Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/17/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hipcamp overcharged additional guests we did not have. I contacted the business and they were stalling on the refund. Then I was suppose to get a refund for a night stay that we did not use due to thunderstorms. We paid $343 for a one night camping trip. I'm asking for a refund of $230. I've attempted to contact the business with no luck.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/19/2023

  Hi, 
  
  Please find attached our entire correspondence regarding this refund. 
  
  As per our standard processes, we do in fact need to clarify situations such as this with a Host before issuing a refund. This is not "stalling" - this is simply part of us doing our due diligence to ensure all particulars of the booking and the requested refund are correct. We have unfortunately had instances in the past where campers have falsely requested refunds when one is not warranted, therefore we extend our Hosts the courtesy of reaching out to them before a refund is issued that will impact the payout they receive.
  
  The Host's listing makes it very clear how to add children to a booking and receive the correct rate. Hipcamp is not responsible for a guest's failure to read and adhere to those instructions, nor are Hipcamp responsible for any delays incurred in receiving a refund as a result of a guest's failure to read and adhere to those instructions. 

  Our agents responded to your initial refund request in under 12 hours, and were communicative with you throughout this process. Yes, it can take Hosts a few days to respond to us; they are busy human beings. Hipcamp unfortunately do not have the supernatural ability to psychically compel Hosts to respond to our outreach on a timeline that best suits their guests' demands; as with many things in life, a little patience is sometimes required and always appreciated. Our standard process is to give Hosts a 3 days to respond to our outreach, and and this situation was in no means anomalous in this regard. 
  
  In future, we heartily recommend that guests read a Host's listing prior to making a booking. This is a great way to ensure you understand not only the features and amenities of a property, but also helps avoid any pricing or charging errors incurred as a result of user error. 
  
  Many thanks, 
  
  Hipcamp Support

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/30/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I booked a campsite through the website, Hipcamp. The place was advertised as spacious, nice, and clean. Upon arrival, this place was atrocious. The property does not look as advertised. At the front of the property, I was greeted with a political flag that said, "fuck your feelings." This was extremely inappropriate. Pulling in the driveway, you are greeted with two gross looking, broken down toilets in a rotting building. The "campsites" are very small and very close together. The area where the campsite was not well kept or cared for. The private residence located next to the property looked like a literal dump. I did not feel safe there and decided to leave. I left the site within 30 minutes, notified the "host" and did not stay there. I contacted the company for a refund. They told me that all the power for this comes from the host, who scammed me. Of course, they denied the refund. The business stated that they have no buyer protection, and the hosts are allowed to do whatever they want. Although this host violated their policy, the company was not willing to do anything about it except "educate the host." I pointed out that I was scammed by this host and the company did not appear to care. They offered a credit for half the amount to use on future purchases on their website, however, I have no desire to use this website in the future. I feel as if I was scammed by this host and the website does not have any safeguard to protect the buyer in these situations. Furthermore, I uploaded a egitive review to the hosts page that is not visible. I beleive that negitive reviews are hidden, further scamming buyers.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/03/2022

  Please refer to our most recent correspondence regarding this booking:
  
  "Thanks so much for getting back to me and sharing your thoughts on how this situation has been addressed thus far. I'd love to talk through our decision-making process a little more!
   
  Firstly, with regards to your review: reviews on Hipcamp operate on a double-blind system. Hosts have three days to leave a review of a camper, and campers have 14 days to leave a review of a Host. Hipcampers' reviews will not be visible on the website until after the Host's three-day review window has closed; this is to prevent Hosts from leaving negative reviews of a camper in retaliation for an honest review from a Hipcamper that they *** not like. Similarly, when a Host leaves a review of a camper, the review will not appear on the camper's account until the camper's 14 day review window has closed. 
   
  When we receive complaints regarding "scams" or inaccurate/misleading listings from Hipcampers, part of our process involves reviewing the Host's previous bookings, reviews, and recommend rates as these help us determine whether a listing is genuinely inappropriate, misleading or a "scam," or whether there *** be other factors influencing a camper complaint such as mismatched expectations or an interpersonal conflict. 
   
  On our end, we can see that this Host has received 250 bookings to date, with 171 of those taking the time to leave a positive "yes" recommend; the property currently has a 98% recommend rate. We have also historically not received any complaints regarding the listing being inaccurate or misleading, and three separate bookings who were on site at the same time you were submitted positive reviews of their experience. 
  
