Click on the National Parks Reservations site, and for a moment or two, you might think you’re visiting a government-operated reservation service. There’s a familiar tree logo, a park-like color scheme, and, of course, the words “National Park” repeated throughout the pages.
Arlene Adams thought she was dealing with the real thing — which, for the record, is this site — a few weeks ago when she tried to make reservations at Yosemite National Park.
I am writing to advise your readers of a problem I encountered when making a lodging reservation at Yosemite National Park. I am afraid I am out $73, but hope I can prevent others from making the same mistake.
I used a Web site I believed to be the reservation site for the National Park service, National Parks Reservations. While reading info on the various lodging options, nowhere on the individual hotel pages was there any mention of a 10 percent booking fee.
In fact, here’s the e-mail she received when she requested a price quote:
Dear Arlene,
I received your request for lodging at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. I can make the reservation 1 year and 1 day in advance so I will make the reservation tomorrow am and I will send a confirmation email tomorrow.
Lorrie
NPR
Adams believes the 10 percent booking fee should have been disclosed at that time. It wasn’t.
When the reservation was confirmed the following day, I received this notice:
“National Park Reservations has charged an additional ten percent non-refundable fee in the amount of $73 to your credit card, as described on our website and phone message.”
I went back to the website, and at the very bottom in VERY small print was the 10 percent notification.
Yosemite doesn’t charge a booking fee — just one night’s deposit, which is fully refundable up to seven days in advance. That doesn’t sit right with Adams.
I believe the site has made itself look like a NPS Web site in order to defraud the public. I will lose that 10 percent booking fee, but want to advise others to avoid this Web site, and save themselves money by booking directly with the National Park.
Is National Park Reservations defrauding its customers? Yes and no.
Yes, only in the sense that it looks “official” at first glance. But only at first glance.
Consider the prominent notice on the front page of its site:
National Park Reservations is a reservation service providing lodging and activity reservations both inside as well as in the gateway communities of the United States National Parks. National Park Reservations is not an authorized concessionaire of any National Park nor are we in any way affiliated with the National Park Service of the Federal Government. National Park Reservations provides the ability for its customers to make reservations through a toll-free telephone number at 1-866-875-8456 or by submitting an online request form.
For this service, National Park Reservations charges a 10% non-refundable reservation fee based on the total dollar amount of reservations made.
I checked to see if this language had been added recently, since travel companies will often add extra disclosure when they believe an article or blog post is imminent. A look at the Internet archives reveals the wording hasn’t changed in years.
Should National Park Reservations have disclosed the 10 percent booking fee by e-mail? Not necessarily. A link to its terms and conditions would have been helpful, but if a customer agrees to a price, a third party is free to mark up the rate to whatever the market will bear.
If National Park Reservations had done this the other way around — quoting Adams the regular rate and then surprising her with a 10 percent booking fee — I would have had a problem with that.
Adams’ bigger point, which is that you can get a better price from the official government site, isn’t lost. But for some summer travelers, booking through a site like National Park Reservations might be more convenient.
As long as they’re disclosing their fees up front, I can’t fault them for anything.
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Agreed with your conclusion. The web sites look nothing alike! Non-issues like this “complaint” take time away from addressing real instances of travel fraud/scams/deceptions, etc.
I believe Ms Adams just failed to read the details correctly, and has now (literally) paid the price. All of the US Federal websites I’ve seen have always had a .gov address, and this one clearly says it’s not a federal one and discloses the booking fee clearly enough.
That said, I can appreciate that these people need to make a profit, but in most cases I doubt it costs them $75 to book a $750 booking but only $50 to make a $500 one. I would think the cost to them would be about the same to them. so a flat charge of say $50 would be a better sell in my opinion.
