Kampgrounds Of America [KOA]
Reviews and Complaints

My name is julia and my family (daughter son and 8 year old granddaughter) stayed at salmon falls koa this past weekend, (7/19 thru 7/ 21 was the rental weekend) we paid a deposit up front to rent a prowler rv for the weekend, (friday to sunday) this is the old kings & queens, flat rock bridge road campground it has now changed hands yet again, we use to camp here years ago, and we are familiar with the campground and the sites. Our site was on the north side, the trailer was nice and clean, however not level you could feel every person moving in the trailer, and sometimes felt like it was going to fall off the blocks, no biggie, friday night was fine, we checked in, was told that we could use the linens (even though we brought our own) the air conditioning worked well, it was the weekend of the heatwave, so we were very happy to have it! Saturday we went to their general store to get wood for a fire, and see what else we needed (more water or gaterade would have been good too) seriously their "store" had not much for food but hey its a campground and there is a market basket less than a mile away... Anyways we spent our money in their store and enjoyed making breakfast when the electricity kept going on and off it would be off for about 15 minutes then kick back on, at first we thought our trailer blew a fuse but when it continued we figured (after talking with outher campers) it must be for the overload of everyone using their aircontitioners) that is understandable. We spent our day tubing down the lazy river, (the pools were packed) we got back around 2:30 and started to make lunch when yet again the electricity went off... This time it didnt go back on. We called the office and was told that there was an electrical problem and it would be back on by 6. No biggie, we were a little nervous about the food in the fridge our meats and everything were in there and our water and gaterade were in the coolers, we had to get bags of ice to make sure everything stayed cold. By 7 no electricity, the trailer was excessively hot so we got nervous and called the office we got voice mail. We waited another half hour and called again, voicemail. We went up to the office when they decided they were going to close, and spoke to one of the workers who had other campers complaining and questions about the electrical problem.. They were not offering any information, and had no clue when or if it would be turned back on... We saw campers leaving and we knew that wasn't a good sign. It was unbearably hot and we were all anxious and upset, we asked if they had info on the situation, they were as blank as could be I understand that everyone was upset, it was hot, and such an inconvenience, but these new owners not once made any attempt to talk to us in a manner that was acceptable. They were rude ignorant and unaccomodating to their paying customers! Again we understand that it wasn't their fault, but we asked for a refund after going back in forth deciding to pack up at 10:00 at night in pitch blackness in 98 degree weather! Our food went bad we had to throw out all our food except the water in the coolers, mind you the trailer temperature inside was 90 degrees the fridge had warmed and all the food was warm and went bad. We went to the office after we cleaned the trailer packed our car and asked to speak with the manager/ owner bill. The lady in the office called him and he and his crew all showed up on their golf carts.. We told him that we undersand the situation was not his fault but we payed for amenities (not cheap to stay there either) that we couldn't use, we lost all our food we would like to have a refund or at least part of a refund for a day and a half as we had no choice but to leave we couldn't eat any food, and couldn't sleep in a metal trailer with no air conditioning. Bill was the most rudest person and needs some customer service training.. He blatantly told us (and I quote) you are not getting a refund and I am done with this conversation.. And he walked into the store and locked the door! We sat there almost in tears, I have never been so humiliated in my life! Quite honestly if he and is goons had made the slightest attempt to even offer his paying customers even an ice cream for the inconvenience (the do have generators working there!) we would have been a little more understanding, but let it be known that this will be the last time I give one dime to that campground! Bill needs to learn that his customers are his bread and butter, and his attitude towards his customers will break his business.

