National Park Traveler article: Lawsuit Alleges Recreation.Gov Is Cluttered With “Junk Fees,” Seeks Millions In Refunds
Looking to visit Glacier National Park this summer? You’re going to need a reservation…and it’s going to cost you $2 on top of the entrance fee to make that reservation. Same with Rocky Mountain and Arches. Want to hike Half Dome? Non-refundable application fee is $10. Angels Landing in Zion? $6 fee. How about a drive out to Tuweep in the Grand Canyon? $2 fee. Campsites and back country permits, same deal-- there’s a fee even when you’re paying in person at the park.
I have absolutely no problem paying to get into parks, or for a campsite or an activity like a cave tour, etc. I want to support them. But when a for-profit company is making money from non-refundable fees and timed-entry permits for every single car that enters a national park, I can’t get behind that.
Matt Stoller essay with more background info: Why Is Booz Allen Renting Us Back Our Own National Parks?
As a frequent user for backcountry hiking permits I can tell you that the recreation.gov site is designed well and works well, and it’s vastly more convenient and transparent than what went before. Every National Park had its own different and antiquated procedure for obtaining backcountry permits. The Grand Canyon is a case it point - it is not on recreation.gov, you still need to fax in applications, and for peak time permits you must wait for weeks for any reply. Selfishly I guess it was nice, because I learned the various systems over the years, and knew the deadlines and arcane requirements, giving me an advantage for hard-to-get permits. But a system stuck in 1980 wasn’t conducive to getting young people or visitors a fair opportunity to visit the wilderness. The site makes it so much easier to get an overview of what’s available, especially for last minute permits.
So the product is good. The question is whether we’re paying a fair price for it. According to that article, nobody has the figures on what it costs to run the site and how much money Booz Allen are making from it, they only have gross revenue figures.
The article talks about change fees and cancellation fees as “junk” fees and that’s misleading. For high-demand permits, you need non-refundable fees for last minute cancellations and changes, otherwise people massively overbook without having definite plans to go, denying opportunities to others. So that part specifically is a red herring. What matters is whether the total fees are too high.