I looked at the site and not only does it look nothing like the NPS site, but NPR makes it *very* clear that they are not the NPS, that they charge a 10% fee, and that you can avoid this fee by reserving directly through NPS. Ms. Adams alleges (and you repeat) that the 10% fee is in “at the very bottom in VERY small print,” but it’s not. It’s right there on the home page. It was the first thing I saw when I pulled up the page. Even if you go directly to a Yosemite hotel reservation page, say from a search, the 10% fee disclosure is in the same size type as most of the site’s text, and it’s right above the “I have read and agree to the terms and conditions” checkbox. Ms. Adams simply didn’t read everything on the page, and now she’s trying to place the blame somewhere else. Hell, she even got a personal email — how many travel sites do that?
Now, I’m not sure why anyone would use this site when they can save the 10% by going directly through NPS, but I still don’t think NPR made any attempt to defraud Ms. Adams. I agree with Allison, this is a non-issue, a simple case of caveat emptor, and I think NPR has been unfairly treated in this story.
“Very small” type? I just looked at their Website. The type is not small, and the fee notice is right on the homepage under the “Welcome” headline, and not at the bottom. It is very obvious, and unfortunately most people don’t read things through.
Just a lesson to everyone that anything that has to do with the federal government normally has the .gov and not .com. This also follows with states not having .coms either but rather a (insert two digit state code).us or something similar.
Also a lesson to actually look and read before sending someone your hard earned cash.
I would have to agree, this site does not look like an official government site, not to mention a real government URL web address would include the extension dot GOV.
The fact that it was Dot COM, should have been a dead giveaway.
You might want to mention that the legitimate National Park reservations site is http://www.recreation.gov. It’s easy to use – why go through a middle-man?
I have a mild disagreement. Yes, the 10% booking fee is clearly disclosed. However, we have the benefit of hindsight. We already know that the 10% is there and are looking for it specifially. That’s hardly the same situation as someone who just casually checks the website.
Now, I do believe that the OP does bear responsibility for not reading what is a fairly clear disclaimer. But on the other hand, it does look as if the website tries to imply an affiliation that might be misleading. Not having looked at the official website, I can see how someone might be confused into believing this was a government website.
Additionally, not everyone is web savvy enough to check a URL
@Carver
Sorry. Have to disagree with you. Short of announcing in 48-font red letters “WE ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT SITE!!!!!!!”, NPR does what any reasonable person should expect them to do as far as distancing themselves from the NPS. The second line of their narrative makes this very clear. How far down the intelligence scale are these folks supposed to gear their site to? I guess this is what makes lawsuits. It’s a shame, really; there will always be some lawyer out there who will convince the clueless that it’s really not their fault that they didn’t read or understand the well-intentioned, clearly labeled warning. It should have been written at a 4th grade level, not that complicated, misleading 6th grade level. And yes, I know who I’m talking to :)
@MarkieA
Disagreeing with me is occassionally permitted. :)
In my profession I come across a lot of companies that use tactics that looking at them from the outside we often wonder “How did the customer fall for such a con. They must be stupid” Yet con artist enjoy great success using these simple tactics. So they must work.
In my analysis of the OPs situation I am balancing two competing values. On one hand we have the OPs cluelessness. But on the other hand, I am very troubled by the use of the term National. In my experience, certain terms are used to imply a governmental relationship, notwithstanding a disclaimer. These terms include “Federal”, “US” and of course “National”
Then, when you consider the fact that this website appears to provide nothing of value, I am forced to conclude that the owners of the website are deliberating attempting to cash in on the inattentiveness or niavety of some web shoppers.
Wilful deception on the part of the merchant is, IMO, a sufficient reason to forgive the customers cluelessness. No one “deserves” to be taken.
@ Carver
A different spin. I see your point. However, I didn’t get that impression from the website. Yes, I know, how can you get an “impression” from a website? Firstly, I understand your point about “National”, but what other title would you suggest? This is a site providing information about “National Parks”, so the “National” is not something that they made up, it’s part and parcel of the product . Secondly, although it may be argued that they provide no value added for their 10%, they do not hide, in any way, that 10% charge; they’re very up front about it.
@markieA
Sure you can get an impression from a website. Otherwise they’d all be slate grey with single point text. *Smile*. Anyway, my issue with the word National is its prominence. If it was Carver’s National Park Registry, then there wouldn’t be any confusion.
