Deposits can be a tricky aspect of campsite management and a serious pain if they’re not collected properly. While they might make some prospective guests be on the fence about whether or not they want to fork over the cash to reserve their stay, they’ll protect you from cold footed patrons, and those that might not care of your property. In this guide we’ll give recommendations on how and when to collect deposits to decrease trouble in the long run.
Reservation Deposits
Reservation deposits help ensure patrons won’t cancel too close to their scheduled dates leaving you with no way to fill your sites at such short notice. Typically we see the deposits fall somewhere around 50% of stay and are non-refundable rates to help cover the costs of not being able to fill your sites. When collecting the deposit it is always good to also include a time period in which the full amount of the stay will be deducted and changed to a non-refundable deposit. Usually, we see 14 days prior to the stay a good collection time for this.
Remember, you are offering an expirable product. Every night that one of those spots goes unreserved, that's a night that you cannot sell ever again.
This can seem like a lot to keep up with manually with a lot of human error associated with the practices. With an online tool like Bonfire, everything can set up beforehand including the contract the camper enters into with the campground. That way, both sides know exactly when they will be charged and not.
Refund Policies
Unlike reservation deposits, which are typically non-refundable, refund policies protect campsites from being taken advantage of when a patron attempts to break the terms they agreed to in their contract. While these might vary from campground to campground, more often than not they shouldn’t be unreasonable or you’ll find yourself spending most of your time arguing with patrons. We recommend a 14-day notice to allow yourself time to backfill reservations without being too unreasonable and asking for 21-days or more notice because life can - and will - at times be unpredictable. Work with tenants when they are working with you and there should be an easy way to resolve issues with refund requests while still allowing for enough time to fill that site.
Security Deposits
The majority of patrons take care of and look after their campsites. With that being said, however, some campers will take advantage of the campgrounds and pull off when no one's looking, leaving a mess for management to deal with. Security deposits are a great way to help ensure your guests take care of their site during AND after their stay.
These security deposits mimic those that you might have come into contact with when renting an apartment in the past. It helps ensure tenants take care of the property in hopes to get the security deposit in full when they leave. If, however, there are damages that need to be taken care of after the patron(s) have completed their stay, the money from the deposit can be used to address those issues.
As mentioned above in regards to reservation deposits, Bonfire does allow campgrounds to seamlessly take deposit payments online. The amount of deposit needed might depend on the campsite, but we recommend making it more than enough to take care of damages from even the worst of patrons. After all, the great patrons will get their entire deposit refunded after they have completed their stay.
Managing campgrounds is a learned skill that is constantly evolving. Online payment processing for contact-free camping is crucial, especially during the time of COVID. We hope these tips will help protect you from patrons that don’t take care of your property or try to cancel a bit too close to the reservation leaving you hanging out to dry. Stay safe, stay healthy, and check back in periodically for more ideas on how to make your campground the best it can be.
