Royal Palms RV Community

This is NOT an RV Park, it is a mobile home park right next to the Airport and Busy Highway. Very noisy. Check in was a zoo. They nightly rent out gravel pads while waiting for a monthly tenant. One set of baths/​showers at the office building, but only available during business hours, which means after 9 am. charged $ 48 and had no discounts. We were out of options and stayed here. Won’t do it again! You choose to stay here, then it is your own fault.

Ok first off it takes a lot for me to write a bad review, mainly because I know people have days that things don’t go right and I know people make mistakes. We are human.
This is my experience:
I am going to Pharmacy school at UT and my parents let me borrow their RV to live in to save money. I don’t have a truck so I can’t move my RV once I am here.
I came to Austin in Feb to do my research on all the RV parks. I decided either Royal Palms or Oak Forest were best for me. I got on the waiting list at Oak Forest and I was told that if I sent in my application in early June for Royal Palms I should have no problem getting a premium lot by Aug because they have openings all the time (that should have been my clue right there).
Early June i submitted my application online. I called on July 4^th to check on it. I was told they had a premium spot available right then I could take and that if they rented it out daily i would get refunded. I was totally okay with that so they took my credit card info and said I should receive a confirmation email by the next morning. But I went on with my life and didn’t check for any confirmation email.
3 weeks later, I call to see which spot I am in and they have nothing for me. At this point I understand, things happen. So I take a standard lot and they say if premium lot comes available it will be mine and that one will most likely come available by then. So I am feeling good about it.
As it gets closer to August both me and my dad call at least 3 times a piece to check if a premium lot has come available. We are both told that there is nothing yet but that there might be by the time we get there.
August 7^th comes along (AKA moving day). I get there check in and the lady (Amanda I think) greets me. She checks me in and I ask about a premium lot AGAIN. She tells me they do have one and let her check if I’m at the top of the list. At this same time Darshawn (the manager) is on the phone with someone that had just called and he is offering them a premium lot. Amanda then goes and tries to stop him whispering «She’s here». The person on the phone says they will call back after they decide. He gets off the phone and tells me there is no premium lots available at the time but I will get one when one comes available in the cheeriest voice possible.
So, I go with it and move into my standard lot that my RV barely fits in. The maintenance guy had to cut down a limb on the tree so I could fit. About a week later they offer me a premium lot and I accept it. They were supposed to move out at the end of Aug so my dad planned on coming and moving me then. Then I get a call that they are now not leaving until the end of Sept. So I say «okay I will take that one still and if something else comes available before then let me know and I will look at it and I may take it instead». Since then he has called me about 6 times. Two of those times I was in class and by the time I got out the lot was no longer available. The other times it was like «you would have to move today» or «you would have to move in the next two days». Me not having a truck and my dad working every day I couldn’t do that. I still wasn’t too upset at this time though.
The last time he called me I asked «well the people on the one I am supposed to have are still planning on leaving at the end of September though right?» and he said, «That lot has already been reserved someone is moving in October first.» This is when I got frustrated. I told him that was supposed to be my spot and went through the whole scenio above, I didn’t raise my voice just voiced my frustration with their service. And this is what he said back, «This isn’t my job, I do this out of the kindness of my heart, you must have misunderstood me you were supposed to get the next available. Now you can either stop being mad and complaining and we can try to work together or this conversation can end and we can be done.» I couldn’t believe my ears.
After that my dad called to try to figure out how what we needed to do to get a premium lot. He wasn’t causing problems just seeing what we could do to get moved. Dashawn said he was with a customer and would call him back in a few minutes. Four hours later he called back. My dad went through part of the scenario with him and Darshawn kept saying no this and that never happened or you must have misunderstood. My dad then told him we had documented all the calls. All of a sudden Darshawn offered my dad the lot i had originally accepted a week after arriving. When my dad asked about it already being booked he said «well he has to go on a standard lot first». So basically they are about to do what they did to me to this guy as well.
The next day my dad calls back and tells Darshawn we will be moving out Friday and that we expect the deposit back and the rest of this months rent. Dashawn hangs up.
I have heard many other similar stories so watch out for this place

A quick update. Because of my last review, I was evicted after living there 4 months and with 6 days notice, and me having to fly out of town for work. This left me 3 days to find a place, break camp and move. I’m sure the manager found great delight this hassle caused me. He claims to be kind, caring and compassionate. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I guess my first review hit the mark because it was easier to evict me than fix the problem. He didn’t even have to balls to confront me with the problem. My notice was in the form of a text and note left on my door. Pathetic. Not something a kind person would do to another. Compassionate?, more like a dictator in my opinion. I was hard pressed to find any of my neighbors that had any kind words for him. Anyhoo, I’ve wasted enough time on this coward. Avoid this place as I said before. Its noisy, loud and has cats everywhere passing on everything. I hope the ownership reads this. They should be concerned! Cheers!

Micromanaging was ridiculous. They towed my truck and fined me because I parked slightly crooked. If you like being treated like a criminal, and love construction waking you up in the mornings, then this is the place for you!

I’ve lived at Royal Palms for 3 years and never have I failed to pay the rent on time until now. I’m in Cincinnati, Ohio on a temp. job assignment and asked them to wait for 2 days for the payment. This afternoon they called and said that they were turning off my utilities until the rent was paid tomorrow. The management could not wait 12 hours for payment. This tells you a lot about how they treat their customers.

