question on cancelling a site on reserve america

Some of this has to do with the rules of the RV park or state park that the reservation is made at. I can tell you that this will not fly for a Wisconsin State Park. You either use the reservation or you don't. For years people would make reservations at WI state parks up to the max of 21 days just to get a particular weekend. Yes, they would actually pay a small fortune to get a desired site for a few days. That would leave a paid for, but unoccupied site sitting unused for a couple of weeks at a crack.

So WI put a stop to that. If you don't occupy the site within the first 24 hours, you lose it. If you leave early and you let them know ahead of time when checking in, they will refund what you are not using. But you cannot "share" a reservation.

Being that we don't know the rules for the particular park you are asking about, you'll need to call RA and ask what you can do. More than likely if your friend is present they will alloy you to change your reservation and then let your friend make his. They've done that for us once before. However, what they do is cancel the ENTIRE reservation, then re-reserve the time you really want. They warn you that someone else could get your time in the few minutes that they are doing this...

It isn't cheating if it is allowed.

It is only cheating if it is prohibited, and I do something contrary to the rules.

Heck, I have stopped for stop signs when you couldn't see a car in any direction for miles around. I never wore a seat belt until it became a law. Then I never drove without one. I'm a "rules is rules" kind of person.

But I do not see how helping a friend be the lucky person next in line breaks any rules.

And anyone who made 8 reservations for the same date should be paying 7 cancellation fees.

One of the BIGGEST problems with reservation system is the scalpers who buy up all the reservations, then sell them on craigslist for a mark up. For this reason, most, if not all reservation systems require the ID of the camper signing in matches the name on the reservation, and why reservations made in one name can not be transferred to someone else later. Before this was implemented, it was almost impossible to get a reservation to camp in Yosemite.

My bet is that you won't be able to do much more than cancel.

JJBIRISH wrote:
You don’t see what’s wrong but I have known people with reservations at as many as 8 different parks for the same dates because they didn’t yet know what direction they were even going to go yet… canceling only after they were underway the other direction… I have also known where they have allowed friends or neighbors use their reservation, and I have seen people post on the forums that they were going to cancel in hopes a forum member would be able to secure it…

It’s wrong to anyone and everyone trying unsuccessfully to secure a reservation the right and proper way…

These are not long term leases with no right of subletting, even your long term lease may not permit that…

Thank you for a voice of reason when the day's headlines include ball players being banned for PEDs, an article about people using fake service dog documents to take their pets places they aren't allowed, political campaigns that received $600,000 from dead people and who knows what other "it isn't cheating if you don't get caught" schemes.

I've used others reservations a few times, never asked me for anything but the reservation number. This was never scalping, just someone backing out and us taking the site and paying them back. I'm sure it depends on the park and the people checking, but at San Clemente, they just smiled and told us where to go.

At the Florida state parks I’ve always been asked for my phone number right off. They didn’t seem that interested in my printed reservation sheet. I suggest you call the campground directly and see what can be done that way.

I found out that while Reserve America charges a cancellation fee, if you show up and cancel (we cancelled several days of our week reservation recently at Anastasia State Park) then there’s no penalty. At least that was our Florida experience.

Also on our recent trip we were chatting with the ranger at a federal campground, and he was telling us about someone who was staying at the campground and needed to leave early. Someone else just happened to walk up right then to ask about open sites….it was all worked out.

Of course this has all been in person so might not work in your situation.

You don’t see what’s wrong but I have known people with reservations at as many as 8 different parks for the same dates because they didn’t yet know what direction they were even going to go yet… canceling only after they were underway the other direction… I have also known where they have allowed friends or neighbors use their reservation, and I have seen people post on the forums that they were going to cancel in hopes a forum member would be able to secure it…

It’s wrong to anyone and everyone trying unsuccessfully to secure a reservation the right and proper way…

These are not long term leases with no right of subletting, even your long term lease may not permit that…

I did say "effectively" sub-lease.

I did not mean to infer an actual legal document type sub-lease.

I talked to a Florida state park employee in the Keys who said if a camper decided to leave early, that the camper's site will likely be electronically taken for the remainder of the reservation at the very instant it becomes available. So even if you were standing right there in the park office as the cancellation was being processed, you would lose out before you could get your wallet out of your pocket.




In order for me to avoid the penalty,

for what it's worth I don't think I've ever been asked for an Id when I checked into my site

JRS & B wrote:
I do not see what is wrong with effectively sub-leasing the site.

I have a 12 month lease on a site. Based on what I know today, I will not be renewing my lease.

There are four people who have expressed an interest in this site if I ever gave it up. Two of the people are my current neighbors and friends. You know I will give them first crack at it when the time comes. That's what friends are for.

I have no idea what the Reserve America policy is, but we do not allow any kind of subleasing of sites. You can't do it for friends, you can't do it for profit or any other reason. Would open a whole can of worms from does the site hold the new rig, to how many people, to were the rules explained, to what about the people on any wait list, to who is responsible should something happen. No way at my parks.