I stayed at your KOA in the Great Smokies Cherokee in a rule cabin k63 I believe my name is James C wheeler I was awoken around 11 I found bed bugs in my bed had several bites all over my body did not sleep none that night notified some woman at the ice cream popcorn stand but she said she did not have access to get another key for another cabin so I had to sleep on the front porch I was refunded my money but had to throw away all my clothes and Luggage due to the fact I was scared to bring some home with me was a horrible experience and I have been here several times and love the place but have not received any kind of Consultants has about this situation which is not too good if you will give me some kind of information back at least apologize I have received nothing of the sort in this was a total loss weekend for me due to this occurrence thank you James C wheeler

We have done 14, 900 worth of tree work at the KOA in Milton Florida by the permission of Manager Mike and have not recieved payment. That is a discounted price for us staying there but they charged credit card after they said they would not due to us working there.

Phillip's Tree Service
[protected]
Vancleave, Ms 39565

Cannot get anyone to give the names of the owner of this franchise.

I am traveling from Florida to California and back with our new travel trailer.
I can tell you I am very disappointed with KOA and so are many of my family members that have stayed this past year in only KOA's.
I had a terrible experience in Cherokee, NC and wrote to KOA and to complain and was told to take it up with local managment which I found out later it was corporate owned and they were the management.
Now I stayed at Santa Paula. California KOA and again was very disappointed.
First I requested Months in advance a site with cement pad, etc and when arrived they gave us a terrible dirt spot. They said they did not have the spot and I showed her our reservations but was told all they could do is put us in a spot w/ no sewer if we wanted to move. We choose not too. The area around us smelled like sewer which we found was because there was a pipe with a tarp on it that use to be there sewer. Next our site was of a construction site where they have a ton of stuff and garbage there. They have Peacocks everywhere which at first I thought was beautiful until they screamed about 20 hours a day. This KOA has NO TV even though they are right by major area with huge dishes on the hills everywhere.
Kids run the front desk so we just gave us, stayed for our 3 nights, to never return.
We and many others are thinking of canceling our KOA membership as it seems KOA has lowered their standards.

