Camping at a state park can require a tough reservation — and extra fees. Are they legal?
Last fall, James Chowning set his sights on booking a campsite at San Onofre State Beach, one of the most visited state parks in California, renowned for its surf break and access to sandstone bluffs.
The campsite at the San Diego County beach would cost $45. But when the Northern California resident went to finalize his reservation, he says he was charged another $8.25 in fees at checkout.
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Chowning is now a plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit filed last week that alleges that a government contractor illegally added this reservation fee in the final stage of the online purchasing process — what’s known as a “junk fee,” a last-minute, mandatory charge.
The fee is added to any camping reservation booked on ReserveCalifornia.com — the website visitors use to book one of the roughly 13,000 available campsites at state parks.
Each year, California’s state park campgrounds get about 6.5 million visitors, and San Diego County is an especially popular destination with about 1 million, according to the most recent visitation data from the state agency.
Last year, more than 136,000 reservations were made at the county’s state parks and beaches, with the most — 41,918 — at South Carlsbad State Beach, according to parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno.
California state law bans businesses from selling a product without including the full cost, including those mandatory fees, up front. In other words: “The price that’s advertised is not the price you can actually buy the thing for,” said Wesley Griffith, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
The contractor — Tyler Technologies, based in Plano, Texas — has operated the state’s campground and lodging reservation system on ReserveCalifornia.com since August, after entering into a 10-year contract with the state in December 2023.
It’s a no-cost contract, according to the state agency, meaning the state does not pay the company for designing and operating the site. Instead, Tyler Technologies is paid via the transaction processing fees it charges. When Tyler Technologies started managing the online system last August, the transaction fee rose from $7.99 to $8.25, according to the state parks FAQ page.
The price of state park campsites ranges from about $20 and $50 — meaning an $8.25 additional fee could make the final price a camper pays as much as 40% higher. According to the complaint, Tyler Technologies could make nearly $400 million in reservation processing fees over its 10-year contract.
The state parks system and Tyler Technologies declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, alleges that Tyler Technologies did not comply with California and federal law, a requirement that was stipulated in its contract with the state.
One of the goals of the litigation is for a judge to force Tyler Technologies to comply with the state’s Honest Pricing Law going forward. The plaintiffs’ lawyers also want it to pay back all consumers who paid the fee, and to clearly state during the transaction process where the fee is going.
There is no apparent reference to Tyler Technologies on the Reserve California website, which the complaint argues leads consumers to believe that the transaction fee will go toward the state parks.
“It deceives consumers into thinking they’re going to fund the park service, when their money is really going to this publicly traded company based out of Texas,” Griffith said.
He said that if plaintiffs like Chowning had known the fee would go to Tyler Technologies, they might have opted instead to make a reservation in-person at the state park.
State park visitation numbers often rise during the upcoming summer months. And some state park officials expect even more visitors this year, due to the uncertainty surrounding national parks and forests, some of which have closed campgrounds and halted services amid staffing cuts by the Trump administration.
Of California’s 280 state parks, 17 lie in San Diego County — and several of those rank high for visitors. In this year’s “Best of California’s State Parks” poll, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Torrey Pines State Beach, Cardiff State Beach and Palomar Mountain State Park each took home a top spot or honorable mention.