Have I mentioned I DETEST Reserveamerica?

wbwood wrote:

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
My personal opinion, RA got a lock-in on the reserve system, and have now raised the fees to a much higher rates than they did, and now, even higher at $17+ for a cancel.

The 'fee' varies by state.

I'm pretty sure it is set in the contract with the state.

For federal campgrounds - Reserve America's fee is $10

For Florida - $17.75

For New York - $9

For Oregon - $8

For Mass - $10

For Kentucky - $7.50

For Mississippi - $10 - and the state issues a voucher for the rest of the paid amount - not a refund

For California - $8 for a reservation - $7.50 for a change
etc

Florida appears to be the highest, so my guess is that Florida receives part of the cancellation fee.

Not to throw salt in the wound, but here's how NC handles it.

Campsites (electric and non-electric): Any changes or cancellations made prior to the scheduled arrival date will result in the loss of the $3.00 per night, non-refundable reservation fee. Cancellations made on the scheduled arrival date will result in a loss of one night's camping for each reservation as well as the $3.00 per night reservation fee. No refunds for no-shows, cancellations or early departures after the date of arrival. If a camper cannot arrive by park closing hours on the scheduled arrival date, they must contact the park by 3 p.m. the following day to reschedule arrival. Otherwise, campsites will be returned to rental inventory.

On eye flip side, if you have a 7 day reservation then you are charged a $21 cancel fee($3/day)

The cancellation fee is a deterrent to those who try to manipulate the system. Fl state parks are very popular and very much in demand vs. the other states posted above.
I'm sure Fl has a much bigger issue with phoney reservations and cancellations than those other places.

Big Katuna wrote:

wbwood wrote:
The OP mentioned they owned a hotel at once. Not sure if it was in effect when they did, but many hotels will put a hold on your card for incidentals. Many hotels that I have stayed in for work (executive protection) have a sign on the check in desk or paper you sign, that it could take up to 2 weeks for them to release the incidental fees. Normally it doesn't take that long, but they state it to cover themselves. A check would probably take longer. A claim of eight weeks is probably to cover themselves.

We never did that.

As far as everybody's opinion who thinks its OK to charge $17.75 to change or cancel a reservation, when the campground STILL rents out the space?

POUND SAND!

That is the great thing about opinions; yours is no more right than mine.

Where do you want this to end.
Does it matter if the site gets rented?
Assume the site you reserved and cancelled was rented than another person. Someone also tried to reserve it 11 months ago but lost out because you reserved it first. However you eventually cancelled leaving the other 11 month ago person without a site. It is this type of back and forth that the fees are designed to limit.
The reality is RA gets paid per transaction.
Each time RA personnel enters the system to make an entry a fee is be charged. Your cancellation takes as much effort monetarily as a reservation. What happens to the site beyond that is irrelevant. The next person will pay there reservation fee as well but that has nothing to do with you. RA is paid per reservation (transaction) it's really not that complicated.

We all understand you had no choice but to cancel. We also understand cancellations for any reason cost the system money. We also understand cancellations may happen due to no direct fault of our own but, penalties and fees will be due regardless.

What we don't understand is why you choose to blame RA for your actions. What we don't understand is why you won't accept responsibility for your own circumstances vs. blaming RA.
So if you wish to degrade this thread to name calling go ahead, It doesn't change are opinions either, it just hurts your credibility and further supports RA policies.

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
My personal opinion, RA got a lock-in on the reserve system, and have now raised the fees to a much higher rates than they did, and now, even higher at $17+ for a cancel.

The 'fee' varies by state.

I'm pretty sure it is set in the contract with the state.

For federal campgrounds - Reserve America's fee is $10

For Florida - $17.75

For New York - $9

For Oregon - $8

For Mass - $10

For Kentucky - $7.50

For Mississippi - $10 - and the state issues a voucher for the rest of the paid amount - not a refund

For California - $8 for a reservation - $7.50 for a change
etc

Florida appears to be the highest, so my guess is that Florida receives part of the cancellation fee.

Not to throw salt in the wound, but here's how NC handles it.