But for me, its not one thing that’s wrong. Each individual element can be justified. Its when you put them all together that they stink. IMHO.
L8R
If you don’t access the website through the main page, I can see how you could easily miss the 10% service fee. As well, I think it could be easily to confuse the 10% reservation fee for a 10% deposite. The wording on the site says, “Upon completion of the reservation process, your credit card will be billed the 10% non-refundable reservation fee based on the total dollar amount of reservations made & may be charged a room deposit depending on the lodging facility’s policy.” I think clearer language would state something like, “Upon completion of the reservation process, you will be charged as per National Park Services guidelines (either the full amount required or a deposite), AS WELL AS a fee to NationalParksReservation.com, equivalent to 10% of the total value of your reservation, for our services as a booking agent.” Or something. Obviously “as well as” wouldn’t need to be in all caps!
Honestly, I think this whole discussion is a waste of time. It seems clear that Ms. Adams thinks she should have a government nanny or big brother to protect her from herself. What nonsense! (I say this as an unreconstructed liberal who is not per se an enemy of big government, but enough is enough)
If you think the discussion is a waste of time (and I respectfully disagree), I promise no one will force you to participate.
Actually,
if this user was deep-linked into an internal page (perhaps they performed a websearch on the park reservation and were taken directly to the page for that particular park) they could have been under the impression that this is indeed a government website.
Go ahead and click on one of the park links and see if it says anywhere on that page that this is not a government site?
Then click on the make a reservation button. Only at the very bottom of the page does it say something about the additional 10% fee.
I nearly “fell” for this company’s Web site last year when making reservations for Shenandoah National Park, a place I visit every spring. Not remembering the correct Web address, I Googled “Shenandoah National Park” and was directed to the NPR reservation page. I had almost completed my reservation when I noticed the 10% fee and went to the Web site’s home page. Unless that’s the page you start on, you may not realize you’re not where you want to be.
Since most national park accommodations are run by concession, the accommodations link on the government Web site usually takes you off the government site anyway. For Shenandoah NP, the “official” Web site for accommodations also ends in “.com” — a potentially confusing situation that I believe NPR takes advantage of.
In my opinon, NPR is intentionally misleading tourists who — even if they realize they’re not at the government site — may not understand that NPR’s outrageous 10% fee is not a standard fee charged by the concession.
The official accommodations website for Yosemite is: http://www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations.aspx
Does anyone have the snail-mail address for National Parks Reservations?
I feel that I must add my own impression of this scamming, rip-off organization calling themselves “National Park Reservations”. Please check out the following page from the Better Business Bureau regarding this D-rated business, which is operating on the fringe of legality:
http://www.bbb.org/montana/business-reviews/travel-agencies/national-park-reservations-in-whitefish-mt-64002909
It is obvious that this company’s intention is to mislead consumers into booking reservations through them instead of the actual National Park concession company and then charging an outrageous booking fee. If enough complaints were lodged at this company and a class action lawsuit filed, I believe they would be liable for damages.
For those who wrongly have stated the the Nps.gov website is the one doing the bookings, the actual booking site for Yosemite is through a company called Delaware North Companies and the website ends in a .com
As the BBB site states, if booked through a credit card company, then an individual might have recourse to a refund of the enormous 10% fee. But it would be best to simply avoid this company.
I, also, ended up paying the 10% surcharge that NPR charged on a hotel reservation outside of Yosemite that I was TOLD in a conversation with a representative at NPR (in similar language) “….NPR is the ONLY way to make a reservation at this hotel…and this was the only room still available for our group of 5.” (He did tell me about the 10% charge, but I felt I had no other choice! Because I thought this was the only way to get a reservation.) So, being desperate to get a reservation with one week until our trip, I did. Later, I decided to go to the hotel’s website to see if there were any pictures of the accommodations, only to find out that they still had available rooms (even more of the suite I reserved) and reservations could have been made directly with the hotel – without the 10% reservation fee that NPR charged. I have learned my lesson, for sure!
