Are you among campground reservation no-shows? RVtravel.com readers have often complained about how many vacant spots they’ve seen at supposedly “full” campgrounds. Many figured campground no-shows were to blame. The Dyrt, a campground availability app, has opened the “campground confessional.” Their survey shows that 57.3 percent of campers did not use all the reservations they made in 2023.
Readers of RVtravel.com’s Saturday feature “Crowded Campgrounds” are well aware of this troublesome practice.
Campground reservation no-shows and other boorish behavior
So many reservations, so little follow-through? That’s the finding of the survey. Only 42.7% of those surveyed said they really did use every reservation they made. That means a whopping 57.3% of reservations were either canceled or, even worse, simply left fallow by people not considerate enough to bother to cancel them. What’s the “reasoning” behind such boorish behavior?
“I canceled a reservation last season because I was on a multiday trip and used the reservation as a placeholder to make sure we had a site in the relative area where we were looking,” says The Dyrt camper Ryan B. of Montana. “I ended up finding a prime site and canceled our reservation.” At least Ryan was courteous enough to cancel. But what about others who were disappointed because of his “placeholder” stunt?
Nearly a third cancel with less than two days’ notice
Of the campers who canceled a reservation in 2023, 87.3% canceled with more than 48 hours notice and 32.2% pulled the plug with less than 48 hours’ notice. (Some canceled multiple reservations in different timeframes.)
“It breaks my heart to see vacant campsites at ‘sold-out’ campgrounds because I know there’s a camper who wanted to stay there and is missing out on an awesome experience,” says The Dyrt CEO Kevin Long. “That’s why we created The Dyrt Alerts, so campers are immediately notified when someone cancels their reservation at a sold-out campground – even at the very last moment.”
Who are the no-show “dirty birds”?
And then there are the real dirty birds, who don’t bother to cancel out at all. These no-shows make up a considerable number. According to The Dyrt’s report, 14.9% of campers no-showed at least once in 2023. At least once!
Breaking down the campground reservation no-show statistics even further provides more revelations. Millennial and Gen Z campers are 52.6% more likely to no-show than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. Also, campers earning more than $250,000 were more than twice as likely to no-show as those earning less than $50,000.
Why no-shows – and what one state is doing about it
Why do people no-show? The Dyrt surmises that since public campgrounds are relatively affordable, campers often have little incentive to cancel reservations they don’t need. California recently passed a law to encourage cancellations more than a week in advance. Check out Gail Marsh’s story for more details.
Campground reservation no-shows could be a reason behind another finding from The Dyrt. It was four times more difficult to book a campsite in 2023 as compared to 2019. Amid the overall increase in the number of Americans who camp and the scarcity of campsites, over-reserving campsites has become a strategic exercise to make sure you have a spot.
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People who No-Show and don’t cancel should be prohibited from using that system, (State, County Federal) for a given period of time. This would apply to reservation they have already made for another site within that time frame. For instance, you make a reservation at a county Campground for x dates and then have another one 2 months later, you forfeit not just the first one, but the second one also.
I don’t know how many times I have seen multiple no shows in a single campground over the same period of time.
Even if it isn’t a popular site then overnighters looking for a spot are denied staying because of inconsiderate campers.
There is no excuse!
Just call and cancel.
And now we will have to hear from the “no shows” how unfair that is. It’s called ‘consequences”.
yeah, cry me a river…common courtesy appears to have died a horrible death for a great number of our citizens.
Dave, What a Great Idea! One I would love to see RV advocacy groups promote to our Federal, State, and Local representatives. I was thinking fines, or some other form financial penalty, but I like your idea better! Any legislation that prioritizes correcting the problem over penalization, is good legislation in my book.
Interesting the graphic used was for Big Bend National Park in SW Texas. We were there in mid-April. Supposedly all 25 FHU sites were full (seriously, the Park is 1,200 square miles and there are only 25 FHU sites). I can’t say if that was true, but certainly most of the RV sites (including electric only sites) were occupied. We stayed 4 miles outside the park’s west entrance without a problem.
