Donna Genie explains SiteLock fees, an add-on guests pay to reserve a specific campsite instead of a category-assigned one. Most booking systems already support it. Campgrounds can capture extra revenue by letting guests pay more for their favorite sites, spots near amenities, or locations away from other campers.
$5 to $15 per site per day (about $10 per site per day on average).
Observed increases of about 20% to 35% in revenue.
Foreign Hi, I'm Donna Bordeaux with campgroundaccounting.com I'd like to take a moment to talk to you about SiteLock fees today. This is a fairly new term in our industry, but it is on the horizon as something you want to consider for your park. SiteLock fees are an additional amount that a guest pays to book a particular site in your park. That fee allows them to choose. If they don't choose, then you are able to move them around in a particular category of sites. Now, many people right now do not like that idea of allowing somebody to pick a particular site if they've been using using categories for their reservation system currently. I've often heard the concern that I want to let people have the right number of days, but I need the flexibility to move them around to fill in gaps in my reservations. It's all fine and good, but keep in mind you're probably missing out on a significant piece of revenue. The campgrounds that we are seeing that are implementing SiteLock fees are getting 5 to $15 per site on the average, about $10 per site per day to allow somebody to pick a particular site in your park. Now, in those amounts of revenue, we are seeing upwards of 20 to 35% increases in revenue by allowing SiteLock fees on your system. If you're using an online booking system right now, most have this capability already built into them. It's just something you have to turn on. It may also have some internal changes that you'll want to make as you implement site lock fees. But I highly encourage you to allow this going forward and to take a look at the increase in revenue that it can bring to your park when you are doing your reservation systems. I'm sure you've all had that person or that family who says, I come every summer on the 4th of July and I always want to stay in site fund. That's my favorite site. Or maybe they want to pick a site that's close to your pool or a dog park or close to a place where they know somebody who's already camping. Maybe they've got a group camping together. So allow them to pick those and allow them to add to your revenue. So this is a great tip for you. I highly encourage you to take a look. If you have questions about how that can implement, how that can be implemented, and what effects it can have on your revenue, I encourage you to let me know. I'd be happy to chat with you about it. Thanks. Have a great day.
