daily occupied/not occupied switch for permanent campsites

[HayesCCamp]

We have about 100 permanent/seasonal campsites. Wish there was a way to easily mark or indicate what permanent campsites were actally occupied on a given night, since the campers are only allowed 12 nights use per month (anything over 12 nights they pay extra fees). Also, because of our contact with the adjacent National Forest, we pay the Forest Service a fee per every camper who accesses the Forest from our property. So wish there was a way to easily mark or indicate if that permanent camper accessed the forest that day. Right now we use a pencil/paper grid and enter in X's (occupied) and O's (occupied AND accessed the forest). Then monthly we count up all these X's and O's. Wish there was an easier and more efficient way.
For our nightly campers we have two different reservation/charges types (same $$ rate), and that's how we account if the campsite accessed the forest that day. We'll take a 'guess' when the guest checks in of how many days of their stay they will enter the forest, then on check-out we will correct if sigificantly different.
Saw on a different thread about future plans to make CGM work to mark a motel room clean/or dirty and maybe this process could be similar.

[sspielbusch]

The way this is sometimes done is by using the "Owner" reservation type for the long-term or seasonal reservation, and then use a a "Normal" or "Free Stay" reservation type on top of that (for the same person) when they're actually on site. If you prefer it to be called something other than Free Stay, you can add a new Reservation Type (in the Pick Lists) -- just make sure the Base Type is still Free Stay (you can't add base types).

If you don't want to use the Owner reservation type (because it does leave the site "available" for bookings even through the name is shown on the site), another alternative would be to add them as a a Guest reservation, which again would be on top of the existing seasonal or long-term reservation. However if you're wantingstatistics of when they're here, it's still a good idea to use a spacial reservation type for the seasonals so you can count them separately from the short-term stays.

[HayesCCamp]

Yes, but the process of overlaying 'guest' and 'owner' reservations would take quite a few keystrokes for every time the permanent camper comes and goes (which can be several times per month, like every weekend). Make a guest reservation, for the right customer, check them in, check them out, and then the next weekend go through the whole process again. As far as I can tell, the guest reservations do not show up on the rack, so if someone comes in on a Friday, and we don't know how long they are staying (a weekend or a week?), then we need to go back into the reservation to adjust the dates when they actually leave. Just wish there was an easier way, like just a toggle switch type of indication.

[sspielbusch]

Overlaying Guest reservations does take a few steps. However if the main reservation is "Owner", there is a right-click function on the Rack "Reserve for the site owner". So you just right-click the first date they're there, select that option, add a few days if needed (eg. click "+1D"), and click Done (or Check In). So it just takes a few mouse clicks, no typing, and will show on the Rack as a different color for those days.

A toggle for when they're here, as you mentioned, could be added (you can do it by adding a field and using Advanced Customizations to put it on the Reservation Details, etc.), however that doesn't keep a record of when the person has actually been on site in the past.