Crowe wrote:
We never waiver from our pricing policies. To do so is tantamount to saying you don't have a pricing policy. What do you think the reaction from all the people who accepted the two night minimum policy be if they found out others didn't have to follow that policy?
Disagree on both points. To me it says "yup, we have our policy but under CERTAIN circumstances we may waiver". As far as the reaction goes, I think more people would be in the "wish I had thought to ask!" category. I'd be far more apt to stay somewhere that's willing to bend than at a cg that only deals in black and white. I fully understand policies like that and don't have any issue with them, but also agree that a site booked for one night is better than a site booked for 0 nights.
And if I book that one night stay and three of the people who would have booked the required two nights, now only take one night, I am down two nights' rents, not up one.
Most of these policies come from one of two situations.
The first being holidays, where there is little likelihood of arrivals in the middle of a three day weekend.
The other is where guests tend to overstay the last day and not vacate the site until late in the afternoon. This happens a lot at parks on lakes, near amusement parks, and other daily use businesses and attractions. Can't really blame people for trying to get two days packed into a one night stay, but the parks are in business to make money, not accommodate every whim of every guest. Requiring two nights is advantageous to the park as a means to minimize that situation.
A simple solution for a park in the your example is to only allow one night stays based on availability for drive in guests, no advanced reservations. That keeps the park's policy in place and offers those who only want one night to at least have a chance of getting that site. I think you will find that is the policy at most parks that have minimum stay requirements at certain times.