This is a complaint of the Harpers Ferry/Civil War Battlefields KOA and its General Manager Jessie Getman.
On Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019, at approximately 1:00 - 1:30pm, my wife and I arrived back at our 5th wheel where we have been staying since mid April while working as Insurance Adjusters in the area. There were two men using a backhoe digging a trench directly behind the pedestals on our row of rvs.
When we entered our 5th wheel, the power was off and it was rapidly warming up. I stepped outside to ask the men what they were doing, and they explained that they were digging up the sewer line that had clogged with tree roots so it could be replaced, so that the laundry facility could be opened (which had been closed for a few days). I asked one of the men to plug my umbilical back into the pedestal as I had an animal inside my 5th wheel and it was getting hot. He promptly did and apologized for unplugging it. I went back inside and we still had no power. My wife took our animal out to the truck, started it and turned the AC on. I tried various things, resetting our fuse box, resetting the pedestal, plugging in without our surge protector, everything. Still no power. By now the thermostat was sitting at 95 in our 5th wheel, and I had our 12v fans going trying to cool the place down. I couldnt get anything to work that wasn't on battery power, and couldnt figure out what was wrong. I went back outside and talked to the men with the backhoe, and one of them admitted to cutting an electrical line to the light pole next to our 5th wheel but explaining it was a separate circuit and had nothing to do with the pedestal.
I decided to go to the office at this point and discuss the situation with Jessie Getman, the General Manager. I asked for her at the front office and was told she was just leaving for the day, but since she was standing there I could talk to her. I asked her about the work being done behind our 5th wheel, and why was our power off. She stated the men were replacing the sewer pipe and that the power had only been off for a half an hour. I explained to her that I had an animal in our 5th wheel, much like most full timers and campers, and that it was hot. She said, "Its only been a half hour, there is no problem, and your power is on!" I stated that I had not been given notice that work would be done behind my pedestal, that the electricity would be shut off for an undetermined amount of time, and that she acted in an irresponsible and unprofessional manner. She started raising her voice reiterating that my power was on, and if it wasnt, it was my fault, and the problem lay with the 5th wheel itself. I told her that i was pissed at her and left before the situation deteriorated further.
I went back to our 5th wheel and continued to troubleshoot the issue with no luck. I went back to the office to speak with Jessie Getman, and she insisted that, "The issue lies with your rv and not with KOA." I was then told that I would have to hire an electrician to come out and fix my rv. Again, I left the office with no real answers.
My wife was able to reach Dave Arsenault with RV Road Tech and he was able to make it out about an hour later. Dave began troubleshooting at my fuse box, at my umbilical, and at the pedestal. He had all his digital ohm meters, and everything said the 5th wheel was getting 146 volts. He explained this was wrong since nothing was working and he continued to work on the issue. During this time Jessie Getman came out to "supervise" her crew and the team that was now filling in the trench. She refused to answer my questions, and basically had everyone ignore me or state that the issue was the 5th wheel. Dave finally opened the pedestal, saw that it wasnt grounded and the plugs were bad. He connected everything, then turned my AC unit on and watched the voltage drop from 146 to 40. At this point Dave explained to the 2 men with the backhoe and the other KOA employees that they did indeed hit something in the ground, and that the issue was KOA and not our 5th wheel.
As the other full timers in our row were coming home, every single one of them came out to where everyone was standing to complain they had no power. Dave Arsenault began helping the other full timers, and another electrician showed up. They determined that whatever line was hit fried out our neighbors transfer switch between his generator and umbilical and was a $1000 repair. The neighbor at the top of the row, had smoke and burn marks from his control panel where the thermostat sits. I believe that was a $750 repair. Jessie Getman the General Manager refused to believe any of this, and stated that if the crew with the backhoe had cut something, "something big would have happened!", as she waved her arms around crazily. I made a mental note to ask KOA Corporate when I file a complaint against Jessie Getman to ask if she is a certified Electrical Engineer.
I asked Jessie Getman about covering the cost of having to call my own electrician and she refused to discuss the matter with me further. I was given a key to one of the cabins so that my wife, my ferret, and I had a place to stay until this matter was resolved. No further discussions between the KOA staff or anyone on our row was had. Jessie Getman had told everyone to stop talking to us.
Wednesday, July 3rd, my wife and I took our ferret and went to work. We arrived back in Harpers Ferry around noon, cutting work short, to handle what was going on. Jessie Getman was outside the front office when we pulled up, she saw us, and went inside. When we asked one of the KOA employees at the desk to speak with her, we were told, "she will not speak to you, she will not speak to us (the employees) about what is going on, and refuses to deal with anyone." I explained to this employee that we needed some sort of timeline to work with as we work almost everyday, and we have an animal. The employee agreed, and stated, "Jessie has issues dealing with people in general, that her social skills are lacking, and that she cannot handle any type of crisis." I asked why she was in charge then, and was told by the employee that he did not know. He did say however, "Jessie does not care about the full timers at the park, she is only concerned with the campers that stay a day or two."
We went back to the cabin to continue working on our insurance files. After a couple of hours I needed something from the 5th wheel and walked over to it. As I was walking over I saw an electricians truck and three men and a large spool of cable where all the power comes for the park. I went over to the men and asked if they could give me a timeline on the repair. One of the men stated it was a temporary fix to make it through 4th of July Weekend, and then they would figure out what to do from there, but they hoped to have power to our row within two hours. Thankfully, they accomplished their goal and we have been in our 5th wheel since then.
I have heard from other employees that a KOA Corporate RV was here a month ago and performed a surpise audit of the place. I also learned that there is a husband/wife team of KOA Ambassadors here on the property that "put out fires'" but none of us on this row has met them yet. I tried filing a formal grievance with KOA Corporate, but again, its 4th of July Weekend and no one answers the phone. One of my neighbors said his electrician told him that the Harpers Ferry KOA had to pay an rv owner $4500 last month due to an electrical issue at his pedestal that fried out both of his AC units.
This park has issues, most notable is the General Manager Jessie Getman. Her attitude and demeanor toward full timers and campers is palpable, and evident in that many of her employees also act and treat people the same way.

