By Cheri Sicard
In the video below we join Jared Gillis of All About RVs (one of the winners of our 2024 RV video awards) as he leads a discussion of an RV life problem that angers many RVers, namely, extra and/or hidden fees at campgrounds that regularly add significant dollars to already expensive campground rates.
It’s beyond annoying when you make a campground reservation and are expecting one price, only to find all kinds of little extra fees and charges added on when you go to check out.
Some of these extra fees make sense, others seem like pure money grabs.
Personally, extra and/or hidden fees are one of my pet peeves with campgrounds, hotels, and also airlines. But campgrounds and hotels, part of the larger “hospitality industry,” are bigger offenders, in my opinion. Call me crazy, but being nickeled and dimed for every conceivable excuse under the sun does not feel very hospitable. I would much rather it be added to the original cost if you need to charge for such things. OK. Personal rant over. Back to Jared and the video.
Extra and hidden campground fees:
Extra person fees aka the “family tax”: Some campground rates only allow two people per site. If you want to bring along friends, or the kids or grandkids, you are going to have to cough up some extra dough per person, per night. These extra per-night fees add up quickly. One of the most common extra campground fees, I find this one particularly annoying because, as a single person I have never received any kind of discount for having less than two people in the campsite. Hmmmm.
Guest fees: This one would annoy the heck out of me had I ever encountered it. There was a fee for Jared and his wife to visit friends at another campground. They were not staying, just dropping by to have dinner with friends. Wow!
Site lock fees: The one is an extra fee that guarantees you get the exact campsite that you reserved. Otherwise, the campground reserves the right to put you in a different similar site. Jason Epperson did a good job of explaining this from the campground owner’s perspective in this post. Nonetheless, site lock fees tend to enrage most RVers.
Vehicle fees: This is an extra charge for extra vehicle besides your toad or tow vehicle. In all fairness, with limited campground space, this one is justifiable.
Electric vehicle charging fees: This one also makes sense as electric vehicles have started to put strains on campground power capacities.
Extra amenities fees at KOAs: Some fed-up RVers claim that KOA stands for Keep On Adding. Every extra activity or amenity you want to take part in will add extra fees to your reservation.
Car or RV washing fees: This one also makes sense as you will be using substantially more water than others at the park.
Resort fees: I don’t understand this one either. If you are a resort, then charge resort prices. End of story.
Pet fees: These fees charge extra per pet, per day. Like the extra person charge, they can add up quickly.
Harvest Host fees: For the life of me, I do not understand RVers who complain about having to spend money with the hosts at Harvest Hosts, or who consider these “hidden fees,” but I see this annoying whining constantly in social media groups and threads.
The way the Harvest Hosts system works is CLEARLY explained when you sign up for the membership. It represents a win/win between RVers and hosts, as well as Harvest Hosts’ parent company. If you don’t like the business model, then don’t join Harvest Hosts. Easy.
As for me, I use the service constantly and love it. For the price of a bottle of wine, I have a safe, often scenic, place to spend the night. Plus, I also have a nice bottle of wine. In addition to wines and spirits, some Harvest Hosts offer admission to attractions like caves or museums. Well worth it. I have also picked up unique gifts at other locations, like the adorable alpaca hat gifted to a friend’s 4-year-old granddaughter that I bought at Sawdust Alpaca Farm.
Have you encountered additional hidden fees while RVing? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
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Site lock-in fee, no explanation is going to justify this. Just have the reservation or booking for dates needed then assign when RV’er arrives, like the hotel industry. This is just laziness on CG due to their inept on scheduling/booking and bottom line-GREED!
I don’t like them either, however I pay them when I feel the site I have booked is the absolute one that I want. Cost of the campsite, just like taxes.
I agree with your comments on HH. I too, don’t understand the constant complaining as to the expectation of the guest. HH is a wonderful program and is suppose to be a win/win but many think “IT IS FREE!”. If you want free nights feel free to stay at the big box stores or in rest areas. HH program and the Host are a business and each deserves to expect some kind of compensation for their generosity. Play by the rules or move on!!!
Agree. We don’t consume alcoholic beverages (actually can’t because of medicines) so HH with it wineries, breweries, etc., didn’t appeal to us. Along the routes we normally RV travel, there were not locations for us to participate; after a year, we cancelled the membership. If our travel changes in the future, we may join HH again.
We don’t drink either and have made that known to the wineries, breweries, etc we reserve. Their reply has been that it is ok and we are more than welcome to stay. As long as we give then an honest review they are happy. If they say no drink/no stay the review would not be very positive, I don’t think they would like that.
Sometimes they have a little bar with food or a full blown restaurant that we can support.
We stayed at a campground with a 1 pet limit. We also have an indoor elderly cat. Charged for her. 🙄 Then there’s the campground that has the 2 pet limit period. But, they don’t charge extra for “show dogs”… there were 4 total. Still don’t know why.
Personally, when asked about pets by a campground, I only include the pet that might be outside my rig – the dog. We also have two indoor-only cats that would be terrified of leaving the RV. None the less, they are collared and microchipped. The amount of waste they create is negligible as is the amount of water they consume. I won’t pay a fee for them.
As for the dog, I keep him on a leash (for his protection) and a bag dispenser is built into the leash. I have a light for dark hour walks. Not too worried about our golden retriever injuring anyone, but I do get it, any dog is a risk and the park has to carry insurance .
The extra people fee is ridiculous. We have 3 adults in our RV, most sites state 2 adults and 2 kids, how are 2 kids different than an extra adult? We avoid the campgrounds that charge extra per person but unfortunately I’m finding 70% of campgrounds charge this.
My biggest pet peeve are cancellation fees. I never reserve a park without first asking about their cancellation fees, and then I make calls until I find the one that doesn’t, who is the winner and gets our business.
Thank you Cheri, for summarizing the video, as I prefer reading to watching videos.
We have never paid a fee for our indoor cat anywhere we’ve been. Once our son became adult some 25+ years ago we/he paid an extra person fee so that’s not new to us. The one time he came in his own car that park did not charge an extra fee for him to park at our site. We do not stay at “resort” named places, prefer family owned parks or KOA as we have large 5th wheel. Just saying it isn’t happening at places we frequent.
Thank you, Cheri! 🙂 I do not know with certainty because DW handles that part of our travels. But, in that she has never complained about “extra,” or “hidden” fees, I dobt that we have run into these. It is just the two of us, and dog #3 makes 3. We do not stay where dogs are an extra fee. Otherwise, we are at KOAs, state parks, or US Army Corps of Engineers parks. The fees tend to be fully revealed at the point of making a reservation. Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
I work at a campground. We have an extra charge per night for more than 2 adults or more than 2 children. We also charge for visitors, $10 for overnight, $5 for the day (children are less). These visitors are entitled to use the bath house as well as the pool, playground and private beach. Our seasonals get a large number of credits they can use for their guests. We get very few complaints about any of these extra charges.
Hmmm. Regarding the KOA “amenity fees”, I would rather have an ala carte pricing, than pay for all the amenities I don’t use. Don’t need a pool, or dog park, or anything else like that. Would rather not have them rolled-into the uniform camping price.