Incremental cancellation penalty

CarnationSailor wrote:
westernrvparkowner,

Since no reason is needed to cancel a state park reservation, it is not about making exceptions. It is about setting a cancellation fee based on how long the reservation is held instead of how long before the arrival date someone is cancelling. Commercial RV parks require a certain number of days notice to get your deposit back, and if the states did the same thing, it would be more equitable and also reduce the gaming.

If the problem is people reserving sites they may or may not use and then cancelling them because the financial penalty is not significant all a cancellation period would do is kick the can down the road.
The system that works for us is a hefty deposit that can be partially refunded if the cancellation happens prior to 30 days from reservation (50 percent refunded). Inside of 30 days, no refunds. Also, the reservation is cancelled completely if you do not show up on the first day of the reservation, freeing that site for the rest of the time. If you contact us and tell us you can't make the first night or the first few nights, we will keep the rest of the days of your reservation open but still charge you the full amount when you arrive. This allows us to open the site up for walk up guests while preventing people from reserving more time than they really want just in case they decide to linger somewhere along their journey to us.
Finally, if you decide to leave early, we will refund you 50 percent of the remaining balance (after removing any discounts for length of stay you would no longer qualify for). This gives you an incentive to let us know you are leaving, yet penalizes those who make reservations with "wiggle room" in case they decide they want to extend their stays.
We very seldom make exceptions to our policies. We do not want to be judge and jury over reasons people change and cancel their reservations.