Staying Connected with Your Guests - Chat Box

Chat allows campgrounds and guests to communicate directly within the reservation. Each reservation has its own dedicated chat thread, making it easy to keep conversations organized and tied to the correct booking.

Important: Chat is disabled by default for all campgrounds. Guests will not be able to send messages until Enable Chat has been turned on within Campground Settings.

You will want to go to Campground Settings > Reservation Settings and scroll to the bottom of the page. Locate Enable Chat, switch it on, and select Save.

Once enabled, guests will be able to send messages from their reservation and campground staff will be able to respond directly from Campground Reservations.

Chat Availability

Chat remains active while a reservation is active.

If a reservation is declined, cancelled, or expires, the conversation automatically becomes read-only. Both the campground and guest can continue viewing previous messages, but no additional messages can be sent.

For Enterprise campgrounds, Chat remains available for two weeks after check-out or cancellation before becoming read-only.

Built-In Security Features

To help protect both guests and campground staff:

Credit card numbers are automatically blocked from being sent through Chat.
Profanity filtering is enabled.
Links are scanned for safety before being delivered.

Campground and Staff Visibility

Guests will see messages coming from the campground rather than individual staff members. Staff names are not displayed within the conversation.

Disabling Chat

If Chat is turned off while active conversations exist, the following rules apply:

Conversations with existing messages remain available for 48 hours.
Conversations without any messages close immediately.
After 48 hours, active conversations automatically become read-only.
Guests are not notified when Chat is disabled.

If Chat is re-enabled during the 48-hour window, existing conversations will continue where they left off.

If the 48-hour window has passed, new chat threads will be created for open reservations moving forward.

Access Messages from the Messages Center

The quickest way to manage guest conversations is through the Messages Center.

Select the Messages icon located in the upper-left corner of the screen.

A panel will open displaying all reservations with active conversations. Any unread messages will display a notification badge so you can quickly identify reservations that need attention.

Select the reservation you would like to view and the conversation will open.

From here, you can review previous messages, type a response, and select Submit to send your reply.

Example Questions You May Receive

Guests commonly use Chat to ask questions such as:

Is my site close to the bathrooms?
Can I have a site next to my friends?
Can I check in early?
Do you allow late arrivals?
Are pets allowed at my site?

All messages remain attached to the reservation for future reference.

Message a Guest from a Reservation

You can also open a conversation directly from the reservation itself. Open the reservation and locate the Guest Information section. Select Message Guest and the conversation window will open.

This is often the easiest option when you're already reviewing a reservation and need to respond to a guest question. Any messages sent from this screen will automatically be added to the reservation's conversation history.

Guest Notifications

When a campground sends a message, the guest will receive an email notification letting them know a new message is available.

The guest can open their reservation, view the message, and reply directly through Guest Chat.

Important: Email notifications for chat messages are available to guests, but they must be enabled within the guest's Good Sam account before notifications will be sent. Guests can manage this setting by opening the Chat window and selecting "Get email notifications for new messages." If this option is not enabled, guests can still access and respond to messages through the chat interface, but they will not receive email alerts when new messages are received from the campground.

Need More Help?

If you have any questions about Guest Chat or need assistance enabling the feature, please contact [email protected] and our team will be happy to help.