Admin fees
- Thread starter TonyL
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
jymbee
Well-known member
Easy one: $$$$ to the vendorCan someone please explain why when you do all the work online to book a campground, you then get hit with an admin or booking fee after you've done all the work
Laura & Charles
Well-known member
Totally agree with your emoji! But I think it goes like this:Can someone please explain why when you do all the work online to book a campground, you then get hit with an admin or booking fee after you've done all the work
Small-ish mom&pop park are asked, by customers, so often about online booking that they feel they need to offer it. They have to hire a service to administer the service. The service tags on an admin fee to your reservation. The park isn’t saving anything by using the booking vendor; they have the same number of employees on payroll, so they can’t lower their rates without cutting into their (already pretty thin) margin.
Personally, I prefer to pick up the phone and make a reservation directly with a real person. Unfortunately, lately, there seems a trend toward online reserving is your only option.
NY_Dutch
Well-known member
Using Reserve America as one example, the reservation fee you pay is set by the park system you're reserving with. RA charges them a fixed fee that's based on the various features they've contracted for, and the park decides how much of that fee to pass along to you. Some years back, Florida for instance, charged us no split out reservation fee for a number of years, but then decided to add part of the RA fee on to our bills rather than raising the campsite fees. The bottom line is that the reservation administrator is going to get paid, but how that payment is broken out on your bill determines whether you know about it or not.
PJ Stough
Well-known member
Because they can, and people pay it.Can someone please explain why when you do all the work online to book a campground, you then get hit with an admin or booking fee after you've done all the work
My point was this particular park has a park host, but you can only pay by reserving the vacant site you've found by going online.
What about traveller's touring from abroad that don't have roaming on their cell phone?
You can't even phone someone to take a card payment
What about traveller's touring from abroad that don't have roaming on their cell phone?
You can't even phone someone to take a card payment
I've never come across a park host who had authority to handle reservations and then how are you going to pay? Using third party agencies to handle booking and payments is both more efficient and less costly but they're businesses and those fee's are why they're in it. Not sure, if you're on here why you can't make an online reservation. Aren't there temporary fixes to the phone thing, a burner phone or something?
You're quite right, for those of us who are able to stay long enough, we do have prepaid plans for calls and data.
For holiday travellers maybe not so much.
I guess at my age I'm used to dealing with actual people, not getting charged to do someone else's task.
Boat Bum
Well-known member
Different strokes; I eschew places I can't see the layout and the site I'm reserving online.
Jayflight
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2021
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- 1,374
When booking using third party sites for a reservation, its not about owning a phone of any kind. To start with tiny screens do not always favor aging eyes for a broader view to me for any campground. But the booking sites never take into consideration getting into a site with certain rigs.
A computer knows nothing about the true details of the access roads, angles of a site and other factors like if people may be traveling with other units looking to book together in favorable sites. This is where talking to a human being on hand comes into play for me anyway. Of course this sounds like non-issues related to finding a hole to park for the night or for several days of taking a break from the road.
But having service is the mainstay if you truly need to search the web as you are traveling from one place to the other and possibly deciding your route in advance in spotty reception regions.
There are just some things that point and clicking on a mindless screen will never be replaced personal interaction. Of course there are those that like to use the tired talking point that we have moved past buggy whips and covered wagons too. I consider this yet another discussion that a lot of folks will never agree on.
Did I forget to tell you I HATE BOOKING SITES? I have grown to feel a similar way about online booking Harvest Host locations, but I do give them a small pass since rv sites are a second importance to their daily operations. So I put up with it for the price and actually experiencing some really cool places unlike well manicured concrete patios.
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Laura & Charles
Well-known member
We always look at the site map and pictures and then call with the web page still open to find out what sites are available. Two times we made reservations online and when we arrived our site wasn’t empty. Not saying that couldn’t happen if we had made the reservation by phone, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Isaac-1
Well-known member
Its simple it is the way the booking sites sell their services to the campground / rv park owner, look here we will take over your reservation system, make life easier on you, and it will not cost you anything, you don't need to raise your rates to pay for it, etc.Can someone please explain why when you do all the work online to book a campground, you then get hit with an admin or booking fee after you've done all the work
Boat Bum
Well-known member
Thats's SaaS for you.
Joezeppy
Well-known member
We do the same thing. The park we just stayed at last weekend has been around for 50+ years but has expanded so quickly recently that Google satellite view only showed about 1/3 of the park and Bing about 2/3. Our group of 5 sites was in the last expansion and was not on either view! Turned out to be great sites, though.
It's not about agreeing to anything, it is what it is. Cope with third party booking or don't and be mad about it, the outcomes regardless will be unchanged. The liklihood that Park Systems are going to hire and train operators to staff a call center just in case someone who's stuck in the last century and demands personal interaction might happen to call, is zero to none.
It's not economically feasible for park systems to hire, train and retain operators any longer. Those days are over, contract it to third party vendors and no more sick time, vacation pay, human resources headaches, pay raises, etc.
Jayflight
Well-known member
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- Jan 22, 2021
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Gee, this is just a discussion on another rv related topic. But all of us either agree with a person's point of view or we are dinosaurs . There are things in life that's not always cut and dry and computers lacks some element of truly getting the job done when it comes to specific details .Normally I get the buggy whip comparison though.
.Wonder how that could happen?Normally I get the buggy whip comparison though.
What point of view? You either accomodate yourself to the online booking system or you don't. One way you'll get a camping space if one is available, the other way you won't regardless, how you feel about it is irrelevant.Gee, this is just a discussion on another rv related topic. But all of us either agree with a person's point of view or we are dinosaurs . There are things in life that's not always cut and dry and computers lacks some element of truly getting the job done when it comes to specific details .Normally I get the buggy whip comparison though.