This would be a nice park except for the manager and his aggressive behavior. Not friendly at all. Very rigid and unbending rules; tight parking spots: loud (due to being next to freeway and airport). Expensive and generally a bad experience all around. We also had our motorcycle trailer towed even though it was in an approved location by the other management staff. Stay away and find a more family oriented RV park.
We left two days early due to the manager’s behavior and forfeited our rent. There are better parks and management out there.

Let me go into a break down of your options in Austin when it comes to RV parks.
Austin Lone Star Carefree RV Resort–
Too far South of Downtown. They want your SS#, copies of your ID, and a fee to process your application, as well as run some sort of background check. I kind of felt like they were going to steal our identities. I didn’t feel like it was worth it.
Oak Forest RV Park
Wonderful park, but they messed up our reservation after I called them multiple times in advance and told them that we would need a place for at least 2 – 3 months while we settle into the city and look for a more permanent place apt/​house etc. I basically got a shoulder shrug when I showed up. You are only allowed to book for less than a month on their site, and you have to call in to book longer or be put on the list for a longer term place, but whats the point in all that if they don’t listen to what you say or ever make a note of it?
Pecan Grove Rv Park–
Great location. Ideal, but hard to get into, and you cannot stay there for an extended period of time. A famous person or two have RV spots here, so basically now you need to promise your first born child to get in.
Midtown RV Park–
They want only the «newest» RV’s. The location is OK, but you get nothing but a space, some collage kids that they «babysit», a few stories about child perverts looking into windows and being thrown out of the place, and the owner breathing down your neck to make sure your RV is shiny.
Bel-​Air RV Park–
Slum lord. The owner of this park was bragging about not being taken to court yet. Maybe that is because most of his tenants aren’t legal, so he clearly takes advantage of them. He also owns a more run down park a little South of here.
Now we come to Royal Palms!
So now that you see what your options are, Royal Palms starts to look pretty good.
The Good
–This place is constantly trying to improve. I can appreciate that. They are working on the wifi, the roads, they have holiday parties, pool, dvds, rec room etc.
— You are pretty much left alone. Premium spots are for the most part pretty private.
— The location, while not as convenient as Midtown or Bel– Air is nice. If you want to bike ride into Downtown, it is possible. Just bike down Riverside, and go up Pleasantville RD. Driving is fine and very easy to do from this spot as well.
— The price is reasonable. We pay $ 423 for a monthly premium spot. $ 79. 66 for electric and $ 16.45 for water. It comes out to $ 519.61 for two people. We used a lot of electric recently because it was cold.
–On site propane. They give you a stamp card, so you actually save some money. $ 15 off on your 6^th tank fill. They also have options to rent out mega tanks to put by your house and have propane delivered to you.
— The parking rules. I appreciate them sine I have been to places where you have to wait 15 minutes for people to move their cars out of your way. Really annoying when you have to go somewhere, so I like that they have structure.
The Bad
— The WIFI!!! We will probably have to pay an additional $ 40-​$ 50 a month to get our own WIFI, which I do not like since we are in a premium spot that we were told has excellent WIFI. I’m not sure if this is more of a reflection on the park or Time Warner cable though. I know they are a notoriously horrible cable company.
— The fines, and the quickness to fine. I rushed to pay my rent on a Saturday, (it was due on a Sunday and they are not open on a Sunday) and split the rent between two bank accounts since I had no WIFI to move the money online and there was an issue with our credit card. I paid it though, and come Monday, which also happened to be my first day at my new job, I receive voicemails about how all of my rent was not paid. My boyfriend was left to deal with the assistant manager telling him that she does not know how or why, but that she does not see a receipt for the reminder of our rent. Instead of waiting to hear back from the gentleman that handled our payment transaction on Saturday, she insisted that my boyfriend pay the one day rate as well as a late fee for our rent. In my opinion its not good customer service or a good business practice to demand fees from someone when you do not have the whole story straight. The manager was kind enough to get the story straight the next day, and gave us back our fee money in a refund credit. It ended well, but their quickness to turn on a tenant and fine us left me a little jaded. I will most definitely keep all of our payment receipts from now on.
— The airplanes. Looks nice sometimes, sometimes its too loud.
Overall it is a nice place. There are young people here 20s-​30s and families. The people are nice and the park is overall well kept. I believe that this is one of the best spots to stay in Austin. The information I listed here will hopefully be helpful to those looking to go the RV route while/​before settling in to Austin.

I have stayed at 6 different RV parks in the Austin area and this one was by far the worst! It was overpriced for the cramped lot next to 71. I got there Friday after the office closed and parked in my spot. I had to back up on the grass because the hook ups are at the very back of the lot. The following morning someone came by and told me I had to move my RV up 3 feet or I would be towed. (I was still on the grass, but apparently that was ok) I also had to go by the office to check in; they gave us a 5 minute tutorial on how and where to park our car, including color photos showing what was acceptable and what would get you towed. The place is a dump, including old mattresses propped against the dumpster. I stay in Austin at least once a month, but won’t ever stay here again.

VERY EXPENSIVE! They charged us $ 75 a night! Use of the pool & other amenities is EXTRA! Not sure why it was so expensive.