In over 40 years we’ve cancelled once. It was due to a mechanical issue that couldn’t be resolved in time. We’ve never been a “no show.”
With the number of people who no-show, it’s no wonder that of the several dozen reservations we have made for this year, all but two required payment in full at the time of booking. One required one night deposit and the other nothing, but took a CC# to charge for no-show.
The study results don’t surprise me one bit.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 We recently had to alter a reservation, moving it back one day. So, formally we canceled 3 days out and rebooked a day later. Last September I screwed up a reservation, putting us in a site we did not fit. 🤔😯 We did not know this until we arrived at teh campground, checked-in, and began to back into the site. 🤔😯 After confirming that there were no other available sites, we canceled our entire stay (4 nights) as we departed and drove home. To avoid future SNAFUs, DW now is our solitary reservation-maker. 🤔😯 🙂 Thank you, Russ and Tina, safe travels! 🙂
.”The one time I needed to cancel, I can’t recall why, I was unable to find a phone # or any other way to contact them. I for sure didn’t want to be one of “Them,”
I tried!
Right! I’ve gotten elaborate public-relations emails after booking a site, whether from reservation software or agency, urging me to contact them if I need any assistance at all; some insist I call before arrival. But I’m given no phone number, no email except the mass-send ‘donotreply’ baloney. Many state park systems are so intent you not call the gatehouse they just won’t release the number. Others are unattended with no local number whatsoever. Pure contempt for the traveler.
Some office are closed on the weekend so you leave a message that you canceling within their policy for refund but most message are ignored and they pretend they never got a message so they can keep your money. Some RV Parks are real crooks.
Cancelling a reservation can be a trying experience and in some cases the campground owners do not seem to understand their own published cancellation rules.
If Campgrounds charge full price upfront and offer a partial or full refund for a late cancellation there will be far fewer noshows.
If there is no incentive to cancel a reservation, then the empty site is fully paid for. Why would someone cancel, not get any refund, and then allow the campground to rebook?
I agree with Leonard. Last year we had a fully prepaid reservation that I tried to cancel because of a last minute medical issue. If I cancelled the reservation, I got very little refund. HOWEVER, if I rescheduled the arrival and departure dates (leaving 1 day reserved), I was refunded the difference. So there was a financial incentive NOT to cancel the reservation. The sight remained reserved and unoccupied for that day. That’s not logical, but those were the rules.
The real problem is too many people.
Your opening paragraph seems to be a complete distortion of the survey cited by The Dyrt. The description under the photo has — “Their survey shows that 57.3 percent of campers did not use all the reservations they made in 2023″. That is completely different from your writing – ” That means a whopping 57.3% of reservations were either canceled or, even worse, simply left fallow by people not considerate enough to bother to cancel them”. No it doesn’t. If someone made 20 reservations during the year and cancelled or no showed 1 of those they would fall under the 57.3%. It doesn’t mean they cancelled or no showed 57.3%.
You beat me to it. Some people just don’t understand numbers and/or are prone to exaggeration.
How are some comments “2 days ago” if this article just appeared just now like today? I know articles have been repeated on this website which shows 6 months ago or even a year ago, but I read “rvtravel” every morning and don’t recall this article two days ago.
They show up in the afternoon news brief newsletter, which you can sign up to receive.
Yep. Thanks, Bill.👍 Have a great day.🤗 –Diane
Weather (4-day gully-washer left park a sea of mud) Illness. Engine trouble. Family emergency. There are legitimate reasons to cancel. Only once were we a no-show because we couldn’t reach the state park. Instead of punitive measures, make it easier to reach the facility, and maybe even include a financial incentive in the way of a partial refund.
Last summer at a camp ground in the eastern sierras, with in our loop of 12 sites, 6 had reserved tags. All 6 sites that were reserved were all no shows. With plenty of people driving through looking for sites. Its so unfortunate, and a huge problem. These were all reserved through rec.gov, not my favorite site to book through what so ever. I’m not sure what the solution is though. People don’t seem to mind paying up front and still not showing up.
