Gettysburg Campground

[KCerling]

I have never before been charged extra for showing early at a campground We arrived at 1 pm but were informed that check in is at 3 pm. We were charged $10 for this. The campground is 3/4 empty on a Tuesday.This should be noted in the Good Sam Campground book.

[Lantley]

Hammerboy wrote:
I personally think it's petty to charge for coming and hour or two early. In a full occupancy period, in order to get on early the previous occupant had to have left early, they already paid for your early arrival. I can see maybe if there wasn't anybody on that site before you arrived. If I were the campground owner that's how I would play it.

It's more about maintaining the rules.Not so much dollars and cents.
The CG is not getting rich off the fee. But they want to discourage campers from arriving early. If for some reason they insist on showing early than they can wait until the posted check in time or pay the fee.
It's really not that complicated.
I imagine sometimes an early arrival is no big deal. Then again I'n sure there are times they are not prepared/ready for early arrivals.
Same applies to departures. Sometimes departing time is critical some times its not. Either way the inmates cannot run the asylum.
The CG management sets an enforces the rules, the campers cannot expect to do as they please and arrive whenever they want without consequence.

[Hammerboy]

I personally think it's petty to charge for coming and hour or two early. In a full occupancy period, in order to get on early the previous occupant had to have left early, they already paid for your early arrival. I can see maybe if there wasn't anybody on that site before you arrived. If I were the campground owner that's how I would play it.

[Lantley]

ro_sie wrote:
I think that's crazy. We usually leave a campground earlier than the check out time. So, does that mean they are going to give us $10 back? see how crazy that sounds? As far as cleaning, I have seen very little of that. Most places we go, I usually am picking up cigarette butts and disposing of them. I don't think I have ever seen anyone leave a camp slot with trash and garbage on it. Just the cigarette butts now and again. If a camp ground is cheap about the early fee, they are cheap about everything else too. Not for me.

Do you arrive early at work and volunteer for the first hour or two?
I imagine if you arrive early you expect to be paid. So does the CG.

[NCWriter]

ro_sie wrote:
I think that's crazy. We usually leave a campground earlier than the check out time. So, does that mean they are going to give us $10 back? see how crazy that sounds? As far as cleaning, I have seen very little of that. Most places we go, I usually am picking up cigarette butts and disposing of them. I don't think I have ever seen anyone leave a camp slot with trash and garbage on it. Just the cigarette butts now and again. If a camp ground is cheap about the early fee, they are cheap about everything else too. Not for me.

Yes it does sound crazy because campsites aren't rented by the hour. You also aren't paying for a 24-hour time slot. Rather, you are paying for use of a site for a posted arrival time (say 3 pm) to a departure time (11 a.m.), and if you choose to arrive later or leave earlier, that's fine. No refund.

We've stayed in high demand state parks that had hard and fast check-in times. No exceptions, no option to pay more. The camp hosts and rangers need that time to perform daily duties prior to the next wave.

Meanwhile, I don't think the commercial CG office clerk sits there twiddling thumbs either waiting for people to come. They have accounting duties, payroll, reservation requests, etc. to handle during a lull. So, yes, they try to manage the arrival time when they'll start getting busy again. Why not let only the people who want to interrupt the work flow by arriving ahead of posted check-in pay a small fee? Give the small business person a break.

[ro_sie]

I think that's crazy. We usually leave a campground earlier than the check out time. So, does that mean they are going to give us $10 back? see how crazy that sounds? As far as cleaning, I have seen very little of that. Most places we go, I usually am picking up cigarette butts and disposing of them. I don't think I have ever seen anyone leave a camp slot with trash and garbage on it. Just the cigarette butts now and again. If a camp ground is cheap about the early fee, they are cheap about everything else too. Not for me.

[Lantley]

Dance Chick wrote:
We're in the NE this summer. I've noticed a fee for early arrival at all CGs we have reservations. We time our trip to make sure we don't get there early. We made a Walmart stop one day to take up time. I understand the charge. You're using elec. & water which they have to pay for.

Exactly the fee is to discourage you from arriving early.
Most read and abide by the check in and check out times.
For those that want to arrive early a fee is charged to cover any additional cost and to hopefully keep you from arriving esarly the next time.
Honestly I would just pay $10 fee and not worry about. Beats hanging out at Wal Mart or on the side of the road

[NCWriter]

bucky wrote:

They do that c rap in the Outer Banks as well for rental houses, except that the fee is $125.00 for a 1 PM check in instead of the standard 4 PM. Maybe Superman(girl) flies in to clean those specific homes.

Please allow me to try and explain the reason for the c rap, as you put it, of those managing publicly-rented accommodations with a few hours for turnaround.

The previous people leave late after trashing the place, stealing or breaking some of the furnishings, appliances, grills, pool furniture, etc., having illegally housed more occupants than were in the contract, and so owners/managers are not only cleaning, but repairing & replacing. The new arrivals always want you to make an exception and let them come early. There's a limited labor pool of cleaning and repair staff to call in. Meanwhile the roads are jammed, so you sit in your car for a very long time trying to get everything pulled back together. God help you if everything is not perfect.

If Supergirl were available, yes - she'd be hired.

Campground owners have similar issues. They have to unclog the toilets, clean up the trashed sites, fix the electric boxes that got ripped out by someone who forgot to disconnect, etc etc. They could explain to you that many people are careless slobs.

[jfkmk]

Because the cg we left this morning had a rather early check out time, we arrived at Gettysburg cg about 2 1/2 hours before check in time. There was no mention of an early check in fee.

[bukhrn]

We've arrived early a number of times, but asked first if i could check in early, never had a problem, these were mostly at National Forest, National Park or COE CG's, Only time I had to wait, was at Gros Ventre, that was only because someone was in the site, & I was early, way early.
If I ever get to a CG that wants to hold tight to the checkin time,I'll just wait, no big deal

[jfkmk]

bucky wrote:
So all the late arrivals get refunds? Kind of shoots holes in the services being used rationale doesn't it?
They do that c rap in the Outer Banks as well for rental houses, except that the fee is $125.00 for a 1 PM check in instead of the standard 4 PM. Maybe Superman(girl) flies in to clean those specific homes.

I don't get it. If the policy is arrival is after a certain time, what makes people think it's ok to arrive earlier? It's their house/campground, their rules. If you don't like the rules, there are other houses/campgrounds for you to try, without complaining on an Internet forum.

The house/campground owner uses the time between renters to clean and maintain the property. The extra fee is to discourage folks from infringing on that time.

Sure, a campground may not clean/maintain between every guest, but if they have to, it's pretty much the only opportunity to do do.

[bucky]

So all the late arrivals get refunds? Kind of shoots holes in the services being used rationale doesn't it?
They do that c rap in the Outer Banks as well for rental houses, except that the fee is $125.00 for a 1 PM check in instead of the standard 4 PM. Maybe Superman(girl) flies in to clean those specific homes.

[jfkmk]

Drbolasky wrote:
I don't see where the OP identified the CG.......

Gettysburg CG is the name of the campground.

[Drbolasky]

I don't see where the OP identified the CG.......

[Dance_Chick]

We're in the NE this summer. I've noticed a fee for early arrival at all CGs we have reservations. We time our trip to make sure we don't get there early. We made a Walmart stop one day to take up time. I understand the charge. You're using elec. & water which they have to pay for.