I am a curious why not one of you complaining own up to the fact that YOU did not read the Terms and Conditions that this company provides? I read them, after my travel agent booked me with them and knew exactly what I would be getting myself into-a company that could book all four parks that I planned on going to. Am I the only person that realizes that travel agencies charge a fee?? I actually found out about National Park Reservations by booking with a different travel agent, whom clearly had no clue what she was doing. She was charging me 20% to plan my vacation (hassle free-they do all the leg work for you) and then come to find out with the first place she booked, she had used National Park Reservations. I noticed the extra charge and called. I spoke to Mercy and she explained the fee perfectly as well as walked me through their site to "show" me how many times it actually states that they charge a fee, they are not affiliated with the National Park Service, they are not a park concessionaire, I was actually stunned that my travel agent did not see any of the terms-especially when she had to enter my credit card to book the reservation and agreed to the fee. She had me 2 deep in fees. That is a whole other story! THEN I started my own research! Do you people even know how many park concessionaires there are? Or for that matter, even what they are? I had no clue. Do you know how far in advance all of the parks book? And if there are no rooms in the park-do you know where and what to look for close to the park? I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Mercy and I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge she had about every park (EVERY ONE) I was going to. I am doing 4 parks in 2018: Olympic, Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton-she knew every lodge in all of the parks, knew who managed them (to add confusion to the mix, some parks have multiple companies that manage the different lodges) She also told me I could book with the park concessionaire and avoid the fee but, here is the thing people-all the parks that I am going to, with the exception of Yellowstone, have more than one company that manages them. If you call one of them and they do not have available rooms, they can not see what the other management companies have nor do they know anything about the park. I called Aramark, they are the management company for some of the Olympic locations and they never even told me there was a lodge right on the coast because they did not manage that one. When I asked about it, the person I was talking to had no idea that it was even there. After weeks of going back and forth with my original travel agent, she had just one place booked. After 45 minutes with Mercy, I now have all my reservations booked, I know driving distance between parks and between lodges, I know the best routes to take, I have been given information on trails and what to see in the parks, I have information on who takes dining reservations, how far in advance they take dining reservations and numbers to call to book the dining, I have been given advice on what kind of activities to do in the parks and know who I have to contact to book the activities. AND I have a direct extension to Mercy if I have any questions or need to move stuff around. You get what you pay for and I will gladly call and make my 2019 reservations with Mercy as well. Do you know how much time it would have taken to figure out all of that by yourself? All of you whiners out there complaining about the fee, the name, the site-c'mon folks-you are just upset with yourself for not reading or listening-before Mercy even got on the phone with me, I knew about the fee by the automated system and that they were not the direct concessionaire. The name? Perfect, they book for all parks. The site? Easy to use and as long as you do your due diligence by reading what you are agreeing to, you will have no surprises (WHO doesn't read terms before entering a credit card?? You can all raise your hands) No one wants to take ownership for their own actions, it is easier to get on some site and trash a company than to admit you were the one that dropped the ball. I dropped the ball at first and then I researched so therefore, I am taking the time to write a good review because I had good service, too many people never write a review unless it is negative. read more

DECEPTIVE. You think you are booking with the National Parks but it is a 3rd party and buried in the very very very fine print they charge a nonrefundable fee of 10% of your reservation. The National Parks should NOT allow this company to do bookings for them! This happens a lot with hotel reservation agencies and I always look for them but I had no idea the National Parks would allow a 3rd party to do this and so I was caught off guard. Never again! read more

My one star rating is the lowest I can give, but it won't affect the overall rating for this scam organization. That's because all of the other 206 reviews also gave it a one star review. That says a lot. The advertising on 'Nationalparkreservations.com' is extremely misleading. This group is not affiliated with the U.S. National Park Service or any of its hotels. I wanted a hotel inside Yosemite National Park. I did not want to stay in a hotel in some town outside of the park and spend an hour each morning driving. Skimming through this group's website, I was led to believe that they could get me a room at any hotel inside the park, when otherwise I could not (because hotels inside the park were already fully booked). I provided the required information, including my credit card info. When I eagerly told my wife "I got us a room for three nights at a hotel inside Yosemite National Park!" she became suspicious and asked me to check 'Nationalparkreservations' reviews. It was then that I found it was a scam organization and that I would be booked at a hotel an hour or so away from the park's entrance, and with a 10% added fee. I was fortunate to have such an intelligent wife. I cancelled my credit card before I was charged, saving several hundred dollars and avoiding the frustrating experience of a long morning drive each morning just to get in the park. How can this be allowed? For the answer, carefully read the extensive website details before booking and providing you credit card info. read more

