Encore Clerbrook RV & Golf Resort — Hotel in Minneola

We’ve been here almost a year in our RV, until we purchase our new home. It’s closest to my husband’s current LEO position and listed as family friendly. We have been to several thousand trails in Florida that claim to be all ages and family friendly with events/activities. That is far from true, with the exception of the one in Sarasota.

In regards to Clerbrook : There is a playground, its equipment is for very small children. The only “child” activities were a few around the holiday and not widely advertised to inform families. All other activities are scheduled at times when most children can’t attend due to bedtimes, or when they are in school. If you do attend one with your kiddos, the older generation just stares disapprovingly and aren’t friendly and inviting, making us not want to attend as we sit at a table by ourselves and no one interacts unless they also have kids. The events provide non kid-friendly food and have music/entertainers for the elderly population. For some kids, this is their home and community too and many residents complain about them in the different groups on social media for being too loud, riding bikes in road (as if they can do so on grass and sand) and tailor the lifestyle to retired folks. The amenities are rarely all operational, or maintain a level of cleanliness and repaired /updated as needed. Clubhouses are typically locked unless they are having an activity so they sit dark and unused. The dog park is overcome by black sand and not maintained. The plastic fencing was uprooted from hurricanes and they have not been fixed. The residents go around picking up all the feces so their dogs don’t run/play in it I don’t use any of the shower rooms because they have lots of mold and mildew, are dark, cramped with clogged shower heads, and others reporting men using the women’s rooms when theirs is out of order. We pay for a bigger lot, but end up doing most lawn care ourselves. Every site’s electrical box and water spigot is about to topple over, worn and busted up. No water pressure at all! We have to change both filters at least monthly. The laundry rooms are not clean! Had a roach climbing towards my machine, ceiling has water damage and falling in, washers smell very musty and full of dog hair. There is no ac or it’s broken most of the time and windows are screwed closed. The good: The amenities are open late, until ten. There are a handful of really kind employees. The views of golf course are beautiful. They allow you to set up your site as you want. They have potential for amazing things with the buildings and pool areas/set up and location. However, they must be maintained, updated, inviting and actually open/operational and utilized with an abundance of activities and events for ALL AGES! My additional thoughts: Why not have a senior side and a family oriented side? The space is large enough. Why not have some activities where the older generation participates with the younger, such as utilizing the workshop for seniors to teach age appropriate kids to build a project? Why not have seniors coach little league or t-ball on the fields or even have teams younger than 50 be able to play? Have seniors offer music lessons or an activity they are experts at??- How about holding STEAM, crafts, musical activities for the kids or pool parties, themed activities/events weekly/monthly for the kids? Create volunteer groups with residents to plan child events, assist in creating an amazing dog park with activities and a dog washing station? I know many would volunteer for the things they are passionate about. Provide the families with things to do, specific areas set up for them, activities and events they are encouraged to attend/participate? I’m certain you would have a lot less undesirable behaviors and such a divided resort. The change is increase in rv living families and decrease in retired folks in Florida due to overpopulation. For us, we are thankful we’re purchasing our new home soon, otherwise we would be finding another place that provides what...

READ BEFORE YOU BOOK

What a dump this place was… unfortunately, I bought into the hype and booked a two week reservation at Clerbrook through my Thousand Trails membership.

My stay began with my pulling in and seeing one of their entry gates sloppily draped in caution tape; which, not to my surprise at this particular point in time, stayed that way throughout the entirety of my stay. In hindsight it really didn’t make much of a difference either way, considering the other one was left wide open for almost half of the two weeks I was there defeating the entire purpose of having any security gates whatsoever.

Next, I was escorted to my site by one of their rangers with whom I inquired about use of their golf course and rates, etc… the ranger indicated to me that the course was closed “because of the hurricane” (yes, the one that was almost an entire year ago at this point)… when I asked if it was the one from last October, the ranger took offense and caught an attitude, trying to sell me on the sentiment of it being somehow reasonable that it wasn’t going to be open until “probably October or November” (over a year after said hurricane).

This was followed by my having no running water on days 1 and 3 of my stay. Excellent.

Finally, to top it all off, I went to the office with my tail between my legs a few days before the end of my reservation to ask the office staff for an extension because the transmission in my truck had blown and it wouldn’t be ready in time to tow the camper on my check-out date. Despite the fact that there had been quite literally half a dozen or more empty sites within the immediate vicinity of me, alone, throughout the entire duration of my two week stay, the office staff pretended this was a huge ask and indicated that I’d have to pay retail rate for any extension.

They even thought I was gullible enough to buy in on their clearly disingenuous compassion by telling me I should try calling Thousand Trails to see if they’d help me… well, Thousand Trails was the only entity that DID try and actually help, informing me that it was the park’s decision and that if they were okay with it, Thousand Trails would extend me. I replied by telling the representative that Clerbrook was okay with it if they were, so the representative called Clerbrook, who told the representative that they would not allow it.

So, not only did Clerbrook pull a slimy and shady business move by trying to make it seem as though they weren’t being greedy snakes by charging a person in a crappy situation their full retail rate when they clearly had the space to accommodate me, but they even tried to put the blame on someone else so they wouldn’t have to deal with my being discontent.

Their shady business, in and of itself, would have been more than enough to prevent me from ever returning again. But along with all the other issues and the fact that I could’t even ACTUALLY use the things they advertise online? If 0 stars was a rating,...

READ BEFORE YOU BOOK|What a dump this place was… unfortunately, I bought into the hype and booked a two week reservation at Clerbrook through my Thousand Trails membership.|My stay began with my pulling in and seeing one of their entry gates sloppily draped in caution tape; which, not to my surprise at this particular point in time, stayed that way throughout the entirety of my stay.|Next, I was escorted to my site by one of their rangers with whom I inquired about use of their golf course and rates, etc… the ranger indicated to me that the course was closed “because of the hurricane” (yes, the one that was almost an entire year ago at this point)… when I asked if it was the one from last October, the ranger took offense and caught an attitude, trying to sell me on the sentiment of it being somehow reasonable that it wasn’t going to be open until “probably October or November” (over a year after said hurricane).|This was followed by my having no running water on days 1 and 3 of my stay. Excellent.|Finally, to top it all off, I went to the office with my tail between my legs a few days before the end of my reservation to ask the office staff for an extension because the transmission in my truck had blown and it wouldn’t be ready in time to tow the camper on my check-out date. Despite the fact that there had been quite literally half a dozen or more empty sites within the immediate vicinity of me, alone, throughout the entire duration of my two week stay, the office staff pretended this was a huge ask and indicated that I’d have to pay retail rate for any extension.|They even thought I was gullible enough to buy in on their clearly disingenuous compassion by telling me I should try calling Thousand Trails to see if they’d help me… well, Thousand Trails was the only entity that DID try and actually help, informing me that it was the park’s decision and that if they were okay with it, Thousand Trails would extend me. I replied by telling the representative that Clerbrook was okay with it if they were, so the representative called Clerbrook, who told the representative that they would not allow it.|So, not only did Clerbrook pull a slimy and shady business move by trying to make it seem as though they weren’t being greedy snakes by charging a person in a crappy situation their full retail rate when they clearly had the space to accommodate me, but they even tried to put the blame on someone else so they wouldn’t have to deal with my being discontent.|Their shady business, in and of itself, would have been more than enough to prevent me from ever returning again. But along with all the other issues and the fact that I could’t even ACTUALLY use the things they advertise online? If 0 stars was a rating,...