Managing Long-Term Reservations

Full-time RVing has typically been associated with retired “snowbirds.” While 65+ couples still make up the majority of full-time RVers, the overall demographic has changed notably in the past few years. After the onset COVID-19, remote jobs, “workamping,” and the “van life” hashtag all rose in popularity with 20 to 40-year-olds. As a result, younger generations are choosing life on wheels to offset the rising cost of housing and travel freely while they work.  

It’s estimated that there are 1 million full-time RVers in the country today, many of whom turn to long-term campsites for their ongoing stays. For campground owners, these ongoing reservations can provide a steady stream of income to offset the slower months. With the number of full-time RVers growing, campground owners have more opportunities to build a loyal customer base and generate year-round profits. 

While allowing long-term reservations can benefit your campground financially, it can also be a pain to deal with on the management side. Because ongoing reservations are more complex, campground management software has historically lacked the needed features to efficiently handle them. That means campground owners get stuck with the time-consuming task of manually managing their long-term reservations month-to-month, including sending payment notifications, keeping track of recurring charges, and more.  

Firefly Reservations set out to solve this issue by creating a Long-Term Reservations feature as a part of our campground management software. We designed this feature to help campground owners manage their long-term reservations with as little hands-on work as possible. Here’s how it works: 

Accept Long-Term Reservations from Your Reservation Portal 

With Firefly Reservations, you can set up your online reservation portal with options for both short-term and long-term stays. This way, you can keep all your reservations in one place, no matter how long the guests are staying. Guests making a long-term reservation will only have to select an arrival date, since many don’t know their exact departure date.  

Set Up Recurring Charges for Your Long-Term Guests 

Once you accept a long-term reservation, you can process a new charge for the first month and then set up recurring monthly charges for guests staying multiple months. To manage different rates for multiple guests, you can customize the recurring charges for each long-term reservation.  

Most importantly, these recurring charges can be fully automated. Every month, on a specific day selected, the long-term reservation payment will automatically be charged to the guest’s card on file. All of your recurring payments will be collected without you having to lift a finger! 

Automate Email Notifications for Monthly Payments 

Along with automated payment processing, you can also create automated email notifications to remind your long-term guests of their monthly payments. This feature lets you select what day of the month you want the email to be sent, then automatically sends an email to your guests each month before their payment is due. These automatic notification emails take another manual task off your plate and help your guests stay informed.

Record and Charge Monthly Utilites 

If you are charging long-term guests for utilities like electricity on top on their monthly payments, you can also keep track of that with the Firefly Reservations. This utility feature allows you to record monthly meter readings for each long-term guest site, then lets you schedule a payment for the monthly utility charge. This way, you can keep track of all long-term reservation payments in one convenient place. 

We created our campground management software to make your life easier, and our Long-Term Reservations feature is no different. Automating these ongoing reservation tasks saves you time, creates a smoother experience for your long-term guests, and ensures you collect monthly payments on time. If you currently host long-term guests or are thinking about doing so in the future, see just how easy it can be with Firefly Reservations. 

Check out our Long-Term Reservations Feature details or request a demo to see it in action today!