u/atwaterrich

For those of you who use Harvest Hosts in the United States or around the world to find unique and fun places to stay this is potentially unsettling news. I worry about the influence of a large hotel chain versus Mom and pop locations.

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To our members, hosts, and community,
I love RVing. I love it so much that 8 years ago I purchased the greatest RV company in the world: Harvest Hosts. I made a promise to the founders, Don and Kim, that I would take care of their baby and grow it with love.
We grew our team from one to 74 fantastic employees who are the most caring and competent people I know. Those team members then grew the host network from 600 locations to over 11,000 of the most incredible overnight experiences in the US, Canada, and the UK.
In turn, membership grew from 6,000 to over 300,000 RVers who are out living their best lives while supporting wonderful small businesses along the way. Our members have spent well over $100 million dollars with our hosts, keeping communities thriving for travelers to enjoy. 
And our work is not done yet!
We are excited to announce that we have found a new long-term owner to continue driving our mission forward: Choice Hotels International will acquire the entire Harvest Hosts family of brands. With over 7,500 hotels in 49 countries and territories, Choice Hotels understands travel. Even better: approximately two million Choice Privileges members have participated in RV travel in the past 12 months. That shared audience gives us an exciting opportunity to introduce more RVers to Harvest Hosts and the incredible small businesses in our network. 
What isn’t changing is our mission and our dedication to our hosts, members, and employees. Harvest Hosts will become a wholly owned business within the Choice Hotels portfolio while continuing to operate as a standalone business, preserving our brand, product experience, leadership, and direct member and host relationships. Our team remains in place to continue doing what we love and what we are best at. 
And most importantly, the experience that makes Harvest Hosts special, connecting RVers with unique places to stay while supporting the small businesses that welcome them, will remain at the heart of what we do. 
With Choice Hotels, we share a love of the open road and the communities that make every journey memorable. Working together gives us an incredible opportunity to bring that experience to more people and accelerate our mission of creating millions of happier campers and communities.
I’m extremely excited for this next chapter. THANK YOU for being a part of this wonderful journey!
Joel Holland,
Chief RVer | Harvest Hosts 

Actual science on contrails. Headline is somewhat misleading since it seems to be more about altitude.

I bought a Reolink doorbell to go with my NVR and other cameras. I successfully have power to it, but when I try and go through the app to set it up, it will not read the QR code — in part I think this is because for some reason, Reolink’s app dims the screen when you bring up the barcode, but I’ve also tried it through a screenshot on a much brighter screen and it still doesn’t work.

Has anyone found a good way around this? This QR code based way of getting to the Wi-Fi seems overly complicated, especially when there’s no work around.

Reolink says I have to disconnect my NVR and bring it outside to the door which in my case is in an entirely different building so that’s a pain in the neck

Last minute I cannot go to the show. So sad.

DM me your email and I’ll send you the tix

Why am I not surprised

My wife and I are having two different fraud (?) problems with StubHub and they could not care less

A seller sold me tickets for non-existent seats at LA’s Greek Theater. SH says I have to wait until two hours before the show before they will do anything even though SH admits the seats do not exist. They say they will give me other seats but I don’t trust SH. They also say I can resell them (!?) which is both unethical and not possible since I don’t have the tickets. At first SH told me the seats were ADA seats and that they’d be great seat as a result. I would no sooner take those seats than park in a handicapped parking spot. Later they walked back this evaluation and agreed the seat numbers didn’t exist (confirmed with The Greek). SH refuses to contact the seller.

My wife bought tickets for a Hollywood Bowl show and the seller suddenly changed the delivery from mobile tickets (required by the Bowl) to screenshots (specifically not accepted by the Bowl). SH says she had to take the screenshots to the show and get rejected at the gate before they will do anything. SH also admits that they know the Bowl doesn’t accept screenshots. They say it will take three days to contact the seller but the show is Saturday.

I am not convinced either seller actually has the tickets. And from what I’ve read I’m not convinced SH will give me tickets that are of comparable value.

Anyone have positive experiences in these kinds of situations?

Huge thanks to the four guys next to us in section 108 who caught a ball and immediately handed it to my 8 year old. Aside from the walkoff tonight the kindness of giving him the ball created a core memory! Especially for his first ever baseball game.

Giants fans are the best. THANK YOU whoever you are! All the way home he kept saying it was the best day of his life.

Also thanks to the A’s fans behind us who kept us all entertained. Hilarious.

I have a 2023 Transit and i’m trying to figure out if it has an alarm system. Does anyone know if these came with an alarm that would go off if someone broke into the van?

Advice please or experience from others?

My wife rented a car at the Vancouver airport in January. Her videos and pictures captured nothing at checkout but she didn’t take photos at road level for the lower bumper.

At check in the person says there were light (their check box) scratches on the bumper. The VIR shows the person first recorded the “damage” on the rear bumper. They then scratched this out and noted it was the front bumper.

Now they’re asking for about CA$750 to replace the bumper and the front grille which by itself seems extreme for “light” damage. Plus costs for lost revenue.

We have disputed this at the time of return and in ongoing emails and letters with Hertz. Importantly (?) there are no photographs that Hertz can present despite us asking repeatedly for them. I do not think they exist.

I don’t want to pay this on principal alone because they’re full of it. But have others succeeded in fighting these charges?

We live in California.

About to head up the California coast for a week with the family. Any advice from folks who made their first longer trip in their van?

Have had all the usual maintenance done (tires, alignment, oil, transmission fluid, differentials).

Thanks! Will send pics along the way!