Reserved Campground Site Stealing?

Shrimpie · 06-12-2024, 04:57 PM

We are new. How common is it to pull into an RV park to find someone has snuck in and taken your reserved space? Happened last week and the owner of the travel trailer would not come to the door for management. The park was able to find us a space down the road. I was steamed.

rk911 · 06-12-2024, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrimpie

We are new. How common is it to pull into an RV park to find someone has snuck in and taken your reserved space? Happened last week and the owner of the travel trailer would not come to the door for management. The park was able to find us a space down the road. I was steamed.

Never happened to us in 35-36 years.

**creativepart** · 06-12-2024, 09:52 PM

Never seen that. But it doesn’t totally surprise me.

Shame.

Once we pulled into a CG without a reservation and were given a site by the owner. We pulled in and got fully set up when that owner came and told us she made a mistake and we had to move… right now. Seems she forgot someone had reserved that exact site and so we had to move.

Normally we would have left immediately but it was getting late and there were not good options elsewhere. So demanded a refund and moved to another site.

Weird stuff happens out there.

**Eagle5** · 06-12-2024, 11:21 PM

Hi Shrimpie,
Sounds very much like all of the House Squatting we have been hearing about. I wonder if the guy just kept staying there, or pulled-out the next morning without paying. I wonder what Park Management will do to handle situations like this?
Eagle5
... on the lighter side, here is:

House Squatters

Shrimpie · 06-13-2024, 09:29 AM

I guess you just never know! We are about to head home to AL from WA.....will be doing our first Harvest Host stays on the way back.

Morich · 06-13-2024, 10:20 AM

Sounds like a campground management problem of one of two sorts?
We have never had anybody "sneak" into a reserved site but we have found a site full and the desk had made an error!
Or the second more complicated idea might be that the management has totally lost control of their campground and don't know how to enforce even the most basic rules!

We had rental property for ages and one thing we had to learn was how to "help" folks understand the rules! We once had a fellow who insisted He would decide who parked where! But he changed his mind as well as his address once he finished paying the tow bill to get his car back!
In a campground a tow truck showing up seems like it might move the trailer to the proper spot!
Either way, management failure!

Bo Walker · 06-19-2024, 04:22 PM

I had a camper do me like that once. He knew he was in the wrong site (a nicer one) but suggested I take the next one. I didn't make a fuss. I don't know if he told management we swapped or not.

ldfeat · 06-19-2024, 05:56 PM

Happened to us with city campground reserved on Friday afternoon online. Got to our assigned campground and there was a large family with a large 5th wheel, 4 dogs, small kids a boat, the whole nine yards. He said they reserved that spot. City was closed so no one to verify. I printed out our reservation paperwork and when he saw me walking over with paper in hand, he surrendered right away and moved out. Larry, 2014 Reyo P

BVThunder · 06-19-2024, 06:07 PM

Haven't had this happen to us in 20 years, BUT on more than one occasion I've pulled in to find that the site I specifically rented had been rented to someone else. Steamed me just the same, but at the end of a long day what can you do?

cruizerEd · 06-19-2024, 06:19 PM

The private parks I've been to the owner would have called the police in a heartbeat. If the guy was squatting on your site that means he didn't pay . Something about this doesn't seem consistent. Did the other party steal the site or pay for the site? If they didn't pay letting them stay seems very strange. If they did pay then why didn't the owner tell you that?

rreynolds51 · 06-19-2024, 07:06 PM

We had something similar at a California state campground. We had a reserved spot and when we pulled in a couple from Holland were in our spot. For whatever reason they liked out spot better than the one they had reserved a few slots over. We talked about it and we just took their spot since we were leaving on the same day. Ugh..

Mtn Charlie · 06-19-2024, 08:39 PM

The only problem that I have ever encountered was at an Army Corps campground. Check-out time was at noon, but when I arrived at 3:00 PM, the previous resident was still there with no means to move their trailer. Park management had contacted the local sherrif to cite the offending campers for trespass, but it took until 6:00 PM to get the offending trailer off site and impounded.

Blue Sky · 06-20-2024, 02:40 AM

If you show up with a reservation at a public or private campground, and there is "something/anything" on your site, it should be removed by management ASAP - immediately if not sooner is the old-fashioned expression. Anything less is an infringement on you.

If it's an RV, tow it; if it's a tent drag it off to the side. In those RARE situations where there are legitimate circumstances you might want to offer certain considerations - but you don't have to. It's managements situation to deal with.

Tireman9 · 06-25-2024, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrimpie

We are new. How common is it to pull into an RV park to find someone has snuck in and taken your reserved space? Happened last week and the owner of the travel trailer would not come to the door for management. The park was able to find us a space down the road. I was steamed.

All you can do is post on a few of the RV Campground Review websites with the name of the campground.

Mark224 · 06-29-2024, 03:45 AM

Never had this but had a neighboring group park their cars on the site I rented ( they were a rather unruly bunch that Law Enforcement got called on later in the week by the park) I started backing the trailer I had and they started scrambling to move their vehicles. I see what they were like and wasn't even considering confronting them and they just moved on to another empty site to which another had to get them moved . Legally the Campground can't move the other persons trailer/ motorhome / car, according to the Law. They can get Law Enforcement involved and have them charged with Theft of services. Meanwhile you sit and wait for your site and get annoyed. Seems there are way too many that will do things such as this anymore the blatant disregard for acceptable rules. They later in the week were told to leave the park because of the things they were doing. One of their teenage kids was walking around flipping picknick tables over and destroying things.

KC · 07-03-2024, 01:14 PM

I was at a private Campground at an amusment park (not Disney). Check out time was noon, check in was 1pm. At 145pm I walked to where our spot and found that the people that had been using the spot the night before had not even start to pick up to leave. . As I was going to say something to people using my spot the Park's own Police department showed up, telling us they got it. I walked back to our rig. With in 10 mins I saw the there rig pull into the day use spot to park. The Police officer informed them they were done at the park and told them he was escorting them out.