Both of us set your park up for you. Only one of us keeps going after the reservation.
CampGuide is the most complete platform built for campgrounds. Like CampLife we configure your park for you rather than hand you an empty system, and CampGuide keeps going past the reservation. The spa, the grill, the tee sheet, the pavilion, the storage lot and the crew you hire for the season all run in here, on the same folio as the site. Here is the whole thing side by side, read from their own site.
Short on time.
- CampGuide covers all 16 areas on the board below. CampLife covers 5, which leaves 7 parts of your park to buy somewhere else.
- Both of us configure your park for you. Only CampGuide also runs the spa, the grill, the tee sheet, the pavilion and the storage lot.
- Once you are live you change a rate, a rule or the map yourself, the same afternoon, without a ticket.
Compared against CampLife's public site. Reviewed August 2026.
The short version.
Six things operators ask on every call. Ours are answered here. Where only they can answer for their side, the row says to ask them.
| What we're comparing | CampLife | CampGuide |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Parks whose revenue is mostly sites and seasonals | Parks that sell more than nights, and want all of it on one folio |
| Built for | Campgrounds and RV parks | Campgrounds, RV parks, glamping, cabins, marinas and storage, all the way down |
| What comes with it | Ask which capabilities sit in your package | We tell you exactly what is included for your park before you sign, in writing |
| Setting it up | An onboarding coach builds your rates and map | We configure your park end to end, then hand you the controls to change any of it |
| When something breaks in July | Weekday support hours, ask about weekends | The founder and the person who wrote the screen |
| Your data if you leave | Ask for the export commitment in writing | Exported on demand, and that does not change on the day you cancel |
areas of a park on the board below, read from their own site
of them CampGuide covers and CampLife does not publish
capabilities live today, from the grid to the storage lot
support tickets to change how a site type works
Every area of a park, side by side.
Read from CampLife's public pages in August 2026, so take this board to your call with them and check it line by line. The same marks on both sides, so you can read across a row and get an answer instead of a sales pitch.
| Area of the park | CampLife | CampGuide |
|---|---|---|
| Reservations and the gridDrag across nights, holds that expire, closures with a reason, best fit placement.CampGuide: Best fit placement and orphan night recovery run on the same grid. | Yes | Yes |
| Rates, fees and demandNightly, weekly and monthly rates, fees by rule, tax split by authority.CampGuide: Demand recommendations that stay inside guardrails you set. | Yes | Yes |
| Housekeeping and work ordersWork orders are published. Ask what a turnover list looks like on a Saturday morning.CampGuide: A job that blocks a site cannot be booked over by anyone. | Partly | Yes |
| Camp store, drawer and night auditCharge to the site, count the drawer, close the day so nobody posts into it later.CampGuide: The day closes and locks, and a reopen carries a name. | Yes | Yes |
| Booking page and guest messagesA page that quotes off your live rates, and text, email and app replies on one thread.CampGuide: Text, email, the app and the stay pass on the same thread. | Yes | Yes |
| Long stay, start to finishMeter reading, recurring billing and e signature. Ask where the application and the agreement live.CampGuide: The application, the agreement and the meter at both ends all live on the reservation. | Yes | Yes |
| Storage tenanciesRecurring billing and guest credit. Ask what happens on day fourteen past due.CampGuide: A tenancy with dunning, overlock and a lien path, not recurring billing with a note. | Partly | Yes |
| Food and beverageMenus with allergens, seasonal versions, orders to the site, a kitchen rail.CampGuide: The ticket reaches the kitchen rail carrying the site number. | No | Yes |
| Spa and wellnessProvider certifications, room turnover buffers, waitlist and gap offers.CampGuide: Certifications, room turnover and gap offers, on the guest's folio. | No | Yes |
| GolfTee sheet, green and cart fees, frost delays, league blocks.CampGuide: Green fee and cart fee priced apart, because your state taxes them apart. | No | Yes |
| Events and venuesBookable spaces, itemized quotes, contracts, deposits, group blocks with a cutoff.CampGuide: A quote saved with the numbers it was built from, so March still makes sense in June. | No | Yes |
| Workamper hiringPostings on two boards, applications without an account, fair hiring checks, access that ends.CampGuide: Identity checked before the keys, and access dated so it lapses in October. | No | Yes |
| Workflows you write yourselfA custom business rules engine that prices and books.CampGuide: Your rule, a manager approval, and a run history that says who decided. | Partly | Yes |
| The park map, drawn by youBuilt for you during onboarding, like ours. Ask who moves a site in June.CampGuide: Drag a site the morning you actually move it, without a ticket. | Partly | Yes |
| Portfolio console for several parksCentral reservations, consolidated books, owner and investor statements.CampGuide: Central reservations, consolidated books and owner statements above your parks. | No | Yes |
| Distribution beyond your own pageGetting your nights in front of travelers who have never heard of your park.CampGuide: CampChannel pushes your nights to the channels, and your own page keeps the booking commission free. | No | Yes |
No means we could not find it published, not that it is impossible to do. Ask both of us to show it working on your own sites rather than describe it on a slide.
