KOA Reservation / Cancellation Guidelines Guarantee your Campsite

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just a heads up on Lufkin KOA (maybe all KOA's ... don't know)

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

According to Pam, my travel planner, we have paid many cancellation fees in our RV travels, mostly at Recreation.gov, for COE parks. I would imagine they had to pay a credit card fee twice, the first charge and when refunding you're money.

I think KOA's market segment is the late afternoon traveler who just got tired and had to stop. They're expensive and very close to major highways, and the ones we find all have a railroad track along their back fence. We used to use them a lot when we were working because price wasn't an issue but a quick, clean and easy travel stop was. Now that we full time we choose other places.

Red

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

They reserved a spot, which means it is not available to someone else who pulls in and then drives away, they run the credit card, which costs them money, then they have to run the credit # again to cancel the reservation, plus they have lost the night's revenue and have to hope someone comes in needing that spot. $10 seems to be similar to what other parks charge. That's why we very seldom make reservation for one nights stay - just call about an hour or so ahead to see if they have room. Getting off the road at 2 pm means more options for us and we seldom have a problem.

Rob_Fla · RV-Dreams Family Member

All KOAs charge a Cancelation Fee

If you are a KOA VIP Value Card Holder they will not charge the cancelation fee.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

I doubt I'll ever darken the door of another KOA. Their "policy" has cost them a customer. My cancelation was a week before the "reserved" date. They had to turn away no one and had plenty of opportunity to rent the space reserved by me. It is true that they ran my credit card ... but that was also one of their "policies". Charging me $42 and then crediting me $32 is their, not very well thought out policy. I will use C to C, RoD, MOR and MILITARY BASES as my preferred stays. I will share this story around every campfire going forward. FWIW, KOA's are only so so anyway, so not a great sacrifice to pass them up. They should spend more energy SEEKING customers and less ALIENATING them, but that is just MO.

-- Edited by RonC on Saturday 9th of July 2016 09:18:45 PM

Dreamsopen · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a KOA but we really prefer GoodSams better dealings and better parks

TRAILERKING · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most campgrounds charge a cancelation fee. The site's reserved for you and others have to be passed up when they actually could have been in your site. 10.00 is pretty resonable considering. Up here some even charge 15.00.

Team Murc · RV-Dreams Family Member

We just had an experience in Freeport ME where we had a one day reservation for a site that needed to be changed due to high winds. After we changed sites we went back to the office to seek a refund for the $13 a nite difference. Sorry no refunds whatsoever. Since the card had been processed we were stuck. Terrible policy. This would prevent us from ever going back or recommending them. Very short sited.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

What's the name of the campground in Freeport?

Team Murc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Recompense

PD CFK · RV-Dreams Family Member

We avoid KOA whenever possible. Otherwise, what Barb said; no reservations. Call ahead a couple of hours before you plan to arrive. Most always works. If all spots are taken in an area, travel a little further to find one. Pat and Charlie

travlingman · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have never been to a campground that didn't have a fee for cancelling. $10 is cheap to most that I have seen. They have expenses incurred when you make and then cancel the reservation. Here is the cancellation policy from the Lufkin KOA website when you make a reservation:

To guarantee your campsite, a deposit equal to at least your first night will be charged to your credit card at the time you make your reservation. Make your online reservations anytime, day or night, at KOA.com. You'll receive a confirmation email from the campground once you complete your reservation.

Need to Cancel? If you need to cancel your reservation, please call 800-562-9166 before the deadlines listed below to receive your deposit refund, minus a $10 cancellation fee. Text and email notifications of cancellations are not acceptable.

Reservations made after these deadlines require nonrefundable deposits. Cancellations made after deadlines will result in forfeiture of all deposits.

RV & Tent Sites: 48 hours cancellation notice is required. Notify your KOA by 4 p.m. two days before your scheduled arrival.
Camping Cabins: 7 days cancellation notice required. Please notify your KOA one week before your scheduled arrival.
Deluxe Cabins & Unique Accommodations: These units may have special deposit and cancellation requirements. Please check with your selected KOA campground location when making your reservations.
Reservations made after these deadlines require nonrefundable deposits. Cancellations made after deadlines will result in forfeiture of all deposits.
Holidays and special events may have special deposit and/or cancellation requirements. Special conditions may apply during high-demand periods and special events. Please check with your selected KOA for details.

