Campground Deposit Policy Guests Still Accept

Paste this. Then stop decorating it.

Deposit. First night at booking. Balance due at check-in.

Cancel 7 or more days before arrival. Refund the deposit minus a $10 to $20 processing fee.

Cancel 2 to 6 days out. Keep the first night. Refund anything else you already took.

Inside 48 hours, or a no-show. Keep the first night. Release the site. Do not charge the rest of a week unless that stay was a disclosed holiday or event booking.

Same words on the guest site, the confirmation, and whoever answers the phone.

A campground deposit policy must look like the public parks guests already book: first night at booking, a real refund window about a week out, first night kept on a late cancel, and the same text on the website, confirmation, and phone. A tiny deposit does nothing. A surprise full-stay charge trains chargebacks. Make cancel easy enough that they tell you, so the 50-amp pull-through goes back on the map.

TL;DR

• Guests already paid this shape at Recreation.gov: $10 to cancel, first night on a late cancel, $20 plus first night on a no-show.

• California State Parks (arrivals July 1, 2026 and after) refunds site fees 7+ days out, keeps the first night at 2–6 days, and keeps everything inside 48 hours.

• KOA wants 7 days on an RV or tent site, 14 on lodging, and a $20 admin fee. Holidays can be tighter.

• Keeprstay is vendor copy, but the working pair is first night or 50%, not a $10 token.

• Most people who cancel do it with time. RoverPass says 94% of 2025 cancels had at least 48 hours. The leak is the guest who never tells you.

• Related: count the unrebooked night before you rewrite the poster.

What deposit amount do guests already expect?

They expect the first night, the same way they already pay at public parks and KOA. Not ten dollars. Not automatically the whole week.

Recreation.gov does not sell “skin in the game” with a cute token. The late-cancel and no-show penalties are the first night’s use fee, plus a small service fee. KOA collects a deposit and, past the deadline, keeps it.

One independent example, Mountain View RV Park, takes the first night on an RV site at booking and calls that deposit non-refundable.

Keeprstay says the operators who see the drop use a first-night deposit or about 50% of the stay. Treat that as vendor advice, not a census. The mechanism is still right.

A $10 hold is cheaper than lunch. A guest will abandon it. First night on a $62 pad (Insider Perks 2026 RV median) is a real number. 50% of a two-week monthly is a different product. Write that as a long-stay rule, not as your Tuesday policy.

Do not mix a pet fee, a 50-amp surcharge, and the deposit into one mystery line. The guest site has to finish the reservation with an all-in nightly number plus a deposit they can name.

How many days out should a full refund still exist?

Seven days is the public floor guests already know. Fourteen is nicer. Thirty on a shoulder Tuesday is how you look greedy.

California State Parks now says: 7 or more days before the reservation start, all site fees back minus an $8.25 cancellation fee. Start means noon on arrival day, not check-in.

Their FAQ is blunt about why. Unused reserved pads. They want the cancel earlier so someone else can take the hookup site.

KOA is also a week on RV and tent, two weeks on cabins and rooms, if you call by 4 p.m. Recreation.gov is actually softer until the day before: cancel, pay $10, keep the rest until it becomes a late cancel.

For a 40 to 80 site independent, copy the week, not California’s peak-demand clawback. A 7-day or 14-day full-refund window on ordinary dates is the band guests will still book. A 30-day nonrefundable rule in April trains them to use Hipcamp, or to never put a card down.

Holiday fence is allowed if it is a different sentence, shown before pay. KOA says holidays and special events may differ. Mountain View may take full payment and tighten to 14 days. That is a product change. It is not a silent footnote.

What should a late cancel or no-show actually cost?

The first night. That is the adult number. The rest of the stay is inventory you might still sell.

Recreation.gov late cancel (day before or day of) is $10 plus the first night, capped at what they paid. A one-night stay forfeits what was paid and skips the extra service fee. A no-show is $20 plus the first night, after they hold the pad until checkout the next day.

California is harsher inside two days: no refund at all, and three no-shows in a year can lock the guest out of new reservations for 365 days. That is a high-demand public system with a legislature on its back. It is not your April midweek policy.

Keeprstay will tell you to charge the remaining balance on a true no-show if the guest checked a box. Payment networks sometimes back a documented merchant. Guests often do not. Chargebacks live here. Independent parks should default to first night kept, remaining nights uncharged, site released. Save full-stay capture for a holiday or event booking that said so in the checkout, in English.

Define the no-show in the same paragraph as the fee. Rec.gov: did not arrive and did not cancel by next-day checkout. California: noon the day after start, unless they called. Your version can be simpler: if they have not arrived and have not called by 11 a.m. the next morning, cancel the reservation, keep the first night, put the pull-through back on the map. A fee you never collect because the site stayed blocked is theater.

The profit-leaks post is the count. This is the rule that makes the count go down. Do the local math. Two unrebooked peak Fridays a month, six months, at $62, is 12 nights and $744. That is a worksheet, not a census. Plug your ADR.

Why does a harsh cancellation path create more empty sites?

