Paid for but vacant sites

[BluStem]

Most state parks in Iowa consider a site occupied if it's payed for.
I find out from co-workers that some public parks they have been to require a payed site to be occupied with a camper or someone else can take it. I maintain if a site is payed for then it should be yours regardless if you have a unit on it or not. Why wouldn't it?

[rockhillmanor]

Interesting that all seem to think they 'know' why a paid for site is not occupied. And they 'know' it has to be a inconsiderate person.:R

Last year one of the seasonal's spouse died. Yup their site was empty for the whole season. Should she give up her paid site to you because she had a death in her family?

The site next to me in regular paid camping was empty for 4 weeks because the DH had a stroke during their stay and the DW and family were now parked in their RV in the HOSPITAL parking lot to be close to him praying for him to live.

Just saying don't broad stroke it cause you don't know. When it comes to a prepaid site and others calling an RV'er inconsiderate for not occupying it 24 hours is just plain ludicrous and again you do NOT know the circumstances. I could have pulled in the night before and left in the early morning to go sight seeing. And yup I'd be pissed to come back and find anyone's truck in my CG site because some finger pointer thought it was empty and felt it was their 'right' to use it. :R

[S_Sullivan]

powderman426 wrote:
I can't speak for any one else but if I rent a site and dont sure up there its a darn good reason as I have limited funds and can't afford to not use it.I would therefore expect my site to be there when I arrive

DITTO !!!!

[S_Sullivan]

karead7 wrote:
Interesting discussion. Our campground has been "sold out" several times this season, but there are always five or six empty sites. And when there are, do I hear about it! Always from someone who would have showed up a day or two earlier had they known. I think two policies should be instituted. One, weekend camping should be booked for a minimum of both Friday and Saturday nights. That alleviated the problem of there only being several one night sites left empty. And two, if you don't show up for your first reserved night, and we can't get hold of you, your campsite is considered abandoned, whether you paid for it or not.

Not everyone's job situation allows them to arrive on Friday night. Maybe they can't arrive until Saturday, but knowing that they ARE going to arrive on Saturday, they reserve both nights. Believe it or not -- we have camped in places that there is no way to get in touch with the actual person on-site. All contact was made via a 3rd party that is not actually at the campground.

[powderman426]

I can't speak for any one else but if I rent a site and dont sure up there its a darn good reason as I have limited funds and can't afford to not use it.I would therefore expect my site to be there when I arrive

[Campfire_Time]

Many state parks in WI are VERY popular and nealy all electric sites are reserved 11 months in advance. A few years ago WI DNR changed the rules to be similar to that of FL, if you don't occupy by the checkout of the next day, you lose the site. The reason for this is that people were reserving 21 days worth of a site only to use it on the last weekend. Yes, they would actually pay that much money for a few days use.

Being that it is so very hard to get into some of these parks, when people do this its simply not fair to others, especially to those whose taxes also pay for services in those parks.

BTW, I don't have a fundamental problem with someone leaving a unit on the site for a few days and fully occupying later. At least it shows "good faith". But reserving a site at a publicly owned property and not occupying for days or even a week just comes off as selfish.

[wny_pat1]

State Parks ran by state government have their own rules and regulations about how they run their campgrounds. The laws that the states pass that apply to private campgrounds do not apply to their own state operated campgrounds. And the states who contract with Reserve America get other restrictions because of the contracts with Reserve America. What you are asking for isn't going to happen unless you happen to be a state elected official!

[mlts22]

I know people who pay for two adjacent sites at some RV parks, especially some places where pads are so close together, one might end up bumping slide-outs with a neighbor. To keep people from complaining about vacant spaces, he parks his fiver in one, the truck in another.

[2_Retired]

To RK911. If a person puts their RV on a campsite, paying for the site for every day the rig is there, why is it unfair that they are not staying in it until the weekend? They made "special arrangements" to be able to bring their rig in early - as you said you sometimes made 'special arrangements' to get off early to get a site you wanted. The site isn't EMPTY - it has a rig on it. Don't really understand your complaint. DH and I have reserved and paid for a campsite, taken the RV there on a Sunday afternoon, knowing we will not be able to get off work until at least Thursday. The CG has a site paid for and we're actually paying way more than we ever should for a weekend camping trip. It's called "first come, first served". We were willing to spend the $ to be first.