What decided it for the parks already on CampGuide.
When we ask an operator why they moved, we hear the same three answers, and price is never the first one.
Automate anything in the park, in your own words.
A workflow starts from any module. An agreement still unsigned after 48 hours. A tenancy that goes fourteen days past due. Forty departures at eleven. A work order that just blocked a site the desk is about to sell. You write the rule in plain words, put a manager approval in the middle when you want one, and the run history says which rule was true and who decided.
This is the answer operators give when we ask why they moved. Not a request filed against someone else's roadmap. The automation your park needs, built by your park, the afternoon you need it.
See workflowsRun history
Nothing has run yet. A test run walks every step for real and sends nothing.
Press test run and watch it walk the steps.
Every setting in your park is a control you hold.
Rates, fees, discounts, site types, cancellation rules, turnover behavior, your booking page and your map are yours. Change a shoulder season rate at four on a Tuesday and it is live at the counter before you stand up. Move a site on the map the morning you actually move it.
We configure the whole park for you before you go live, and then we hand you the keys to all of it. That is the second answer operators give, and the two together are why parks leave software they have used for years.
See rates and settingsRules on this site type
Why Sat 13 is $84
Event pricing is dated. It applies to the fair weekend and lifts on its own afterwards.
Turn on demand pricing and watch the busy nights move.
A guest can finance the stay. You are paid in full, that day.
A family books the cabin for a week and splits it into four payments at checkout through Klarna or Affirm. The money reaches your park the same day it would on any other booking. The folio, the deposit rules and the refund path behave exactly the way they always do.
It takes price off the table on the stays worth the most to you, and your park carries none of it. CampGuide handles the financing side end to end, and nobody at your desk ever chases a balance.
See the guest experienceAdd a night, or another camper, and watch every line re price.
The parts that usually become a second subscription.
Three of them, on real screens you can click. Every charge in each one lands on the folio the guest already has open, which is the difference between another line on your bill and another line on your revenue.
The pavilion has a quote you can reconstruct in March.
A couple asks what a Saturday in June costs. The space knows it seats 120, prices flat or by the hour, and carries your weekend premium and cleaning fee, so the quote itemizes itself while they are still on the phone.
It is saved with the numbers it was built from, so a quote you gave six weeks ago still makes sense after you raise prices.
See events and venuesDrag an event between inquiry, quoted, contracted and confirmed.
The grill, the ice cream window and the late night menu.
One cheeseburger, entered once, with variants for two sizes and an option group that adds bacon or takes 75 cents off for no cheese. Put it on two menus and change the price in one place when beef goes up.
Orders from the stay pass, the website and the counter all land on the same rail with the site number attached.
See food and beverageGuests read this. It stays exactly as published until you publish again.
Take one from ordered to handed over, or send it back to the grill.
Take one from ordered to handed over, or send it back to the grill.
Hiring the camp hosts is part of running the park.
February postings go to your own board and the cross park board at once, applications arrive without an account, and the fair hiring checks run at the write so a familial status line cannot be published from another screen.
