If you've recently modified your upcoming trip to add people or change the booking dates, you may have noticed that you were charged a fee for the modification. This could be due to the modification happening outside of the Host's cancellation policy, or it could be a booking & service fee adjustment. It all depends on when you're modifying the trip and your Host's cancellation policy.
Adding additional days or people
If the fee assessed is an adjustment to the cost of your initial booking, it is not a fee for modifying your trip, but rather an adjustment of the total booking cost & service fee for the trip after the modification.
For every booking, Hipcamp assesses a service fee between 9% and 18%, depending on the cost of your booking. The more your booking costs, the lower the service fee will be. If you add a day or add people to your booking, the amount you are charged will be for the days/people you've added, plus the adjusted service fee.
We always recommend that you modify your trip rather than make a separate booking for the additional day(s) because the service fee will be lower since the overall cost of your booking will be higher.
Modifying a booking outside of your Host's cancellation policy
Please keep your Host's cancellation policy in mind when modifying a booking. If you change the dates outside of your Host's cancellation policy, you will be charged as if you're canceling/rebooking the trip. This is not a fee for the modification itself but is a charge for new dates when the original dates are not eligible for a refund due to the Hosts set cancellation policy.
- Example - changing booking dates: Your trip is tomorrow and you want to move your booking from this weekend to next weekend. The Host has a Strict cancel policy that requires a cancellation a week in advance in order for a refund to be issued. When moving your booking dates, you will not be refunded for the previous days that you had on the Host's calendar and you will be charged to book the new days you are requesting in the future.
- Example - removing dates: Your trip is tomorrow and you want to remove 2 nights from your booking. The Host has a Moderate cancel policy that requires a cancellation 3 days in advance in order for a refund to be issued. You will not be refunded for the 2 removed nights. The amount that wasn’t refunded will show on your receipt as a ‘modification fee’.
The Hosts on Hipcamp have full authority when it comes to their cancellation policies. If you have any questions about modifying or cancelling a trip outside of the Host's cancellation policy, we recommend reaching out to the Host.
If your Host agrees to waive the fee, they will be able to issue a partial refund, or feel free to contact Hipcamp Support and we will process the modification or cancellation on our end.
Please note that if you add or remove people from the total headcount of a booking, you will not be charged a modification or cancellation fee for that type of modification. You will only be charged or refunded the amount the Host charges for additional campers.