Site Lock. What is it? For years, some campgrounds would allow you to pick your site and keep it. Which is what Triple R does. Some campgrounds would not let you pick at all. You would show up and get your assigned site. Picking the site you wanted never cost anything extra before, why does it now at some campgrounds? As the industry grows in popularity, so does the size of the campers. Campgrounds have to get a head of this growth pattern somehow and come up with a way not to force large campers out of the park.
Ever drive around a sold out campground and wonder how a 14 foot pop up ended up on a 110 foot site? Yep, me too. Here’s how it happened. The customer booked that site online. They picked that specific site and locked it. Now its important to note that some campgrounds will not let you pick what site you want. You may not even know, or care. In the past, other campgrounds like Triple R let you select the exact site you want when booking. However that hurts the campground sometimes.
Before you read this, know that for every 14 foot popup sold, 100 RV's longer than 30 feet are sold. So therefore, there are WAY more campers longer than 30 feet than there are a 14 foot popups.
Lets run through a scenario below.
Labor day weekend. The park always sells out. There are only two sites left for the campground to sell. A 100 foot long site, and a 30 foot long site. A guy goes online and books a 100 foot site. He has a 12 foot pop up that would fit on any another site and have tons of room to spare. Now someone calls the campground looking to book a large site with a 40 foot 5th wheel for the same weekend. The only site the campground has left is the small site the pop up should be sitting on. The park turns away the larger camper because they have no more sites to sell.
It would make more sense for us to move the pop up, and sell the larger site to the huge 5th wheel who needs the bigger site, AND needs big site amenities like 50 Amp or dual sewer. Right?
With site locking, the little pop up that selected the large site would get to keep that site. Without site locking, the campground can just move the pop up to the smaller site and sell the larger site to the larger camper. Some campground do this without even asking the customer with the small camper if they can move them. Some campgrounds like Triple R have automated software that does this for them. How does the campground know if someone is with a group or really has to have that 100 foot site for their 12 foot pop up camper? They know this because the customer "locked" the site. By locking the site, the automated system knows it can not move or relocate the camper off the site they rented. By locking the site, the campground knows it can not move or relocate as well.
So in a nut shell, as more and more parks start using this software to automate, you will want to make sure you lock the site if you want to keep a specific site. If not, the park staff, or the parks automated software sees you are not locked, and can move you just about anywhere in the park.
It is not poor customer service if you forget to lock, and we have no other site to move you too when you get here finding out that you were moved. Almost every single weekend we are sold out. The staff may not even know the automated software moved you. It is purely up to the customer to ensure that they lock, if they care. Once you are here, there is no recourse to move you. Nowhere to move you too. And chances are, everyone else is locked. Meaning, we cant move them to accommodate you. If your camping with a group or someone else, don't get surprised if you don't lock, and your no longer together.
One question we get asked is, can it move me from a concrete site to a gravel site? No. The system and staff CAN move you to another site. If you are not 50Amp it can move you between site types. If you are 50 Amp it wont move you between site types.
On a final note, when you book online at Triple R, there is a popup window that asks you if you want to lock. It is impossible to finish the reservation without answering this question. It is NOT possible to forget to lock it. Also, if you call the office to book or stop in to book, our staff has to answer the same popup. So they have to ask you if you wat to lock. It is NOT possible to book without answering this question no matter how you book. If you didn't answer, or answer no, you are not locked.