# Gary Thiessen, Owner/Operator at Pineridge RV Park — read of Campground AI, May 10 2026

> 14 years running a 38-site park in northern Wisconsin that I bought from my father-in-law. I handle reservations, maintenance, and one part-time seasonal hire named Derek.

## How I got here

Memorial Day weekend I double-booked three pull-through sites in the same afternoon because a guest called in a reservation while I was already updating a walk-in in my spreadsheet. Issued two refunds. Got one 1-star review. That Monday I typed "campground reservation software double booking fix" into Google and this came up around the fourth or fifth result. Not an ad, just organic. I almost didn't click because the title said "AI" and those pages usually waste my time.

## What I clicked first

The subhead: "stop losing bookings to overbooking." That's the exact phrase I would have typed. No jargon, no "streamline your hospitality workflows" nonsense. Then the next line: "Managing reservations in spreadsheets creates overbooking chaos and lost revenue." Fine, they know who they're talking to. The "even the campfire" line made me half-smile, which is more than most of these pages get from me.

## Where I paused

The scoring panel. "Honest disclosure: we don't have live customers on this idea yet." I read that three times. I've never seen a software page say that out loud. Usually you get a logo wall or a fake quote from someone named "Sarah, Campground Owner." So either these people are genuinely unusual or this is a different kind of product than I thought. Then I read "We shipped the strategy package; you ship the customer conversations" and I had to figure out what I was actually looking at. This isn't a finished app I can sign up for. It might be closer to a business plan they're selling.

## What I distrusted

The "40%" stat. "Automated reminders reduce no-shows by 40%." No source, no context, no "in our beta" or "industry average." Just 40%, floating there. I've seen that number on three different reservation software sites this year. It's the number marketers reach for when they need a number.

Also "Sentiment analysis flags unhappy guests early." That sounds impressive typed out but I have no idea what it means for my park. Does it scan reviews? Does it read reply emails? Is my guest's complaint about the shower drain going to get "flagged" and then what? Nothing on the page explains the actual mechanic.

And "financial upside: 2/10" is on the page, which they put there themselves. That's a strange thing to publish on your own product page. I appreciate the honesty but it also makes me wonder if the people selling this believe in it.

## What would convince me

One real campground owner talking about a specific weekend. Not a quote, a story. "We had 60 reservations over Fourth of July, three phone-ins and the rest online, and here's what happened." Tell me the site count, the season, whether they had a front desk person or not. I don't need a case study PDF. I need one paragraph that sounds like a person wrote it after a real summer.

On pricing I want to know what "up to 50 sites" actually covers. Does my 38-site park get the full feature set or is staffing prediction or the compliance tracker a higher tier?

## What I'd ask in an email reply

1. The page says you don't have live customers yet. Is this software I can actually run my park on today, or is this still being built and you're looking for beta operators?
2. What does "compliance tracking" actually track? I'm in Wisconsin. My requirements are different from a park in Florida. Is this generic or does it adapt to state-level rules?
3. My peak season is Memorial Day through Labor Day, about 14 weeks. The rest of the year I'm barely half-occupied. Does the $299/month pause or discount in the off-season, or am I paying full price in February?

## Verdict: on-the-fence

The transparency about no live customers is more interesting than anything else on the page, but I still can't tell if this is software I can use next weekend or a business kit for someone who wants to build it. If it's the first thing, I'd probably book a demo. If it's the second, I'm not the right person.

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*Memo by skeptic persona, generated 2026-05-10. Studio breaks own self-grading loop.*