KOA Campground Cancellation Policy

[Bobchambe]

Just wanted to mention that if you reserve a campsite at a KOA park, be very sure you can make it. They have a 48 hour cancellation policy!!
If you make a reservation today for a site tomorrow, and something happens and you can't make it, you pay for tomorrow night anyway.
48 hours is a ridiculous amount of time! 24 hours notice is bad enough when you never know what may happen with an RV! Most RV Parks we have dealt with have a 12 hour or less cancellation policy.

Personally, we will avoid KOA parks in the future, or at least not book them in advance.

[Dance_Chick]

Heck. We have reservations at Mama Gerties near Asheville for the end of July. We paid a $100.00 deposit. After reading all of this thread I decided to look at their cancellation policy. For reservations made outside of 90 days, which ours is, the cancellation policy is 30 days. And, that will incur a 20% fee before returning the rest of our deposit. Inside of 30 days, we lose our $100.00. To my mind, it is what it is. We were lucky to even get the reservation as they were booked for the entire summer and had just had a cancellation that morning.

[Fulltimer50]

EVERY THING is up to the owner/manager. The park is not required to follow the national KOA policy. A policy is not a law. Depending on the reason, they can return whatever amount they want. Some do not charge to make the reservation. Some give refunds for checking out early. All depends on the campground.
Note that the OP did not have a bad experience with the KOA in question. He just didnt like the policy. Some cancellation policies for cabins can be a week or more.

[sgfrye]

Crowe wrote:
LOL! Just another "let's bash KOA" thread. You read the policy, you agreed to the policy and then you complain. If you didn't like it you should have moved along. What cracks me up is some of you think that KOA is the ONLY type of campground that has strict policies that they enforce. Many private campgrounds do so as well.

It is so easy to avoid this type of thing. If you don't like the policy, DON'T STAY THERE. None of us are "special"-we all should be expected to abide by the same rules. If you've had an emergency or unpredictable delay then ask for an exception. If they don't give it to you remember it's THEIR right to not do so. These are not charities, they are businesses.

x2
we stay at koa's, state parks, and private campgrounds. we understand their cancellation policies. when making a koa reservation via phone call the koa rep specifically tells me the cancellation policy so there is no confusion.

last new years we were at koa mt pleasant south carolina. we had booked and paid for 3 nights checking out on monday morning. my wife got a phone call on sunday about mid day that one of her good friend's mom had died. we decided to pack up and head home about 4pm on sunday afternoon. on the way out i told the koa desk person that we were leaving early in case they could rent our site. (campground was full) and told them why. i did not ask for any type of refund.

when we got home 4 hours later i had received an email from koa mt pleasant had refunded us 1 night on my credit card.

koa gets bashed about as much as camping world. yes there rates are normally higher, yes camping world customer service can be bad at times, but the bottom line is everyone has the option to not do business with them. personally we have only had good experiences with koa and camping world

[soren]

Pretty rare when I agree with anything that WesternRV has to say, but his two posts in this case are 100% right. He noted something that I'm stunned that some government parks are willing to tolerate. That being a reservation system that has a facility listed as "fully booked" and the situation on the ground is that 1/3rd of the park is empty. I would guess that a lot of this is due to reservation and cancellation policies that are way too lenient. We frequent a state park beach CG. It's common to find a spot, mid-week, for a few days, and have the reservation system indicate that the park is nearly full, then spend a few days camped there, and find that they barely have a 50% occupancy rate.

[dedmiston]

We've stayed at quite a few KOAs. They aren't my first choice because of their prices, but 99% of the time we have been very satisfied with our stay and the office staff.

We stayed at a KOA a few weeks ago and they were having a big Cinco de Mayo festival. Their office staff was busy planning the festival and couldn't take our money the morning after we arrived (late). So we stayed there under the honor system and then finally paid at the end of our stay on Sunday.

A 48 hour cancellation policy seems fair to me. A lot of people try to game the system by booking reservations when their plans are still tentative. I don't blame the merchant for assessing a penalty.

[Walaby]

Crowe wrote:
LOL! Just another "let's bash KOA" thread. You read the policy, you agreed to the policy and then you complain. If you didn't like it you should have moved along. What cracks me up is some of you think that KOA is the ONLY type of campground that has strict policies that they enforce. Many private campgrounds do so as well.