Campsites (electric and non-electric): Any changes or cancellations made prior to the scheduled arrival date will result in the loss of the $3.00 per night, non-refundable reservation fee. Cancellations made on the scheduled arrival date will result in a loss of one night's camping for each reservation as well as the $3.00 per night reservation fee. No refunds for no-shows, cancellations or early departures after the date of arrival. If a camper cannot arrive by park closing hours on the scheduled arrival date, they must contact the park by 3 p.m. the following day to reschedule arrival. Otherwise, campsites will be returned to rental inventory.

On eye flip side, if you have a 7 day reservation then you are charged a $21 cancel fee($3/day)

fla-gypsy wrote:
I like the RA system in Florida. I always have my spot waiting when I get there with no surprises. The terms and conditions in each state that RA administers reservations are set by the state, not RA. If you want to be upset, get mad with Florida. The cancellation fee was upped several years ago to dissuade those who were gaming the system and making multiple reservations for the same period at multiple parks or making reservations longer than they intended to stay to secure dates they wanted and then cancelling later. They can up it some more for all I care because that sort of stuff is still going on in the more popular parks.

X2- I have seen popular parks with empty sites because of this multiple reservation game. Yet, the computer shows all sites reserved.

Some times two or three sites held with a slight variation of the same name or one site in the man's name and another in the wife's name, with all the other information identical.

These people make it all the harder for other campers to get a spot because of their "me first" attitude.

Thanks to Reserve America, we are sitting here at Bahia Honda for the next 14 days.
Maybe you are not old enough to remember many years ago prior to RA when you had to sit outside the gates in a long line of tenters and pop-ups wating for 8:00 AM when it was first come first served and then not getting a place because not enough people checked out.

We have paid RA's cancellation fee in the past and will do it again.

Stop crying and realize that the posters here are not a "tough crowd".

As someone above said you are just digging yourself in deeper and deeper.

Look at the bright side: Some lucky camper got your cancelled site

Jack L

Big Katuna wrote:
As far as everybody's opinion who thinks its OK to charge $17.75 to change or cancel a reservation, when the campground STILL rents out the space?

POUND SAND!

Sounds as though you are the one pounding on the sand.

Guess you are upset that almost no one agrees with you.

No need to be upset. Everyone including you has a right to an opinion.

But when you state your opinion here others will give you theirs.

Happy Camping out there!!!

The 8 weeks might be YOUR point but it's the campgrounds' final word since they told you up front their cancellation charges. They don't control the mails so they couldn't post how long it would take for you check to get back to you.

monkey44 wrote:
My personal opinion, RA got a lock-in on the reserve system, and have now raised the fees to a much higher rates than they did, and now, even higher at $17+ for a cancel.

The 'fee' varies by state.

I'm pretty sure it is set in the contract with the state.

For federal campgrounds - Reserve America's fee is $10

For Florida - $17.75

For New York - $9

For Oregon - $8

For Mass - $10

For Kentucky - $7.50

For Mississippi - $10 - and the state issues a voucher for the rest of the paid amount - not a refund

For California - $8 for a reservation - $7.50 for a change
etc

Florida appears to be the highest, so my guess is that Florida receives part of the cancellation fee.

Big Katuna wrote:

wbwood wrote:
The OP mentioned they owned a hotel at once. Not sure if it was in effect when they did, but many hotels will put a hold on your card for incidentals. Many hotels that I have stayed in for work (executive protection) have a sign on the check in desk or paper you sign, that it could take up to 2 weeks for them to release the incidental fees. Normally it doesn't take that long, but they state it to cover themselves. A check would probably take longer. A claim of eight weeks is probably to cover themselves.

We never did that.

As far as everybody's opinion who thinks its OK to charge $17.75 to change or cancel a reservation, when the campground STILL rents out the space?

POUND SAND!

That is the great thing about opinions; yours is no more right than mine.

No ones is more right... However, when you're the canceling customer, yours is pretty irrelevant.

My personal opinion, RA got a lock-in on the reserve system, and have now raised the fees to a much higher rates than they did, and now, even higher at $17+ for a cancel. Hogwash, for lack of a term that would get bleeped. In any other situation, if would be classified as "gouging" ...

If you use RA, the price for one night nearly doubles ... so it makes sense only for a long stay. Even if you do buy into the rates, which we do not. A few years ago, the few times we tried RA, they screwed it up, and then want to blame us. And were extremely rude - so, we never use it. Never make reservation much anyhow, so no great loss. And all it does in effect, is raise the camping rates.