We received this letter from Laura G. last week, and we think many of you can relate. How many times have you arrived at a campground early, only to find that you can’t park until your check-in time? How many times have you “killed time” to get to that hour of the day when you can check in?
Read on, and then please leave a comment for Laura.
Hi, RVtravel.com,
Here’s something that’s been bugging me for a while now: Why do so many campgrounds have check-in times as late as 3 or sometimes even 4 p.m.? Hotels, I get. They need time to clean rooms. But with RV sites, we’re pulling into a slab of gravel or dirt—there’s not much to “turn over.”
More than once, we’ve arrived early after a long day on the road, hoping to settle in, only to be told, “You’ll have to wait until check-in.” Meanwhile, we sit in our RV or make loops in town, burning time and fuel, staring at empty campsites that we’re not allowed to use yet. They’re usually empty!
I understand needing time between guests, but when it’s a basic pull-through with no one on it since the day before, why do they need three or four hours? What’s the harm in letting someone park a couple of hours early?
Has anyone figured out a way to handle this? Do you call ahead and ask nicely? Pay a fee? Or just show up and hope they let it slide? I’d love to know how others deal with it.
And if any campground owners are reading this, maybe consider adding some flexibility?
Best,
Laura
P.S. I’m a travel nurse and have been reading RVtravel.com for a few years. Love every issue!
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Comment to Laura…We are campground workampers. A delay in check-in times is needed to make sure workers have time to clean sites from previous campers. It takes time to do that job properly…..checking site for anything left behind, from dog poop to cigarette butts, to food left on the ground, as well as ruts that may need to be filled in, firepit cleaning which can take awhile if garbage was burned, and access to site if neighbors are not parked correctly. If it’s a busy time, delays happen. If a campsite is ready early, our owners will usually allow the next camper to come in, but normal check-in time is 2 PM, with checkout time by noon. We have no area for waiting on site.
With all due respect, I have never experienced this clean up. Most always, they hold you out and when you do get in, the place is a mess and no one has cleaned anything! MHO!
Very sorry to hear this. As a Workkamper, now manager, myself I take great pride in making sure our sites are clean and ready for the next guest. If you find yourself in WNC check out Moonshine Creek Campground
I agree, there’s not that much to cleaning a site that takes more than two hrs, but check in at 4 or 5 ?????
Cleaning and readying one site, maybe but if the hosts need to renew 20 or 30 sites, there’s a lot to do.
I’ve seen late check ins paired with late check outs. These tend to be campgrounds local campers use for weekends. I may just be passing through, but the locals want to stretch their weekends as long as possible. Now, I have a template travel day sheet that includes check out from prior, and check into next campground, including things like am I crossing a time zone, and what’s the expected payment (if any) still due.
I have watched work campers come in and clean up the fire pits and anything else needed in Pa state parks.
Dear Selene, Where in the world is your campgrounds?
I started camping as a child in 1964 with my family. In the 51 years of camping throughout the United States and Canada I have never seen anyone “clean sites” which you mention. As a former boy scout, I have never left a site worse than I found it with most cases being a “work in process” after I arrived at check-in picking up after the previous camper (which I just took for granted). For the most part, I have experienced the greater majority of campers to be good at picking up their campsite. I have seen bathroom attendants all the time but site attendants? I’ve never seen such a thing.
We stayed at Harbortown RV park in Monroe Mich. in May.
There were at least two workers going through and checking sites that just emptied every morning.
Both were checking and cleaning fire pits as needed, put picnic tables back in the original positions, made sure the breakers were turned off on the poles an policed the area.
At least one of them was riding around most of the day just to make sure every thnig was up to par.
Plus, they were friendly and would stop and talk!!
Bob, awesome Michigan SP in Monroe, Sterling State Park on the shores of Lake Erie.
I watched workers clean campsite near us ONCE . But usually they do little if nothing in Forest Service and State Parks. Might be different in a full service RV Park. And I’ve paid the $$, I’d like to have time in the park…..I agree 4 is too late. I wish it were noon.
Especially during the early darker days
Ok now I’m playing devils advocate. Maybe just maybe they’re out & about trying to get fallen trees or a disabled vehicle outta the way. Or just maybe they’ve called in sick right at the last minute. Sometimes I have to give the benefit of that doubt. ☺️
Steve, for 5 or 6 years every Summer, we would stay at the North Pole campground in Wilmington, NY, 12 miles outside of Lake Placid. The owners were great, and they would escort you to your site at any time you got to the campground. What amazed my wife and me was watching a nearby camper pull out of their site, and within minutes, one or two workers would show up in a John Deere cart. They would clean the fire pit, pick up debris, and Rake the stones! We stopped going here when KOA bought them out and raised rates by over $30 per night.
There are plenty of campers who don’t pick up after themselves. So many things you wouldn’t notice being done – re-aligning picnic tables, ensuring breakers are ok/off, cleaning bathrooms, laundry room, common areas, picking up left behind items, checking people in, taking phone calls, people having trouble leaving, dealing with lines of RVs at the dump site, people asking for directions, where to pick up supplies, etc.. Just because you don’t notice doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. What my hubby thought should take me 15-30 minutes takes him hours…lol!
