Galveston Island KOA Holiday — Hotel in Galveston

This Feb 2025 was the second time we've stayed here with our RV. It is a nice facility, with lots of amenities, and the price is reasonable. On this recent visit however, there was no water on the property, presumably because they had broken pipes due to the cold weather/freezing. We arrived around 2pm on a Friday and there was no water until 10pm that night, so no ability to flush the toilet in the trailer; we had to bring our own water jugs we bought at the local store. The thing that bothers me most about this experience is that:

1. They were well aware that they had no water when I called that morning to make a reservation, but chose to not inform me. That means that they were (obviously) wanting to hide that fact and still let me book there. I attribute this to fraudulent business practices and greed, with no regard to the effects on the guest.
2. The RIGHT thing to do, besides let us know that there was no water, would have been to AUTOMATICALLY deduct some of the cost of our stay, due to the inconvenience factor. They love to send out these text messages, which advises of the upcoming "festivities" on the property, but I replied to several of these asking about a discount for the water snafu and never heard anything back. To me, that's just wrong. If they truly wanted me to come back and spend $$ there, they should have been transparent about the issue and even offered us $10/night off our stay. When businesses proactively seek to do the right thing up front, instead of trying to purposely hide things, that tends to make me think they really care about their customers. When they don't, they really don't.
3. We have a high end surge protector for the power going into our trailer. It gives an error when there's a problem with the power, and shuts the power down. On this last visit, it gave us an E-7 error, which means a lack of a proper ground at the source. Since the unit would not function, I had to disconnect it and run the trailer without it (due to the cold; we needed the heat to be on), which is plenty dangerous to the trailer and to us. I had one of their maintenance people look at the outlet: no problem found (not surprised). But when I got the trailer back home and plugged the protector in, no problem with the protector (and its been plugged in for months), so there was obviously a problem at the RV park, which went undiagnosed and uncorrected. These high end protectors do not give out false readings; when they shut the power down with an error, there's an actual error.

I attempted to contact the manager/owners of the property to voice my concerns to no avail. Instead of addressing the legitimacy of my complaints, they blew me off and even attempted to insult me along the way. Wow.

After contacting the corporate office of KOA, and getting no concern/resolution whatsoever, I realized that this company’s lack of integrity starts at the top and trickles down. They try to use the excuse that each location is “individually owned” and that they have no authority over their business practices. Sham.

When in Galveston again, we're going to (likely) take our chances on the State Parks, since we seem to get about the same services for less anyway. I've never had a problem with one of the state parks we've stayed at, and we just don't need the amenities that something like a KOA offers anyway, so it seems like a no-brainer to spend less and get the same services, like actual...

This is a beautiful park but unless your an older folk, expect to be harassed. I live in a fifth wheel full time and have never received any sort of complaint. I’m someone who quickly fixes any issues. Although, every time I was told to do one thing by one staff member, the opposite was said by the management team. I’m younger and have never set my trailer up on my own, my mother came down with my father and weren’t there for five minutes at 7:30 pm. They were jumping them to move their cars off of the empty site across from mine and telling them they both had to pay a $20 fee individually to stay in the park. My parents were checking in while I was trying to set the jacks and get the trailer off of the truck when a group of individuals who weren’t in KOA shirts came and started yelling, telling us we needed to move the extra vehicles immediately and pay the guest fee. I promise, we hadn’t even been there 5 minutes.

I have a third vehicle, and found out it’d be $40 a month to keep it parked in an unsafe area, nowhere near my site. When I asked to move closer to my third vehicle since they lacked cameras in the resort, the manager let me know it’s a hard process to see when everyone is coming and going in that area of the park and that she would have another staff member do it. Four days later, I still have yet to have an answer. When we moved in, the staff member who checked us in let me know I could park my truck anywhere in the area next to the lazy river. There were no markings or designated parking spots, so, I parked in the first spot, under the light. Two days later, the manager tells me I have to move my vehicle around the corner, near no other sites, in the dark, with no cameras. Another staff member said “it’s okay to just move your vehicle 2-3 spots down.” The staff here is not trained or well educated, clearly. It’s sad because I study hospitality and the managers do not offer this.

A week into staying here, my grandfather passed away very unexpectedly. We left immediately in the middle of the night-early, early morning, to be by his bed side and then I receive a text before the our dog has been home alone for less than 8 hours at this point, when we were already driving back to Galveston, saying that the dog was barking and that they should not be left alone. What do you do with your animals when you go to work? They have not been unattended for 12 hours, they were inside, contained, with a camera to ensure they were okay, while we were already on our way back. They also let us know they didn’t have a dog listed on our reservation. This was not our fault. The lady checking us in saw us unload the dog and asked if we had a dog. When we first toured, we told them we’d love to take our dog to the beach and other places. Once again, a lack in customer service, education, and training.

I have lived in three parks in the last four years. This place has been an absolute nightmare. The service is also terrible, if you want to use any sort of computer or cell service, good luck. The WiFi they offer does not help. If you enjoy great customer service, I advise to look elsewhere. This was my first KOA and I’m disgusted by the way this...

The story for the missing star-

1. we stayed at camp site 5 and it was fire ants galore. I did call the office to let them know there was an ant pile my 2 year old stepped in. They handled it and communicated!❤️ But then the next day, the ants took over our tent! We went out and about that morning and came back to ants all over our tent (no food or water inside the tent) so my husband and I did our best to kill them all and stopped by the grocery store to buy cinnamon which we sprinkled inside and outside the perimeter of our tent which kept the ants out the remaining time of our stay. I do know ants are part of nature but honestly in all my 10 plus years camping over never actually had ants inside the tent but we learned to bring cinnamon next time. **also many fire ants near the picnic table in the park area for children

2. when they arrived to our site to treat the ants they noticed we had a pop up “potty tent”. There was a camp toilet for the kids in there at the time and they texted me “Hi. We put down more ant treatment. While there, I noticed you have a Port-A-Pod set up. Please remove it and you can utilize the restroom facilities we provide. Thank you” I did remove the potty to respect their rules (even if I disagree bc with potty training comes accidents and mama doesn’t wanna deal with that on vacation) But I went to the office to tell them I will remove the toilet but I’m leaving the tent because it’s a changing tent to take off swim clothes and put on dry clothes. I don’t want went clothes in the sleeping tent. To which the woman respected and noted that fact in her system.

Overall, I would stay here again. We are a family of 5 and we loved the park (aside from the ants) the lazy river and pool were clean and well maintained. Restrooms were clean. The front desk crew acknowledged me when they were busy which shown me I was seen . I love the “charging stuff to the site” bc I forget my wallet everywhere! So that’s convenient.

Notes for parents- this community isn’t gated but we felt safe during our week stay -sites 1-6 are closed to the office restrooms -they don’t sell kids toothpaste -they sell floats check for fire ants and bring the necessary items to prevent them and treat bites. Same for mosquitoes. washer $2.25 30ish minutes, dryer $2.25 48ish minutes . They take quarters. -they did have a shower chair -hot tub isn’t for kids, ages 16 and up from my understanding they have bbq pits on the sites but only one shared fire pit ring that encourages community so you can bring smore stuff -they have a tennis court/picklball court kids brought bikes and scooters and road around...