A camper checks in on a Friday, stays the weekend, leaves Sunday afternoon happy. Two weeks later the park gets an email from Stripe with the subject line "Dispute received." The cardholder is claiming the charge was unauthorized, or the service was not rendered, or both. The money is already gone from the park's balance. Most parks lose chargebacks they should win because of evidence quality, not the underlying facts. The playbook below is what wins them back.
The four flavors of chargeback (and which one you usually face)
Card networks categorize disputes by reason code. The four you will see in a campground inbox:
- Fraud / unauthorized. "I never made this charge." Usually a stolen card or, more often, a family member booking on someone else's card without telling them.
- Services not rendered. "I paid but never received the stay." Either an honest no-show that the guest is now reframing, or a guest who arrived, was unhappy, and is now trying the bank instead of you.
- Item not as described. "The site was nothing like the listing." High-subjectivity claim. Hard to lose if the photos at check-in and the listing photos line up.
- Friendly fraud. The single most common flavor in parks. The cardholder did stay. They know they did. They are disputing because they assumed the bank is easier than your refund policy. The fix is evidence, not argument.
The clock starts the moment the email lands
Stripe gives you about 7 to 10 calendar days to respond on most disputes. Square is similar. Both reach an automatic loss if you miss the window. The dispute notice almost always lands in a spam folder, on a Saturday, while you are dealing with a check-in line. Set a filter in your park email so disputes route to a dedicated label and to your phone notifications. The single most common reason a park loses a chargeback is not bad facts. It is missing the deadline.
Weak response vs. winning response
| What weak responses look like | What winning responses look like |
|---|---|
| "The guest stayed at our park, this charge is valid." | "Cardholder occupied Site 17 from Aug 8 to Aug 10. Attached: signed registration, photo of ID at check-in, timestamped photos of cardholder's vehicle (plate visible) on site, departure log, full email thread." |
| "They booked online, here's the receipt." | "Booking confirmation with timestamp, originating IP, and email opens. Cardholder previously booked twice in 2025 (transactions [IDs] attached) establishing pattern of recognition." |
| "We have a no-refund policy." | "Cancellation policy (Exhibit D) agreed to at booking. Cardholder did not cancel before the policy threshold and was not a no-show." |
The five-document kit you need for every chargeback
Visa and Mastercard have specific compelling-evidence requirements. The shortcut is to keep these five items per stay, automatically, so when a dispute comes you assemble in 20 minutes instead of starting from zero.
- Signed registration agreement with the cancellation policy text the guest agreed to.
- Photo of the guest's government-issued ID taken at check-in. (Yes, ask for ID. Yes, photograph it.)
- Photo of the camper's vehicle on site, license plate visible, timestamped.
- Stay log: arrival time, departure time, any services rendered (Wi-Fi access, propane, store purchases).
- Full email and text thread with the guest, exported as PDF.
Field note: Never write to the bank as if you are writing to the customer. The dispute analyst reading your response does not care about your reputation, your feelings about the guest, or the moral case. They want a checklist of evidence that matches the network's compelling-evidence requirements. Clinical wins. Emotional loses.
Free template: chargeback response cover letter + evidence kit (PDF)
The template covers dispute information capture, the 12-item evidence checklist matched to Visa and Mastercard requirements, and an editable cover letter you attach as the lead document of your response. View inline, download, fill in the brackets, attach the exhibits.
Three mistakes that lose chargebacks you should win
- Sending the original receipt only. The receipt is what the cardholder is disputing. You need everything around the receipt that proves the stay happened.
- Arguing the cancellation policy without proving the guest agreed to it. Attach the booking flow screen the guest clicked through. Stripe has this in audit logs.
- Skipping the prior-recognized-transactions exhibit. If the cardholder has stayed at your park before on the same card, attach those transaction IDs. It defeats the "I do not recognize this charge" reason code single-handed.
Legal disclaimer
This article and the linked template are provided by Campground Management as an editable starting point. Neither is legal advice. Chargeback rules vary by card network, by issuing bank, and by processor. Confirm specific evidence requirements with your processor's dispute documentation before submitting a response.
About the author
Sean Hakes is the founder of Campground Management. He has spent the last decade working with independent parks on payment infrastructure, disputes, and the small operational habits that win money back. Send him a note if you want a hand setting up the evidence pipeline for your park.
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