I would avoid Western Horizons right now for membership and we are members.   They have tried to sell out a couple times lately, though they deny it.  They just dropped being a part of Coast to Coast, RPI, and Passport America.  Western Horizons owns AOR and has some ownership in ROD.  Many of the parks have maintenance problems.   Many of us think they are getting the whole thing ready to sell.

Thousand Trail is trying to work out a deal to buy Western Horizon resorts.

jt

Thanks, Bill.  I was thinking that was a factor, which will probably preclude us from purchasing any memberships.  I'd hate to put lots of dollars into a membership just to see the system change to where it didn't benefit us much.

If I remember right, most also have limits as to length of stay.  Jo and I plan to do a lot of exploring in various areas and we wouldn't want to be limited as to how long we could stay in one place.

Terry

hogans1947 wrote:

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As fulltimers,we are considering a membership in this club.  ROD is Resorts of Distinction and AOR is Adventure Ourdoor Resorts.  Any comments?

Thank you

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 We have been fulltiming for 16 years. We have 1000 trails and ROD.  I think ROD is the best park system out there.  They are very accomodating and the parks we have been in have been great. For your yearly membership  fee you can stay in their parks up to 2 weeks 2 times a year for no charge. Same with 1000 trails, no charge for the park past your dues. 1000 trails is a good system but most parks are out west so if that is where you'll bee you should be able to be just find.  I agree about WH. Until it is totally decided what is going to happen to this system stay away from it. You must have a home park to join ROD

We bought 1000 trails just to get ROD.  When 1000 T messed up, that negated our ROD membership so I searched around and found a very inexpensive park that would allow us to have ROD again.  That's how much we think of and use ROD.  We are fulltimers so having access to our "home" park just isn't that important to us even though we can visit ours once a year.  You can go to their website so see their park system to see if it would work for you.

We had Coast to Coast which for us has very out of the way parks and most weren't that good.  We have a "free" one year membeship in RPI -kind of like C to C- from 1000 trails for their messup but have only used it once.

Keep us posted on what you decide.  Hugs, Di

Michael Scott wrote:

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I know I'm not Barbara but I thought I would try to offer a bit more info regarding R.O.D. 

You have to have a membership somewhere like 1000 Trails, Western Horizon, etc to be your Home Park.  That membership allows you to use the R.O.D. parks for free for up to 2 weeks-maybe more depending on your membership.  When 1000 trails opened to the public, we lost our R.O.D because they were no longer a "membership" park.  We found another Home Park, but certainly weren't happy that 1000 trails did that to us because we had to buy in to another park system.  The ROD is $139.00 a year plus whatever your home park dues are.  The only down side I learned ab out ROD 2 weeks ago is that according to the rep I spoke to, we used to be able to go from park to park with no time out.  They now say that if we spend more than 4 nights in a park, we have to be out a week to go to another park. 

It is still well worth it to us.  We use it as much as we can.  Hugs, Di

Hi, Barbara!

Thanks very much for your response.

I hope you don't mind if I get in contact with you via your blog (if that's possible) to obtain a little more information.

My wife and I are complete 'virgins' when it comes to RV-ing and, of course, we only have a few thousand questions!

I'm sure there are tons of books, magazines, websites etc.....but it's always nice to have a friendly, human voice out there in the wilderness of any new adventure.

See you 'around'!

Michael

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Yes, The ROD system is for shorter stays of up to 2 weeks.  ROD is different than Passport America in that you can only stay in ROD up to 2 weeks  usually 2 times a year and cannot stay longer at any price.  PA is so many nights at a reduced rate tben you could stay longer at the full rate if the park is open to it. 

The ROD system has many, many parks in it's system {probably about 80} that you can choose from.   You can go here: http://resortsofdistinction.com/resorts/    to get more info about the park system.  Hugs, Di

The Junkman wrote:

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Barbaraok wrote:

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You can't buy into ROD by itself. You have to join a home park that is part of ROD and the inclusion of ROD is something you negotiate with the park. Our dues are bundled with our AOR membership so I really don't know what the ROD dues are, somewhere around $140 IIRC. But at $0/night, and assuming $20/night for an equivalent park (and those are hard to find) 7 days and you've paid the dues for the year.

We use membership parks about 100 nights a year and have found we routinely save about $3000/year on park costs. But again, we are on the west coast most of the time and it really pays to have them out here.

Barb

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 It seems the memberships really only come in to play when moving parks pretty fast? 

 

I mean.. so far we are making reservations in FL, a month at stop.. I don't think the parks would be cost effect in that scenario ? Since they seem to be 2weeks on the club. and the other 2 weeks full retail? A quick look did not seem feesable if staying in one spot longer periods..

I thing as I move up the coast, the month long stays may be shorter..And clubs may come in effect..

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I been full timing it for years and have sold all types of memberships and most what is posted here is all lies... Unless you work and sold memberships you don't have a clues how they where suppose to work. So many con artist out sell memberships and parks just to rip you off.
The RDA ( Resort Developer associations) was started to protect members from parks and sales people that screwed the system up.. You have to be licensed sales person to sell ROD. Coast to Coast was the biggest problem in the industry. Yes it was the best 25 years ago but it was sold to the largest group that did not care about the members just the $$$$. These program where never meant for full timers but to vacation and travel.. The RDA could not fix what was broken so they start their own program call Resort of Distinction which is own and operated by the park owners not by a third party who does not even own a park. In ROD all profits go back to the resorts for hosting the campers. Not the CEO who profit on the parks and who does not own any properties. Yes Rod is Small and does lose some parks because they control and kick parks out for violating the rules and regulations, not like coast or the other reciprocals programs who are in it just for the money. ROD tries to maintain a good system. Remember this is a reciprocal system, fair like fair trade.. another word, What restriction put on a member coming to your home park follows you as a member to another park, So if your park will not let members in on a long weekend you can not use the other parks on long weekends.. same as the reservation rules \if your park only allows guest to make a 30 day reservations that's all you can make traveling in the system.. This is only fair.. So careful where you join.. Of course they will not tell you this... lol I have ROD and AOR that's all i need to travel yes i travel full time in the winter and summer up here in the great white north and stay at my home park which i purchased the membership in and they gave me the reciprocal programs free.  Never had a problem with either system other than the park managers.. they don't own the park and i find they don't give a dam about members and how they are treated.. Its not the reciprocal system fault for this but with the members reporting problems it usually get fixed... this is just my 2 cents worth take it how it is. Free advice is cheap and anything cheap is not good.. I hope this clears up allot of bull **** out here.. 23 years in sales and 45 traveling..Still the best thing out there is membership camping I have saved over $100,000 so far.. and i use it about 75% of the time..  Remember join a park close to your home so when you stop traveling you always have a place to go to.. this was the who idea behind membership camping not for people to live in. Just your own home park...