Bella Pacifica Campground — Attraction in Tofino

This has been the worst customer service we’ve EVER experienced from a campground. We booked 4 sites with our extended family back in October and we’re told that we’d have to move to a different site for our last 2 days. That’s alright, we understand they’re booked up. But what made zero sense was when we noticed the site we were to move to had been vacant for 24hrs prior to us moving, they wouldn’t let us move over to it 2 hours earlier. They kept saying it “was their policy that you can’t move early or you’re charged a $25 fine”, shouldn’t your policy be to make sure the guests have the best possible experience, especially when they’re having to move campsites mid stay? When my father-in-law tried to reasons with them they were completely rude and unsympathetic. He’s a retired CPA and when he said that in all his years of owning businesses he’d never treated customers like that, the manager insulted him saying his businesses probably all failed. Seriously?! What kind of manager insults their customers? When my FIL tried to explain that we had a trailer, a puppy and a 3 year old with us and it would really help out if we could move early the manager just said “I don’t care”.

“I don’t care” sums up the experience here. The showers are filthy and cost a fortune. $2 for 2 minutes. There are literally holes in the shower walls between stalls where the wood has rotted away and people can peep through and see you.

At one point a staff member was using a leaf blower to blow dirt? pine needles? who knows what! off the road but all she succeeded in doing was blowing dust all over the campsites. Our clothes that were hanging out to dry were covered with dust.

My sister-in-law is in a tent site and there has been a dog barking all night every night in the site next to them and no staff have done anything about it.

DON’T STAY HERE! Campgrounds shouldn’t be allowed to get away with such horrible customer service just because they’re in a nice location.

Oh and we’ve also heard from others that they’ve been denied their refunds even if cancelling within the allowed cancellation window

EDIT

The campsite has responded saying we’re twisting the story, so I’ll address their points.

First of all, that wasn’t me who you spoke with, that was my sister-in-law who came to talk to you because I was too upset and was trying to pack our trailer.

Yes, she apologized for her father, a man I’ve never heard yell in the 18+ years that I’ve known him, so I don’t believe that for a second but I wasn’t there so that’s all I can say about that, there are two sides to every story.

Yes, you did reason with her and get us in the site early. But just because you did the right thing in the end doesn’t negate the stress you put us under at the time, nor does it mean your customer service leading up to that point was acceptable.

A good manager would have right away said, “We didn’t realize that site has been vacant for 24hrs, we’ll look into it as soon as we can and let you know if you can get in early”. Simple and easy, everyone’s happy.

What wasn’t addressed in the first review is also how rude your staff were to my husband when he first went up to talk to you. Also not mentioned was that I called the office the week before to clarify the check out and check in time and asked if we’d have to wait long to get into the next site, they said they’d get us in ASAP after we vacated the site and it would be no later than 11:30am, so my husband was extremely blindsided by your staffs rude response of “you’ll be charged if you move into the site before 12pm”. Sending mixed messages to your customers doesn’t foster a good conversation to start with.

Finally I’ll say I’m not someone who goes out of their way to write negative reviews, in fact if you look at my Google reviews all of them are positive because I want businesses who treat their customers...

Very sad with the condition of Bella Pacifica Campground. It has become a money grab driven by greed. I just spent three days there stuck in a site where we had to put our tent partially on the walking path because it was the only way it would fit onto the site. We could not have a fire because our neighbors were so close to us we would have melted their tent. We ended up on this site because the one we booked was so small, there was not even enough room for our 4 man tent. We could have put our tent in the driveway that was divided between us and the people next to us, and left our truck with all our gear out on the road somewhere, but then our tent would have been on boulders. This site you had to make a choice, somewhere to sleep, the truck, or a table and fire but not all three, and the price did not reflect this ridiculous situation. I should mention as well that if the person in the site next to us was in the driveway at the same time no one would be opening their car doors as the driveway was only suitable for one car or truck. The picnic tables were rotten, and there was doubt about sitting on them if it was safe. We spent three days listening to for sure at least one person a day freaking out because they were stuck with their truck and trailer, other days more than one person was in this situation just pissed right off. We did not feel welcome, we felt like we were only there to be a profit to the owners and nothing else. Because it is such a distance and expense to travel to get to Tofino for most people, just the fuel and ferry costs are huge for everyone that does not already live on the island, You have to trust the campground owners are not going to screw you over once you get there. This is not the case anymore at Bella Pacifica. I am basing this on past experiences of staying in this campground. They will ruin there own business in time I'm sure if they don't start to respect people. We will not be going again. There are just so many other choices of where to stay, other parts of the island to explore, or just other islands, all unique in what they have to offer. It is my opinion that if a business is going to charge a outrageous amount of money for a spot to go "camping," where most people just look after themselves after check in, so the amount of actual work done by the owners is minimal, then the place...

The best thing about this campground is McKenzie Beach and what it offers.

Our experience for a 10 day stay and booking multiple campsites with family for a milestone anniversary was spoiled by:

1. having to deal with a rude and insulting manager who said it’s not his job to check on things in the campground and accused me of yelling at the staff. (Yes, there are 2 sides to the story)
2. lack of enforcement of policy (dogs barking day and night), (noise in campsites after quiet time ). Staff walk and drive around occasionally with their ear buds in consequently, oblivious to what is happening in their campground.
3. lack of effort by staff and management to provide a friendly and welcoming environment and experience which one can hardly wait to come back for again. (No one stopping to ask “Is everything okay? Is there anything we can do to make this a great vacation?) (Using a leaf blower to stir the dust on the pavement so that it can settle on your table and towels hung out to dry)
4. amenities are aged and not well maintained. (Bathrooms not clean, shower stalls co-ed with rotting lumber and holes accessible for peeping Toms)
5. showers cost $2.00 for a short time and water is extremely hot
6. change not available when office not open
7. office closes early so do not expect service after 6:00 pm
8. campsite prices are what you would expect for a 5 star campground but are rewarded with a 1 - 2 star quality of property and experience.
9. there was an area for recycling and garbage collection which is great, but it was not cleaned often and garbage overflowed the bins.
10. the survey sent after the stay was completed with our concerns and experience, but no one reached out to follow up. (In other words, I wasted my time completing the survey and they do not care)

In our opinion, the staff and management sorely lack training, expertise or desire in running a hospitality based business.

While not our experience, the fact that people who book months in advance and then need to cancel in accordance with cancellation policy are not provided their refunds or have to fight for their refunds should be a huge flag about the management and their business ethics.

We love Tofino and will be back, but based on our experience, we will not be coming back to...