Niagara Falls KOA Holiday — Hotel in Niagara Falls

I may be going against the grain here as I see most of the reviews for this place are positive but that was not my experience at all. If you check my numerous reviews for other businesses you will note this is the first negative review I have left. To say this place is over-priced would be a massive understatement. For 2 nights over the Labour Day long weekend we paid $320 or $160 per night! This is 60% more than I have ever paid for any site, and close to 300% more than the average fully equipped RV site in my experience, outrageous pricing. This business knows it has an in demand location and they aren't the least bit shy about gouging their customers for it. This park is crowded, another reviewer used the term packed like sardines and that nails it. I felt terrible for our neighbour as our dump hose was no more than 12 feet from his RV door and 4 feet from his picnic table in the centre of his site "living space". In the evening there are so many fires in such a small space you might think you are in the middle of a forest fire, the smoke is thick and if you have any breathing issues this is not the place for you. We were here to visit family and on the first night we brought them back to our campsite to enjoy a campfire with their two young daughters. We were accosted by a very abrupt staff member who was guarding the gate in an aggressive fashion. Despite the fact we had brought our gate card with us I was questioned as to why the license number of the vehicle I was driving (a rental) was not the same as the license number on the gate card, the license number of my 37' class A RV. Really?? Do people from this park regularly take their RV's into one of the busiest tourist towns in North America to go see the sights and have dinner?? C'mon man, use your head. I was forced to produce my receipt to prove I was staying here which I found incredibly insulting, I'm driving a minivan with a family of 5 and I'm attempting to break into a KOA?? Brutal customer service. But it gets worse, directly behind us is my family coming in for the campfire, I explained the situation and was told "something isn't adding up here" and then was told that "visitors" to the park are charged $9 per adult and $8 per child to enter. At this point I'm jumping mad, are you telling me after gouging me for $320 for a site and two bags of overpriced firewood on top of that, now you are going to hammer me another $36 to bring my family in to enjoy a fire?? Sensing my anger, he wisely capitulated and allowed my family to stay "free" for 30 minutes, saying he would get in trouble with his boss if they stayed any longer. All this happening right in front of their open car window making for a very uncomfortable visit looking at their watches the whole time and afraid this aggressive security guard would come by at any minute with his stopwatch. I found this very embarrassing, my family had hosted us for dinner at their home in Niagara Falls and to return the favour we planned to bring them back to our site for a nice night with a campfire and that plan was 100% ruined by the penny pinching and aggressive policies and staff of this park. Later that night my 20 year old and 19 year old sons were having a hot tub by themselves and were accosted by the same aggressive staff member and grilled as to their site number which they weren't sure of and why would they be. He insisted they needed to know that or they might get lost. Really?? Do young adults regularly get lost and go missing here?? Again, just brutal customer treatment. The park is equipped with a sauna which is unique and an awesome park feature my boys were pumped about, but they were informed it was an extra charge (of course, fits with the nickel and dime theme) it was also outrageously priced, something like $10 for 15 minutes. We stayed one night, got finished with our family function on the second night and promptly packed up the RV and left in the dark so as to not spend a second longer than we needed to in this obnoxious and unwelcoming park. Terrible experience, we...

Went to koa this week with my family. Was great at first but the last 2 days me and my nephews were taking a walk around 1130pm and we were stopped by a worker in one of the golf carts (this worker has given problems in previous vacations to this location)who told us that we are not allowed to walk around past 11pm, to which I replied "is this something new" as myself and my family have been going here for over 25yrs he replied by stating "we have rules" then he asked my age I said 29 and he said ok well you are taking responsibility for your young nephews anyone under a certain age isn't allowed to walk around. I said ok fine and continued on my way. The next day my nephew was going to the bathroom by himself in the afternoon and the same worker stopped him and asked for a wrist band and if he knows where he's going. My nephew said yeah I'm going to the bathroom and I don't know anything about wristbands and the guy said ok and left. That same day we decided to check out a day early as the whether was really bad and our tent site flooded. A family member of mine asked if we check out a day early could we get refunded for the 1 night. They said yes but you have to check out ASAP so we explained we're not packed yet and they said it's fine, so I went to the front to get my refund and then they told me I can't go back in. I said well I have my wife and 4 kids (ages 3 months - 7yrs) to pick up. They said well you can register as a visitor which is $10 per person including kids I said ok yeah no forget that, they refused to let me back in to get my stuff and kids unless I pay. My uncle who was staying there came down to the front and used his pass to let me in to pick up my wife and kids because what am I suppose to do. The same guy followed us all the way back and said we need to leave now you're not allowed in here, we explained that they said we had to check out asap in order to get the refund which we did and needed 15 mins to get my kids and wife and whatever other belongings we had. He got angry and called another worker to sit on our tent site to watch us pack up. The best part of course is we are a family of colour. And felt as if we were racially profiled as everytime we attend koa this worker harasses us. Truly disgusting behaviour and very un professional. The staff needs to be adjusted in order to have a safe COMFORTABLE environment for every body. So sad that their standards have dropped so low...

I want to express my concern about our recent experience at the campground. Unfortunately, the environment we encountered was not welcoming. We felt discomfort due to the behaviour of some staff members and other guests, who displayed discriminatory attitudes.

Upon check-in, the staff immediately referred to our group leader as “angry” and insisted there were more people with us than the number we provided. We are fully aware of the fire code and the occupancy limits for the cabins, so this assumption was both unfounded and unnecessary.

Specifically, a group of older men, who were drinking in the hot tub and pool despite the rules against alcohol in those areas, made unprovoked and threatening comments towards our teens while they were in the pool. This was alarming and unacceptable, especially considering their intoxication made their threats even more intimidating. Additionally, we noticed that families in the pool looked terrified and left as soon as we arrived, with some even rushing away with their children. This behaviour felt distinctly discriminatory and added to the distress of our teens.

Furthermore, there were instances where our teens felt uneasy when a car followed them on the grounds at night, making the situation even more terrifying, as they were unsure of the driver’s intentions.

On top of this, the campground staff approached us around 11:50 PM, insisting we extinguish our fire because it was after midnight. They mentioned that bylaw officers could issue tickets, despite the actual rule being that we need to put out the fire by midnight. The staff member also made a comment implying we were the only ones with a fire, which felt unnecessary and disrespectful, especially since we weren’t alone in staying up late.

We observed that the staff were checking up on other campers, so it was puzzling why they didn’t check on us. We understand that camping is typically an independent experience, but given that we had multiple cabins booked, we would have appreciated a check-in from the staff to ensure everything was going well. We had hoped for a safe and enjoyable experience, and it’s disheartening that this was not the case. I would not recommend these grounds if you are a person of colour, unfortunately.

Claudia was very nice tho and her service was amazing, especially during the...