They should be tracked through a data base and if appropriate be BANNED from making further reservations! If loss of $$$$$ isn’t a deterrent, then maybe loss of campsite will be.
Simply; People who do not have the wherewithal to Call and Cancel are just plain Rude!!
Go Oilers!
I could come up with more illustrious names for them.
When we have to make reservations months before our trip dates, cancellations and no-shows are unavoidable at times. We had planned on going to an RV Rally this week and had an entire trip planned around this event, but two days before we were leaving, we had an unexpected medical emergency that took us to the ER for five hours. Needless to say, once we got back I started canceling all our reservations. We also had an unavoidable no show on our last trip, due to a blowout that left us stranded on the side of the road for hours and we ended up spending the night at the parking lot of a tire shop.
Life happens—not all cancellations/no-shows are due to inconsiderate RVers!
Yep, I hear ya Phil. Last Sept. we had a month-long Maine and New England trip planned. A week and a half before departure the radiator and dash AC went on our DP. We got the rig back over $6K later and a month and a half in the shop. Every New England CG we booked kept our 50% deposit, standard in the region. Luckily our credit card companies reimbursed us for the fees. Beware of booking in Maine, NH, and Vermont.
I understand plans can change due to emergencies but the RV Parks should be more understanding. There should be state laws to protect us RVer’s. RV Parks hope you cancel so they can keep your money and give your site to someone else double dipping. Some of these RV Parks have long reservation cancelation, must cancel within 10 days or lose your 1st, 2nd night or all of your days of stay. I have crossed off several nice rv parks off my list due to strict cancelation policy.
Yes, no-shows have been a big problem for a long time. We’ve done mostly reservations for more than 25 years, because it works best for us. Usually, we make them 6 months in advance, sometimes longer. (My husband is not retired, so we work with vacation time.)
We do cancel as soon as we know we won’t be using a reservation. This year, I will be having at least one surgery, maybe two, but given how long it takes to get this all worked out, we’ve still done reservations. If we didn’t we wouldn’t get trips in. We’ve already canceled one trip, re-worked it around my surgery.
None of the RVTravel readers are part of the problem.
Without knowing how they conducted their survey I find it hard to believe that over 50% of reservations were canceled or left fallow.
Was this a national survey? West Coast only? Private and Government-run parks? How many combined campgrounds were surveyed? Was there a sponsor to the survey, say like KOA, or some corp entity?
All good questions, and the same type of questioning needs to be applied to a lot of what’s going on around us, not just campgrounds!
It said 57.3% of people making reservations had cancelled or no-showed one or more times. That’s far different than 57.3% of ALL reservations.
“Their survey shows that 57.3 percent of campers did not use all the reservations they made in 2023.”
Now, a couple paragraphs later a writer DOES misinterpret data and state “Only 42.7% of those surveyed said they really did use every reservation they made. That means a whopping 57.3% of reservations were either canceled or…” 42.7% using EVERY reservation does NOT = 57.3% of ALL reservations cancelled. Those cancelling could have cancelled 1 in 20.
I think that when income gets to a certain level, a sense of entitlement can begin to creep into one’s dealings with other people. If a week’s rent at a campground is simply pocket change to you, your reaction to not getting there is likely to be different than if it represents a couple day’s wages and now the only reason to cancel is to not inconvenience others. Not a good enough motivation, it seems.
Agreed 100%
This issue is a common theme at the Western U.S. campsite locations.
It’s become the norm to drive in to an empty park with many of the sites reserved yet unoccupied for the entire stay.
Perhaps if folks had to log in with a unique user ID and charged up front with cancellations tracked might reduce the frequency of illegitimate reservations. Not sure but something needs to be done.
Here’s hoping karma blows the tires off their wheels, their black tank clogs and mice destroy the wiring harnesses of those that think only of themselves and game the system….
Many National Parks have a vehicle reservation requirement. The vehicle reservations sell out in seconds. People will book campsites in order to have access to the park even if they don’t plan to stay there. In Glacier NP, people book Red Bus tours, boat tours, campsites… anything that will give them access to the park if they are shut out on the vehicle reservations. I know someone who did this for Rocky Mountain because it was the only way he could get into the park. He doesn’t have an RV nor does he tent camp. He already had his flight and hotel booked but wasn’t going to be able to get into the park so he booked a campsite.
I find this practice so appalling. It’s difficult enough to schedule and reserve sites for cross-country trips where we go to multiple states for a 6-7 week trip. There really has to be a harsh penalty for those who don’t bother to cancel, I’ve been camping for 40 years and NEVER pulled a no-show.
I recently had a trip planned for 8 days in Tucson, 2 days in Yuma, 1 day in El Cajon CA and 8 days in Temecula CA. I took ill with Vertigo half way thru our trip in Tucson and was down and out and could not go anywhere. Lucky on the last day in Tucson I was well enough to drive straight home back to Phoenix a 3 hour trip. While in Tucson my wife contacted the other 3 RV parks to cancel our reservation. She was able to talk to 2 of them and left a message for the 3rd rv park because the office was closed. All reservations were canceled within 48 hours. Later at home the RV Park where we left a message for our cancelation said they never received the message.
This title is midleading and does not accurately interpret the data. If you drill down in their data, it actually reports that 57% of campers have at least one no-show event, either through their own failure to cancel or due to the cancellation system working improperly.
Either way, I find this kind of journalism leads fellow campers to have bad feelings toward one another. That is the greatest tragedy in publishing this article. This author portrays a bias against wealthier people having a selfish attitude. Tragic. Maybe, that happens occasionally. More than likely the cause is that campgrounds implemented this reservation system 20-30 years ago and it is not a perfect system.
Good to see that shooting the messenger is still a thing.
🤔😅 Have a great day, Snayte. 😀 –Diane
Very unfortunate situation. I suggest charging “no shows” heavily.
Reserving spots just in case is really poor. I think the system should require a credit card to reserve a spot with a non-refundable one day charge if it is not canceled 72 hours prior to the day of arrival. When I make a reservation I keep it.
Make them pay in full at the time of making the reservation, and only provide a partial refund if canceled at least 72 hours before day of arrival. If canceled later no refunds. Cancelations are like stealing in many cases, we all pay the price. Campgrounds lose money and have to charge more for their product for the people who don’t cancel. Like many things in our society now, there needs to be more accountability!
Well the problem is there’s not enough campsites at popular public campgrounds which in comparison to private campgrounds are dirt cheap and usually offer full refunds up to 24 hours. So you have to be booking 6 months ahead. Life happens, plans change. While we’ve never been no shows we’ve certainly cancelled campsites as soon as possible. Its amazing how many no shows there are. We live in an age now where every single person here has returned items they purchased for whatever reason usually without any financial consequences or hassle. Thank you Amazon. Campgrounds should release the spot after 1 night no show and cancel the rest of the reservation. That’s the game we all play.
I have found that booking a campsite online is sometimes easier than trying to cancel it. Some sites make you phone to cancel between certain hours that they are open. If you are camping in a spot without cell or internet, canceling can be a problem. Example: You have a nice campsite and decide to stay another day, but you have to cancel a site you already booked. Do you pack up, drive to cell service, and hope your nice campsite is available when you get back; or do you blow off canceling?
We recently camped in a California state park campground. The site next to us was vacant for all five nights that we were there with the tag hanging on the post as reserved. when I asked the campground host about why they allowed it to stay vacant with the tag on it, because of the new changes to the California laws, they didn’t even know what I was talking about. So apparently, even though California has this new law, they have not educated the camp hosts on it or possibly don’t yet have a system in place yet to enact it. So frustrating.
The premise of the article is that cancelling a reservation is the equivalent of making a reservation and then not showing up. I strongly disagree with this assertion. Cancellations allow the campground or hotel to accommodate someone else from a wait list. It is unfair to lump people who call to cancel days before their trip with those who simply skip out.