  Given these factors, our team have determined that there is insufficient evidence that the listing is a "scam," or that it is an inaccurate, misleading or false representation of the property. 
   
  With regards to the ***** "f**k your feelings" flag: whilst we do not allow hate symbols to be on display on properties with our inclusion policy, we do not consider ***** merchandise or signage to be a hate symbol at this time. It is not on the list of hate symbols in the *** resource we linked to in our policy, which helps guide our thinking of what we would consider a hate symbol. We would of course want to step in and make sure changes were made if the Host was displaying something we do consider to be a hate symbol.
  
  I did discuss with the Host the fact that the flag caused you to feel uncomfortable, and that it could cause future guests to also feel uncomfortable, however the existence of the flag itself is not a breach of our Inclusion Policy. In our divided country, we really do hope and believe that Hipcamp can bring lots of different people together that *** not have otherwise met through the shared love of the outdoors. We really hope that common ground can be found in ways that *** not always be expected! 
   
  I hope this has helped clarify our processes here, ******* Please do let me know if there is anything you'd like me to explain in more detail, or if you have any questions!"
  
  A full transcript has been attached, which clearly demonstrates that at no point did Hipcamp state "Hosts are allowed to do whatever they want." 
  
  Please also refer to the following:
  
  Hipcamp's Inclusion Policy: https://support.hipcamp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049636632
  
  Hipcamp's FAQ on reviews, clearly indicating that reviews will be publicly visible after the relevant review window has closed: https://support.hipcamp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025120551-How-do-public-reviews-work-on-Hipcamp-
  
  A link to the Hipcamp property in question, clearly showing that your review has now posted publicly following the Host's review window closing: https://www.hipcamp.com/en-AU/*******/north-shore-relic-ranch/north-shore-relic-ranch-unfurled#group_size=6&adults=6
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/20/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I conducted numerous photo shoots for Hipcamp in July 2022, as a photo contractor. The second day of my shoot resulted in being sexually assaulted by one of their campsite owners, so a hotel charge was covered by the company. That is the only payment I have received from them for my 9 photo shoots. I have billed them numerous times, the first time a billing request was sent, I was told payment would be received shortly, it just needed to be programmed on their end - that was in September. I have yet to receive payment for any of my shoots conducted in July.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/30/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I made a reservation for a campsite for 2 days I had a personal emergency and had to cancel a few hours later while on my way there I read that although I made the reservation hours earlier that the campsite has a 3 day cancellation prior to the date of the reservation therefore I'm out $40 the owner of the campsite wouldn't acknowledge that they were going to refund my money but Hipcamp says in their FAQ's it's going to take **** days to get my money back If I could burn $40 I'd be dumb right? Looks like I did regardless if I wanted to or not

  Business Response

  Date: 08/01/2022

  Hi *******! I looked up your booking and saw that you made it and cancelled it the same day, but that you haven't yet asked the Host if they were open to refunding you. Since it was a last minute booking, their cancel policy means that they will need to make that decision. We would recommend you ask, they could be very open to it given the circumstances! If you want help from Hipcamp Support, we can ask the Host on your behalf. You can always file a ticket to get our help, we are very responsive to support inquiries. I've just sent you an email to see what we can do to help you out further here. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/21/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I booked a hipcamp based on the location it was listed under. Upon receiving the confirmation o saw it was not in the area we were going to be traveling. I cancelled it immediately (within an hour) and the host refused to refund me. I reached out to the company and they denied my refund as well.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/29/2022

  Hi ********! I can see we helped you out with a refund. I'm sorry about the confusion with where the site was, you can always check the map to see where the pin is for the exact location, because when you search for a specific town or city name, search results will return all Hipcamps in that general area, they aren't limited to your search term. I'm sorry about the confusion but I'm glad we could help you out with a refund.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/09/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hipcamp cancelled my hosting account without warning. I inquired with Hipcamp, and I spoke with ********. She told me there were five negative reviews out of over 100 and read me two of them. One involved a person getting stuck during the rain and another involved a complaint the grass wasn't mowed. I don't advertise that I mow the grass and cannot be accountable for campers getting stuck in the rain.I have been treated very poorly by this ********** company after hosting over 100 campers for this startup. I have asked for my data, including all reviews, and am told I will be contacted by *******. My return campers do not have a means to book the campsite. Now I have to scramble to maintain market access. No violations of the listing agreement were provided.