Currently working as a camp host at an RV park on the Oregon coast. Checkout is at 11 and check in is at 1. We have 197 sites. We have days when 90+ sites exit such as on Memorial Day. People never understand what goes into keeping parks nice and clean until they have to deal with “stuff” left by those who don’t. Spilled black water (requiring special cleaning practices), everything that won’t burn in fire pits, trash left behind, dog poop around site, etc. to keep a park nice takes time for maintenance and repairs. People find all kinds of reasons why they can’t check out at 11 which only puts everyone working behind on readying sites for next guests.
Truly just asking – is it difficult as a work camper to get the list of who is departing AND what sites are reserved for that night to prioritize a little easier? One day I hope to volunteer also & just think this would be great
We start each day and check each site to see if it is occupied, empty, filled overnight, or left early. This goes to the office and at the end of the day, a list is provided for the next day’s work showing who is leaving, who is arriving and any known later arrivals. From this we know which sites to work first so clients can start arriving at sites by 1 PM.
I don’t buy that story, since you very seldom if ever seen anyone working in or around the site. The Longer you stay the MORE power you have USED $$$$
Suggest you walk a mile in the shoes of a host or work kamper at a high end Rv park. Park I work at is rated 9.5/10. Good parks have high expectations.
For those saying that it doesn’t take 2 hours. A park would need a list of who wanted in immediately in order for those sites to be cleaned first. The 2 hours is for a Camp Host to do all sites that emptied out. Usually on a Sunday that can end up being a full day work. Some private parks have a fee where you can check in early. That means that their workers will go to that site & clean it immediately before any other sites. Honestly in all of our traveling and being full-time for 5 yrs, I’ve never seen a 4 or 5 o’clock check-in. It’s usually check out at noon; check in 2 pm or check out at one; check in at three. Though I am still see ALL of the other lower 22 states we have left.
We’ve been workkamping/managing a campground for 4 years now and here’s my two-cents. We’re a small mom and pop campground so we have 1 person outside taking care of turnover. That “turnover” involves more than sites. It’s restrooms and common areas too. Check out is 11 (which is often pushed by guests to 1130 or 12) and check in is 2. So best case is 3 hours but it could be less. Early arrivals mean that 1 person gets interrupted and by the time he or she gets back to finish it usually means start over. We want our guests to arrive and say “wow” so please give us those precious 3 hours. Thanks. See you soon.
Tough call. Time is needed to clean up after people leave. Pushing the departure time equals messing with the schedule.
Laura,
We like to drive early in the day so we often arrive before check in time. We call and accept early check in when available.
When check in is later, we stop, often at a local park or Walmart, and relax or shop or just sit and read until the appropriate time.
We also arrive at airports early and have a stress free meal to board at the appointed time.
Best to relax.
I wonder the same thing! Fortunately, we have arrived before check in at several campgrounds without an issue.
We’ve encountered minimum check-in times as late as 5:00 p.m. which can have you setting up in the dark in winter.
When I asked why they need 3-4 hours from check out to check in, they said that was their maintenance time. Water might get turned off to fix that dripping spigot, a few pedestals might get de-energized to replace worn out power outlets, trash dumped, pad lawns mowed, and showers serviced when occupancy is at its lowest between 1:00 and 5:00.
Yosemite campground (always full) have check out and check in at noon with no problems! If they can do this with 0 time in between, then other campgrounds can do an hour or two. We have actually been turned away before check in even though our site was ready. That’s not right.
You can try to call. Maybe someone will answer. I just show up. Most times COE properties have a 4 or 5pm check in. Kind of crazy. But so long as the previous tenant is gone they always let us put in. Even in commercial campgrounds an hour early never held us up.
Had one recently that had a strict check in time. Even had a $10 fee to pay in advance if you thought you’d be early. I paid in advance, forgot that I had and tried to call. Waited for a call back. After an hour I just drove in. Never saw any employees. Never got a call back. Best thing, they didn’t charge me the remaining balance either. Icamp, Green River, UT.
At Indiana state parks, checkin and checkout on Saturday and Sunday is 5 pm. They will let you in early if the site is available. We have never experienced a check in time that late. And yes, we had a site reserved where the camper left at 5 pm.
The letter says that they arrived early after a long day on the road. Just what time did you start that morning? After a long day on the road we might arrive about 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. We’ve never had to wait. The ‘clean up’ is whole different issue, ’cause a few times it was just, well yuck.
While having to wait to enter is frustrating after a long driving day, we, too, have been told a couple of times that we were early and were asked to wait. I understand that they have things that need to be tended to. Perhaps an area of each campground could be designated early in/early out, with a change of hours. When one books, if such an arrangement was available, those sites could subsequently be cleaned up first. I don’t know if this is feasible, but we, too, enjoy getting off the road and settled into a new site well before 5 pm. That is late to us.
We’re leaving a campground today normal checkout is noon we will be heading into Arkansas tomorrow and check in isn’t until 6 pm where we have reservations
3 or 4 seems ok to me but 6 is a little late no time to set up, grill and relax
checkout is 4 pm I guess for local campers because I would think most travelers would want to be on the road before then
Cleaning fire pits and the trash left by the previous residents, cleaning bathrooms for use by the new residents. If check out is in the 11AM – 1PM timeframe, the hosts need a couple of hours to get all the newly vacated sites prepared for new campers coming in.
