Admin fees

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.
Seems to me these "online only" reservation systems are discriminatory against at least 2 groups of people- those who are technically ignorant/averse, and the poor.
Should those ignorant of tech be denied easy access to taxpayer funded facilities? Gotta have that wheelchair ramp, but those with mental handicaps are out of luck?
And then there are the folks who just can't afford a phone and data plan. Some would say the taxpayers should supply a phone to the poor (which has been going on a while). They justify giving away these phones because you just can't get through daily life without one (they made damn sure you couldn't, with situations like the campground reservation systems).
Often the same people who complain there aren't enough jobs will defend these automated systems.
 
Wonder how that could happen?
When anyone bypasses substantive points of view that may vary from the hardened position, the misdirection takes place. Personal service with a human being is not something that's backwoods when I am spending my money in places that's unfamiliar to me, such as campgrounds, as with a lot of others. Of course I am with a lot of others that's backwoods I guess and expect someone to check me out when i am also spending my money at a store.

So far no outlet has sent me a paycheck or a discount card for doing their work for them by checking out my own items. The booking agencies that's charging service fees, while you cannot avoid them in some cases, is charging you to take your money in the same manner. As you say take it or leave it and enjoy blindly overpaying.
 
You pay a fee because you're using a service. Argue about something else.
 
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😡
Nothing complicated about it - it covers the cost of the reservation service you are using. The creation and maintenance of the website itself, maintaining the reservation database (which may be separate from one the campground actually uses at its office), and passing updates back & forth to the campground(s) themselves. Somebody has to do it, whether extra staff at the campground or a 3rd party service.

There are lots of service charges like this. It's a way to recover costs other than rolling all overhead into a single fixed price for the goods. It makes good sense when only a portion of your customers need that extra service, or if there is a variable cost for it. Campgrounds that get a substantial percentage of their customers thru phone calls & walk-ins can keep their base fixed rate down by having a separate charge for online booking. Some other businesses that are priced with extra fees are cars (the destination fee), many online store orders (a minimum purchase for "free" picking & delivery), and theater & concert tickets booked online.
 
Last edited:
Speaking of which, who wants to be a billionaire? I'll quit my day job if I can get some startup funding to develop a common RV reservation platform.
 
The alternative to refusing to go through self checkout because it’s unjust is going over there, standing 15 minutes in the express line while a peer counts exact change from a coin purse and the next one up who had 87 items writes an essay on a paper check (‘cause I guess debit cards are a sign of the Antichrist) then balances their checkbook before handing it to the clerk who spends another five minutes verifying they’re not Al-Qaeda.
 
When anyone bypasses substantive points of view that may vary from the hardened position, the misdirection takes place. Personal service with a human being is not something that's backwoods when I am spending my money in places that's unfamiliar to me, such as campgrounds, as with a lot of others. Of course I am with a lot of others that's backwoods I guess and expect someone to check me out when i am also spending my money at a store.

So far no outlet has sent me a paycheck or a discount card for doing their work for them by checking out my own items. The booking agencies that's charging service fees, while you cannot avoid them in some cases, is charging you to take your money in the same manner. As you say take it or leave it and enjoy blindly overpaying.
So would it make you feel better if the park system hired a telephone operator to take your reservation and just raised your rate to cover the cost? $5.00 a night for two weeks surely beats a $7.50 booking fee?
 
Last edited:
The alternative to refusing to go through self checkout because it’s unjust is going over there, standing 15 minutes in the express line while a peer counts exact change from a coin purse and the next one up who had 87 items writes an essay on a paper check (‘cause I guess debit cards are a sign of the Antichrist) then balances their checkbook before handing it to the clerk who spends another five minutes verifying they’re not Al-Qaeda.
I guess you never have had to wait for a long time in a line while the debit cards are being processed.
 
In a free market economy we are all able to vote with our feet.

Some vendors will show the booking fee, thinking that the client will assume, "Not their fault." Same with credit card fees.

The alternative is to hide the fees and raise the prices.

The final consideration for the vendor is, "If I don't offer online service do I lose business?" My answer would be yes. In that case the vendor hides the fee and based on being area competitive he might have to eat the fee, knowing that he makes the fee back by the business he doesn't lose.

I have never called for a reservation anywhere. If I have two campgrounds and one is, "call me" I book the online one if prices are similar.
 
Just like when the WWW exploded, if your business didn't have a web presence chances are you're losing out on business and certainly behind the times.
And man-oh-man there were some crappy websites. I know. I built a few - LOL...

OTOH I still click into websites, like from yelp or something, get to the site and there is a couple of pictures and a phone number - LOL...
 
The alternative to refusing to go through self checkout because it’s unjust is going over there, standing 15 minutes in the express line while a peer counts exact change from a coin purse and the next one up who had 87 items writes an essay on a paper check (‘cause I guess debit cards are a sign of the Antichrist) then balances their checkbook before handing it to the clerk who spends another five minutes verifying they’re not Al-Qaeda.
I must admit that's some creative writing.
 
I’m amused when another retailer declares chap 11 and the CEO says we failed to realize the importance of the virtual marketplace. I’m 68 and haven’t bought a Christmas or Birthday gift for 8 grandchildren in a brick and mortar store in 5 years and don’t ever plan to. I can order a book, a fishing lure, coffee, or a car and have it delivered to my front door most of it next day and soon enough same day or have it delivered to an address most anywhere with just a click. You can order shoes and clothes and you don’t pay for them unless you keep them, if not returns are free. When I do by chance go in a brick and mortar I’m usually reminded why I prefer shopping online.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,731
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom