Cancellation Policies and other possible Annoyances ...

The summer season is over for many campers - what were your experiences with campgrounds this year - tell us about the good things and the bad things and we'll pass your experiences on to other people and to the thousands of campgrounds that receive our campowner's newsletter.  Who knows? - you just might make a difference ....

Summary:

An amazing 31% of people who were asked "generally speaking, how often do you make a reservation for a campground?" said they ALWAYS reserved.  Only about 5% said they never reserved.

We then asked:  "If you make a reservation, do you check the campgrounds cancellation policy?"  Once again, a high proportion - 62% - said they do.  

The next question was: "How many days in advance do you think you should be able to cancel with no loss of deposit money?".  By far the most common answer to this was one to two days.  Many people commented that it should be similar to hotels and motels which will often cancel as late as 6 PM on the same day with no penalty.  Some people suggested that it depended upon the season however, and how likely it was that the campground would be able to fill the space with no loss of revenue.

"How many days deposit for reservations do you think it is reasonable for the camp to charge?".  
About 90% of the replies were for one day.  Some people commented that many camps do not charge a deposit at all and others said it depended upon the season and how popular a particular RV park was.

28% of the people taking the poll said they had had a deposit kept by an RV park when canceling.  93% said they would never go back to a camp/resort that kept a deposit unfairly.  Some even commented that they would never go back to a camp that kept a deposit even if it was kept fairly!!

Very few people had ever reported a campground - to the Better Business Bureau or ARVC for example - for any reason, although a few people said they were considering it.

Generally speaking, people thought that where there were acts of God - like hurricanes - or where there were family emergencies, the RV park should be able to make a refund to the campers.  

We asked: "Did you ever stay at Wal-Mart (or other free parking lot) just because you felt so fed-up with the hassle you get at campgrounds when you check-in?"  This brought a mixed reaction (the mere mention of Wal-Mart leads to controversy - so we've found over the years).  About 15% said they did stay at Wal-Mart for this reason and several more mentioned casinos which seem to be gaining in popularity for free overnighting.