Campground reservation software books a site by the night with a check-in and a check-out clock, lets the guest pick that site on a map, shows the front desk a grid of units by night, and sells the firewood, the kayak and the Saturday hayride to the same guest on one order. The rest of this post shows how those pieces fit together in Ribbe, with the real settings, and where the gaps are.
The worked example is Pine Hollow Campground in Gatlinburg, a demo park with eight site types: Walk-In Tent Site, Drive-In Tent Site, RV Site - 30A Water & Electric, RV Site - 50A Full Hookup, Pull-Through Site - 50A Full Hookup, Glamping Safari Tent, Camping Cabin (sleeps 4) and Deluxe Cabin (sleeps 6). It rents a Single Kayak, Tandem Kayak, Canoe, Mountain Bike and Golf Cart, runs a camp store, and sells the Saturday Night Hayride and the Guided Waterfall Hike as tickets. Prices below are examples, not a rate card.
Wooded campground loop at dusk with RVs, tents and a lit camp store
A campsite is not a daily rental: the guest arrives after 3 PM, leaves before 11 AM, and the departure day has to be free for the next arrival. In Ribbe a product can be set to book as a nightly stay. Each site type carries its own check-in and check-out clock (3 PM and 11 AM by default), minimum and maximum nights, and a base and maximum occupancy, which is the sleeping capacity.
Pricing is by whole nights. One night prices on the day tier and seven nights on the week tier, so a weekly rate on the Pull-Through Site - 50A Full Hookup needs no separate product. The register snaps a stay to the clocks, so a 2 PM arrival still prices as one night. The quote names the nights it covers.
Product settings for an RV site type showing nightly booking mode, check-in and check-out clocks, minimum nights and occupancy
The RV Site - 50A Full Hookup product set to nightly booking, with the 3 PM check-in, 11 AM check-out, minimum nights and sleeping capacity.
The booking line also carries the party: adults, children, pets, vehicles, rig type and length, slide-outs and plate. The website asks for all of it and enforces the unit's sleeping capacity, so a Camping Cabin (sleeps 4) will not take a party of six. The rig is recorded for the desk, not checked against the pad.
A service fee on a stay can be charged per night, per guest, per guest-night, per extra guest above the guests included in the rate, per pet, per pet-night, per vehicle or per extra vehicle. Say Pine Hollow includes four guests in the RV Site - 50A Full Hookup rate at an example $58 a night and adds an example $5 per extra guest per night and $4 per pet-night. Those fees show in the estimate, in the cart and at checkout.
Tax groups are set per product. An RV site can carry a lodging tax next to the sales tax on a Firewood Bundle, and both land on one receipt. Ribbe does not change the tax once a stay passes a length threshold; the FAQ says more about that.
The park map starts with your own drawing: upload it, then place each site and cabin by clicking, drag it into position and resize it. Site-type areas and amenity icons go on the same canvas.
Park map editor with the campground drawing, unit spots placed on each pad and colored site-type areas
The park map editor, with Pine Hollow's drawing underneath, a spot for every unit and shaded areas for each site type.
Published, the map sits inside the website's stay search. A guest enters dates and party, and every unit colors as available, booked or your pick for those nights. Hovering a site shows a card with the type, the nightly price and how many it sleeps.
Website stay search with dates, party fields and the park map coloring units available or booked
The guest's view, with the searched nights and party at the top and each site colored for availability on the map.
Whether the guest can choose a unit is a setting on the site type. When it is on, the chosen site is held for that cart for a number of minutes the park sets (15 by default), so two guests cannot pick the same pad. A service fee with the chosen-site basis becomes your lock-site fee, say an example $10 per stay. When choice is off, the park assigns a unit.
Booking page for the RV Site 50A Full Hookup with arrival and departure calendar, nights, party and quote
The RV Site - 50A Full Hookup booking page, with the arrival and departure calendar, the party fields and a quote that names the nights.
Stays respect the same online controls as any Ribbe product. The online booking cap can keep some of the RV Site - 30A Water & Electric pads off the website for drive-ups, a stay can be set to need staff approval before it confirms, and abandoned-cart reminders go to guests who did not finish checkout. The reservations overview covers those controls.
The stay grid shows a row per unit under each site type and a column per night, from 7 to 90 nights across. Each booking is a bar colored reserved, arriving, in house, departing or overdue. Bookings without a unit wait in an Unassigned lane under their type; drag a bar onto a unit and the grid checks it is free for those nights.
Stay grid with a row per site, a column per night, colored booking bars and an Unassigned lane
The stay grid, with reserved, arriving and in-house bars per unit and unassigned bookings under their site type.
