Is National Park Reservations defrauding summer travelers?

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.

“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.

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.

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

@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.

@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

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)

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.

The official accommodations website for Yosemite is: http://www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations.aspx

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.

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.

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!!!!

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. :)

Chris, I do have a problem with this sort of practice, to an extent. Not so much the look-alike trick, but the tiny type.

On the one hand, I can understand a for-profit outfit not wanting to trumpet in giant, bright red letters at the top of its homepage that a visitor to the site using the service there is going to pay a fee — even when the fee is entirely reasonable.

On the other hand, when you need a magnifying glass rivaling a low-powered microscope to read that information because its written in letters measured by the micron, I *do* have a problem with it, especially when the type doesn’t contrast sharply with the background and surroundings. And I have that problem even when the fee is completely within reason.

Announce it clearly right up front somewhere, or at the very least (as you mention), put a link — prominently — to the page where the fee is spelled out. Spelled out clearly and obviously, and not buried in Paragraph 278 of the page.

This is especially important when something changes, particularly if the change is not to a traveler’s advantage. For instance, some years ago there was a new domestic airline here in Thailand that had a few regional destinations as well. In an effort to generate customers, the airline offered a few truly great deals, the prices advertised in newspapers and at its website prominently and obviously. The fares shown were all-inclusive.

A few months along I saw a newspaper ad for yet another such promotion for a domestic flight to a city I’ve never visited and would like to. So, I went online to book the flight. After wading through several pages of filling in stuff, I got to the fare page to be charged to my card; it was nearly four times the advertised “price” — which, as it turned out, was NOT all-inclusive. I went back to the homepage and went on the hunt, and found there was an almost invisible faint gray asterik next to the price (which was in very large, bright, day-glo dark pink numbers. At the bottom of the page, in tiny type I could barely make out, was a notice that the price was the “air fare” only, not taxes, airport surcharges, fuel surcharges, blah blah blah.

The airline was within the Thai law, and I imagine it would have been with most other countries’ laws as well. But in my view, it was a pretty brazen step.

Also, when I think of an “air fare,” I think of the total price: the amount I’m going to fork over to the airline (or hotel, restaurant, etc.), not some base price then +++.

Take a restaurant meal, for instance. Say I order a steak with a baked potato, a veggie, and a salad. If the menu says $12.95, then that plus tax (and sometimes a service charge) are what I expect to pay. I *don’t* expect to get a bill saying “steak – $12.95, baked potato – $1.95, veggie – $1.95, salad – $1.95, condiments for everything – $2.95, TOTAL: $21.75+++. ” And that’s exactly what airlines sometimes do, as well as other operators in the tourism industry.

Just a thought –

Did you guys notice when you call the phone number provided to get to an agent that it states they ARE NOT affiliated with the national park service and that THEY DO charge a 10% non refundable fee? It seems like you guys did not do your research in order to avoid the fees. You can only be provided with so much information and if you choose to not search alternate options then that would be your own fault. I booked with this company and the agent i did book with told me they do charge the fee and booked me for several parks. It made it am easier process for me and I did not have to go through the trouble to find all the lodges for the dates I wanted. The agent was very precise and chose great options for me. I was very satisfied with their services and was happy to pay the fee.

This thread has continued since 2009, and people are still getting duped by this unscrupulous company. I assure you that those few who posted sympathetic comments about the fraudulant site nationalparkreservations.com on this thread (e.g. Green Giant) are likely the owners/managers of the company. They spend a lot of time posting false comments on the Internet to reflect positive views about their scam site. All the while, it continues to be widely recognized as one of the most misrepresentative, misleading, deceptive, and fraudulant travel websites on the web today. Needless to say, they fail on customer service too, which is evident from the posts here as well as the grade “F” they received from the Better Business Bureau. Do yourself a favor, and avoid that website like the plague!

This scam by National Park Reservations is REAL.  Their 10% disclaimer shows up more prominantly on their main web site, but on links to reservations for the individual hotels, their exhorbitant fee does not show up until one clicks on “Our Terms”, and then scrolls down.  California contract law requires a “clear agreement” or a “meeting of minds” for any business dealing to be considered an enforceable  contract.  The law also requires “definite terms”.  I my case, they National Park Reservations tried to charge a 10% fee on my second choice hotel for which they did not give a firm price.  Not legal; not binding; not nice!  Don’t pay this company a dime!