Coast To Coast...any feedback?

[paddler3d]

Hello All!

The wife and I went to our local RV show. We got a call a few days later letting us know we won '$500 of free camping!'...you just need to come take a tour and listen to our speal.

So they are selling memberships to their private campgrounds around the US and CA.

Private Campgrounds? Never heard of it. Timeshares for campgrounds. Honestly we were actually intrigued. In particular they were selling memberships for Coast to Coast.

Running the numbers if you camp a fair amount it is certainly cost effective.

I would like to hear about any thoughts/feelings/experiences that folks have.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[Jammer]

Lots of ways for those to end poorly. I don't know about Coast to Coast in particular but the problems with these as a group are:

1) often the maintenance is "jump started" with a cash infusion from the people who set these up and then is grossly underfunded so maintenance fees double or triple after the first year or two
2) Scheduling in some cases is a problem particularly at peak times
3) It is nearly impossible to cash out at any future point. Little or no secondary market for timeshares
4) The future management style may change, with adverse changes in density, amenities, scheduling, landscaping, etc.

Be careful.

[Air Apparent]

This has been discussed often on the Escapees site. See the link below.

Questions about Coast to Coast Parks - Escapees Discussion Forum

A coast to coast purchase is complicated as there are different variations and prices can vary by the home park you purchase from. I believe that there is a park in TN that sells the "Classic" membership for around $300. Do extensive research before you buy.

[moosetags]

Like anything "time share", it's about 40% scam.

Brian

[kevin242]

"...you just need to come take a tour and listen to our speal."

The sales pitch time is not preset. It ends when you hand over the check or your credit card... I have heard the sales people for time shares are relentless. If you DO decide to sign up for the sales pitch:

1. Go in having not showered for a week.
2. Have your Ipod on the whole time and don't remove the ear phones.
3. Eat lots of food that give you gas, and don't be discreet.
4. Ask to see their bylaws about keeping livestock & poultry, read them over and tell them "you don't think the bylaws would hold up in court"...
5. Wear really mis-matched clothes (eg. two different shoes), or an old torn wedding dress.
6. Slap at or try to grab imaginary flying insects when they are talking.
7. DON'T ever bring your check book, cash or a credit card.

Follow these tips, and their sales pitch might be short... and you would really have something to laugh about after.

[DreamStreamr]

We belonged to Passport America one year, saved greatly from it. Cost us $39 or $49 for the year, upfront. They sent us a password for online download of their participating sites, plus a printed handbook with current listings. We saved the entire year's fee in two stays, by getting 1/2 price at the campgrounds.

Didn't have any campgrounds renege on their participation. Sure, some campgrounds have blackouts on participating days or months, I would too. So we picked times and places it would help us to use this agreement we bought into.

Stayed not far from Charleston, SC, and got 1/2 price for two weeks stay. Stayed just south of Pinehurst, NC, and got 1/2 price for two or three days. Stayed in a really odd little place once, but the price was great and place okay for an overnight.

The next two years we chose not to subscribe because we don't expect to be looking for these places so wouldn't get the benefit. Another year, when we're just ambling about, it could make sense for us again.

I don't know but have heard Passport and Coast to Coast are similar but not identical.

Jim

[Airtandem]

Passport is honored by the Coast to Coast with limitations ie usually not week-ends or holidays,
Coast to Coast is a resort type of campground with alot of aminities. My membership entitles me to 14 days of "free" camping per month with additional nights at $20.00. The going rate is $50.00/nt full hook-up. $ varies with the type of membership Daily, seasonal and permiment. There is also a maint. fee of $40.00/mo.
One would have to look at the individual resorts to see their structure. I get the $20/nt at all rsorts.
Five years ago I went camping looking at local campgrounds and ended up 100 miles away as all were full and this was not a holiday and gas was$4.01/gal At this point I joines the resort, guaranteed place to camp.
Check them out, there might be a resort in your area and not necessarly a Coast to Coast that one might like.

[paddler3d]

Thanks for the input so far.

We didn't finish the sales pitch part yet. They said it would take 90 minutes and we had something else scheduled after that. We stuck around for around 1:45 and had to break it off / 'reschedule'.

We didn't get to talk about money. Only that 65% of the resorts available were $10 per night, 15% were $15 per night and the rest were 50% off per night.

From what we could gather, from listening to other pitches, so on so forth, they were talking in the thousands of dollars. I saw a spreadsheet from the group behind us and they had a $10,000 lifetime membership, there were putting $4998 down, financing the balance over 60 months at a 3.9% interest rate for $91/month.

[Happycampers]

Run don't walk away from them... we have been there and it cost us lots to get out of it... NOT WORTH IT