I have been camping for over 30 years and have not seen one person check an empty site.
I stopped at one campground earlier than check-in time and they wanted to charge me $20 for early check-in. I even checked the site and it was empty. Had a few words with the “hosts” and got my spot.
I agree that in some parks, there really is very little tidying at a site between guests. I would guess that late departures happen more often than we think we do. We were such people a couple years ago. We pulled out of our site (early) only to have multiple people flag us. One wheel on our trailer was making a racket. We pulled back into our site and found out a brake adjuster had popped out of place and was tumbling inside the drum. Luckily, no damage, but I had to tear it all down on the site and put it back together. I did not have anything to adjust the brake on that wheel and was on the phone looking for a garage in this small rural town who could do the job for us.
I wish there was a standard time for check out/in. Seems like 11 for check out and 1 for check in is reasonable. Many use this timing.
frustrating when check out is 10 and check is 3 or later. Sometimes we are only traveling 150 miles between sites and have to find time to kill. Not easy to park a MH towing anywhere.
I’m a campground owner. Every park is unique. My park is small, 30 sites. Check out is noon and check in is 1:00. It used to be noon for both but my wife wanted to give me a lunch break. People still arrive around noon. If I can get them in I’m happy to do so. My biggest problem is traffic. I don’t want somebody bringing in their rig while somebody else is leaving. Our roads aren’t wide enough for two campers to pass. When people want to check in early, I need to see where their site is, if it’s clear and could there be a traffic conflict. I hate it when people just show up. If it’s a park that you can call, do so. There is a reason why parks set these hours.
It’s funny, but for the last two years of camping, none of the places we’ve booked have a fire pit. They all have concrete pads, and some have fake grass. Still check in time is 2pm. I have always assumed that is just an unwritten rule of campgrounds.
I agree with the comment about traffic. I have to several campgrounds that very narrow roads leading to them. Staggering the check-in and check-outs times makes it safer to drive into and out of the campgrounds. Though I also fagree that setting a check-in after 2pm is excessive.
I have run into this issue a couple of times and have only once taken umbrage at the attitude of the inhospitable host. In that case we were walk-ins a couple of hours early and no one had been in the spot the previous night so (presumably) the site should have been ready for almost 24 hours at least. We declined to wait and moved on down the road to another campground. (This was about 10 years ago before crowding might have made us tolerate an imperious and, to us, unreasonable snub.)
After 25 years of RVing and many RV parks I have never had to check-in early (yet) so that is not a problem for me. However I have only been in one park where a person was cleaning up a site. I have encountered MANY sites that needed cleaning but most problems I encounter are where the trees or shrubbery need trimming in order to enter the site or clear the slideouts.
Thank you for the question, RV Travel! I think in the past 8 years we have arrived early (i.e., before check-in) once, perhaps twice. We do not rise early, typically at 8:30 AM local time, and rarely get on the road earlier than 9:30 AM (and that only if we are overnighting without unhooking the Jeep), but usually 10 or 10:30 AM. Consequently, only if a check-in time is 5 PM, or later, is there any chance of our arriving early. Have a great week and safe travels!
Check in times can be an issue on our shorter travel days. 3 or 4 is hard for us, since even on longer travel days (300-400 miles), we want to be off the road before 5. An 11 am check out (usually we’re on the road before 8 or 9), combined with a 3 pm check in, on a short mileage day means we’re spending vacation time just eating up time. We’ve taken the scenic route, found a museum we could visit, stopped at the Walmart – all on one short (~100 miles) travel day. A state park we’ve stayed in, and will again, has the option to check in earlier, if the space is open, but we have to pay the entry fee if before noon. We’d rather do that and enjoy the park.
I cheat on site specific reservations & take a peak at the day before to see if reserved so I get an idea if we might be landing early of what to expect. I do know many campgrounds are designed in a manner that flow outbound encountering inbound in places may be tight so also a reason to separate check out from check in times better.
The real question may be if we are willing to leave our sites earlier in order to allow others to check in sooner 🙂
I too think many of them are too late. I have seen 3pm often. Now we are on a big trip, FL to CA to OR, ID, MT, ND then back to FL. Many were 1pm and not a problem if we were early. One that had 1pm, I called them and asked if we get there early, would we be able to get onto our site. They said shouldn’t be a problem, as long as it’s at least noon. But, I think the ones that are very strict about it, a lot is a greed motivation. Either to collect an “early check in fee” or to force people into adding an extra night. The one I mentioned, Banning Stagecoach KOA, we were only coming from Seal Beach and wanted to park the RV, then head out and see Joshua NP and a few things in that direction….
…. CONTINUED. By doing that, this first afternoon, we were able to spend the full next day driving up to Big Bear Lake and see and do several things there. One more night at KOA, then on the road again. Had we not had time to head to Joshua day one, it would have been too much to squeeze into day 2. We’d have had to drop some plans or add another night.