Mercer / Grove City KOA Holiday — Hotel in Findley Township

Stayed for Labor Day weekend in cabin kk1-2 was initially pleased with office help &the initial appearance of campground. After a few hours everything went down hill fast. First negative was the bathrooms attached to the front office were disgusting all weekend. After they were not cleaned during the posted cleaning hours, I asked them to please clean them. Never happened. The second time I asked them to clean them the next day the girl at the office said they’re “checked every hour” &“it was not their fault because guests from the pool used these bathrooms” it was a safety hazard all weekend and no wet floor sign period. If they were being cleaned at all let alone once an hour, they wouldn’t have been absolutely filthy @night, when the pool was closed. Electric went out on Saturday, it was corrected after a short time. It went out again on Sunday for the ENTIRE day &night. Half the campground was basically in an uproar, as they should have been, over this. After several hours I went to the office to ask what the situation was and there were already several others in their with the same mindset. The front desk girl said “it’s not their fault it’s penn powers fault” by the end of the weekend I heard this probably 10+ times. I then went to talk to the penn power lineman who rolled up, and he said this happens every holiday weekend ! I paid 80 a night to stay in a cabin so I wouldn’t have to worry about the unpredictable weather this time of year. Micah (the Co-manager because the hosts of this campground are no where to be found unlike most KOAS) came around to all the cabins and told us we could only use the lights in our cabins &not to turn on the ac. It was 90 degrees this weekend. SO NOW at 1:30 in the morning I wake up to BED BUGS crawling all over me. Went running to the front office to use the emergency phone to call Micah. He came to our cabin, checked the bed with a flashlight (still no lights) and confirmed my worst fear. He told us he had no where else for us to stay &offered to start bagging up our bedding &other belongings to dry them. I had no desire to even bother, was not taking any chances of bringing home one of these bugs, because as most people know, it only takes one (not even to mention their eggs) and they are miserable to try to get rid of. Even had he started drying our bedding, where did he think we were going to sleep that night? On top of this he said “I’ll refund you your money for tonight” I told him I expected an entire refund and we were not even going to discuss it at this point. He told me he “felt bad” for me but he “was just tired”. On top of this he mentioned that the mattress protectors on The mattresses were meant to keep bed bugs out? Which leads me to believe this has been a previous problem that was not handled correctly. We had to sleep outside this night and I am so grateful we did because after sitting In an outside chair for 2 hours they started coming out of my clothes! They were still stuck in my pajamas. I spent the rest of the night trying to contact 24 exterminators for advice, when I finally did he said based on the size and amount these bugs had been there feasting for a while. This is so sad to think how many people have probably brought these home. The office didn’t open until 8 and thankfully without arguing they gave me a full refund. We ended up leaving every single thing we brought with us this weekend, based on the amount I saw crawling on my bed once I stood up and shined a light on it, they could have been anywhere. I ended up with hundreds of bites, on every limb and part of my body including my face, fingers &feet (ended up having to be put on steroids they were so bad) I do not know how I didn’t know about these bugs until the 3rd night, the exterminator said it could’ve been based on the ac being out and them knowing we were there @that point. All I can say is this was at the very top of the most traumatizing nights of my life and for weeks after I could not sleep and could not shake the crawling feeling. Good...

I arrived late on a Sunday afternoon which was nice because most of the weekenders had left. The campground has a nice mix of seasonal sites and transient. I’d say it’s about 50/50 in terms of very shaded campsites and somewhat shaded, which is nice in the summer months to help keep your RV cool.

I was there for a week and their staff was always around doing work within the campground, and for the most part it was clean and what little I used of the bathrooms, I found them to be clean as well. The main issue I had with the campground was the septic smell – at times it was really bad. I only noticed it in the back of the campground where they appear to be doing work so I’m not sure if it’s a temporary problem or it’s always that bad? A couple of days the weather was very nice, I opened my windows and every now and then you’d get a waft of the smell and a few times it nearly brought me to my knees. I had stayed in site #52 and felt the map was a bit misleading…it was a long campsite, but it was extremely narrow and when sitting outdoors I felt like I was sitting next to the road…actually, I WAS sitting next to the road, which was annoying at times. Thankfully, it hadn’t been too busy during the week so there weren’t many cars that were passing by on a regular basis.

One thing that may have caused me to camp elsewhere was their lack of cable TV even though they advertise having it on their KOA website. I know, I know, I’m camping and why do I need it, but I camp alone and there are times when I’d like to watch TV or catch up on the news. Thankfully, I was able to pick up approximately 20 OTA channels from Youngstown, OH. My point is, don’t advertise that you have it, and when I go into the office to advise the cable isn’t working at my campsite and have the teenager behind the counter laugh and tell me it hasn’t been operational for a while…not cool. Not a major issue, but something that may have affected my decision making.

It’s worth noting this campground isn’t far from Route 80 and I noticed many people stopped in for the night and were on their way the next morning. If you’re planning on checking out the area, Pittsburgh is about 1:00-1:15 minutes...

Pick a different place, we wish we would. This is by far one of the most disappointing camping places I've been to in years, and nothing of what I'd expect from a KOA. It had all the "comforts" of being parked in a combination of the side of a freeway and a Walmart parking lot. To start, it's IMPOSSIBLE to sleep because our site is maybe 15 feet from a major, busy, interstate type road. The traffic is loud and constant. No one could relax because of it, and the kids had no where to really play because of how close the freeway type road was. The sites are unkept; we weeded for a half hour when we got here just to get all the ones about knee high around the "fire pit" and by the door. There was no grate for cooking or using the ring. I asked one of the workers for something since half the other sites have toppers, and she gave us a glorified deep fryer skimmer. It was better than nothing. We booked a tent site for our friends that were meeting us and they were VERY disappointed as well. It was a piece of grass in the middle of the roads and some rv spots. The spots are right on top of each other in a very parking lot style way. The craft/game room smelled like a wet basement, and the other courts they advertise are not maintained. I tried to take the kids to the pool but the young worker was aggressively rude and we ended up leaving. They were out of ice for a majority of the weekend, but the store itself is nice and well stocked. I enjoyed the Saturday morning activity where they have fresh, local baked goods and items for sale. The trails aren't labeled or maintained but, the dog area was ok. Overall, the group we met up with and us would love a refund and will NEVER return. I put a huge X on this one in the book. Saved your couple hundred dollars and go...