Campground reservation software: what it does, what it costs, and what to look for
Campground reservation software is the program that holds your site map, takes bookings online and at the counter, collects payment, and reports on what you earned. Prices in the market run from a one-time $795 desktop license to a monthly flat fee to a charge on every booking, so the fee model matters more than the sticker price.
What campground reservation software does
Think of it as the office desk, the ledger and the website booking button in one place. A good system handles these jobs.
The reservation grid
The grid is a calendar with your sites down the side and dates across the top. You see at a glance which sites are open, which are booked, and who arrives today. You drag a reservation to move a guest to another site. You block a site for maintenance. This is the screen you will use all day, so it should load fast and make sense without a manual.
Online booking
Guests pick dates, choose a site or site type, and pay on your website, day or night. The booking lands on the same grid as a phone or walk-in booking, so you never double book. This is the part that cuts the phone calls.
Payments
The software takes a deposit or full payment by card, stores the record, and handles refunds when someone cancels. Card payments carry a processing fee from the payment company. Stripe, for example, lists 2.9% + 30 cents per successful domestic card transaction (checked 2026-10-25). Ask every vendor who holds the money and who sets the processing rate.
Reports
You should be able to see occupancy, revenue by site type, arrivals and departures, and money owed. Reports are how you set next year's rates with facts instead of a hunch.
Point of sale
Many parks sell firewood, ice, propane and camp store items. A point of sale feature rings those up and can charge them to a site's account. Not every system includes it, and some charge extra.
Seasonal and long-term billing
If you rent sites by the month or the season, you need recurring invoices, due dates and late balances. Products differ a lot here. If seasonal guests are a big part of your income, test this feature before you sign anything.
How much does campground reservation software cost?
There are four pricing models in the market. A flat monthly fee. A fee on every reservation. A guest-paid booking fee. A one-time license. Here is what each vendor publishes on its own public pages. Every row was checked on 2026-10-25, and prices can change, so confirm with the vendor before you decide.
| Vendor | Pricing model | Who pays the fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campspot | Monthly software price not published on the pricing page. Plans are Single Park Growth Package, Muni and Enterprise. The page lists a "Guest-paid booking fee for online reservations only." The fee amount is not published on the pages checked. | Guest pays the booking fee. The page also says many customers add a surcharge to offset a reservation fee. | Campspot pricing |
| Firefly Reservations | $3.50 per unit service fee for each new unit booked in a reservation. Long-term reservations: $3.50 per month each. | Park pays, or passes the fee to the guest with booking fee rules. | Firefly pricing |
| CampLife | $3.00 per reservation, with a $99 monthly minimum on the Standard plan (starting at $99 a month). Premium starts at $249 a month. One-time onboarding deposit of $100 to $250 by park size, credited back after go-live. | Park is billed. The page says it can set up a pass-through reservation fee for guests. | CampLife pricing |
| RoverPass | Small parks: $99 monthly minimum, with $3.50 per reservation counting toward it, so you pay the greater of the two. Medium parks: $3.50 per reservation, no minimum. Large parks: custom, from $1.50. | Park chooses: absorb the fee or pass it to the camper at checkout. | RoverPass pricing |
| Campground Master | $795 one-time for a standalone desktop system. Support and updates included the first year, then $100 a year. No monthly fees and no added cost per reservation. | Park pays once. No per-booking fee. | Campground Master, buying page |
| Park With Us | Software described as free. Those who book online pay a small service fee. The amount is not published on the page checked. | Guest pays. Manual bookings carry no fee. | Park With Us |
| CampStack | $49 a month or $490 a year. Unlimited reservations and users. No booking fees. | Park pays the flat fee. Nothing is added at guest checkout. | CampStack pricing |
A few notes on the table.
- Campspot says it has no software setup fees and no long-term contracts, and that it serves more than 3,500 parks across the U.S. and Canada. We could not find a dollar amount for its software or its booking fee on the public pages we checked, so we do not state one.
- The CampLife page also shows a plan comparison table with different online reservation fee figures by plan. Check which plan you would land on.
- Firefly says that if you connect Stripe, the reservation fee is taken as part of the payment instead of billed to you separately.
- Add-ons vary. CampLife lists text messages at 5 cents each and a recurring invoice charge. Campspot notes that Booking.com, Airbnb and Vrbo integrations may carry additional fees. CampStack does not connect to those today.
Want to run your own numbers? Use the booking fee calculator.
What to look for: a 9-point checklist
Take this list to every demo. Write the answers down.