Click a bar and a side panel opens with the guest, the party, the balance, check-in and check-out buttons and a link to the order. Above the grid, Arrivals today, Departures today and In house lists carry the day. One-click check-in assigns a free unit first if the booking has none. One-click check-out re-prices the nights actually stayed and closes the order when it is paid.
Every unit on the grid has a housekeeping state: ready, needs cleaning (set at check-out), inspect, or out of order with a note and an expected return date. Out of order removes the unit from sale everywhere, including the map. A per-type turnaround time keeps the next arrival off a unit for that long after a departure, so a Deluxe Cabin (sleeps 6) gets its cleaning window.
The dashboard carries a Stays today tile: arrivals, departures, guests on site and occupancy percent, with tomorrow and the week beside it. The guest-facing word for a unit is configurable too: Site, Pitch, Spot or Slip.
Many parks carry monthly tenants through the off-season. In Ribbe a reserved or in-house stay can become a monthly tenant with a billing day (1 to 28), rent prorated for the first period, autopay from a card on file or on account, an optional end date and a late fee after a set number of days unpaid.
An hourly scheduler issues each statement as an order: rent, electricity from the meter readings since the last statement, and any late fee. It charges the card; a decline stays on the balance so the desk sees it. The Monthly tenants page lists every tenant with balance and payment status, and the website can offer a site type as Ongoing, pay monthly for long-term guests.
Monthly tenants page listing each tenant with site, billing day, balance and payment status
The Monthly tenants page, one row per tenant with billing day, balance and payment status.
Every unit of a nightly site type carries an electric meter. A phone-friendly bulk readings screen shows the last reading, takes the new one and works out the kWh per unit; readings can be pasted from a CSV, and each unit keeps its history. Consumption since the last billed reading lands on the tenant's statement at the tenant's rate, the type's rate or the park's rate per kWh, say an example 14 cents. There is no smart-meter import.
Meter readings screen with last reading, new reading and kWh for each RV site
The bulk meter readings screen, one line per unit with the last reading, the new reading and the kWh between them.
Camp store counter with firewood bundles, ice chest and kayaks racked outside
One order can hold the pad, the Tandem Kayak, a Firewood Bundle and a Bag of Ice. The Single Kayak, Tandem Kayak, Canoe, Mountain Bike and Golf Cart are serialized rentals tracked by unit, with a waiver signed on the guest's own phone from a QR code. The Waiver Library includes kayak, bike, golf cart and RV templates; have your attorney review whatever you import.
The Saturday Night Hayride and the Guided Waterfall Hike are ticket products with time slots and capacity, so the 7 PM hayride stops selling at, say, 40 seats. The camp store (Firewood Bundle, Bag of Ice, Propane Refill, S'mores Kit) is retail on the same register, with punch cards and gift cards sold at the counter and online. Kiosk check-in on a tablet with a designed form lets a late arrival sign before reaching the desk.
For the gear side of a park, the kayak rental software post covers waivers, serialized fleets and overtime tiers, and the rental POS system guide explains how the register handles tenders, deposits and receipts. There is no upfront software cost, and online booking fees are paid by your customers; for anything else about plans, talk to us.
Before the first reservation of spring, walk the park with the map editor open and confirm every pad, cabin and tent site is placed and typed correctly. Set the check-in and check-out clocks, minimum nights, occupancy and turnaround time per site type. Enter an opening meter reading for every monthly tenant. The summer rental business checklist carries the rest, and the campgrounds page summarizes the full feature set for parks.
Yes, when the site type allows it. The website's stay search shows the park map with every unit colored available, booked or your pick for the searched nights. The chosen unit is held for the cart for 15 minutes by default (the park sets the number), and a service fee with the chosen-site basis can act as a lock-site fee.
Yes. Convert the stay to a monthly tenant with a billing day, and an hourly scheduler issues each statement as an order with rent, electricity from the meter readings since the last statement and any late fee, then charges the card on file. A decline stays on the balance for the desk to follow up.
Not yet. Ribbe does not connect to campground marketplaces or OTA channels, and there is no iCal feed. Bookings come through your own website or widget, the register and the kiosk.
Not in Ribbe. Tax groups are set per product, but there is no stay-length threshold that drops a tax after a number of nights. Confirm the right treatment for long-term guests with your accountant.
No. The booking records rig type, length and slide-outs, but Ribbe does not check the rig against the pad. Staff make that call when they assign the unit.
Run the park and the store from one order Start a free trial of Ribbe, set up your site types and park map, and take your first nightly booking before the season opens. Start a free trial