I have since been told that some CA law makes it illegal for these types of reservation fees to be charged? Can you or anyone confirm this? And if so, is there any way for me to get that fee refunded?
It should be pointed out that most people never see the site’s home page. If you do a search for “Yosemite National Park” on Google, you’ll see the site’s sponsored link (a paid advertisement). When you click the link, you are directed to the yosemite lodging page of the website. From there, you can access a reservation request form. At no time do you see the home page. In fact, the only way you’d likely end up on the home page where the disclosure is made is if you knew to type the exact URL. That is the secret to their methodology – place the disclosure on the home page so you can claim that you’re doing it all right, but make sure that consumers are taken directly to any page other than the home page when they click on a sponsored listing. If NPR was really interested in making sure the consumer was aware of its service and fee, it would place the disclaimer on each of it’s individual national park lodging pages. In short, there are countless complaints on the Internet about NPR and its business practices. The Montana Attorney General’s office has received numerous complaints and continues to maintain a file on this company. Furthermore, NPR has been officially banned from making reservations in national parks operated by Xanterra Parks & Resorts, an authorized concessioner of several national parks including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon.
For anyone who has been duped into paying the fee, you can forget about getting any cooperation from NPR. The best solution is to dispute the charge with your credit card company. Without a signature, NPR has no recourse and you’ll be refunded your money by the credit card company. It’s as simple as calling the toll-free phone number on the back of your card. Like so many people have already said, you can usually tell if you’re dealing directly with the National Park Service or an authorized concessioner by simply taking a close look at the site. A dot gov (.gov) is official, and no concessioner charges any fees to make a reservation. If you see a fee, move on to another website. You can access the official lodging provider websites to any national park by visiting http://www.nps.gov. From there, you’ll be able to follow the appropriate links to the official provider of lodging reservations for the park of interest.
Response to Margaret B:
The snail mail address for National Park Reservations is: P.O. Box 427
Whitefish, Montana 59937.
If you need to serve a legal complaint/lawsuit, the physical address is: 6475 Highway 93 South, Ste 23, Whitefish, Montana 59937
I must add that I too am one of those dumb asses that can’t read. That is basically what I was told when I tried to call and tell them that I think they double billed by first night’s refundable deposit. I have been going to Yosemite Nati’l Park for over 50 years. Recently I have been using the internet to book reservations. Two years ago, I went on line to book a one week reservation at Yosemite Lodge. I used the Yosemite Park reservation URL. My sister sent me the link. All was great. This year, I tried to go on line and book, however with the one year and 1 day limitations… was unable to reserve a room. The “legal” site came back and said not available. In October, I decided to quickly sit down at my computer and just check to see if there were any cancellations for that particular week. I did not have the link that I had used in the past. I googled Yosemite Park Reservations. The first URL was the legal site http://www.yosemitepark.com/Reservations.aspx. However, I assumed the whole page of URLs were of the same service.. I was not aware that there are brokers who advertise here as well. So I clicked on the very next site NationalParksReservations.com . THere was no mention of any fee here, or that they were a FOR FEE SITE. the first page looks like a regular, normal site with descriptions of the hotels available. I clicked on Yosemite lodge to get the second page. It was a description of the Lodge with the price of the night’s room rate. (Still no bold mention of this being a broker, schlocker, for fee agency.).. I clicked on the note where it says make a reservation. Up pops a page that asks for your name, address, and credit card number. Steps 1 through 6… then there is a small paragraph with regular type that (in hindsight) mentions fully refundable cancellation for the rooms (as all hotels do) if you cancel within 7 days. And then one sentence that says you will be charged a 10% fee of the TOTAL DOLLAR AMOUNT OF THE RESERVATION. In my case, was fatal as I made a reservation for my family …3 rooms for one week for a total of $5,000. Her take: $507.00 for booking the “free reservation” from the site up above them…that cost them nothing…that I mentioned earlier. When you click the continue box, you must click on the box that says “accepts terms and conditions”.. (I was just checking availability)… Wrong!!! this