Campground booking fee calculator

A booking fee is easy to ignore because it is small on any single reservation. Over a season it is not small. This calculator adds it up.

Enter four numbers, and you get what booking fees add up to in a season, set next to CampStack's flat $490 a year. It takes about thirty seconds, needs no email and does not save what you type.

How to use it

1. Bookings per season. How many reservations do you take in a year? Look at last year's count in your software or your paper book.
2. Average nights per stay. If you do not know, take total nights booked and divide by the number of bookings. A rough guess is fine.
3. Average nightly rate. The average you actually charged, before tax, across site types.
4. Fee percent. The percentage the fee is charged at. Enter your own. We start at 3, and that is only a starting point.

The calculator shows:

• What guests pay in booking fees per season at that percentage
• The average fee on each booking
• CampStack's $490 a year, which is the park's whole cost for the software, with nothing added to the guest
• The bookings per season at which a fee at that percentage would equal $490

The formula in plain English

Fees per season = bookings x average nights x average nightly rate x fee percent / 100.

For example, with 500 bookings, 3 nights each, at $45 a night and a 3% fee:

• Revenue the fee applies to: 500 x 3 x 45 = $67,500
• Fee at 3%: 67,500 x 0.03 = $2,025
• Fee on one booking: 3 x 45 x 0.03 = $4.05
• CampStack, yearly plan: $490
• Difference: 2,025 minus 490 = $1,535

The break-even is the number of bookings where the fee equals $490. Here that is 490 divided by $4.05, which is about 121 bookings. Below 121 bookings of this size, a 3% guest fee adds up to less than $490.

Three example parks, worked out

These are made-up parks, chosen to show how the math moves. They are not real customers. Each uses a 3% fee.

The first park takes few, short, low-priced bookings, so a 3% fee adds up to less than a flat $490. That is the honest result. The third park takes many long bookings, and the same 3% is more than eighteen times the flat price. Stay length and rate matter as much as the number of bookings, because a percentage grows with both.

One more way to read the table: if your park looks like the first row, you are the owner a per-booking tool serves well, and you should check the break-even of 205 bookings before you pay for anything. If it looks like the second or third, run the calculator with your own figures, because small changes in stay length move the result a lot.

What the number means, and what it does not

It is what guests pay, not what you pay. If a vendor charges the guest a percentage, that amount comes out of your campers' pockets. It does not appear on your bill. So why does it matter to you?

• A fee on top of your rate makes your campground cost more than the rate on your sign. A site you advertise at $45 can end up at $49 at checkout.
• Some guests will call and book by phone to avoid the fee, which means you take the call anyway.
• It is the money your guests are spending on the booking, not on your park.

If the vendor charges the park instead, the number is a good estimate of your own cost. Some vendors let the park choose who pays.

Taxes and add-ons. The calculator uses the lodging price only. Some vendors apply their fee to the whole booking, including taxes and add-ons, which would make the real number higher. Ask your vendor what the fee is calculated on.

Card processing is not included. Every platform that takes cards has a processing cost. With CampStack it is Stripe's standard rate, passed through at cost, and you can read it on Stripe's pricing page. It is left out of the calculator because it does not depend on your vendor's booking fee.

Cancellations and refunds. The calculator assumes every booking stays booked. If your cancellation rate is high, enter your net bookings.

Why 3 percent, and what the vendors publish

We start the fee at 3 so the calculator works the first time you open it. That is a default, not a claim about anybody's price.

Here is what vendors publish on their own pages, checked October 2026:

• Campspot's pricing page lists a guest-paid booking fee for online reservations only, and does not state the amount. Its service fee page says the fee varies and is shown at checkout. Enter your own.
• Park With Us says its software is free to the park and lists guest fees of 6% on online bookings, 2% on point of sale or invoice and 0% offline.
• Firefly charges a flat $3.50 per unit booked. That is not a percentage, but you can convert it. At a $135 booking, $3.50 is about 2.6%.

If you know your actual fee, type it in. If you have a flat fee per booking, divide it by your average booking value and enter that percentage.

Reading your result

If the fee total is bigger than $490, your guests are paying more in fees each season than CampStack would cost you in a year, with CampStack's guests paying nothing. The gap is the money that could stay in your campers' wallets, and some of it may come back to you as better conversion.

If the fee total is smaller than $490, a flat fee will not save your guests money at your volume. A small park with few bookings and short stays can be better served by a per-booking tool. We would rather tell you that than sell you something that costs more. You may still prefer a flat fee for predictability.

What CampStack costs for comparison

CampStack is $49 a month or $490 a year, flat, with unlimited reservations and users, no setup fee and no contract. The launch offer makes it free until your first 25 online bookings, then the rate is locked for life. There is no CampStack fee, badge or surcharge at guest checkout. See pricing for details, and read the five comparison pages for how other vendors charge.

Ready to move? The switch guide covers it step by step. Or start from the owner overview.