Verification happens before the keys change hands, and access is dated so it lapses in October.
See workampersCompose the posting
Workamper, seasonal, year round, part time or contract, with the comp model that fits.
Try the line about families, then publish. The database will stop you.
A switch you can undo.
Nobody moves a park on a promise. Here is the path, with the undo button in the middle of it and a go live date you pick.
Every operator should be able to get reservations, guests, sites, rates and payment history out of CampLife. Ask for it in writing before you commit to anyone, including us.
Site types, rate plans, fees and guest records are matched to how your park is actually set up, not to how the file happened to be shaped.
The import shows you every row it is about to create, what it matched, and what it could not. Nothing is saved while you read it.
If it is wrong, one button takes the batch back out. That is the difference between a migration you can try and a migration you have to survive.
Hand us your rate sheet, your fees and your cancellation policy and we configure the whole thing, then price a stay from last season in front of you to check the number matches.
You keep taking bookings in CampLife until the day you cut over, and we set that date around your season rather than ours. After it, the grid is live for everyone at the counter at once.
The preview is the whole point.
Your Campspot export is matched to your site types, rate plans and guest records, then shown to you row by row before a single thing is written. What matched, what did not, and what it is about to create.
If it is wrong, one button takes the whole batch back out for thirty days. Nobody should move a park on a promise.
See how switching worksFix the five rows the preview flagged.
43 things your park can use from the start.
Everything on this list is live today and running in parks right now. Not a roadmap, not a beta, and not a release you wait for.
43things on that list, all of them built for parks and running today. Ask about any one of them and we will show it working on your own sites and rates, and tell you what is included for your park.
What CampLife publishes.
Their claims, shortened and not spun. If we left out something that matters to you, bring it to the call and we will answer it straight.
Reservations and the guest
Online reservations, a reservation kiosk, mobile check in, a site guarantee, reservation add ons, SMS texting and email marketing, with more than a thousand parks on the system.
Money and accounting
Cash and accrual accounting, payment processing, recurring billing, guest credit, detailed reporting, and accounting specialists on the support team.
The long stay side
Remote and mass meter reading, recurring billing and e signature with document storage, which is one of the few long stay stories in this category that gets named out loud.
Operations and revenue
Point of sale, custom retail packages, work orders, gate integration, dynamic pricing and occupancy maximization.
How an unusual park is handled
A custom business rules engine, onboarding coaches who build your rates, map and rules and import your records, weekday support 8 to 5 Central, weekly webinars and a library of more than 200 training videos.
What CampLife leads with, and how we answer it.
Their strongest pitches, and the answer we give when an operator brings one of them to the call.
Two decades with parks
Building for campgrounds since 2006 means they have seen a lot of unusual rules. Bring us the strangest thing your park does on the first call. If it takes a change, you will talk to the person who makes it.
Accounting specialists on support
Naming accounting people on the support team is a real draw for an operator who closes their own books. Ask both of us to walk a month end with your own numbers, from the drawer count to the cash and accrual reports.
Support hours and a training library
Weekday phone, email and chat, weekly webinars and more than 200 videos. Ask both of us what happens at 6 pm on a Saturday in July, and compare the answers.
Gate and meter hardware partners
They name their gate integration and their remote meter reading partners, which makes shopping easier. Bring your gate and your meters to the call and we will tell you exactly what we talk to.
The questions a feature list never answers.
These are the ones that decide how your second season goes, long after the demo is over.
What leaves with you if it ends.
Reservations, guests, folios, payments, rates and your map, exported on demand in a format your accountant can open, and that does not change on the day you cancel. Ask every vendor on your list to put that in writing.
Who picks up on a Saturday in July.
The founder and the person who wrote the screen, on the same day. No ticket number and no waiting until Monday to find out whether it is a known issue.
Who changes a rate at four in the afternoon.
You do. Rates, fees, discounts, site types, cancellation rules, turnover behavior and the map are yours to change on a Tuesday, and we will name the handful of settings that still come through us.
Where the money actually lands.
