What is a Lock Site Fee

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What is a Lock Site Fee

And how does it work?

The optional Lock Site Fee guarantees a camper will stay at a specific site when camping with us. Returning guests may have a preference on exactly which site number they would like to book, while others have no preference. This add-on fee allows us to move unlocked guests who don’t mind shifting sites to better help us fill our sites and keep guests comfortable.

Lock site fees do 2 things:

It ensures campers like you get your favorite site every time
It helps us ensure we can accommodate all of our guests by allowing the best fit for everyone and doing as much as possible to avoid saying the dreaded words: “Sorry, there are no sites available.”

Site Types

It’s important to note that when your site is UNLOCKED, your site number may change, but not your site TYPE. You are guaranteed the same site TYPE.

We have many site TYPES in our campground, such as Riverfront Electric Gravel and Grass. If you book a Riverfront Electric Gravel and Grass but do NOT lock your site, the site number may change, but NOT the site TYPE. You will still be camping at a riverfront electric site; it just might be site 5 instead of site 6.

It’s Like Booking a Hotel Room

We like to relate this feature to booking a hotel room. When you are booking a stay at a hotel, you choose your room type: Non-smoking King Room. When you arrive, your room number is given to you. It doesn’t matter to you which exact room, because the room type is what you asked for. If you notice that another non-smoking king room on the floor above facing east has a better view, you can request that exact room at your next visit. That’s where the introduction of the lock site comes in.

Conclusion:

Opting IN to the site lock is a guarantee that you are in the exact site you chose and will never be moved (maybe this is your favorite site in the park!).

Our campground software automatically filters unlocked sites and will move a guest only if the campground is approaching full capacity or the algorithm can make a better fit for other guests. It doesn’t happen often but it does allow us to maximize booking based on capacity and size.

Examples

To better understand our optional $5 lock-site fee, we’d like to offer a few scenarios that came about that prompted the option to be put into place. In a nutshell, it helps us to get the most for each camper.

Scenario 1:

Booking campers is like putting together a puzzle. Our many site types and amenities around the campground attract different guests. Our sites offer unique characteristics like the views and amount of grass or trees.

Some campers want all grass, some campers want all gravel. Some want to be near the shower house. Some want to be closer to the river. Then we have campers with different equipment types and lengths, extra tents, longer stays.

When we are trying to fill our campground, the lock site allows us to decipher which camper would not mind being moved in order for us to best fit guests into their campsite.

Scenario 2:

Because of the recent popular demand in camping, many campgrounds have been filling up to full capacity more frequently. Sometimes, only one or two sites are left open for a weekend. As a result, a group wanting to book those last 2 sites and wanting to be side-by-side are now separated on opposite sides of the park (think of a full movie theater, and you and a friend are stuck in opposite rows of the theater). With the introduction of the lock-site, campers are prompted to opt-out or opt-in to guaranteeing an exact site. The site type and amenities will never change, only the site number (so a multi-family site, electric site, river front site, etc. will be the same) but being moved up or down one site to allow other guests to stay together is what you are agreeing to when staying unlocked. (So a person at the movie theater doesn’t mind moving over one seat for your friend to sit next to you).

Scenario 3:

It’s Memorial Day weekend and the campground is almost full, and you see a 15FT pop up in one of our largest 40ft sites. If that 15FT popup does not mind switching to a smaller site – say our 30ft sites, we can allow more RVs into the campground at sites that best fit them and their neighbors. We are able to see these scenarios ahead of time and make adjustments beforehand.