levelgroundstandard.org

Rule 1

The site you pick is the site you keep

Campground + software company Version 0.1  ·  Working Draft

The rule

If your confirmation names a site, that site is yours.

  1. Your confirmation names the site you picked.
  2. Nobody moves you without your consent. Consent is a clear yes to that one move, given after it's proposed. A box ticked at checkout doesn't count.
  3. No second fee is ever needed to keep your pick.
  4. What you booked can only get more specific, never less. A reservation for site RS1 stays RS1. It can't become "any RS site."

Any screen where you select a specific site counts as picking, whatever it's called (for example, "preferred site").

This rule does not apply when:

  • a campground does not allow picking specific sites, and the confirmation names no site.

Emergencies

The campground may move you without consent if your site can't be used for a reason outside its control: weather, damage, a utility failure, or a departing guest who can't move their rig (a breakdown, a medical problem, or a road closure) or who refuses to leave and has been reported to law enforcement. When that happens:

  • the reason is recorded;
  • your old site isn't sold or given to anyone else for those nights. Only a departing guest who couldn't leave may stay on it. They may be charged no more than the published nightly rate, recorded as a holdover with the reason;
  • you get a comparable or better site (as Rule 10 defines it), or a full refund; and
  • Rule 7's notice applies.

What this looks like

You click site 14 on the map and pay. Your confirmation says "Site 14."

Two days before arrival, the software would like to shuffle reservations to fill gaps. It can't move you without asking you first and recording your yes.

If you booked a type of site ("back-in, 30 amp"), staff can assign you site 22 at check-in. That's more specific, so it's fine. If you booked site RS1, they can't turn it into "any RS site" and give you RS4.

If a storm floods site 14, staff can move you to site 15 and tell you why.

Why

In 2025, guests using one large booking company paid $22.9 million in fees to keep sites they had already picked.source [1] Without the fee, its software can move them to another site until 72 hours before arrival. It runs automatically, and a campground has to set a rule to turn it off.source [2] A guest has no way to know how likely they are to be moved.

How it's checked

Testers check the software company and the campground separately. Each gets its own result.

Software company

On a fresh test campground (see "For testers"), book a picked site.

Pass

  • The confirmation names the site.
  • No automatic site-shuffling (sometimes called an "optimizer") can move it without consent.
  • An emergency move needs a reason and blocks the old site for the affected nights.
  • Consent recorded by staff triggers a written confirmation to the guest (or as soon as the connection returns, if the office internet was down).

Fail

  • By default, a pick can be moved without consent.
  • Online picking only works when a fee is set up.
  • Consent can be given in advance.

Campground

Check its settings and reservation records. Results go by what the reservation records show, not by the reason staff wrote down.

Pass

  • Every move has the guest's consent or a recorded emergency reason.
  • Every old site from an emergency move was not occupied by anyone except a departing guest who couldn't leave, and was not sold to anyone else.

Fail

  • It charges a second fee to keep a pick.
  • It moves guests without consent.
  • It resells an old site after an emergency move.
  • It changes a reservation that names a site into one for a type or group of sites.
  • The reservation records show the previous guest's stay on that site, for a night booked to someone else, was extended or sold before the emergency reason was recorded, or charged above the published nightly rate, whatever reason is recorded.

Not met

  • Software limitation: its software can't make picks binding, or doesn't send a confirmation for consent recorded by staff.
Evidence
Test campground · Settings · Records (change log, calendar)

Sources

  1. [1] Team Campspot, "4 ways campgrounds are unlocking ancillary revenue," Campspot Software, Apr. 22, 2026. Accessed: Oct. 21, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://software.campspot.com/blog/campgrounds-unlocking-ancillary-revenue/
  2. [2] H. Dalian, "What is grid optimization?," Campspot Software, May 17, 2024. Accessed: Oct. 21, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://software.campspot.com/blog/what-is-grid-optimization/