Horrible for booking. They will book your reservation at a 10% Premium (which is in their Terms and conditions). If you want to change your reservation, they charge another 10% on top of that! You cannot make any changes at the location booked without going back through them. Your hands are tied. Save yourself some serious money, time, and headaches and book directly through the park hotels. All they do is make a phone call to the location for you and provide ZERO additional support. read more

I agree that this company is deceptive in presenting themselves as an official reservation service for lodging in the national parks. They are useless if a problem arises with the overpriced lodging reservations they charge a huge fee to arrange. No help if things go wrong and they just refer you to the hotel you should have booked with if they hadn't lured you into booking through them. read more

Scam service, will advertise a sold out location and book at other random spots, then charge a cancellation fee

Not worth the extra fee when you can book directly with the park. SD--Fair that we didn't read the fine print--but it's not readily apparent that they are not affiliated with the park until you have already made your reservation request...and lost precious time while others are making their reservation DIRECTLY WITH THE PARK. Which anyone will do once they have realized their mistake. read more

This booking company is a scam, do not use them. They make themself look like the national park booking system but they are not. They want you think that the spot you want is available but after you provide them your info include your credit card number then they email you say that the spot you want is booked and send you to chose the alternate location then charge you 10 % booking fee. I booked 2 night with them then right away find out their price 30% higher than hotel.com for the same room right at the moment even I cancel and paid a stupid fee $57 but I still can save $50 by rebook the same room with hotel.com. Stay away from them. read more

They fool you into thinking you are dealing with the lodge. They bill you for the room and a few minutes later another email says oh there is an additional $58 charge to your card. What crooks! Why can't they be stopped. They have nothing to do with the national parks nor the lodges. read more

This company hide their 10% non-refundable service fee and is very deceptive about it. In their booking page, there's no mention about the 10% fee at all. And they name themselves National Parks Reservations to make people think they are affliated with NPS. Not sure why google still showing their ads when I search for grand teton lodge rental, this company should not even be advertised. I would avoid this at all cost, just go to other big name travel agencies and book your stays, they are cheaper and fair. read more

Aarrrgggh I thought I was on the official site, nope! They made it look like there were vacancies at the park's Lodge, again, nope. They then charged us $40 to book us at our 2nd choice. I was able to book rooms at the 2nd choice for $45 less a night. read more

Prices and lodging availability shown on their website are misleading. It's hidden in their terms that a 10% non-refundable fee will be charged immediately, separately to your card, seemingly regardless of whether or not they actually secure you lodging. read more

**Please read my negative review of National Park Reservations ** There's fraud, deception and omission of costs for canceling. The costs are beyond the 10% non-refundable fee. If this company was on the level, they would honor complaints and make it right. The fact that there are so many complaints without any effort to correct them in favor of the customer sends the message their bad business practice is on purpose. Show me corrections the company has made in the last 3 years where the company was at fault and the company corrected it with a refund to the customer, not a credit. I made reservations by phone. I spoke to Dorothy. When making the reservations I was aware of the 10% non-refundable fee. This was a verbal conversation and I hope it was recorded. Dorothy told me both reservations were CREDIT CARD GUARANTEED. She said "YES, BOTH RESERVATIONS ARE CREDIT CARD GUARANTEED." This means I would not be charged a penalty for canceling. In our verbal transaction Dorothy never mentioned the penalty. I would not have made the reservation if I knew that. This is what was posted on the confirmation page I received in email. "One night charged at booking, non-refundable if canceled within 30 days of arrival". I DID NOT AGREE TO THIS! I called back a third time. I said something isn't right. I googled the company for the website and it took me to a website "Pissed Consumer" where I read all of the complaints of deception and the number of people who lost money booking with them. I told the girl this and she asked if I read the terms and conditions. In essence she was admitting it was a scam by her tone and hurry to get off the call. I filed a dispute with my credit card company and Better Business Bureau. Does anyone know where else I can file a complaint? I understood that a 10% non-refundable fee would be charged for cancellation. I was NOT told about the one night penalty charge for cancelling. I fully expect my money back for the one night charge. I did not agree to it! I encourage others to not use this group. read more

Scam operation! Do NOT use! Pick 3 places and of course the one you want isn't available, they say they will call before booking and DON'T! Auto book the second or third choice, then charge a $90 fee for cancelling what you don't want! Total scam! read more

this is a total rip off the charges are 10% of the booking cost - DO NOT USE Very disappointed! read more

This is a deceptive site. I booked with them on my phone and then realized they were not part of the National Park System. I called them back to cancel and was told that I had to pay a 10% non refundable fee even though I was cancelling within 24 hours of booking. That was the first time I learned of the fee and that I had to pay it on top of the cost of the room even if I kept the booking. Very deceptive. read more

