No Reservations?

Tvov wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
Because of the reservation systems. It is almost impossible to get reservations for state parks for weekends anymore. Many are completely booked for every weekend within walking day after the reservation period opens. And then many sites sit open and unused because reservations are cancelled at the last minute. And campsites sit empty and unpaid for all week because only two days are booked and many travelers want a place to stay all week. It is no wonder that many state and COE campgrounds sit empty ty and losing money.

I've got no problem with campgrounds "keeping" the reservation fee if you cancel, or at least charge for one full night. Or, better yet, keep it as a "credit" for a future reservation. With most places keeping computerized records these days, it is not hard to keep track of that.

We did this last year... had to cancel a weekend at a New Jersey county campground due to a family emergency. They have a "No Refunds" policy (I think because it was last minute), BUT they will give you credit for a future stay. So this spring I called up to make a reservation at the same campground and the nice lady said I was already paid for, as I had that credit - which I had forgot about.

I hear so many stories of people "gaming the system" and playing with reservations that making a No or just partial refund policy would help to reduce that... and allow other people to use (and pay for!) those campsites.

If there are not substantial financial penalties for cancellations, people will gladly overbook and then prune their reservation tree at the last minute, or just accept the small fee as the cost of doing business. This hurts everyone but them. The other travelers are shut out of getting a reservation, the park loses money because there are empty sites and people who have the other reservations are upset because some of the best sites are reserved, yet not occupied.
Giving credit for future stays is the same as not charging a fee at all to most people. They are going to go to that park at some time, just not that rainy weekend they booked 6 months ago. Plus there is a cost to carrying those deposits, processing the cancellations and then making the new reservations that incurred by the park. Stiff cancellation fees only hurt the people who cancel, everyone else benefits and that isn't necessarily a bad outcome.
Our policy is clearly posted and explained, therefore we do not generally waiver from it. On a space available basis, we may waive a cancellation fee if the guest is running a day late and needs to bump their reservation, but that is about the limit. We don't get into the Judge Judy role of determining a valid versus and invalid reason for a cancellation. As we developed and refined our policies over the years, we have found that our cancellations dropped dramatically when we increased those fees and tightened the exceptions, yet the number of reservations stayed the same while the occupancy levels increased. It became apparent to us that the tougher policies just weeded out the "maybe will will come" reservations from the actually will come reservations.