First I called and asked for site 73; on arrival they said I asked for site 4 which is an impossibility. I have never been on this side of the park. We r next to the pool, which I might add all the towns people are in. We are paying 78 dollars a night and we can't get near the pool. The office told me that townspeople can pay 125 a family and get a pass to swim everyday if they wish. I have never seen this in a koa and I don't care too. Check when the reservation was made. Months ago.i have sent u a video of the pool

Janie and Danny Deshotels
Robert and Sandra Deshotels

I was made to feel like I was going crazy about bedbug bites. Manager was rude and said the rain must have made all the spiders come in the cabin and bite multiple times. I should go get bug ointment. No discount or compensation was offered for inconvenience of so called multiple spider bites. Worst experience of my life. I could not sleep because I did not know when I would be attacked again. Ruined my experience of Nashville.

OWNERS
Daniela & Markus Heimgartner
930 North Vernal Avenue
Vernal, UT 84078

The concrete walk way outside the pool gate is cracked all the way across and slants downwards. There is one step down which is not marked with an identifying safety color strip or caution step down sign. On June o1, 2019 I was leaving the pool area through the gate around 6pm. With the shadow from the surrounding trees and shrubs, I wasn't able to clearly see the step down. I stepped down on my left foot and fell hard onto my left side, I then rolled over and landed on my back. I stayed laying on my back for several minutes trying to catch my breath and to get my bearings before attempting to get up. Once I was able to get up I went to the bathroom to clean the blood from my leg. I also cleaned the dirt and grass from my hair and clothes. I went and told my family who was in the pool area. We went to the office right away to report my fall. I spoke with the owners Daniela & Markus Heimgartner and the office employee Rebea. I was offered an ice pack by the owners. I informed them that I wanted to file an incident report but, they were busy getting ready for the movie that was being played for the campground at 7pm. They were very dismissive so I told them I would come back in the morning before checkout to do the incident report. They said we could have late checkout if we wanted. The next morning as my family packed up to leave, I went ahead of them to the office to check out and to file an incident report. The lady that checked us out was not the same as the night before. She gave me the checkout receipt like I asked for. When I asked about the paperwork that I needed to document my fall, she called the owners and they said that there was no such papers to fill out in regards to any type of injuries. The owners refused to put my official statement down on paper. I asked to speak to them in person but the lady employee told me that they wasn't on site. A few moments later the owners walked in and the husband Markus was visibly angry and told me that there wasn't anything more they could do for me so it was time for me and my family to leave. Words were exchanged because I didn't understand why he was acting so hostile towards me. When the office was closing the nite before, I was talking to his employee Rebea and she told me that he wanted her to remove our email from the account so that a follow up survey wouldn't be sent to us because he was afraid to get a bad review. Rebea said that she didn't do what he asked. When I confronted him and his wife, he became outraged and came charging at me from around the counter. Markus would have put his hands on me if his wife had not jumped in front of him and physically stopped him from reaching me. At that point I was scared and called the police.

I called KOA Corp in March '19 inquiring about using all points accrued in one stay. I was assured there would be no problem as long as the amount was $100 or less. I had 49, 000+ which would have been $85. So, made a reservation online the same day. Today, on 5/7, I checked in and was told that starting today, Koa will only give $50 credit per stay. I then talked to a rep and they would not budge nor acknowledge the fact that my reservation was booked a month and a half ago. Am very disappointed that a well known family establishment can't and/or won't work with their guests/customers. A kicker to this is that their website still shows the $100 max per stay on the faq. Say the least, this will be one past Koa member. It's one thing to make changes(every business does it), it's another when they don't even work with their paying guests on the supposed day the change is made.