National Park Reservations (NPR) is not a truthful company. It provides terribly poor services and intentionally overcharges customers service fees. DO NOT use it for any hotel reservation! On April 7, I was charged for a fee of $119.64 for a reservation of two nights at Yosemite Valley Lodge on May 22 and May 23. I received an email from NPR after reservation fee was paid off, which states, "Your request will be handled by a reservation specialist and you will be contacted by phone or email within 24 hours" However, I had not received any information regarding the reservation from NPR until we arrived at the Yosemite Valley Lodge in the afternoon on May 22 and were told our hotel was at another hotel outside Yosemite National Park, 1.5 hours away from Yosemite Valley Lodge. We had to find a place to stay for the day and paid expensive costs due to the mistakes of NPR on May 22. On May 23, we checked in the Best Western Inn that NPR reserved for us. NPS cited $598.22 for the hotel rate, and charged us a fee of $59.82. However, we found out the actual rate for the Best Western Inn for us was only $282.44. I called the NPR and wrote to NPR to discuss above issues. NPR refused admit any problems and refused to refund the fee of $59.82 for May 22 when it did not provide the service, and the fee of $31.58 for its overcharged us for May 23. read more

Beware! Misleading name, website, and non refundable booking fees IN ADDITION to room rate. Lesson learned for me. I thought I was booking direct and I thought the 10% fee was folded into the room rate! So horrible. Will be reporting. read more

Super shady business practices. Everything about this business(website, email communication etc) is designed to make you feel that you are booking with the National Park Services, but in reality this is a private business with no affiliation to the feds. There is fine print on the site that mentions you will be charged 10% upfront for the booking which gives the impression of making a 10% advance payment while the remaining will be charged at the lodge. No where is it mentioned that this 10% is a "Separate" booking fee charged by this business for literally booking the same lodges that you can call and book directly at the mentioned costs. If a business that has to regularly reply to customer complaints by mentioning "you agreed to the terms and should have read them before booking" is not fraudulent, I don't know what it. It would be much easier for everyone if these guys just mentioned "Hey we charge you an additional 10% for making the efforts to book on your behalf" and everyone would sleep better at night. But no, let's choose to be shady and bask in the misery of negative reviews and exist stressfully intentionally. #SMH read more

This website is misleading and is not part of the national park services. They are a scam company that charges you a 10% charge to do what you can do yourself over the phone and call the hotel directly. They do not tell you there is a 10% non refundable charge and they do not tell you that they are a 3rd party booking service. For 2 nights stay in Jackson they screwed me out of $79. Id like to start a class action lawsuit against them and will be looking into this as soon as we get home from vacation. read more

Fooled into thinking I was dealing with an actual Park Reservation Service. Also sucked into adding a 2nd choice which I did not want but seemed to be needed to proceed. Never got a chance to decline acceptance of the second choice. And charged $25 to cancel the second choice on top of the 10% booking fee. Total fraud all around. Do not use this service. read more

The staff is extremely rude and and trained on basic mannerisms and customer service. I called to make a reservation and the guy lied to me that there is a minimum 2 night stay at one of the hotels in the national park. When I called that hotel they said there is no such rules. The guy then admitted there was a mistake from his end and he called another hotel by mistake. I understand mistakes happen, but he was super rude on top of all this. And they charged me a reservation 10% fee for nothing at all This website is filled with a bunch of misinformed staff who don't know how to behave. Ridiculous service!! read more

Their marketing is very misleading. This group has nothing to do with the federal government or the National Park Service. They are a private company. They charge a 20% non-refundable service charge to every reservation. They are misleading on this service charge - it is not shown on the reservation summary. Rather, they tack it on after you complete your reservation. So it's a surprise to begin with and once you figure out you got taken, or if your plans change, they won't refund your money. Poor, poor, poor. read more

So we cancelled our reservation when we realized it was a bait and switch website. Some one at NPS.gov needs to make them change their name. Here was their response when asking for the 10% booking fee back. Hello, RE: Final Booking Review Your reservation was escalated to the Resolution Department in reference to the 10% booking fee. When you submit an online request to our company it does advise that we charge a booking fee that is non refundable regardless of the reason for cancellation. We are attaching an image of our online form disclosure that states our Terms and Conditions. The online request can not be completed without our clients agreeing to our terms and conditions and entering the credit card information to secure the request. The National Park Service (NPS.gov) does not book any reservations, they hire concessionaires to manage booking for properties inside the parks. We are called National Park Reservations because we are one of the only travel agencies that can book for multiple national parks, as well as multiple concessionaires. On our main landing page we do disclose that: "National Park Reservations is not an authorized concessionaire of any National Park nor are we in any way affiliated with the National Park Service of the Federal Government. For this service, National Park Reservations charges a ten percent non-refundable reservation fee based on the total dollar amount of reservations made." We also provide a link to our terms on every landing page, and ask that you click an indicator box ONLY if you read and agreed to our terms and conditions. We provide our terms, so that you can make a decision whether or not to book with our company. As the terms were agreed to online, and disclosed multiple times prior to booking a reservation, we will not be making any exceptions to our booking policy. BEWARE!!! read more

