Boise / Meridian KOA Journey — Hotel in Meridian

This shouldn’t be called a KOA. It is not kid friendly, therefore it is not family friendly. We stayed here for 31 nights. The good? Location, good sized sites, nice indoor pool, and very affordable laundry room. The bad? The rude women who work in the office. And the tiny kids playground that is sandwiched in between two long term sites, who are both smokers. I’m not exaggerating that the kids playground is practically a smoking section. You would think that when these 2 sites were rented out on a long term basis, a prerequisite would be that those sites are reserved for non-smokers only. My kids would be playing at the playground, and the long term residents, would come out for a smoke. My kids would leave as soon as they would light up their cigarettes. Did this cause the smokers to avoid smoking when kids were present at the playground? Nope. They could visibly see that lighting up would cause the kids to retreat, but apparently they didn’t care. There is a puzzle table in the rec room (connected to the office) and my kids spent a lot of time there putting together the various puzzles. They overheard countless conversations filled with awful language while the office women complained about their jobs, etc. These are older women, that look like they could be your great grandmother. You’d think they’d have better manners than that, especially when children are within earshot. They don’t seem to like children very much, though. Use of the pool table in the rec room is only for ages 14 and up. I was playing a game of pool with my kids, ages 6-14. One of the office ladies came and broke up the game, halfway through, stating that the 6 year old is not allowed to use the pool table. Seriously? Even with adult supervision? Aside from the friendly men that work here, that are nice to converse with, and have even complimented the manners and character of my kids, this place is just NOT family friendly. The vibe feels more fitting of any regular RV park, or even a retirement community. It does not have the atmosphere of a KOA at all. We’ve stayed at 13 different KOAs and this is the only one that we’ve encountered with such a lack of respect towards families with children. A playground should be smoke-free, staff shouldn’t assault kids ears with bad language, and as long as young kids have parental supervision, a pool table shouldn’t be off limits. We wouldn’t...

Paid and reserved a tent site online. Drive 5 hours to find out that it instead put us in a camper site, get informed it sometimes does that. Get informed we can't put our tent in camper spot. Only 4 camp sites in the KOA. They put us in an overflow spot that they give to last minute people that really need a spot for the night. Don't discount us for the inconvenience. Whatever just need a place for the night. The spot is a tiny grass patch across from the office with giant propane tank next to it. Barely fits our tent and two chairs while tent is butted up right next to someone's camper. Spend the rest of the night getting in better mood. Come back to site to go to bed. While we are trying to go to bed around 11pm 10 or so sprinklers come on around our spot. One is spraying right where the cover and mesh window is so it is pouring into our tent. Rush to put things into vehicle. Try to put soaked chairs in front of sprinklers to prevent the spray them. Can only block two. Clean out puddles from our tent. I'm soaking wet so I have to just sleep pretty much naked. Luckily it was really warm night. In the morning tell the office about the sprinklers coming on. She doesn't seem to care and says she can't refund me. Well can I talk to the owners. "We don't have any, but I'm the active manager". BS this is a franchise there are owners. Cancel site for next week on return trip. Give me a 10 dollar cancelation fee, can you remove it do to the situation sorry can't it's KOA that handles it. Ask " well who do I contact about water damage after I check my stuff later". She says "well I doubt theirs water damage, and what would you do if it had rained then". Really you ask that! Tell her rain doesn't shoot sideways into tents. She says "will you be happy if I refund you for the night". Say "Yes". She finally does GTFO. Never camp with...

We stayed here for a night on our way back to Portland because it was convenient to the interstate and KOA's are pretty predictable for what they offer. Pulling into the road that this campground is on is a nightmare, there's a very busy three lane one way highway that you have to cross, which is nearly impossible during rush hour. The staff here were all friendly and welcoming, the campground was basic and a little rough around the edges. The campsites are all really close together, possibly the closest KOA I've been to. You're bumper to bumper and right next to your neighbor, making sitting outside pretty uncomfortable. Majority of the tenants here are full timers and the backside of the campground looks like a trailer park. The full timers are mostly kept in the backside of the campground however. There are only two men's toilets for 224 campsites, one on opposite sides of the campground that are open 24/7. They have a second men's bathroom at the main office, but it's for the pool and not open early in the morning or after 9. It was a challenge finding an open toilet without waiting on line for my morning meditation.

I was really looking forward to using the hot tub after driving all day, but it was out of order. Looking at other reviews, it appears the hot tub has been out of order for months. The dog 'run' is very small, maybe 10x15 fenced in area. There's also a racetrack nearby where you can hear cars racing into the evening from your campsite. The view from our campsite was of their junky tool shed with lawn equipment left out front. Overall, I'm glad they had a spot for us to sleep, but it's not a campground I'd ever look forward to...