Someone put some kind of critter repellent on the campsite we were renting and my dog inhaled it causing him to a seizure he ran off we had to spent our vacation looking for our dog. We had tickets for the General Jackson river boat cruise we couldn't go because we were looking for our dog. We ended up leaving early as soon as we got him back, we talked to the manager with no help for her, she was very rude. As was really like that campground we will not be returning. The manger's name is Kim

Good morning to whom may concerned, we were guest at the koa Deerpark / New York City at 108 Guymard Turnpike Cuddebackville, NY 12729 reservation number 29111.000 from Thursday October 18 to Sunday, October 21 this was the second time that we stayed at this location we are family of 5 and to our surprise and disappointment our camping experience was completely ruined, we stayed in cabin K202 upon arrival we noticed to beer containers right on entrance floor an empty gallon of water by the fire pit and the garbage can in the public area across from our cabin overflowing, after we entered our cabin we noticed that the only mirror in the room the glass as cracked, the outlet in the dining area was cracked and the metal part exposed, in the dining area there was no curtain so we had to use a towel to cover the view, the air conditioner was broken and a piece was lying on the floor, the futon was broke in half right in the middle so you could use the front entrance door had not screen so there were bees and insect constantly coming inside the cabin, after seeing all this we went back to the general office where the female worker just wrote all this down and did nothing to fix the issues, we tried to use the water day the but I was ice cold, the following day on Friday again we tried to use the water for showers and the water was still ice cold, the cabinets in the bathrooms were falling apart and had mold in them there was human waste in one of the toilets and one of the showers and the garbage can in the public area was completely overflowing with garbage lying on the grass and the floor this time called the general office and the same female picked up the phone and she stated that "the cleaning staff does arrived until 10 am and as soon as they did she will be sending someone to fix this issues and to look in to why there was no hot water", we left the campsite after 10 am returned to the after 2:30 and none of this issues were addressed the camp workers showed up almost at 3 pm to remove some of the garbage and then they decided to leave this area with no bin at all so we were forced to pile up our garbage by our porch area, during our stayed we were advised that we needed to purchase the wood from the camp site which we did and were not able to really used as the wood sold to us was wet and unable to keep the fire, there is a sign in the bathroom stating that they are checked and cleaned hourly which is not true as there was always toilet paper on the floors, human waste and urine on multiples occasions when we were using the bathrooms, I have to small children 1 and 3 years old that have asthma as well of myself due to the fact the water was ice cold all the time during our stayed all my family could not take shows or get clean overall for 4 days, we were very disappointed with the experience this time around there seems to be a lack of care towards the customer and the place is not well kept, I am writing this letter because I am request a full refund as we payed $ 340.00 that we had save in a period of time for our family to give a little vacation, this site should not be open to the public and the staff should to a better job when it come to their customer service completely unacceptable .
Thank you
ANGELICA BISCONTI, [protected], [protected]@hotmail.com

On August 9, 2018, we checked into the Hidden Valley RV Resort (Milton KOA) in Milton Wisconsin for two nights. we called from the road and were told to come in that there was availability for two nights at the RV park. When we arrived, we were greeted by a young lady who charged our Citi Visa card for two nights; August 9-10. The amount charged was $59.25

On August 13, 2018 our credit card was again charged, without my authorization, or a courtesy call, this time for $78.99. I immediately called the Campground and spoke with the supervisor/bookkeeper, Amber, after being transferred to her. Her explanation was that we were incorrectly charged when we checked in; because we were in a "Premium" site, the charge was supposed to be $62.40 for Thursday night and $83.20 for Friday. We were never told about the upcharge nor were we charged correctly for the 1st night. I am disputing this second charge of $78.99. The attitude that I received when inquiring about this additonal charge was quite 'terse'. She indicated that that was the charge and left it at that. She made no amends as to their mistake.

I have notified my Citi Bank Credit Card company and have put in a dispute for this charge.

I can be reached at [protected]@pacbell.net; my home address is 432 EAstwood Drive, Petaluma, CA 94954; phone: [protected].

