Whispering Spruce Campground — Hotel in Golden

You be the Judge ME: Our situation is unique. We are just looking for a place to spend the night on our way to Vancouver. We will be arriving late and leaving early. We will likely need 2 sites. Most campgrounds have asked that we book 2 because we have 8 adults and one child 4yrs of age. We plan to sleep 5 adults and one child in the motorhome and sleep the other 3 adults in a tent. If you will allow us to use one site with just an extra charge or whatever per adult, that is great. If not, are there two sites next to each other that we could book? --- I was very much hoping for some feedback prior to completing any kind of booking. I wanted to know what kind of accommodation they would be able to provide. I couldn't have guessed what the final charges would have been in our situation. Some kind of quote prior to charging my card would have done. I received nothing. After a couple days, I booked elsewhere. After discovering a charge on my card, I left a voicemail explaining that I had booked elsewhere. The campground does not answer their phone or discuss reservations on the phone. They prefer to keep things digital and avoid talking to customers directly. I will copy for you our correspondence. HIM: If you are en-route we are holding a couple of spots for you. I think we had problems on our end sending the confirmation email due to a system glitch; but have space for you if you are nearby. There will be no penalty for no-show under the circumstances but please come in by midnight if you are arriving tonight ME: I just returned from my vacation and am reading this email now. I understand that things get mixed up now and then. Of course, though, we had to honour the reservation we made with Golden Municipal. Can you help me sort out the charge to my credit card? HIM: Craig; check the reservation policy please. If you cancelled without a 48 hour window then there is nothing we can do; but if you gave valid notice the deposit minus $10 for process charges on our end will go back to you. ME: Please check your last email to me and my previous email to you. I NEVER booked with you. I made a reservation inquiry to which nobody ever replied to. Naturally, I booked with another campground, assuming you were full. You apologized for the mess up and said there would be no penalty. Even so, you offered to hold a site if I still needed one. Of course I did not need one. Just as I told you, I had booked another site, seeing as I hadn't received a confirmation that you had anything available. A reservation request is not permission for you to charge my credit card. Rest assured, if you cannot remedy my concern, I will do everything in my power to refute the charge via my credit provider and share my feelings on every search engine, travel site and social networking provider you advertise with. HIM: When you submit a reservation form as you did it gives us every right to take and hold 50% deposit to hold your site. There were two sites booked; one tent and one rv. A deposit was taken for each...and a response should have been sent out to you. However....at this point it is not worth my time to debate this. I will have the GM take a look at the file and sort this out. He will contact you tomorrow via email ME: You can run your business how you wish, I suppose. Of the 5 campgrounds I dealt with over the weekend, yours was the only one that took money without telling me what I would be paying for and confirming first that the sites were acceptable with me before proceeding. However, you say it was a simple computer glitch. Thank you for being willing to make it right ME: I have not been contacted by your GM yet. Were you serious about sorting this out? HIM: GM said its not worth his time. I agree with him on that matter and there will be nothing else done from here. Read the webpage cancellation procedures. There it is. You choose if this is someone you want to camp with. Customer concerns aren't worth their time. Wouldn't be surprised if the owner has crafted his own clever reply to this. In any case,...

I have never felt the need to write a review about anywhere before because I am not a confrontational person but if I could give 0 stars for this place, I would. My family and I had a terrible experience at this campground, and I strongly urge others to read this before considering a stay here.

Our family ended up stranded at the campground after our towing vehicle broke down. We have a large trailer, and because our vehicle was in the shop, we couldn’t move it. During this time, we continued to pay for every single night we stayed — we have the transaction records to prove it. We were not trying to stay without paying or overstay our welcome.

We initially spoke with the female manager, who told us that as long as we paid, we could stay as long as needed. However, every day around 11 a.m., the male manager would come by our site and pressure us to leave — even though we had paid in full. His tone was aggressive and confrontational, and unfortunately, he used derogatory terms on multiple occasions, even with children nearby.

At one point, when we were off-site visiting a the island for a wedding (we had to rent a van since our truck was still in the shop), the male manager called and was swearing and demanding we leave immediately — even though we were paid up and not even physically at the site at the time. (Not using any power, water, etc.) This was extremely stressful, especially since we were trying our best to resolve the vehicle issue.

When we returned, the situation continued to escalate. We attempted to reset a breaker (which staff had previously told us we could do if needed), and this led to a heated confrontation with the male manager, who arrived on a quad and began speaking to my father in a very threatening manner. This felt completely uncalled for, and it was frightening, especially with our family present.

The police were eventually called and we fully cooperated and showed proof of payment. Despite the female manager telling the officers that we hadn’t paid, we were able to show clear evidence that money had been taken from our account. The officers confirmed that we were within our rights to remain until we could safely remove our trailer.

We ended up signing an agreement to leave the next day, and we did — the only delay was picking up the trailer due to the mechanic’s timeline, which the officers were aware of and had no issue with. We were never trying to cause problems; we were just in a difficult situation and doing our best to handle it respectfully.

Another concerning part of our experience is that when we asked to speak with the campground’s owners, we were told that information couldn’t be provided. This left us feeling even more helpless and unheard.

While the bathrooms were clean and the grounds were fairly well-maintained, none of that makes up for the way we were treated. The management was unprofessional, aggressive, and made a hard situation much worse for our family.

I would not recommend this campground, especially if you’re traveling with kids or might need even a small amount of flexibility or compassion. There are many other places to stay where staff will treat you with...

Stayed for an entire week and loved it! Dunno what you other people are on about for the water pressure, we had no problems day or night. The roads are not full of potholes, and the campsites are very level, we pulled in, chocked our trailer, and it was already level!! We only had to stabilize it for our stay.

The staff is very friendly and courteous, and were very eager to do almost anything to make our stay pleasurable.

The bathrooms were spotless clean, and there are FREE showers! Laundry facilities, and FREE WIFI!.

The site was very reasonably priced, there were no extra charges to have a tent set up next to our trailer.

The manager was around and kept a watchful eye on the campground and the patrons around the clock.

In fact, we left our trailer parked in the campground for a few days while we went tenting it elsewhere, and everything was SAFE and sound.

The campground is only minutes from downtown Golden, and is very convenient if you need to get supplies, or like me, items I forgot to pack lol.

There were wildlife walking right through the campground, and other then a little noise from the trains and highway traffic, it was very peaceful and quiet. People were not partying and driving in and out all hours of the night.

I WILL be staying at this site again, and I will be recommending it to my friends, family, and business clients and associates.

The only negative things I can say is that the tent pegs did not want to go in or stay in the ground, (but hey, your on the side of a mountain right?), the picnic tables could use replacing, it was not right near any water or pool, and it would be nice if the office was open a little later.

To the staff at Whispering Spruce campground, thanks for making our stay...