Ouch! Kane's, you let us down a little.
We recently visited Kane's, staying in the RV park and mooring our boat at the marina. The overnight at the RV park is $35 and moorage is $25 per day, so a total of $60 (plus tax) per day for two days. Given that the overnight RV option (as opposed to seasonal RV spots) is 'dry camping' (no hookups or amenities), $35 is a little steep but we're willing to pay it for the convenience of being near our boat and in town. Plus it's a pretty nice spot even if it is a gravel parking lot.
But something happened that made us a little grouchy. My husband asked (in a very friendly and personable tone) the front desk clerk if he could have a key to the park restrooms (we have a really small camper with a really small bathroom, so it's nice to also have access to the RV park bathrooms as we would in other RV parks). She said, flatly and with no customer service tone at all, "Um. That's $10." What the what? My husband said, still friendly but a little perplexed, "Huh. We're paying customers, staying in the RV park and mooring our boat here, so..." To which she shrugged and replied (again with no smile or apologetic customer service tone), "It's $10 for a key." My husband iterated more firmly but still nicely, thinking maybe there was room for negotiation, "We are paying to stay here and moor our boat. It seems like our money would cover using the bathrooms." She just shrugged again and looked at us blankly. Clearly we were getting nowhere, so we said nevermind and left. Arguing with her would have just frustrated all of us and not resulted in a good outcome.
Now, it's not about the $10. We can afford $10. What's irritating is that this wasn't said upfront at check-in, something along the lines of, "The RV park is $35 a night and if you want to use the restrooms, there is an additional $10 charge that helps us cover blah blah blah..." Then we would have known what's what. In our opinion, it seems like $35 a night (and good customer service) should cover access to restrooms/showers (I mean where else do businesses charge paying customers to use their restrooms???), but that aside, just letting people know upfront about the additional charge prevents conflict and confusion later.
Also, the woman (um, not sure what word to use here... helping, serving, assisting us... not a good fit) had terrible customer service skills. What is it with lake marina clerks (see my review of the other Detroit Lake Marina)? Would it kill them to learn customer service skills? I swear we are not the kind of people who enjoy conflict... we are SUPER nice to people (we've both been customer service workers so we have lots of respect for them). I've only had poor customer service about 4 times in my whole life; 2 were restaurant servers and the other 2 were clerks at marinas on Detroit Lake. What are the odds??
We love Kane's. We are planning to upgrade our boat and have had the plan to get seasonal moorage (not an inexpensive endeavor) at Kane's, but this makes us a little uneasy. I know it's a small thing in one sense, but it says something about Kane's customer service, transparency, and priorities. Mr. Kane, I hope you rethink this policy/approach and help your staff be more customer-service oriented. You have a great business, but this area needs a little boost. read more