Claudia Collins

We are RPI members and I don't know if that has an effect on the service but we sure felt like that was part of it. Tried to originally book 3 nights but only 1 was available so asked for the next available 3 nights and got that. When we checked in I committed that I was surprised with all the empty spaces it was hard for us to get the dates we had wanted and asked how many RPI spaces they had - 7 - in this huge camp area that was 1/2 empty. Then was also told that 'we loose money on RPI' like isn't something worth more than nothing? Then we were escorted to our spot. They had positioned the unit so close to the divider line that I committed "I hope we have enough room to use the slide out" Didn't bother him at all and he left. There was absolutely NO room left between the two units. Then the one that got parked on the other side of us had there door opening into our door. Talk about feeling like a sardine. Then we had a medical emergency and needed to pick the niece up in a town about 1 hr away then take her back to where we lived. We asked if we could leave our trailer someplace for a few extra hours so we didn't have to drag it both ways before going home--we you can pay for an extra day - or pay to put it in the dry storage are - but no you can't just leave it without paying even if it is for a max of 3 hours -- or the fact there was room all over the place to park it. So as you see we really felt like they just don't care about the customers they are there to help. This is our 3rd time at St. George UT's KOA and will probable be our last.

I called the cancellation number provided in the confirmation email. The first time the lady answered she was rude and hung up on me for wanting to cancel my reservation. I called back hoping it was a CD all center and got the same lady. This time she told me "go to hell" and hung up again. I have no idea if my reservation is cancelled or not. At this point the custo.er service I have recieved is inexcusable. I will never do business with another one of your campgrounds or suggest one ever again. When we moved from Alaska to Keesler AFB we stay at KOA sites all the way. Never again! Please confirm my reservation has been cancelled.

Dear Corporate,

My name is Pamela Talili. Our church group had camped at the Lava Hot Springs Holiday KOA in Idaho. We checked in Aug 9-12. Your staff was great, your management office was beside that. Rude, Disrespectful and very unprofessional. There was complaint by our neighbors about our first night, noise was going on until "2:00 a.m." The gentleman and woman that came to express their frustration over the "complaints" did not introduce themselves, I saw them asking for me as I was the coordinator of the event and was sitting about about a yard away, I immediate approached them, as I was walking towards them, they were already expressing their anger to one of our church leaders. Both man and lady were talking over each other, the man's tone, his demeanor, and demand to turn the music off was very unprofessional. He shared that they had to deal with complaints from one end of the campsite and reimbursement for the other end of the campsite. The gentleman then made a statement, that he will have securities come to our campsite to make sure there were no noise at 10:00 p.m. What he should have said was he already had someone monitoring us immediately as one of his workers was in his golf cart at the entrance of our campsite watching our every move, until we cleared the campsite for our activity that day. He expressed both end of our campsite complained. I was on one side of the campsite and I could not hear any music from where it was playing from. I know for sure that was a lie. But how disappointed it is to be monitored by "securities" while that very night our neighbors were enjoying themselves and got even louder than our music was the night before and partied after 2:00 a.m., but security overlooked it as they drove around our campsite. What that looked like was watching the brown people and being racist. We were the only brown people on that campsite, who got complaints and being monitored. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANYONE TO GO THERE! I had to force every kid to bed by 8:30 pm. I wished I had known KOA Holiday was for white folks only. The only reason we didn't leave immediately was because we wanted our kids to enjoy there before school started otherwise we would've packed and left. We reserved almost all the cabins and campsite and all this guy was worried about was money. I would understand if he had approached us professionally and change his tone.

While at the New Columbia KOA to visit friends for a get together during the "free" visitation days for members of Monday through Thursday, we were harassed and forced to leave. Our group had done nothing wrong and were there with several members. Although my family has been considering joining KOA and utilizing the many locations, I would rather have to use other campgrounds or sites vs. these locations ran by incompetent and rude personnel. I am sorry that this person has ruined my outlook on KOA, but I am not alone in my decision to never use them, and I will not stand to have my family treated this way.