I haven't read all of these but here are my thoughts. You pay a deposit to reserve a site, if you give notice in a fair amount of time then you should get all of your money back but in the end what is the point of putting down a deposit to hold a site if they just give your money back when you decide at the last moment or last few days you can't make it for what ever reason? They might as well just move to a first come first serve situation and then you will possible not get a site when you show up. Yeah its a lot of cash but it is what it is. treat it like a speeding ticket, most of the time you speed and get away with it then BAM you get a ticket. Such is life!