Top Five Campground Pet Peeves

I have a handful of pet peeves about campground owners, the process of making reservations, and how their campgrounds are maintained!

1. No website, or terrible website. 

Come on, it’s 2018 for Pete’s sake! Have a campground website. Not a website your nephew made in 1998, not a fan club run Facebook page. I want to visit a website and see photos of the place, I want to see what amenities are offered and I want easy access to the rates and rules. Bonus points if I can check availability and book online. Also, your brochure scanned into a very low resolution photo does not a website make. DO BETTER. I’m starting to think this is a real business opportunity! Campground owners; contact me – I can build your website on trade!

Prairie Island Campground is hands down the best website I’ve come across so far. It’s gorgeous, intuitive AND I can book my site online and even add firewood to the order. I’m Gen X, I can handle talking on the phone, but I’d rather not. A lot of Millennial’s will simply skip your business if they have to pick up the phone and talk to a human. Remember, the oldest Millennial’s are 36 years old, they’re not kids anymore – you could be missing a lot of potential customers.

2. Rude or aloof people on the phone.

It seems like running a campground is an older persons’ game, maybe it’s a retirement job. I notice most campground managers/owners live on site. But just because you live there and know most of the seasonal campers, doesn’t mean this should be your personal phone number; it’s still a business. I once called to make a camping reservation on the way home from a previous trip, so it was Sunday around 10 am. The woman answered the phone “Hello?” and proceeded to scold me that she couldn’t help me with reservations right now, she was on the way to church! I mean, adorable, but unprofessional. I also hate it when I call to make a reservation and they’re booked, so the person on the other side of line simply says “nope, nothing available; bye.” Rude.

3. Doggie Discrimination 

Once upon a time, German Shepherds like these two were deemed dangerous. Today they’re just dangerously good-looking!

Look, I get it; this is a rule mostly dictated by insurance companies. But there is nothing inherently dangerous about Pit Bulls, Dobermans or Rottweilers and banning them from your campground is basically doggie racism. (No, take those itchy fingers out of my comments section; your pseudoscience nonsense on Pit Bull bites are not welcome here and it’s scientifically inaccurate).  In recent history, German Shepherds were categorized as a dangerous breed, but now they’re recognized as loving family dogs. Abuse and neglect can cause any dog to be dangerous, but they’re not born that way. I hope insurance companies see this soon and campgrounds update their policies.

4. Technology challenged

Again, it’s 2018. Your campground should accept credit card payments. If that means you need to raise the price five-percent, then raise the price; we all understand there is a service fee for processing credit card payments. Accepting credit cards protects you from bounced checks and saves me the trouble of finding my dusty checkbook.

And I personally don’t care if you offer WiFi or not, but if you say you do, make sure that’s true. If you claim it’s available at all the campsites, it needs to be available at all the campsites. If I have to stand in the middle of the road with my cell phone raised above my head to get the WiFi signal, you don’t really offer it all sites. And if you do offer WiFi, make it password protected, but share that password with campers as we check-in. Don’t make me come back to the desk and ask for the password later.

5. Poorly maintained location and facilities

Campgrounds aren’t hotels, there isn’t a housekeeping crew on staff, I get that. But nothing is worse than getting to my campsite to find garbage left behind, chicken bones in the fire pit, or muddy tire tracks where the last guy got stuck and spun out for an hour (yep, those are all things that we’ve seen.)

And then, when we use the public bathroom and showers, I expect them to be clean, well-lit, and private. I don’t want a bathroom stall that only comes up to my forehead when I’m sitting on the toilet; this is not the time or place to make new friends. I expect the shower curtain to not be covered in mold or mildew. And is it really too much to ask that the hot water handle produces hot water?

Your thoughts?

What do you think? Do I expect too much? What are your pet peeves at campgrounds? Leave us a comment!