Is Harvest Hosts worth it?

[GinoandLinda]

For those who have joined Harvest Hosts, what has your experience been so far? Has it been worth it? We're thinking about joining.

 

[Carmel Clown]

I have been a member for years but have never found one where I was traveling. Haven’t traveled for a couple of years due to health so there might be more choices now.

 

[DT6]

I find it depends on your perspective and how you want to use it. Our traveling habits are that we usually take the quickest route to our planned destinations where we like to have stays anywhere from 5 to 30 days. We might stop along the way provided there is an attraction we want to see, otherwise we just like to leisurely get from Point A to Point B. I'm also definitely not one who wants to have to pay for quick overnight stops as long as I can do so properly and safely and there are usually a lot of options in that regard (Casinos, WalMart, Cabelas, Love's, Home Depot, Cracker Barrel, etc.), unless you are traveling in a location where local ordinances do not allow overnights.

So for us, Harvest Hosts has been utilized when traveling in more highly populated urban areas where local ordinances don't allow overnight at places like Walmart or Cracker Barrel, and occasionally in very rural areas where there is almost nothing.

My first searches for HH spots focus on Golf Courses and Boondocks Welcome locations, followed by local businesses, then wineries and farms last (explained below). A few golf courses expect you to play, but the vast majority do not, and most golf courses and local businesses don't expect anything of you unless explicitly stated. In these locations we often eat dinner at the golf clubhouse, or if parked at a restaurant we will get takeout, or drop a $10 or $20 if a Boondocks Welcome has a donation box.

The downside for us is that the past couple of years I've noticed more HH wineries and farms becoming very aggressive in selling you merchandise and sometimes all they have is a $45 bottle of wine. I don't mind paying $15 or $20 for a tasting, but unless it's a special occasion we get our wine a Trader Joes in the $8 to $15 range. Some folks may not mind it at all, but I have been put off by the aggressive trend.

Realistically, we are likely to not renew our HH membership this year. It just seems to be slowly turning into a RV space referral service, where the rates are going to go up and up. I'm already seeing several wineries that have installed hookups and are allowing 4 to 7 night stays for a fee, so mini RV parks at wineries may become a side hustle thing soon.

We are finding that on most of our routes Casinos (our newest favorite overnight option), Rest Stops, and places like WalMart are aplenty with overnight opportunities.

One thing to keep in mind is where you travel. We travel mostly out west from Canada to New Mexico, but the density of HH listings and the type of HH listing may be very different along other routes around the country.

Finally there is also the "Thousand Trails" membership option that some on the Forum prefer. We looked into it and it does not quite match up to our travel style at the moment, but it is another option to consider and I hear it works well for many.

Duncan

 

[Sally_194]

For those who have joined Harvest Hosts, what has your experience been so far? Has it been worth it? We're thinking about joining.

We joined last year and had pretty good experiences with HH. I would definitely renew my membership for future trips. We used HH in Utah, Washington, Idaho, and Vancouver Island. Hope this is helpful for you

 

[RambleOn]

We were members for 2 years but never used it. The hosts were never convenient to where we were passing through on our way to a several day stopover.

 

[occer]

This is our second year with Harvest Host and 21 different stays. Yes we do recommend HH. We have always found good communication with HH and the host themself. Sometimes the Host is more then a few miles off your route so it adds 15 to 20 minutes of travel time.
The Hosts have always been very welcoming. When traveling through States with low populations there are less Hosts to stay at, like in Wyoming in between large Cities there are few to no places. One of HH selling points is staying for free just patronize the Host site. Cost saving at Boutique wineries where wine is 35 to 45 dollars even though the wine and winery are very nice, it’s not really a cost savings. Brewery’s on the other hand are a good deal and many have food or at least a catering truck offering food. The winery’s we have stayed at average 60 to 70 dollars for the night, the brewery’s 30 to 40 dollars for the night. Brewery’s also tend to be open later so arriving after 6 pm is not a problems where most of the winery’s close earlier. We will stay three nights at HH sites then a night at an RV park for the hook ups. It has worked out well for us.

 

[brroberts]

It totally depends on what you want to do. When HH bought Boondockers I dropped it even though we were hosts due to it becoming unusable for us. When they bought Escapees, I dropped that too. If some place wants me to pay $20 or more a night in a purchase or otherwise, I can typically find something way better than a parking lot for less. It all depends on your travel style. It takes us weeks to get anywhere because we start both touristing and relaxing from our first night. We typically go 200 miles and camp 3-10 days and then drive another 200 and do the same. It’s not always that way, but that’s pretty typical.

 

[GregWCIL]

We’ve had HH for three years. Just returned from a month long trip out west. I think we stayed at about 8 HH locations. Many were very fun. I would say our average cost was about $35 a night - ranging from $0 for a church parking lot to over $100 for a place where we had a great steak dinner. I figure half of the $35 was for camping and half for food or beverages. All our hosts were great.
We use it for one night stays while getting across the country to our bigger destinations. My goal is to never stay at a Walmart. And in our month long trip we only stayed at a commercial campground one night. Two thirds of our nights were at National Parks or blm sites. I built a complete solar roof for our 5.0 so never needed to plug in once. Campendium helped us find water and dump stations.

 

[occer]

When we stayed at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial and also a Church there was not any services or food to buy. We gave a $30 donation. Both places were welcoming and safe.

 

[Elowen]

Yes, we highly recommend HH & BW

We've been members for the 3+ years we've had Elowen {our 5.0}, with over 70 nights, and counting.

HH {Harvest Host} is usually a merchant offering one night stays, with a patronage minimum recommendation of $30.
BW {Boondockers Welcome} is usually just another Rver's property, with nuthin' to buy, sometimes utilities, or not.
Golf Course is a third option we don't have.