Deposits and payments run through CampGuide Pay on your own account, refunds are reversals on the folio rather than cash out of the drawer, and once a day is closed nobody backdates a payment into it.
What your seasonal staff can see.
Access is by role, financial reports are their own permission, and a workamper's access is dated so it lapses in October instead of living on until somebody remembers it in December.
What your park sells that software usually ignores.
The spa, the grill, the tee sheet, the storage lot, the pavilion and the people you hire for the season. If any of those is a spreadsheet today, that is the line on your P and L this decision moves.
Then ask both of us the same questions.
Ours are answered here, in writing. Take the same list to your CampLife call and write their answers next to them.
Who changes a rule after go live, me or your team?
Ours: You, the same afternoon, without a ticket.
Can I export everything, including after I leave?
Ours: Yes, on demand, and that does not change on the day you cancel.
Who answers on a Saturday in July?
Ours: The founder, and the person who wrote the screen. Ask them what happens after 5 pm Central.
What does my park sell that the software does not know about?
Ours: Here, nothing on that list. The spa, the grill, the tee sheet, the storage lot, the pavilion and the seasonal crew are all in it.
Who draws my map, and who moves a site in June?
Ours: You do, both times, without opening a ticket.
Can I break the product before I sign?
Ours: Yes, on your own sites and rates, on the call.
Built for parks like yours.
Five signs this is the right platform for your park, and four things worth telling us on the first call.
CampGuide is built for you if
- A good part of your revenue happens after the guest arrives
- You already run a spa, a grill, a tee sheet, a venue or a storage lot
- You want to change a rate or move a site without opening a ticket
- Seasonal and long stay guests are a real part of your year
- Your best stays are the expensive ones, and you want financing to carry the price
- You would rather talk to the person who built it than a queue
Tell us these early and we will show you the answer
- The share of your nights that come through OTAs today
- The gate, meters, locks and accounting already installed on your property
- Whether your group also runs property that is not a park
- Who at your park will be the day to day owner once it is live
None of these are dealbreakers. They are the four things worth putting on the table in the first ten minutes, so the rest of the call is spent showing you your own park running rather than guessing at it.
Questions we get asked on every call.
Is CampGuide a replacement for CampLife, or does it sit alongside it?
A replacement. Both of us take the booking, run the desk and hold the money, so running two would mean two grids and two sets of books. Everything your park sells lands on the same folio here, which is the part that stops working if you split it.
Can I switch in the middle of a season?
You can, and parks do. The import previews before it writes and the whole batch can be pulled back out for thirty days. If your timing looks wrong for your park we will say so rather than take the deal.
What happens to my CampLife reservations, guests and payment history?
They come across. Ask CampLife for your export in writing first, then we match it to your site types, rate plans and guest records and show you every row before anything is saved.
Can I automate something you did not build for me?
Yes. Workflows start from any module, run the rule you wrote in plain words, take a manager approval in the middle if you want one, and keep a run history that says which rule was true and who decided. You do not file a request and wait for a release.
Can a guest finance a stay without me carrying the risk?
Yes. A guest can split the stay into payments at checkout through Klarna or Affirm, and your park is paid in full the same day, the same as any other booking. CampGuide handles the financing side, the folio, the deposit rules and the refund path all behave the way they always do, and you never chase anyone for a balance.
Do I have to use all of it?
No. Every park runs the front desk, rates, housekeeping, the store and the guest side, and the rest switches on when your park needs it. We will tell you plainly what is included for your park and what is not, before you sign anything.
What about my gate, my meters, my locks and my accounting?
Bring the list of what is already installed on your property to the first call. We will tell you what we talk to today and what we would have to build, before you make a decision, not after.
Everything above about CampLife comes from their public site, reviewed August 2026, and may have changed since. We would rather you check it than take our word for it.
Comparing us to someone else.
Same board, same marks, a different company on the other side of it.
Ask us the hard questions.
Bring your rate sheet, your busiest weekend and the thing you are sure no software handles. We will build it in front of you, on your own sites and your own rates, before you decide anything.