box pulls up a message that tells you all of this but …I still thought I was on the “Official site”… who I know from past experience does not charge a fee… so I clicked the box and went on. At that time, they should have told me no availability ..and that would have been a done deal. But they called later… said they were national parks reservations… (Hello???) why would you think they were a private firm???? They called and said that week is not available..but they had another week. (Bait and switch)… I thought “well, I will book it and hopefully we can all go “… I said yes… (They should have identified themselves as a “ticket broker”..travel agency…) but of course, their finanical sucess depends upon people not asking questions..because they are not telling them anything… they are not telling the truth up front…
When I called and spoke to John, he told me..3 times..well you signed the disclaimer…you signed the disclaimer… you do not get your money back if you cancel. Period. For no reason. I explained that I did not authorize a FOR FEE BROKER TO HUSTLE ME OUT OF $500.00 TO BOOK A RESERVATION THAT IS FREE TO BOOK ON THE SITE RIGHT ABOVE HIM… He would not even listen. That tells me that he is not a legitamate company. He is a crook. He is capitalizing on the fact that reservations must be made with a click of a mouse. The world is trying to book reservations now. These people know this. They are capitalizing on the hustle. /
I was only interested in checking availability. I didn’t understand why they wanted my C/C info. but thought that they could not complete the transaction unless that week was available. The internet allowed this transaction to process, even though I received a call later to explain that they did not have that week available and asked if I wanted to reserve a week in July. Because I thought I was dealing with the delaware concessionaire who books with no charge, I said yes at this point. This sealed my fate.
When I received my M/C bill I noticed the charge and thought they had double billed me for the one night’s deposit. That’s when I called them, and they have a recorded message that says they are not an official site, not affiliated with the official site..and no matter what happens with your reservation, ie… your room is not available when you get there… your room is booked at a different hotel than you wanted..etc…. they now have your money. NON REFUNDABLE FEE. THEY ARE A SCHLOCKER, THEY ARE CREATING A SECONDARY MARKET FOR PUBLICLY OWNED NATIONAL PARKS. Forcing the American public to pay an extra fee to stay at public park’s hotels. They spend their time booking reservations that the public could have had for free. Now the public will eventually be paying broker fees and high dollar amounts, just to stay in a hotel room…that doesn’t even have air conditioning in publicly funded national parks….. Can you say Soviet Union????? We need to file class action law suits. These people are getting rich off of this… There are lots of complaints posted. … The fact that they will not refund tells me that they are crooks. What company does not refund after 3 weeks???? I did not cancel 8 months later. What service did they provide for me???? They hustled a week from the national parks service from an american tax payer!!!!
If this turns out to be legal, if you can sleep at night… jump in and do the same. Take this business from these crooks.
To add to all of your discussions about this particular website. If you clearly look and read the information provided to you on the website – especially if you submit and online request for a reservation it states:
“This Form is a reservation request. It should not be used to check availability. To check availability, call 1-866-875-8456. Upon completion of the reservation process, your credit card will be billed the 10% non-refundable reservation fee based on the total dollar amount of reservations made & may be charged a room deposit depending on the lodging facility’s policy. You should click on the hyperlink “terms” below to review our entire policy. National Park Reservations is not a concessionaire and is not affiliated with the National Park Service Branch of the Federal Government.”
That seems pretty plain and simple to me!!! Call the phone number.. it states the EXACT SAME THING before you even get to talk to someone!!
Judy: if you KNEW that the national park service does not charge a fee then why would you honestly continue to submit the online form? Did you call the company and talk to a supervisor?? Did you receive any help from them? Did you receive your reservation fee back? Sounds like to me that you just want to blame someone for your stupidity. I would never give my credit card information to check availability. I can’t speak for you but I did graduate high school. :)
The only reason that NationalParkReservations.com gets away with it is because the owner is a lawyer; he knows all the loopholes to get away with making the website look like an official and associated National Park concessionaire. This is coming from someone who was/is on the inside. The truth prevails!