NP
Nourish Pittsfield
Jul 3, 2025
Went from the best resort we've been to, to the worst.
A bad start to our 'journey'.
I've had the camping pass from Thousand Trails for a year now, and literally just upgraded to the Journey membership. Great deal! Very happy with the membership.
Buuuut, the first place we went to was Topics.
On the reservation page it asks you what equipment you have, different kinds of RVs, Tent, or Other.
We booked it, got there a half hour after the office closed, found our packet and site, and set up our tent.
Day 3 of our vacation we were woken up at about 9:00am by who I assume was the manager, it was the first staff we had seen so far. I'm pretty sure she said her name was Paula.
She said that they don't allow tents. I apologized and told her that the website specifically listed tents as an option. She said that the packet we got said that they don't allow tents.
That means that you would only know that once you got there and checked in, and we're from Massachusetts.
She was very reluctant to give me and my ten year old daughter even an hour or two to get packed up since we had just woken up.
I at least wanted to get a shower and feed my daughter breakfast before having to find another place to stay last minute.
I want to be clear that the experience wasn't bad until that point, and it wasn't bad because there was a kerfuffle with the rules, things happen.
But as a hospitality professional, there are several ways this could have gone, and it went pretty much the worst possible.
Since we had been there for almost three days without anyone even meeting us, or realizing we were using a tent, we obviously weren't causing any problems.
One option could have been to understand that it was an honest mistake on our part and let us stay the rest of the week as long as we agreed to not come in a tent again.
That obviously would have been best case scenario for us lol.
Another option would have been to say something along the lines of
"Hey, we get it, everyone makes mistakes, but the rules say that people can't sleep in a tent here. You're free to enjoy the pool and facilities for the day, but just head out before sundown." That way we wouldn't be rushed, the rules would be followed, and my daughter could have had a nice day while I sorted out our arrangements.
But just to be woken up and rudely told, basically,
"Too bad, so sad, we don't give a hoot about you or your kid, just get out asap."
shows that the manager does not understand the definition of hospitality at all, and is definitely in the wrong industry.