Has anyone had any experience with [size=12pt]Gettysburg Battleground Resort or belong to TRA or 'Coast to Coast'[/size]? At an RV show I signed up for a free '15 nights free camping'. I figured I'd have to endure a Timeshare pitch to get it. They called, and said they've upped it to 30 days free camping 'just for a limited time' as long as I attended their presentation.
I'm going to go up for the sales pitch in a few weeks. I was thinking about seeing if I could turn it into a camping weekend while I'm there. I was wondering if anyone has had an encounter with them, or belongs to TRA or 'Coast to Coast' which I guess is who runs the membership company?
I spoke to Travel Resorts of America last year when planning the April 2012 Gettysburg rally. They called me about 14 times and wouldn't leave me alone. They hold a credit card number and if you sit through a two hour tour and sales lecture after, your trip is free. If we don't sit through it, they charge your card for $50 per night.
If you choose not to buy their timeshare type plan, they give you 15-30 or 45 days of free camping depending on the offer. Each visit requires the tour and sales lecture.
They currently ONLY have 3 resorts in the United States. Sycamore Lodge Resort in North Carolina, Wally World Riverside Resort in Ohio, and Gettysburg Battlefield Resort in Pennsylvania. I don't know the cost to join.
Good thing I wasn't really interested in joining anyway, but the free camping seemed entertaining. I happened upon someone selling their membership on Craig's List for $800 plus fees. I wonder what TRA charges.
Only three locations? That's crazy.
This one I have to come down in the middle of the day for, but they treat us to lunch. I'd rather have a free night stay, but I wouldn't bring the camper for one night, and it doesn't appear that they're tent friendly.
Here is a link to their resorts (6 listed):
http://www.travelresorts.com/r.....sorts.html
But they only own three and that's all that participates:
https://www.sunrisereservation.....of_America
We were offered 30 nights free camping when we bought the Niagara last October. We weren't sure if we were interested, so we didn't do anything till the 90 day offer period was almost over.
We went, we listened, we didn't even get the free lunch we were promised.
To answer one of Cindy's questions first, no, you can't turn you visit to listen to the sales pitch into a free weekend of camping. We had the same thought. You have to sit through the pitch before they validate your camping voucher, and then, for the real kicker, those free nights are good ONLY Sunday though Thursday. Weekends and holidays are reserved for paying [s]suckers[/s] guests.
We were not at all impressed with the "resort." Most KOAs are much, much nicer! The resort is right at an intersection and some of the sites back right up to the road. Sites are tight and all the roads in the campground are gravel. The clubhouse and showers are nice, I'll give them that, but absolutely nothing else impressed us.
The sales pitch was not terribly high pressured, but the salesman asked us a lot of questions about our camping preferences before he started and came to the (correct) conclusion that we're more state park campers instead of private campground campers. IIRC, the fee is something in the $4,000 range, and if you go and listen to their pitch, you won't be approved to buy out a membership privately for a year.
If you put their address, 1960 Emmitsburg Rd, Gettysburg, PA 17325, in Google maps or Mapquest, you'll get a good idea how tight the place is.
We deep-sixed our 30 night camping voucher at the restaurant when we stopped for lunch ... If we're going to camping mid-week, it's not going to be there!
John
I don't know if a camping time share is the same as the timeshares that were sold in Florida around Disney, but there were rules that I am sure vary from state to state.
The gimmick around Disney was free park tickets and they feed you a meal. In Florida, 10 years ago, by law you only had to listen to them for 90 minutes and then you could take your tickets and leave. The thing is the 90 minutes did not include the meal and if you asked questions they took you out and just kept you on the tour because they thought you were interested. If you said you wanted to go they would "just show you one more thing" blah blah blah.
There were some people who really worked it right. They drove themselves so they were not at the mercy of the timeshare buses. They ate the meal which was pretty good and then started a stopwatch when the tour began, kept their mouth shut and at 90 minutes said I'm leaving and just left with the tickets.
Just think how many weekends you can camp for $4k a year?
Matt O 2006 Skyline Nomad 27' travel trailer. Previously owned 1986 Coleman Columbia / 1992 Coleman Senecca / 1989 Born Free Class C RV.
769
70
1 Guest(s)