- Fee model. Is it a flat fee, a fee on each booking, a percentage, or a one-time license? Ask for the total for a year at your volume, in dollars.
- Who pays the fee. Some fees are paid by the guest. Some are paid by the park. Some are paid by the park but can be passed to the guest. This changes what the camper sees at checkout, and it changes whether you look more expensive than the park down the road.
- Setup and onboarding. Is there a setup fee or a deposit? Who builds your site map and moves your old reservations? Ask how long it takes to go live. CampLife lists a refundable-on-go-live deposit. Campspot and RoverPass say onboarding is included.
- Contract and cancel terms. Can you leave any time? Is there a penalty? Several vendors publish "cancel anytime" or "no long-term contracts." Get it in writing in the agreement, not only on the website.
- Data export. If you leave, can you take your guest list, reservations and payment history in a file you can open? Ask this before you sign. It is the question that protects you if the software does not work out.
- Payment processing and who holds the money. Which processor is used? What is the card rate? Does the guest's money go to your bank account directly, or through the software company first? How fast do you get paid? Some vendors publish ACH options with lower fees. Others do not publish card rates.
- Support. Is there a person you can call in the season? What are the hours? Ask what happens on a Saturday in July when the grid will not load.
- Seasonal and long-term billing. Can it invoice monthly and seasonal guests on a schedule, show balances, and charge late fees? Is there an extra charge for each recurring invoice?
- Marketplace dependence. Some vendors run their own booking marketplace. That can bring bookings, and it can also mean fees or commission on bookings that come through it. Ask whether the marketplace is optional, what it costs, and whether your direct bookings stay yours. CampLife says it takes no commission on its marketplace. RoverPass says marketplace listing has no upfront cost and you pay on bookings. Its commission rate is not published on the marketplace page we checked.
A worked example: flat fee versus per-booking fees
This is an illustration with assumptions, not real data from any park.
Assumptions
- 600 online reservations in one season.
- Average stay of 3 nights. This is taken from Campspot's published 2025 year in review, which says the median length of stay was 3 nights across Campspot parks (checked 2026-10-25). It is one vendor's data, and your park may differ.
- Average nightly rate of $50. This is an assumption we made up for the example. Use your own number.
- So each reservation is 3 nights x $50 = $150.
- Total booked online: 600 x $150 = $90,000.
The arithmetic
| Fee model | Math | Cost per season |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothetical 3% percentage booking fee | 3% x $150 = $4.50 per reservation. $4.50 x 600 = | $2,700 |
| $3.00 per reservation (CampLife's published rate) | $3.00 x 600 = | $1,800 |
| $3.50 per reservation (Firefly and RoverPass published rate) | $3.50 x 600 = | $2,100 |
| CampStack, monthly | $49 x 12 = | $588 |
| CampStack, yearly | $490 |
The 3% line is an example percentage only. It is not any vendor's published fee. We included it because many owners ask what a percentage would cost compared to a flat charge.
What the numbers show
- Per-booking fees grow with your bookings. At 600 reservations, $3.00 costs $1,800 and $3.50 costs $2,100. If you reach 800 reservations, those become $2,400 and $2,800. A flat fee does not move.
- A percentage fee also grows when your nightly rate rises. At the same 600 reservations, a $60 night makes the reservation $180 and the 3% fee $5.40, so $3,240.
- The $99 minimum matters for slower months. $99 divided by $3.00 is 33 reservations. A month with fewer than 33 online reservations still hits the $99 floor on CampLife's published terms. For RoverPass small parks, the same floor applies at $99 divided by $3.50, which is about 28 reservations. Ask each vendor whether the minimum is charged in months you are closed.
- With the yearly CampStack plan at $490, the gap against a $3.50 per reservation fee is $2,100 minus $490 = $1,610 for the season in this example. Against $3.00 it is $1,800 minus $490 = $1,310.
- If your park books fewer than about 140 online reservations a year, a $3.50 fee ($3.50 x 140 = $490) costs less than the yearly flat fee. The flat fee wins as volume grows. Run your own numbers rather than trusting ours.
What we left out on purpose. Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents applies to card payments under any of these options, so we left it out of the comparison. It would add the same processing cost to every row for the same payments.
The launch offer. CampStack is free until your park's first 25 online bookings. After that, the rate is locked for life. In this example the first 25 of the 600 bookings would carry no software charge during that period.
Who pays changes what the camper sees
Two parks can pay the same software fee and still look different to a guest. If the vendor charges a guest-paid booking fee, the camper sees it at checkout, on top of your site rate. If you pay the fee and absorb it, the guest sees only your rate. If you pass it on, you decide how to label it. With a flat monthly fee, there is nothing to pass on. CampStack never puts a fee on guest checkout.
