeshares, memberships do not appear to be secured with a real estate interest??? Membership resorts are typically "For Members Only" and do not normally allow public camping (with the exception of trying to attract new members to join the resort).

1. Decide which reciprocal exchange program is best for you; each program varies in the yearly costs, in the services offered, and in the resorts affiliated with the program.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>RPI - Resort Parks International; $5/night at affiliate resorts; toll free reservation service ($2 charge for each confirmed reservation); Initial fee is determined by Home Resort - yearly renewal fee is $50; cannot stay at affiliates closer than 125 air miles to your home resort; each affiliate must make a certain percentage of spaces available for non-home visitors. RPI's parent company also owns NACO (see below) and RPI members may stay at NACO resorts.
<LI>Coast To Coast - $x/night at affiliate resorts; has an additional 600 public campground affiliates that offer rates of $11/night; 2 levels of membership - deluxe and classic; Yearly cost ???;
<LI>Thousand Trails & NACO - $x/night at affiliate preserves; yearly cost ???[/list]2. Purchasing your Home Resort Membership
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Find a Home Resort that participates in one or more of the reciprocal exchange programs that you are interested in, and purchase a membership. New Memberships average $4000 and annual dues vary from resort to resort but average $250/year.
<LI>Investigate a Membership Resale. At least a few companies exist that help existing members sell their membership (similar to a Timeshare resale); depending, savings on a resale can be significant. In addition, memberships can sometimes be purchased directly from the existing member, or sometimes the resort itself will assist a member in selling their membership.
<LI>Purchase from a developer broker. Purchase prices here usually run about 70% less than the purchase price of a new membership, and typically annual dues may be lower. What you are usually purchasing is a repossessed membership that the developer wishes to sell. The broker will match a prospective client up with a resort that is not in the clients home state; thus the resort/developer has a good chance that the member will never actually visit the home resort, and so annual dues will be lower.[/list]
2001 Keystone-Elkhart Laredo 29BH See our rig!
2001 Silverado 2500HD, Crew cab, 4x4, Vortec 8100, Allison, 4.10 gear, LT trim

[Firefighter Mickey]

Well, I found out some more specific info for one of the memberships that I've been looking at. At the risk of boring people, I'll share some more of the details.

For this particular deal - the membership is very like a lifetime membership in a health club. You pay an initial up-front fee and commit to paying annual dues. The annual dues have been negotiated to be lower than normal because the resort you are purchasing at is not near your home - thus the resort can be fairly certain that they will rarely, if ever have you visit. In addition to giving you the ability to stay at your home resort, the membership also gives you access to RPI (assuming you join RPI) and because the parent company of RPI also owns NACO and Thousand Trails, you can also stay at those resorts/preserves. You can stay at an affiliate resort for up to 2 weeks per resort per year; for an RPI resort the rate is $5/night. The membership can be willed, sold or transfered and in this case can apparently be cancelled (but I've not seen the fine print in the contract). In the case of the company making these memberships available, a warrenty is included which will replace your membership if your home resort is ever removed from RPI.

It looks like there may be a few variations on this theme, which is what initially had me confused. Some memberships may be limited in time. In some cases, you may actually be purchasing a real estate interest in the campground.

Potential drawbacks - a number (I don't know how large a number) of the RPI resorts only allow first-come first-served and do not take reservations. Supposedly a percentage of the sites at a particular resort are supposed to be only used for RPI, but, it's not clear how large a percentage that is. Some resorts do allow reservations, but then there's an RPI booking fee, which does add $2. It also appears that some of the RPI affiliated resorts do not allow RPI stays on the major holiday weekends.

2001 Keystone-Elkhart Laredo 29BH See our rig!
2001 Silverado 2500HD, Crew cab, 4x4, Vortec 8100, Allison, 4.10 gear, LT trim

[MrFixit454]

My Good friend dkevdog and my sister have been checking into this. I can post their results on searches as well if you like.

[wheelette]

We belong to Coast to Coast and have a home resort we love. We have saved a lot through the years and when we used a pop-up we would spend more on ice in a week then we did on camping. Now we have a TT and I still wouldn't change a thing. The advantage of a home resort is kind of like having a permanent spot but you don't. You get to know the other members, your kids develop friendships but you take your rig with you when you leave.