Thousand Trails Review

We've been members of Thousand Trails since the mid-nineties, first starting out as Leisure Time then Thousand Trails purchased Leisure Time.  We initially purchased our Leisure Time membership because we were looking for a program that we could include our immediate family.  We conducted a Thousand Trails review including Leisure Time prior to our purchase.  At the time of our purchase, Leisure Time fit our life style, the parks were nearby and did not require reservations. 

Since Thousand Trails purchased Leisure Time, there have been many changes, more buyouts, including membership upgrades.  The membership upgrades were introduced as an opportunity to learn what's happening with recent Thousand Trails changes.  These events were merely a sales presentation.  Nevertheless, we upgraded our membership, taking into consideration the benefits our children would acquire in years to come; we looked into the future.  Of course, as with most sales presentations, not all of the information is clearly revealed.  For example, in our recent membership upgrade, we received a number of free weekly rental stays.  We do not own an RV, therefore, free week long stays in one of Thousand Trails rentals was inviting.  In fact, the free rentals off-set the cost of the membership upgrade.

One thing that we overlooked, apparently in the sales presentation and the contract, is the associated cleaning fee with the free rentals.  The fee is $75 per week.  Granted, this amount is small for a week cabin rental, however, it was surprising that we had any fee, we invested several thousands of dollars into the upgrade and were instructed that the Get Away Cabins allowed us one free week per year over an established number of years.  From a business perspective, it would have been better if the sales representative disclosed that we had to pay a $75 cleaning fee.  We learned about the cleaning fee when we checked in.  And furthermore, we were instructed that we needed to clean the Get Away cabin prior to our check out or we would incur a $50 fee.  So, what are we paying the $75 for?  We haven't got an answer for that yet.

In hind site, it's very difficult to anticipate every question to ask a sales person before signing the contract, and sometimes even if the question were asked, the sales person may not disclose the information accurately.  We never thought we'd have to ask if there were any associated fees on something that was promoted as a Free Week Stay in the Get Away Cabin, especially since the cost of the upgrade was several thousand dollars.

The bottom line, if Thousand Trails offers something for "Free", read the fine print first.  Don't merely rely on a sales persons word or explanation, get everything in writing.   

Craig Dahl - and the Editorial Staff