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Why You Should Avoid Campsite Cancellations
Much like 2021, 2022 is seeing a record number of people reserving (or trying to reserve) campsites. Reservations must often be made months in advance to be successful in state parks or national parks (or provincial parks if you are reserving in Canada).
But who knows exactly what’s going to happen in life, months down the road? Nobody plans to cancel a campsite reservation, but life has its own way of making us change our plans.
With the pandemic, natural disasters, and all the other unpredictable life events, campsite cancellations can be impossible to avoid. Even with all that in mind, canceling a campsite can cause problems.
There are a few great reasons to avoid campsite cancellations.
1. Campsite cancellations can leave empty, unused campsites at a time when it’s hard to get a site.
It’s annoying for other people when you cancel your campsite (or don’t show up at all). Only cancel if you absolutely must; however, don’t reserve campsites that you plan on canceling (i.e., making secondary or alternate campsite reservations as a backup to your original plan).
2. It can be expensive to cancel a campsite.
With few exceptions, you won’t be able to get all of your deposit money back. You can instead save that extra money for fuel, food, RV repairs, attractions, and other expenses.
You may even be hit with a cancellation fee on top of paying for the site you canceled. Check with the park you reserved at to see what their cancellation policies are.
For example, Washington State Parks will charge cancellation fees as follows:
If you cancel or reduce nights on a reservation seven or more days prior to your scheduled arrival date, the cancel / change fee is $8 online or $10 by calling the Reservation Center, plus a fee that is a percentage of the cost of all cancelled nights as follows:
- 50% for reservations held more than six months
- 40% for reservations held five to six months
- 30% for reservations held four to five months
- 20% for reservations held three to four months
- 15% for reservations held two to three months
- 10% for reservations held one to two months
- 5% for reservations held less than one month
3. You’re missing out!
Lastly, when you cancel a campsite, you’ll miss out on a memorable RV camping experience. No one wants to do that! Consider the reason why you are canceling and if it is truly worth passing up the experience. Keep in mind there are many ways to save money and fuel while traveling in your RV!
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Lynne lives, travels, and works full-time in a Forest-River R-Pod 180 with her 2-pointers, Jolene and Annabelle. Lynne has been an enthusiastic RVer for over 35 years. And then one day in 2019, she began full-time RVing as a lifestyle experiment. She quickly fell in love with the convenience, freedom and minimalist lifestyle offered by full-time RV living.  Lynne is a professional writer and has been a professional dog trainer since 1995.  You can read about her travel adventures on her R-Pod Adventure blog, R-podyssey at: http://www.rpodaventure.com
Your reasoning is sound. We had to cancel over a half of trip and the campgrounds because we had an accident with the RV. Right now we have a two week reservation for mid-September that was made in February, but our doggie is now in stage 4 renal failure and is very ill. I would never think of taking her away from home. Hoping we still have her in September and fortunately it is a KOA that has a reasonable cancellation policy. We are now going day by day with her.
My heart goes out to you and your doggy. Good luck with everything.
Sorry- it’s me again…
I have a question- what prevents a campground from keeping the deposit or even the whole fee if you pay in advance for your cancellation and going ahead and renting the site to someone else? They would be getting paid extra or even twice for that site? Just wondering.
Well I’mAlways hearing about people NOT canceling and just not showing up and hope it’s not a good thing. Then here you telling people to not cancel. So which is it? I say if you see you can’t make a reservation then CANCEL IT!
That is all
I agree. By canceling, you free up the space for someone else. I had to cancel 2 weeks worth of reservations last summer due to mechanical problems. I think it’s only fair for the campground and others who might want a site.
The lack of campgrounds has forced people to unfortunately make defensive reservations months ahead of time Many things may change but the key is to cancel them as soon as you see you won’t be able to show up. By canceling them early it allows others to use the spots. If we wait to make reservations until we are absolutely sure we will show up there are no sites available. It is what it is. Just make sure you cancel them as soon as feasible. My 2 cents worth
We bought a campsite/lot on a river because of this bs. I lt is now worth double the price in 2 years because of so much baloney!
Is this a treatise on folks who make reservations and don’t show up or an exercise to get people to make reservations and trips that they should not make? In today’s world, an RV park reservation is almost mandatory. But stuff happens in life and sometimes ya gotta change plans. If you can’t be flexible then you’re in for a lot of disappointment in life.
Obviously you should make campground reservations with the sincere intent to use them.
But if things have changed and you know you’re not going to use that reservation, you should ABSOLUTELY cancel it as soon as you’re sure you can’t make it. Maybe you won’t get all of your money back, but it will open up the spot for another camper who may need it.
I completely dissagree! With campsites so hard to get it is important for people to cancel if they can’t use their reservations so other campers have the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful experience of camping. I see way to many empty campsites that have been reserved.
I disagree. Cancel the reservations as early as possible but definitely cancel and give someone else a shot at getting the site. A lot of people getting locked out of campgrounds this year due to demand – you might give someone’s child a memory they will hold for the rest of their life.
Cancellations are unavoidable sometimes. Those campground hosts that are “stuck” with empty sites, only need to post the available capacity on their websites and social media. There are lots of folks that are looking for last minute getaways.
KOA has an excellent cancelation policy. If they were hurt by cancellations, they would have raised the amount from $10.
I agree with cancelling if you cannot make it. To do otherwise is play at being a dog in the manger. If you cannot use the site, lete someone else enjoy it.
If you won’t be going there CANCEL. IT’S THE HONORABLE THING TO DO! LET SOMEONE ELSE GET A CHANCE TO USE THE SPOT.
IF YOU DON”T GET THAT YOU ARE A MORON.
I am jaded by the cancellation policy of some campgrounds being upwards 50-100% of the reservation cost within a 72 hour window. You call and cancel, and you may get nothing back. I review the rules the best I can, and if the penalty is more than 75% of the fee, I don’t bother to inform. For all the reasons that life happens sometimes a cancellation is needed. Campgrounds set up a no win situation when they cross the rubicon in excess fees.