[LastOfTheBohica]

For Alberta Provincial Parks (from the website):

Late Arrivals/No Shows
You must notify the Contact Centre at 1-877-537-2757 of a late arrival. A late arrival is a planned arrival after 2 PM of the day following your scheduled arrival date (i.e. arriving after 2 PM on Saturday, July 9 for an original arrival date of Friday, July 8).

If notice is not provided, the reservation is considered a 'no-show' and will be cancelled. The campsite will be released for resale.

Up to four nights camping fees will be forfeited, depending on the length of your stay. Any remaining camping fees will be refunded to the credit card used for the original transaction. The reservation fee is non-refundable.

[pappcam]

broark01 wrote:
Let's think this through, if all the campground sites are reserved/paid for then the campground should not book anyone else or should they intentionally overbook, like the airlines, assuming there will be some % of "no shows"?

Why wouldn't the campground contact the reservation holder after 24 hours of "no show" to see if they could re-reserve the campsite?

If the campsite is paid for by a "no show" and then re-reserved to another camper, does the original reservee get their money back or does the campground keep the profit for the double booked campsite?

Seems like a slippery slope to me.

I agree it's not an ideal situation but it wouldn't be an issue if people didn't take advantage of the reservation system in the first place or if they actually contacted the campground beforehand to let them know when they'd actually be on site if they get delayed for whatever reason.

[broark01]

Let's think this through, if all the campground sites are reserved/paid for then the campground should not book anyone else or should they intentionally overbook, like the airlines, assuming there will be some % of "no shows"?

Why wouldn't the campground contact the reservation holder after 24 hours of "no show" to see if they could re-reserve the campsite?

If the campsite is paid for by a "no show" and then re-reserved to another camper, does the original reservee get their money back or does the campground keep the profit for the double booked campsite?

Seems like a slippery slope to me.

[MitchF150]

I think our State Park says you have until the next day by 1pm to occupy or notify them that you still want the site or they will open it up for the next available camper. Oh, and no refund either...

What's been going on with our parks is the reservation system allows you to reserve up to 9 mos ahead of time for up to 10 consecutive days. What people started doing was reserving a site up to 7 days prior to their actual intended arrival date so they get first shot on a Fri-Sun site. After a week or so, they would cancel the prior 7 days and just keep the weekend dates they really wanted, but didn't have to fight to get it reserved, which can happen if you did it 9 mos to that Fri arrival date.

They have to pay a $7 cancel fee, but got refunded for the canceled days.

This year, I think they caught onto this as there is a new policy on cancellations where they will have to pay up to 50% of the canceled days..

Hopefully, this will keep those folks from reserving earlier dates just to cancel them to get the actual dates they want.

To the OP, I feel that if you are indeed going to use the site for the days you reserved for, or are willing to pay for the days you aren't going to be there, at least call the park so they know you won't be checking in until whenever, but you'd still like the site for when you do arrive and understand that you are still paying for the days you are not there..

Mitch

[wbwood]

sdianel wrote:
From Florida State Parks (Reserve America) reservation rules:
"If you are unable to arrive on the first day of the reservation, the park will hold the reservation until check-out time the next day (1:00 p.m. local time for campsites and 11:00 a.m. for cabins). After that time, if you have not called the park, directly, the park may no-show the reservation, cancel it, and refund the balance, less the first night's use fees."
In my opinion, this is a fair rule. If you don't show, you should forfeit the site and allow someone else to have it. Better yet, if you know you aren't going to make it, call and cancel so someone else can enjoy it.

I agree with that rule. But if I don't think a park should take someone's reservation fees and when they don't show, rent it out to someone else. Unless of course they refund the remaining balance minus the one night missed. But that one night, no one should be in that site. You can't expect to get paid twice for a site.

