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Muscatine County Conservation to begin online reservations for campsites, cabins
Summary
Conservation staff told the Board of Supervisors they plan to start online reservations April 1 using mycountyparks.com, create a separate reservations bank account and cover setup and transaction fees; the board discussed refund and voucher policies and possible fee increases.
Muscatine County Conservation Director Katie Hammond told the Board of Supervisors on March 10 that the conservation department will begin taking online reservations for Salisbury Lodge cabins, shelters and the Salisbury campground using mycountyparks.com and aims to start April 1.
Hammond said the move is intended to simplify booking for the public and staff. The county will route reservation payments through authorized.net to a merchant account, place receipts into a new Muscatine County Conservation Reservations bank account monitored by the treasurer and conservation staff, and later transfer funds to the general account.
County conservation brings in about $80,000 a year from cabins, Salisbury Lodge and the campground, Hammond told the board. She said about a third of Iowa counties already use mycountyparks.com, which lists all 99 counties and provides analytics showing most reservations occur from personal devices mid-morning.
Hammond described the payment flow: users complete a booking on mycountyparks.com and are redirected to authorized.net for payment processing so the county does not store card data. Authorized.net charges a $49 setup fee and a $25 monthly fee; the recommended merchant account charges about 2.9% plus 30¢ per transaction. To keep reservation receipts separate, the county has opened a dedicated bank account in the treasurer’s and conservation department’s names.
Staff plan initial online listings for the Salisbury campground, Salisbury Lodge cabins and shelters, with the Deep Lakes Park Campground added when it opens. The county will require campsite reservations at least three days in advance; in cases where a site has no reservation tag, Hammond said a visitor may be able to occupy a site for one or two nights.
Hammond said the conservation board will request an initial $300 transfer from the board’s expense line into the reservations account to cover startup items: the authorized.net setup fee, check orders for internal transfers and a month or two of merchant fees until bookings begin. She told supervisors the department will present possible fee increases at the conservation board meeting on March 17 to help offset online transaction costs, and that Deep Lakes camping rates have not been set.
On refunds and cancellations, Hammond said the department’s current plan is to establish a no-refund policy and instead issue coupons for future use when cancellations are caused by county cancellations (for example, flooding). A customer who cancels may request a refund from the board in writing within 15 days, Hammond said; otherwise the department’s stated policy is no refunds and vouchers would be issued for cancellations the department causes. Vouchers would be redeemable online without reprocessing payment. Hammond said staff will discuss specifics with the conservation board before launch.
Supervisors asked about user acceptance and booking windows; Hammond said reservations can be made up to two years in advance on the platform but the county will likely start by allowing at least one year and will exempt dates needed for naturalist programs, School of the Wild and similar events. She said staff expect some operational issues during the switch but that online booking will reduce repeated phone calls and back-and-forth scheduling.
The board did not take a formal vote on the reservations process during the discussion. Hammond asked for the board’s awareness and said staff will submit the $300 claim to the board for approval at a later point.
