Fair questions
Asked and answered. Straight.
Everything parks ask before signing up, without the marketing varnish. If your question isn't here, ask us — a person answers.
Getting started
- How long does setup actually take?
- About an hour of real work for a typical small park: list your sites, set rates and taxes, write your policies, connect Stripe, share your link. There's no sales call or onboarding program — the walkthrough is on the how-it-works page.
- Do I need a website?
- No. Your booking page at bunkpost.com/book/your-park is a complete standalone page. Pair it with a Google Business listing and you have a working online presence.
- I already have reservations for this season. Can I bring them in?
- Yes — you enter them by hand on the calendar, the same way you'd record a phone booking. Plan an hour with your reservation book open. Once they're in, the calendar protects them from double bookings like everything else.
- Can my spouse or staff use it too?
- Yes. Invite them by email from Settings → Team and everyone works from the same calendar. There's optional two-factor login if you want the extra lock on the door.
- What kinds of sites can I list?
- RV pads, tent sites, cabins, glamping units — each site type carries its own rates and capacity.
- Can the booking page match my website?
- Yes. Bring your logo, your colors, and one of five font pairings, and the booking page dresses like the rest of your site. If you don't have a website, the stock page looks like this one and needs no decoration.
Money
- How do payments work?
- Guests pay by card on your booking page. Payments are processed through Stripe Connect and payouts are issued to your bank daily, automatically. Bunkpost never holds your money.
- What does Bunkpost cost, all-in?
- Nothing — Bunkpost is free for your park, every feature included. Guests pay a flat $3 booking fee at checkout (that's how we make money), and Stripe's standard card-processing fee goes to Stripe (same as any card reader). There's no monthly price, no revenue share, and never a percentage.
- Do my guests pay any fees?
- One flat $3 booking fee, shown as its own line before they pay — three dollars whether it's one night or a month. Never a percentage of the stay; the rest of the total is exactly your rates and your taxes.
- How do refunds work?
- You issue refunds from the reservation itself, according to the cancellation policy the guest agreed to at checkout. The refund flows back through Stripe to the guest's card.
- What do I need to connect Stripe?
- The same things any card processor asks for: basic business details and a bank account. Stripe's guided onboarding walks you through it from Settings → Payments — no API keys, no developer.
- How are taxes handled?
- You define your lodging and sales taxes once, and every booking total includes them automatically. The Reports page shows the exact tax to remit for any date range — bookings and store sales both.
- Can Bunkpost run my camp store?
- Yes. Build an item catalog with prices and stock counts, then ring up firewood and ice by scanning a barcode or tapping the item — cash, card, or charged to the guest's site. Any USB barcode scanner works and receipts print from the browser; no special hardware.
- What will my accountant think?
- They get a date-ranged CSV of every payment, refund, invoice collection, and store sale that maps onto QuickBooks columns, plus a payouts view that reconciles each bank deposit back to the reservations inside it, Stripe fees included.
Guests & bookings
- Do guests need to create an account?
- No. Guests book with an email address — no passwords, no app. They get a confirmation email immediately and a reminder before arrival.
- Can I still take phone and walk-in bookings?
- Yes, and you should. You add them to the same calendar, so online availability stays accurate and nothing can collide.
- Can double bookings really not happen?
- Really. The database itself refuses to store two overlapping stays on one site — it's a hard constraint, not an application check. Even two guests clicking "book" in the same second can't both get the site.
- Can guests pick their exact site?
- Yes — upload your campground map, pin your sites, and guests tap the spot they want. You can charge an optional site-lock fee for guaranteeing a specific site, with a cheaper "any site — we'll assign one" option alongside.
- What about my monthly and seasonal campers?
- Long-term stays hold a site for the whole run and bill by the month — the invoice goes out with a pay-online link, and if your sites have electric meters, usage since the last reading rides along as a line item.
- Can I block off sites for maintenance or personal use?
- Yes. Blocks live on the same calendar with the same protection — a blocked site can't be booked over.
- What if a guest cancels?
- Your cancellation policy — the one they agreed to before paying — decides what happens. You process the cancellation and any refund from the reservation screen, and the site opens back up automatically.
Your data & leaving
- Is my data mine?
- Yes. Export every reservation to CSV whenever you like — for your accountant, your records, or your way out the door.
- What if I want to leave?
- Export your data and cancel. No contract, no cancellation call, no exit fee. Your Stripe account is yours and stays with you.
- Is there a contract or minimum term?
- No. There's no monthly bill to begin with — Bunkpost is free for your park. Stay as long as it earns its keep, and leave whenever you like with your data.
The rest you learn by trying it.
Thirty days free, and your data exports if you go. The risk is one afternoon.