When a flat fee is the better fit
A flat fee suits a small or mid-size independent park that wants a number it can budget. It is easy to plan around: the bill is the same in June and in January. It also fits parks that expect to grow their direct bookings, since each added reservation does not add a cost.
A per-booking fee can suit a park with very few online bookings, or one that wants to pass every fee to the guest. Both can be reasonable. The point is to pick on purpose, with the math done.
If you already use another system, the switching guide explains how to move your reservations over. CampStack can import sites, guests and future reservations from CSV files, so you do not retype them. If you are in Florida, you can also browse the Florida campground directory and claim your listing for free.
Frequently asked questions
What is campground reservation software?
It is a program that keeps your site map and calendar, takes online and counter bookings, collects payments and produces reports. It replaces paper charts and spreadsheets. Most systems also handle guest records and confirmation emails.
How much does campground reservation software cost?
It depends on the model. Published prices on the pages we checked on 2026-10-25 range from a $795 one-time desktop license to per-reservation fees of $3.00 to $3.50, plus monthly minimums of $99 on some plans. CampStack is $49 a month or $490 a year, flat. See the table above for each vendor.
Is there free campground reservation software?
Park With Us describes its software as free, with a small service fee paid by guests who book online. The amount is not published on the page we checked. "Free" can mean the cost moves to your campers, so ask who pays and how much.
Do I have to pay a fee on every booking?
Not always. Some vendors charge per reservation, some add a guest-paid booking fee, and some charge a flat fee or a one-time license with no per-booking charge. Campground Master and CampStack have no per-booking fee. Use the booking fee calculator to compare.
Who pays the booking fee, me or the camper?
It depends on the vendor. Campspot lists a guest-paid fee for online reservations. Firefly, CampLife and RoverPass let the park pay or pass the fee on to the guest. Check what your camper will see at checkout before you pick.
What should I ask before I sign up for campground software?
Ask about the fee model in dollars for a year, setup costs, cancel terms, data export, who holds the money, support hours, seasonal billing and any marketplace commission. The 9-point checklist above covers each one. Get the answers in writing.
Can I switch campground reservation software mid-season?
Some vendors say yes. Campspot says its onboarding team moves reservations, guest records, payments and reporting history so a park can switch mid-season, and RoverPass says its team handles data migration. Ask any vendor for a written timeline and a test before you cut over. See our switching page for CampStack's process.
Does the software charge extra for card payments?
Card processing is a separate cost from the software fee. Stripe's published standard rate is 2.9% + 30 cents for domestic cards. CampStack passes Stripe's standard rate through at cost and adds no percentage of its own.
Try CampStack
CampStack is flat-fee reservation software for small independent campgrounds: $49 a month or $490 a year, unlimited reservations, no booking fees. The launch offer is free until your first 25 online bookings, then the rate is locked for life, and there is a 14-day trial. See the details on the owners page.
Sources
All checked 2026-10-25.
- Campspot pricing: https://software.campspot.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-25)
- Campspot switching page: https://software.campspot.com/campspot-vs-resnexus/ (checked 2026-10-25)
- Campspot 2025 year in review: https://software.campspot.com/about-campspot/year-in-review/ (checked 2026-10-25)
- Firefly Reservations pricing: https://fireflyreservations.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-25)
- CampLife pricing: https://software.camplife.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-25)
- RoverPass pricing: https://software.roverpass.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-25)
- RoverPass marketplace: https://software.roverpass.com/marketplace (checked 2026-10-25)
- Campground Master: https://www.campgroundmaster.com/ (checked 2026-10-25)
- Campground Master buying page: https://www.campgroundmaster.com/buying.html (checked 2026-10-25)
- Park With Us: https://parkwith.us/ (checked 2026-10-25)
- Stripe pricing: https://stripe.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-25)
Sources
Facts about other companies come from their own public pages. Prices change, so open the source before you decide.
- Campspot pricing, checked October 25, 2026.
- Campspot switching page, checked October 25, 2026.
- Campspot 2025 year in review, checked October 25, 2026.
- Firefly Reservations pricing, checked October 25, 2026.
- CampLife pricing, checked October 25, 2026.
- RoverPass pricing, checked October 25, 2026.
- RoverPass marketplace, checked October 25, 2026.
- Campground Master, checked October 25, 2026.
- Campground Master buying page, checked October 25, 2026.
- Park With Us, checked October 25, 2026.
- Stripe pricing, checked October 25, 2026.