Fighting for campsites 6 months in advance!

Ralph Cramden wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Here's the link:
Michigan cancellation

Interesting. They do allow you to show up 2 days after your scheduled arrival. The 40 percent is only for cancellations made 5 months prior to check in. It's less if you cancel closer to the check in date. Which could mean people will wait til the last moment to cancel what they don't want.

No

The 40% is for reservations made more than 5 months in advance, and cancelled at any time prior to the arrival date, or the day of arrival. If canceled prior to day of arrival you're paying the $10 fee + 40% of all the nights reserved, if cancelled on the day of arrival or later you're paying $10 + full price of the day of arrival or days reserved which you were late (max two days) + 40% of all the remaining nights fees. most of the parks in MI that I am familiar with, I would bet the majority of ressie's are made at least 5 months in advance or you're not getting one to begin with, especially for prime/popular sites.

When this policy was announced last year it sure did cause some brouhaha on some other forums from the people who were used to making multiple reservations with the intent of picking and choosing what ones they were actually going to use later.

So if you reserved 5 months or longer out and the nightly price was $30 per night for 4 nights, cancelling that ressie prior to day of arrival just cost you $58

If you cancel day of arrival its $40+$36 = $76.00
If you cancel on the day after the arrival date its $70 + $24 = $94.00

That's structured to try and deter the people who reserve starting Wed/Thu when the 6 month ressie window opens, who only really need the Friday/Saturday, and are trying to beat the people only reserving for the Friday/Saturday. They would already be spending $130.00 for two nights in that case, but if they had to cancel the whole shebang its still going to cost them a $76.00 minimum, which used to be the cancellation fee and the first nights fee, or $40.00 to cancel.

Using the previous system if someone wanted only a Friday and Saturday they would reserve 3 or 4 days starting Wed or Thur when immediately when the 6 month window opened. Then after a specified length of time they could cancel the Wed and/or Thu and get some amount of a refund. Now they effectively get nothing back and the $30 per night site for two nights is $65 per night. I also believe MI went to a graduated fee schedule where high occupancy parks have higher rates to begin with.

My apologies. I had read it quickly and focused on the chart so I got it wrong.

I don't know the Michigan system well, but it sounds from above posts that sites are being booked up way in advance and then folks are changing them at the last moment. If that's true, then I don't see this strategy being effective as those who book early can change their reservations at the last minute with minimal penalty. So, sites will continue to book up as soon as reservations open.