Rivernook Campground — Hotel in Porterville

I’m writing this review because I continue to get emails about rating my experience and my feedback and really hope I enjoyed my stay with them. Our family of 4 just recently stayed in the largest cabin for $350 a night for 5 nights. A bit expensive considering it was after the Memorial Day weekend and the campground looked over half empty. But we needed a vacation really bad because we hadn’t been on one in 3 years. We have stayed at this campground a few times in the past, before the cabins were there, and always enjoyed it. The campground is nice and relaxing and enjoyable. The cabin was ok, not bad for camping. But there were 3 major things that made our stay unenjoyable and unpleasant, and sadly we will not be coming back. The air conditioners do not work well. We were told not to set them below 72 degrees or the units would freeze inside and stop working. We did this the entire time as instructed, but the units still couldn’t keep the temperature close to 72 degrees when it was 80-90 degrees outside. It was over 80 degrees in our cabin every afternoon/evening. So, we had to wait to take our showers until nighttime because it was too hot in the cabin to take a shower earlier in the day without sweating afterwards. Other guests were paying less money and getting cooler air than us in their own RV’s. The king sized bed plastic box frame underneath was broken in several places, so it made so much loud noise. My husband and I didn’t get much sleep because of this. It was so horrible that on our 4th night there, my husband called the office and had them remove the broken boxes underneath and just put our mattress on the floor. The lady in the office told us nobody in 10 years has ever complained about the bed being noisy. We find that very hard to believe. She seemed to admit the bed was at least 10 years old. Also, the floor was filthy dirty the entire time we were there. We contacted the office and were given a mop. Yes, we mopped the whole house floor 2 times a day because it was so bad. We are camping and do not mind some dirt, but we were paying the highest price in the campground for a better quality stay, and we were having to mop the floor twice a day it was so bad (see bottom of foot pic - one hour after mopping). We informed the lady in the office the day we arrived about the amount of dirt on the floor. She came and inspected our floor and agreed it was pretty dirty. So, she gave us some free firewood to compensate for it. A day or two later, my husband and I figured out it was all the AC units blowing in dirt constantly because of the poor filtration. We were also informed upon arrival that the dryer to dry clothes was a hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. The washing machine was filthy and I had to run an empty cycle and wipe it out to clean it out first before washing our clothes. The dryer did work the one time I used it, yay! One of the refrigerator bottom draws for food was broken and wouldn’t slide open or closed, and the freezer door handle was missing. The day we left, my husband complained to the lady in the office and she argued with him. She was already fully aware of our issues during our stay, yet she still refused to give us even a partial refund for a couple nights or something to compensate us. She said what do you expect, your camping. She said if we had left the first day being dissatisfied then maybe we could receive some refund. Well we didn’t know on the first day that they were going to be ongoing daily issues. Give us a break lady! Besides, my husband already took work off for the whole week and we packed and drove for over 2 hours to get there. It was 3 years since we had been on a vacation, and our kids were excited to try fishing for the first time in their lives. This shows a major lack in care of service for the amount we paid. We should’ve paid less money and stayed in a tent. We paid the higher price for a better quality stay and didn’t get it. They pretend to care about your stay. Clearly they didn’t care at all. Unfortunately, we will never come...

Shady "Private" campground. As you know, the French Fire started on August 18th and till this day, it's still on fire. My reservations were on August 20th-24th. I decided to call them on August 19th to ask them if there were any last minute cancellations as I wanted a river front site. This is when they informed me there was a fire and the air quality was fair/bad. Of course, I was concerned about my family and my relatives that were joining us. We were a big group and our reservations cost nearly $1k. I requested to get a refund. At first they seem to understand and they would need to ask the owner. The owner refused and instead gave us a credit voucher that's useless because you have to book a year or two in advanced, like I did with this reservation. I understand this is out of their control and so is mine! It's not like I was being irresponsible and did not cancel in a timely manner. Who knows where I will be in a year or two and if I can get time off on the best dates.||||Being a "private" company that they are, they are all about being greedy. They did not want to lose out on $740 (I had to cancel 2 sites 30 days prior, thank goodness). They simply do not care because they were still open when they were on evacuation notice. I have proof of this as they mentioned it on FB. Mind you, the evacuation was given on day we were suppose to leave. Imagine if we were stuck there during the fire because Rivernook Campground did not want to lose money.||||DO NOT BOOK with them. They seem to care at first until they have your money.||||BTW, I tried to warn others on FB. Guess what, they blocked me from making comments and they deleted my post. They do not want to be exposed of how...

I love this place. I have been dry camping here for at least 10 years now. It's always fun with family and friends. I go with my husband and kids, my youngest is 2 years old. We were just here June 20th thru the 24th, 2018. The only bad thing I could say about it is that they removed the womens shower stall doors and replaced it with shower curtains which makes you feel less comfortable and safe from someone just sliding the curtain open while you are naked and trying to change. There were 3 toilets clogged out of 5 or 6 stalls that weren't able to be used. Also when we went to buy ice up at the office the ice was already melting. And there were skunks running through our camp site when it got dark, which we never encountered before... usually its raccoons and they scare easily and go away. But these skunks weren't afraid of us. It was hard for us because we didn't want to get sprayed. They crawled under our screened canopy waking us up every night to try and find food. But it's there natural habitat and there's not much we can do. Although the staff did say that if it became a nuisance they could try to trap them and release elsewhere. But we're use to camping and we just let them be. Other than that... the staff/workers are very kind. This is a great camping spot especially for families with young children. The town is close and also the market where you can purchase things you need. I would definitely recommend the campground because it has always been a great place to camp and has been fun...