If cancel means calling the office during desk hours, a chunk of guests will ghost instead. Then you keep a name on a vacant 50-amp pad.

Keeprstay says the quiet part: the harder you make cancellations, the more no-shows you get. That is vendor copy. It matches how people behave.

Recreation.gov lets you cancel online. ReserveCalifornia lets you cancel online. KOA does not accept text or email. Independents should not copy the phone-only part. Copy the fee shape. Let them tap cancel on the same guest site they used to book.

RoverPass is first-party platform data, not a national census. Still useful: 15.2% canceled, and 94% of those cancels gave at least 48 hours. Most people will tell you if you give them a button.

The 48-hour reminder is the inventory tool. It is not a poem about how excited you are. It should say the dates, the site type, how to move the stay, and how to cancel.

Offer a move before you offer a fight. KOA even asks if you would rather shift the dates. A credit for 12 months keeps the relationship and often keeps the money. Early departure and weather are different sentences. KOA and Mountain View both say no refund for nature or unused nights. You can say that. You cannot also make cancel a scavenger hunt.

After-hours is the same family. A voicemail is not a cancel path. If they can book at 9 p.m., they should be able to release the site at 9 p.m.

Where does the policy have to live to be enforceable?

On the booking screen, in the confirmation, and in the mouth of whoever answers “what is your cancel policy?” If those three disagree, the guest is right and you are arguing with a screenshot.

This is the markdown config argument with a dollar sign on it. Pets, amps, pull-through length, and the deposit rule are the same class of fact. Forms can help you edit. Forms must not own three copies.

Enforceable means:

1. The guest saw the rule before the card charged.
2. The confirmation repeats it.
3. A cancel on the guest site actually releases inventory.
4. The phone, human or agent, recites the same window. It does not invent a courtesy refund that the site forbids, and it does not invent a full-stay penalty the site never showed.

Holiday rules are a second block, named. “May be non-refundable” is how you lose a review and a chargeback in the same week. Write the dates. Write the deposit. Write the window.

Lunaria Booking keeps that text in the property markdown the guest site and the voice path both read, then collects the first night when the reservation is real. If your current PMS already can do that, use it. The product is one policy, not a new poster in the office window.

What should you do this week?

Do not rewrite this on a Saturday while a fifth-wheel waits at the gate. Publish one ordinary-date policy and one holiday sentence.

1. Write the five lines from the top of this article in plain English. First night. 7-day refund minus a small fee. 2–6 days keep first night. Inside 48 hours keep first night and release. Same words everywhere.

1. Add one holiday/event paragraph with the actual weekends you mean. If you need 50% or full prepay, say it on those dates only.

1. Put it on the guest checkout, not only on a /policy page. Require an acknowledgment. Send it again in the confirmation.

1. Turn on a cancel and a date-change on that same site. If they have to call, you will eat ghosts.

1. Send a 48-hour reminder that includes how to cancel or move. If your stack cannot text, email is better than nothing.

1. Decide the no-show clock (noon next day is the public pattern) and who is allowed to release the site. A policy that never returns the pad to the map is spite.

1. Pull last month’s cancels vs no-shows. If cancels already come in with 48 hours and no-shows are the pile, your problem is the button and the reminder, not a meaner fee.

If the calendar already works and the leak is that nobody can take or release a hold after dark, that is a phone problem, not a poster problem. Fix writeback. The after-hours bar still holds: greeting is not booking, and voicemail is not a cancel.

FAQ

What deposit should a small campground take?

The first night, including the taxes you actually charge for that night. Keeprstay’s 50% option is for longer or peak stays. A $10 token is not a deposit.

Is a 7-day cancellation window too short?

It is what California State Parks and KOA RV sites already use. Fourteen days is a friendlier private-park version. Go longer on ordinary dates if you want. Do not go shorter than a week unless you are truly sold out and you said so.

Should I charge the full stay when someone no-shows?

Not as the default. Keep the first night. Release the rest. Full-stay capture belongs on a holiday or event booking the guest acknowledged. Otherwise you are buying chargebacks.

Do I have to copy Recreation.gov’s $10 and $20 fees?

No. Copy the shape. Their $10/$20 are federal service fees on top of the first night. Your processing fee can be $10 to $20. Your no-show cost is the first night you already took.

Can I refuse weather refunds?

Yes, if that sentence is in the policy they accepted. KOA and many private parks say discomforts of nature are not a refund. Park closures you cause are the other pile. Refund those.

Why not make people call to cancel?

Because a lot of them will not. Rec.gov and ReserveCalifornia cancel online. RoverPass’s 94% 48-hour notice only happens if cancel is possible. Phone-only is how names stay on empty pads.

Does Lunaria Booking write this policy for me?

It keeps one copy. You write the rule in the property markdown. The guest site can collect the first night. The voice path can speak the same window. It will not invent a fair policy if you never typed one.

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Guests will book under a first-night deposit and a week of runway. They already do it on public systems. What they will not book under is a surprise. Put the five lines on the checkout, take the first night, and give the 50-amp site back the minute they cancel.