[tenbear]

rockhillmanor wrote:

pappcam wrote:

Javi1 wrote:

BluStem wrote:

rv2go wrote:

BluStem wrote:
I maintain if a site is payed for then it should be yours regardless if you have a unit on it or not. Why wouldn't it?

Using this principle, you are saying someone with the financial means could reserve the whole CG for weeks and weeks without occupying a site.

You bet. If it's payed for, it's taken. Very simple.

X2 If not then don't call it renting, when I rent a car for the week it don't matter to the rental company if the car sits in the parking lot or I drive it every day.

Campgrounds have limited space and a person that actually wants to camp should be able to use a vacant site. What kind of bad planning does it take to rent a site for days you aren't even there? What's so hard about actually planning and figuring out when you actually need a campsite. State and provincial parks are meant to be used by the taxpayers and they're funded by the taxpayers and having empty sites around everywhere because of lazy and selfish people wouldn't be right, hence the existing rules.

First of all I think there are 2 instances:
One: were you reserve the site with OUT paying
Two: PAYING for a site in advance

Reserving without paying, most CG's have a check in time and if there is a no show it is rented out because it has NOT been paid for.

PAYING in advance for a site and for whatever reason you don't make it???? You paid for it which insures you the site no matter what time you pull in.

And lastly I take offense of your comment in reference to "lazy and selfish people", and "bad planning".

FYI news flash for you, not everyone RV's on a "specified, given, known a year in advance date". You are not the only type of RV'er on the road. There are many more of us that ARE ON THE ROAD more than a 7 day vacation planned in a year in advance.

We pay for sites for the convenience of pulling in when ever and if ever any damn time we want. Don't rightly care if you didn't like that the site was empty all day....I PAID in full for the convenience and insurance of that site being empty and ready for me to pull in when and if I got there.

Inconsiderate may be a better description than "lazy and selfish".

[pappcam]

rockhillmanor wrote:

pappcam wrote:

Javi1 wrote:

BluStem wrote:

rv2go wrote:

BluStem wrote:
I maintain if a site is payed for then it should be yours regardless if you have a unit on it or not. Why wouldn't it?

Using this principle, you are saying someone with the financial means could reserve the whole CG for weeks and weeks without occupying a site.

You bet. If it's payed for, it's taken. Very simple.

X2 If not then don't call it renting, when I rent a car for the week it don't matter to the rental company if the car sits in the parking lot or I drive it every day.

Campgrounds have limited space and a person that actually wants to camp should be able to use a vacant site. What kind of bad planning does it take to rent a site for days you aren't even there? What's so hard about actually planning and figuring out when you actually need a campsite. State and provincial parks are meant to be used by the taxpayers and they're funded by the taxpayers and having empty sites around everywhere because of lazy and selfish people wouldn't be right, hence the existing rules.

First of all I think there are 2 instances:
One: were you reserve the site with OUT paying
Two: PAYING for a site in advance

Reserving without paying, most CG's have a check in time and if there is a no show it is rented out because it has NOT been paid for.

PAYING in advance for a site and for whatever reason you don't make it???? You paid for it which insures you the site no matter what time you pull in.

And lastly I take offense of your comment in reference to "lazy and selfish people", and "bad planning".

FYI news flash for you, not everyone RV's on a "specified, given, known a year in advance date". You are not the only type of RV'er on the road. There are many more of us that ARE ON THE ROAD more than a 7 day vacation planned in a year in advance.

We pay for sites for the convenience of pulling in when ever and if ever any damn time we want. Don't rightly care if you didn't like that the site was empty all day....I PAID in full for the convenience and insurance of that site being empty and ready for me to pull in when and if I got there.

I camped for 55 days this summer which is still actually ongoing and believe it or not, I reserved the sites I stayed at to actually coincide with when I actually camped. It wasn't even very hard to figure out. Took about 2 minutes actually.

Private campgrounds can do whatever they want but I like the rules state and provincial parks have in place as they obviously think more my way than yours.

Anyway, thanks for the enlightening discussion.