Resort Fees

Drbolasky wrote:
This was not an issue for us until July of 2011 when we stayed at a Jellystone Park (Caledonia, WI). Family-oriented park and you paid a resort fee of $6 per day per person for the first three days of your stay, whether you used the amenities or not. All campers had to wear a wrist bracelet showing that they were paid guests.

I totally understand the CG's point of view in this case, and that is eliminating the influx of locals who wanted to use the parks facilities for free. What annoyed me then - and still does to this day - was the guest fee. $10. OK, no big deal, right? It just so happened that our "guest" for all of about three hours that day was our daughter, fresh out of Navy boot camp graduation and in her dress whites. Wanting to be above board about everything, I explained this to the desk staff when we brought her in. Nope, no exceptions. You pay full fare. Military discount? No.

I paid the fee, but asked for a manager to stop by our site when one was available. Said manager did come around after about a half an hour. I recounted the whole tale. Long story short - the CG refunded $4 of my $10. Yes, the $6 I did not get back was the resort fee, even though there was no way in Hades that our daughter was going to be using any of the amenities (no, she had no change of clothes). I got in touch with the Jellystone national entity, but my communication went unanswered.

I've no problem paying for something we will use or even if we have access to amenities and choose not to use them. Our campground choices are often based on what amenities are there and understand that if we choose not to use said amenities, well, that cost is rolled in to what the CG is charging us per night. Because of Jellystone/Caledonia's inflexibility, we no longer stay at any Jellystone park and further, are careful to avoid CG's with additional "resort" fees over the nightly rate no matter what the amount.