We agree with most of the positive comments in this thread. We have found the vast majority of hosts {both HH & BW} to be VERY responsive ~ we've met many interesting and friendly folks. We've gone places we never would have, but for HH/BW. We don't/won't do Wally Mart, Cracker, etc.

Forensics: We are right now @BW in Quebec City for 3 nights, working our way to Newfoundland from Oregon. It's workin' for us

 

[CharlesinGA]

I was a member for about three years. Never got to use it. Just be aware, it is extremely difficult to "quit" should you desire to drop HH. It requires threading thru several layers of web pages and menus to stop the automatic charge to your card and then you will get bombarded with many emails asking you to stay.

Charles

 

[Ron in BC]

My goal is to never stay at a Walmart.

Great, leaves more room for us. When we're on our way to somewhere there are some that work well for us. They're not all created equal.

, with a patronage minimum recommendation of $30.

I'm wondering if HH hasn't gone the way of AirBnB. It used to be a person renting out a room in their house. Now it's usually a person in the hotel business without having to buy the business. Wasn't HH in the early years "it would be nice to patronize..." Now I see "minimum recommendation" Only one way for that to go.

Ron

 

[hugh]

We were members for a year and dropped it. It's ridiculously overpriced for what you get out of it.

HipCamp has better sites, no membership fees, and is generally cheaper than HH once you factor in the membership + purchase obligation.

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

i joined when we were returning from Mexico, thinking we could find places to overnight as we wandered back home. didn't find anything, and almost a year later we hadn't used it yet, so I canceled our membership before it renewed.

 

[Lorraine Pittsburgh]

My Harvest Host stays have included a variety of wineries & farms, along with a couple of distilleries & breweries. I'm at a stage in my life where I don't need or want a thing, however each HH location has a something I could consume or gift. I've met some wonderful & interesting people & stayed at some lovely locations. It is not a bargain financially, but it does offer opportunities to stay at unique locations. I'd recommend that you try it for a year to see if it fits into your travel style.

 

[GinoandLinda]

...I'd recommend that you try it for a year to see if it fits into your travel style.

I think that is what we'll do, give it a go for a year. We met a several folks at the Escape rally that raved about it and we are planning on doing some extended road trips in the southwest US this winter.

Thanks, all for your input.

 

[Mike Lewis]

I was a member for about three years. Never got to use it. Just be aware, it is extremely difficult to "quit" should you desire to drop HH. It requires threading thru several layers of web pages and menus to stop the automatic charge to your card and then you will get bombarded with many emails asking you to stay.

Charles

This. I signed up in January 2024 and immediately had second thoughts, but I couldn't find a way to contact HH to back out of it. I figured my membership would expire in a year so I was surprised when I got a complaint from HH saying they couldn't bill my credit card. The card number had been stolen in the meantime and I had a new number. I complained that they never had permission to automatically bill my card and was told it was in the original agreement, but they would cancel my membership if I wanted. I did.

The whole thing left a bad feeling that HH is too aggressive and operates just within the law. "Sharp practice" I think the Brits call it. That's just my experience. YMMV.

 

[peakay-ESC]

We had it for a year and ended up just using it once on a long trip. The problem we found is many of them you can't request same day stay and/or you have to arrive by late afternoon/early evening. When we're traveling from one location to another and need an overnight, we'll look while driving that day because we don't always know when or where we'll end up for the day. So we didn't renew. Our son got us a subscription for Christmas because we were taking another long trip this spring and same problem but seemed worse this trip. Seemed most in the areas we were traveling (NW/midwest) wouldn't accept same day requests or we had to be there earlier than we wanted because it's just an overnight stop for us and hated having to stress about getting somewhere by a deadline or not doing something along the way because we had a deadline. find we use Campendium the most for an overnight. We won't renew again.

 

[DT6]

I just went to the website to cancel my automatic renewal and found out that ALL accounts are setup with automatic renewal. If you cancel before the renewal date you cancel your entire membership including any days, weeks, or months left on your current year of membership.

Seems EXTEEMLY crappy to me that they cancel your whole membership for the remainder of your 12 months. It has already been paid for, so what is the problem in keeping it until it expires?

The following is the note I received from the HH Chat Bot when I inquired about cancelling:

"For member convenience all memberships are set to auto-renewal. It is managed by the member and will need to be turned off 1 day before the end of term date to avoid renewal."

So they are going to keep filching your wallet until you cancel and if you want to get the most from what you paid already it is up to you to cancel a day or so before the renewal date. What a load of BS.

I think HH has gone the way of Angies List (not sure if Agnies List is in Canada), but it stared as a nice contractor reference list and has since morphed into a service that contractors have to pay for and you don't get to see the referral list any longer (at least I could not), they shop your issue out to contractors who call you.

Greed, Greed, Greed, ... getting sick of it.

Duncan

 

[iamunique127]

We had it for a year and ended up just using it once on a long trip. The problem we found is many of them you can't request same day stay and/or you have to arrive by late afternoon/early evening. When we're traveling from one location to another and need an overnight, we'll look while driving that day because we don't always know when or where we'll end up for the day. So we didn't renew. Our son got us a subscription for Christmas because we were taking another long trip this spring and same problem but seemed worse this trip. Seemed most in the areas we were traveling (NW/midwest) wouldn't accept same day requests or we had to be there earlier than we wanted because it's just an overnight stop for us and hated having to stress about getting somewhere by a deadline or not doing something along the way because we had a deadline. find we use Campendium the most for an overnight. We won't renew again.

We travel like you do and find municipal campgrounds handy and surprisingly common in both Canada and the US, at least in the west. They often have self-registration and are usually inexpensive, well kept and clean.