It is so easy to avoid this type of thing. If you don't like the policy, DON'T STAY THERE. None of us are "special"-we all should be expected to abide by the same rules. If you've had an emergency or unpredictable delay then ask for an exception. If they don't give it to you remember it's THEIR right to not do so. These are not charities, they are businesses.

Totally agree.

If you explain your situation, and they give you consideration, then great. Just don't expect it, and both you and the campground owner will get along just fine.

Mike

[Crowe]

LOL! Just another "let's bash KOA" thread. You read the policy, you agreed to the policy and then you complain. If you didn't like it you should have moved along. What cracks me up is some of you think that KOA is the ONLY type of campground that has strict policies that they enforce. Many private campgrounds do so as well.

It is so easy to avoid this type of thing. If you don't like the policy, DON'T STAY THERE. None of us are "special"-we all should be expected to abide by the same rules. If you've had an emergency or unpredictable delay then ask for an exception. If they don't give it to you remember it's THEIR right to not do so. These are not charities, they are businesses.

[Dance_Chick]

We stay at a GA State Park every July for a family gathering. They have a $10.00 cancellation policy. It is not unreasonable to me...I get it.

Westernrvparkowner's explanation from the business side makes perfect sense.

[Ralph_Cramden]

Bobchambe wrote:
Just wanted to mention that if you reserve a campsite at a KOA park, be very sure you can make it. They have a 48 hour cancellation policy!!
If you make a reservation today for a site tomorrow, and something happens and you can't make it, you pay for tomorrow night anyway.
48 hours is a ridiculous amount of time! 24 hours notice is bad enough when you never know what may happen with an RV! Most RV Parks we have dealt with have a 12 hour or less cancellation policy.

Personally, we will avoid KOA parks in the future, or at least not book them in advance.

Is this new? Or non-disclosed or something?

At ACOE campgrounds if you cancel within 24 hours of the check-in time, you give up the first nights cost plus $10.

At state parks in PA if you cancel less than 6 days prior you lose the first nights cost plus a fee.

I don't see where KOAs policy is ridiculous at all.

[Old-Biscuit]

KOA National Cancellation Policy

[Dutch_12078]

Some years back, I had to cancel a one week KOA reservation at the last minute due to death in the family. The manager apologized and explained that the rule required I pay for the first night, which I expected since I was aware of the policy. A few days after we got home from the funeral, etc., we received a nice sympathy card from the park along with a coupon for a nights stay in their park.

[KCFDCapt]

Ah, the cancellation policy. I had a reservation. I called the campground and told them I would be late to arrive, actually the following morning. I was told I would be charged for the night. OK, no problem. I was able to arrive at 11:30, but my assigned sight had someone in it already. I parked in front of the office, leveled the rig, put out the slides. I was met by the host early in the morning. I offered him a cup of coffee but he wanted me to move immediately. I told him my PAID FOR spot was full or I would have parked there last night when I finally arrived. Things cooled off very quickly and he was very accommodating with a place to wait for the over nighter who had my space.

Just another adventure to laugh about around the campfire.

Don't take life too seriously, you will not get out alive.

[wildtoad]

Personally I have no issue with their cancellation policy. I have had to cancel before at the last minute with a understandable reason and they have worked with me. They are a pricey place to stay if you don’t care to use their facilities but for what they offer not too bad.

[westernrvparkow]

LadyRVer wrote:
We stayed at a certain KOA in GA, many, many times. One of our favorite spots and also used it to go to if a hurricane was headed anywhere near us in FL. I had made reservations for another stay and my late husband got sick and we couldn't make the trip. Cancelled in plenty of time and got charged a 10.00 cancellation fee. Guess I was lucky? Haven't been back there since, all because of 10.00 and being a long time customer. Since I am up for renewal, with their new policy, I will let that pass.

At best, that $10.00 covered some of their costs of your reservation and return of your deposit, less that $10.00 fee. Credit card fees run around 2.5% of the transaction amount and is charged both when a payment is taken and when a refund is issued. Then there is a separate transaction fee every time a debit or credit is processed. Plus the park is paying an employee and had taken that site out of inventory, possibly missing a reservation to replace yours. Why should the park lose money because your husband got sick?