RV Park Refunds and Cancellations

[markopolo]

I'm interested in hearing your comments and experiences re: getting a refund from a campground if you leave the site early.

Usually we stay at a campground for a planned amount of time. On the odd occasion we leave early because of weather, boredom or the campground doesn't our expectations.

I was refunded for 2 days when I left a National Park after 5 days and had paid for 7. I liked the park but it just kept raining. There was absolutely no problem getting refunded - it was just automatic. The staff wanted to leave with us!

The same happened when I left a State park in the U.S. We checked out after 2 days after having planned to stay for 4. The refund was automatic.

I've never checked out of a Provincial park before our scheduled departure date but I have canceled a reservation and lost a reservation fee. It was clearly stated that would happen when I made the reservation.

We recently wanted to leave a private campground after one day having paid for three and was told there would be no refund. The sites were advertised as spacious but ours was in fact small. After much debate they offered to refund us if they rented the site.

There's two sides to every problem of course. On the one hand the private campground might have rented it to someone else had we not booked it. On the other hand we were mislead by their advertising "spacious" and "second to none" sites. We were not told there were no refunds when we made the reservation or when we checked in.

So I'm curious to hear your comments, opinions and experiences re: refunds from a campground if you decide to leave before your check out date.

[renrut]

When we use to camp in a Provincial Park in Manitoba, they had a no refund policy. It was bad because if someone left early, the office would sell the site again and get double fees. I remember once a person left due to weather but it cleared up and they came back to find their site was accupied. It was an interesting thing to watch concidering the campground was full and both parties had paid for the site.

[julievojo]

We don't normally stay in one place for a more than a night or two anyway, so it's only been an issue once. We were at Galveston Island State Park waiting for some friends (from Galveston) to leave on a longer trip. They were ready a day earlier than expected. Since we left early in the morning, before the usual check out time, there was no problem getting a refund for the night that we didn't stay.

[Whiskyecho]

(this doesn't answer your question about refunds/policies but..)

Recently we made reservations for 2 nites at pedernales falls state park, Tx - found it to be so unattractive that, after touring Fredericksburg, Tx on day 2, we bypassed PFSP and simply drove home - didn't want to waste time asking for a refund - really didn't care if they resold our spot, or not.

[Davydd]

Other than the B rallies we have rarely stayed in campgrounds more than one night or two at the most. With two nights there usually was an event purpose for us to stick around. So we have not experienced canceling out before our time was up.

On the opposite side we have gone to campgrounds we liked and tried to get a second night to no avail because the campground was booked. That's usually in the case arriving on a Thursday and being aced out by the weekend reservations.

[Ron J. Moore]

We had to leave due to health problems while in FL State Parks this past winter. We had booked various places thru Reserve America; my wife told the Park Office we needed to leave immediately - they handled the rest for us. In a matter of a couple of days we received a credit to our Visa Card for the remaining days. It was a pleasant, not to mention welcomed refund. Will try again this year -- can't give it up, ha! Ron