Chatham Lakes Campground — Hotel in Chatham Township

With chaos and confusion for the guest 2024 the Camp Ground was approved for the pool but the campers and the rest residential line was denied permanently. With the goal of having their pool completely by July 4 guest holiday weekend was a success and July 4 people ( the owners and selected few campers) were swimming in the pool without the passing of inspections cleared. The owners people posted pictures of a selected few campers and them selves in the pool on Facebook. On July 5 we all came to a family bingo Friday evening with people swimming in the pool outside the bingo windows that were open to hear. Our four year old grandson looked out the window, not being the selected few in the pool and was told it was not opened My grandson’s parents were there planning to be seasonal campers. They took their issue to the management, Cindy and Jerry and this was what the response was. Don’t you teach your children they can’t always do what others are doing. I made a comment on the bingo activity page that I wish I would’ve never went to bingo to see my grandson tortured watching other children playing in the pool while he wasn’t allowed to. How do you explain that to a four year old thats connected to the camp ground. The owners grandson thats the same age was yelling for him to come on and swim. Saturday we proceeded to enjoy our family holiday, watching the fireworks from a distance in the campground and listening to the band that was there to play then 11pm o’clock, approximately I walk out of my daughters camper to Cindy sitting on the other side of the road with her lights off, and I seen her with my lights on my golf cart as I turned away and she smiled I felt something was wrong, so I turned back around and as I pulled up in front of my daughters camper, Jim the owner pulled up on me real fast in his side by side and asked if I had a problem I could see he was drinking a lot and I answered no just concerned cause my grandchildren are in this camper. With that he proceeded to keep saying do I have a problem trying to intimidate me then finely it comes out why did I write all that stuff, I said only thing I wrote was one thing and it was how I felt that there should’ve been an email to warn the family bingo that there was people in the pool so my grandson didn’t have to witness it. Then he kept saying are you gonna follow the rules? Are you gonna follow the rules? Over and over again he kept yelling to intimidate me. I said, where did I break any rules I always follow the rules with that he pulled off and I went back into my daughters camper with my grandchildren. My daughter pulled out of Chatham Campground that next day. With no reimbursement from seasonal to weekend on the rates. As she felt it wasn’t a place for her and her family. We’ve torn down our deck and made our site to just keep as a home base for our camper to travel and bring our camper back to till the 2024 season is over. If I were to give a good review about this Camp Ground, it would be an excellent review for the activities, Director there is no one like her, and of course the other family campers that we made friends with that has been affected by this sort of difunctional management. As for the owner and the management they’re out for their own and it isn’t family oriented. Like I said they were in the dark, 11pm watching & waiting to settle a problem ( that wasn’t with my daughter obviously) and they they knew no one was there to back me. It crossed my mind to call the police but I felt it would have escalated and if my grandchild would have witnessed it, It would have added to his last memories at this campground. I hope this helps someone if they are looking to build a camp life to get away from the everyday life....

I asked to change my reservation to a shorter stay because I didn’t feel that this campground was a good fit for me. The manager, Cindy, asked me why and I explained that I came primarily for activities for my 4 year old but how the activities are next to the pool and we can no longer enjoy them…. They recently built a pool that they thought was going to be open by 4th of July but once I got there I was told that it hasn’t been inspected yet so we weren’t allowed to swim in it. Though the entire 4th of July weekend people were swimming in it (supposedly the owner and his family/friends). The activities are right next to the pool, so clearly my 4 year old was distracted by the kids swimming and was upset since he couldn’t. I avoided the activities and the pool for the rest of the weekend, because my 4 year old doesn’t comprehend inspections and camping liability. Cindy responded rudely “didn’t you ever teach your kid that they can’t always do things others can?” I explained that where I come from (previous campground), I was treated like family and not where the owners and their family were permitted to do things that others aren’t. (They also had floaties in the pool… when the rules state no floaties, the kids were jumping… rules state no jumping, they have a side by side they ride around… no side by sides…. And the list goes on and on) She huffed and puffed, interrupted, and talked over me and told me that she would talk to the owner. I called the next morning asking Cindy if she was able to talk to the owner. She told me he was planning on talking to me and my husband today but we left (it was Sunday we pulled our camper out). I asked for him to call me because I was at work. I called back at 5:30pm, Cindy said “I gave him the message” but wouldn’t give me an expected day/time of a returned phone call, if any and continued to state that “he was planning on talking to you today but you left”. I’m assuming at this point we lost some money and Jim has no intentions of calling me. Hopefully this review will prevent others from making the same mistake I did. Or maybe the family can read it and see how their actions, words, rudeness, and unprofessionalism doesn’t make for a very family oriented camp ground. I would suggest paying attention to the reviews regarding the management here. My experience is very similar to the negative reviews and I was thankfully only there for a weekend. On a positive note- The facility is clean including the shower houses/bathrooms, the pool will be nice once everyone is allowed, my son enjoyed the lake for swimming (I didn’t- lots of shells and goose poop everywhere), the fishing ponds are great for the kids, it is dog friendly, and they have good activities when their family isn’t swimming in the pool next to you if you have kids (she told me the pool will hopefully be open to campers by the end of July, 2024 so hopefully that won’t be an...

Not the family campground they advertise to be. We were permanent for a couple of years there and it was decent. They were making some improvements ,the past year so much drama ensued, problems with the township, problems with the neighbors regarding the property line. We felt that they were never really being honest. This summer, they finally finished a pool they were putting in and everyone was excited for it to open. Fourth of July weekend came and we were excited to see the pool was open when I asked about it ,Cindy the owners mother, told me the pool was closed, but I said you posted videos and pictures on Facebook. There are kids and people in the pool. She said you don’t understand! Apparently, the pool was open for some children just not all children. She had zero compassion for the kids who were watching other children play, and her response to a mother of a four-year-old was,haven’t you taught your child that he doesn’t always get to do what other kids do? I think treating a child poorly speaks volumes to the kind of person she is. If you have a difference of opinion or bring something to Cindy or someone else in management and they don’t like it, they will kick you out at the drop of the hat. At least five families that I am friends with have now left the campground, whether it’s because they are not welcome back or they just kicked them out. Cindy feels that I embarrassed her by asking about the pool(I feel that she embarrassed herself and just didn’t want to take responsibility for it), which was never my intention seeing as she seemed to not be very bothered by the fact that her son was sleeping with another Camper’s wife( wife swapping??) ( not to mention the couple who was caught doing something inappropriate on a picnic table ) these things don’t scream family campground. The campground looks like a junkyard when you pull in there’s trucks and tow trucks and it’s just a hot mess.It Is too bad because it had great potential but because of their terrible business practices, nobody wants to be there. if you read the reviews, Cindy typically is always the reason for a poor review. She has no business working with the public. as with all other campgrounds, there are rules, but at Chatham Lakes the rules apply to some but not all which is very confusing. Be aware if you are paid up, but you purchase a new camper you cannot bring that new Camper onto your site apparently voids your contract and if you ask Cindy about these things, she just makes things up as she goes along. She not only is a nasty human, but not very honest .The good news is that three of the families are at another campground together, which truly is a family...