Tip Don't give up on campground reservations

[widdershins]

To add to Rich's post, you can sign up for Passport America (like $75/3 yrs) and get 1/2 off normal CG charges and usually $20 cash /night. They have rules for which days and how many but it pays for itself in a couple nights.

Just make sure that the kind of places you like to stay are in their network. It's very limited from what I can see on the map, and I've never stayed anywhere that's in their network so worth nothing to me.

 

[Fueco]

Is it okay to pay for five sites and only occupy the middle one so you don’t have immediate neighbors?

 

[Karmageddon]

Is it okay to pay for five sites and only occupy the middle one so you don’t have immediate neighbors?

Only if you want to piss off everyone else in the campground.

 

[Neal]

We are the same way at our campground, but only in reverse. We have a target price, but if the visitor is above average, the price will be adjusted accordingly.

You, by the way, have worked yourself into the $45-$50 a night range . . .

Guess that explains my $175 rate

 

[LMHS]

Here's a tip for Passport America. It's $44 for a single year. Look at their campground maps (you don't have to be a member to look). It will have the campground info as well if you click on the park link. IF, IF, IF it's a place you think you would like to stay at, join ONLINE and print out or screenshot your temporary membership card to use at the park. That way you don't have any wasted days before using the service.

How I first used PA was like that. I found two campgrounds that were in places we were definitely going to be at and joined. Those two stays alone more than paid for the service for one year. Used it a couple more times within the membership year and then didn't for a few years. Then I found a need to do it again. So I joined again for a year (online this time) while sitting in the parking lot of the park. This was at a park that applied the 1/2 discount to a 7 day stay. Currently I'm not a member. But if I run into a PA park again, I will probably be rejoining. I do like that I can pop on their website and look to see where their parks are. Also they have an app (on my phone & you don't have to be a member to download/use) which also makes it easy to see if there's a PA park where I'm going. I checked for Lubbock when we started planning a trip there. None there. If there had been, I would have checked to see if I could save the membership fee on our two night stay and then decided if I wanted to join again or not. Usually it's enough of a discount to warrant the fee.

You do need to watch for restrictions. For example, I do not stay in 55+ parks. And some of the parks that are in the PA system are 55+ and they often don't mention it in their description. Pet restrictions are another hanging point for me (45lb galgo tends to be 5lbs over the pet restriction).

 

[CaptainGizmo]

It’s even more heinous than I had imagined. At Polson, I learned there were even those who would book multiple weeks AND/OR sites so they could choose what they want later, then dump the reservations back into the lap of the management to fulfill!!
If people only knew how these smaller resorts operate, with the kind small staffing, I would hope they’d change their practice.

Alas, more stringent rules are now in place in some resorts and owner-rentals; such as a “no refund within 30 days” policy.

One sad fact of life that will never change…the minority will always wreck it for the majority!

 

[Jim]

Guess that explains my $175 rate

Well, yes. Got to make up for those discounted rates somehow.