Campground Cancellation Policy:

Sorry, the cancellation policy for this campground could not be found.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

When we traveled from Colorado to Oregon back in April, we dealt with three different KOA campgrounds in Wyoming and Utah and had excellent customer service with them all.

We had originally booked a night at Rock Springs, WY, but because of bad fuel filters on the F450, we had to stop at Laramie instead. (Laramie had a Ford dealership and the KOA.) The campgrounds was pretty wide open with spaces and we checked into one after hours. The next morning, Jo called the Rock Springs KOA and explained what happened and was prepared to pay the penalty for cancelling/not arriving at Rock Springs. The lady there told her to not worry about charges, but how about booking another night later in the week? We weren't sure how long it would take to fix the pickup, so she rescheduled for the following Friday.

To our surprise, the Ford dealership had our truck done by 3:00 pm, and wanting to get out of Wyoming because of an approaching snow storm, we elected to go ahead and hook up and get to Utah that night. Arrived in Utah (Brigham City, I think) and checked into the KOA there, again after hours. Next morning, weather was still possibly an issue so we agreed to stay 2 days. Jo called Rock Springs again to cancel the Friday reservation and told the lady what we did. Again, she was prepared to pay a penalty. Lady at Rock Springs cancelled without charging us any penalty. (Incidentally, the lade there told us that Rock Springs had gotten 5 inches of snow in 3 hours the night we passed through.)

Weather cleared and we decided to leave the Brigham City KOA a day early. Staff there canceled our second day with no penalty.

Terry

Hogladyrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

I will admit that prior to workamping this summer at a KOA I had little experience with the organization other than hearing my fellow neighbors "badmouth" KOA as being too expensive.

I now understand why many charge higher rates than "other" campgrounds and I have no issue with it.

Something I learned is many KOA's are franchise while many are corporate owned.....all charge a cancellation fee, read the terms before you book!

We are workamping at a corporate owned KOA and we have been treated with nothing but respect and the campground we are at is sold out just about every weekend, including 22 rustic cabins, 18 deluxe cabins, 247 RV sites and I don't know how many tents sites. It is crazy here on the weekends.

I appreciate the on site security patrol they offer until midnite each nite, and though we do not use a lot of the amenities they are here and many people utilize them, hence the higher nightly rate.

I would stay at a KOA again along the road and I now put them in the same class with all other campgrounds, they are even in better shape than some of the Passport campgrounds we have stayed in.

I realize it is not for everyone but that's what makes our country great.......to each his/her own!

Susan

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

One of the things I've noticed over the last ten years, there are some people who dislike just about everything.

For quite a few years we had a KOA card because we ended up using them when crossing the vast midwest - they were consistently the best we could find in terms of cleanliness, usually easy to get into and out of, and it took only a few stops to pay for the yearly dues and get one night a year free. Dave liked the KOA in Van Horn, Texas which was always a stopping point for us on our way out of Texas. We dropped the discount card because we don't go to Texas for medical, etc., anymore, don't use them when on the west coast and we've sort of confined our travel to just the west coast.

-- Edited by Barbaraok on Thursday 8th of September 2016 09:33:51 AM

Rob and Cheryl O · RV-Dreams Community Member

We stayed in 3 KOAs on our big move, 1 was super ! 1 was mediocre and 1 plain sucked! We found the BEST ones were the right off the hwy, family owned, nothing fancy ones. That reminds me, I want to go do reviews!

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Rob_Fla wrote:
All KOAs charge a Cancelation Fee

If you are a KOA VIP Value Card Holder they will not charge the cancelation fee.

Sometimes they charge the cancellation fee anyway…even with a VIP. We mostly do not stay at KOAs but as noted they are occasionally nice for a quick overnight stop…and we stay at enough of them to (most years) make the VIP membership worth it to us. Very few of them are what we would call great places to stay…although we have been to several that were great campgrounds.