SCAM, SCAM, SCAM, avoid at all costs- they charge you 10% of hotel room rate to book. Use a mainstream company like Expedia, Booking or go to hotel directly. read more

Complete Bullshut. This is a scam pure and simple. Presented as an authentic park rep, and that they are legit, and hide a 10% charge below the visible line. One click down and I would have made the reservation through the nation park website.. no 10% fee. I hope the state of Montana has the balls to shut down these thieves. Protested the charge and had it removed. read more

Third party website with 10% fee!!! Just call or go online to the park lodging directly and save yourself the money and hassle. This company asks for all your financial information and when you think you are clicking submit to book a room, they tell you they will let you know in 24 hours or more if it's even available. RIP OFF!!!!!! read more

Total scam, now I have to see if I can get back my 10% FEE that was not clearly stated.

National Parks reservation charges an extra 10%. This is not a direct with the national parks. read more

I feel completely mislead. It appears that it's the official booking system for the national park lodging. They kept 10% of our entire stay when we had to cancel, however the hotel at the Nisqually lodge doesn't take any fees and would've canceled for free. I I should've done better homework. Total scam. read more

My fellow consumers, I experienced the same deceptive business practices from this fraudulent website. I was working off a phone and their "10% service fee" is buried in the Ts & Cs. There is SO much fraud and deception on so many levels. Just the look, feel and name of the website posing as a NPS.gov site to start. I filed a dispute with the CC company and filed and FBI business fraud claim as well. The owners are Jim and Debbie Allen, found on the Secretary of State of MT website (so this is not a violation of YELP policies by listing the owner, it's out there on the web). They need to be shut down, fined and return their victim's money. I would love to see a class action lawsuit brought against them. read more

Like others, I was duped by National Parks Reservations thinking I was booking directly with the National Parks Service. I found out, just after booking that I could have booked directly with the hotel (Wawona Hotel, Yosemite) for the same rate WITHOUT paying National Parks' services 10% non-refundable fee. Now, due to COVID-19, the Hotel is closed. The hotel refunded me the room rate, but I cannot get the 10% fee refunded from National Parks Reservations. This Company is a SCAM. Please do not book with them. read more

This company is a scam. They are very deceptive of who they are (looks like you are making a reservation directly with the National Park Service but you are not). They also hide the nonrefundable 10% fee that they charge. You have no idea of this fee until you receive your credit card statement where it shows up as a separate charge. I checked with the Better Business Bureau and there are numerous cases exactly like mine. Despite my trying to be careful and avoid this type of company when I made my reservations for Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia, I was fooled by their web site. I have cancelled my reservations and am disputing the "nonrefundable" 10% charge. Be careful and AVOID NATIONAL PARKS RESERVATIONS. read more

nasty bait and switch business. made us think we had a reservation in Yosemite. not so! when I called to sort it out they hung up on me. AVOID. Someone should shut the scammers down! read more

Deception plain and simple, save your money and book elsewhere. Hidden fees and mark-ups ahead, buyer beware!

Questionable busy practice. When I called they stated they were the official reservation company of National Park Service and there would be no charge for reservations only for there to be a 10% surcharge. Business quality is poor and inefficient. In order to book multiple back and forth phone calls were required. read more

This is a scam do not use. Very misleading. I made a reservation and site asked for 2nd and 3rd choice. I received an email with the reservation for the 3rd choice. When I called to cancel, I was told about the 10% charge and left with a $400 charge. I am interested in fighting the charge as the site is very deceptive read more

This is NOT the national park service reservation group. It is some knock-off that presents itself as making reservations and excursions for national parks. And, to add insult to injury, they SHARE personal information, including credit card information with third parties without your knowledge or permission. read more

What a SCAM!! The National Park Service should shit down these frauds. They are clickbaiting innocent visitors trying to book a reservation in and around the park and charging them 10% fees in that guise. In reality, this is a classic middle man cut, as the actual accommodation has no connection to these frauds. read more

DO NOT USE!! Theft of Service, I made a reservation in April 2023 for myself and my daughter for a May visit to Yosemite . Specifically for May, reservationist made it for November ??? As soon as I received their confirmation ( 10 mins ) I called to advise them of their mistake. They said "would you like to cancel the reservation " Since there was no availability in May I said yes. She charged me 10% or $220 for their mistake. I feel totally ripped off, and scammed . I wish I would have read the other reviews. read more