Should my park map have rules on it?
Yes, and it is the single best place for them, because it is the one piece of paper a guest actually keeps.
Short answer
Yes. A rules sheet posted on the office wall is read by nobody; rules printed on the map a guest uses to find their site get read by everyone. Print the ones that change behaviour: check-in and check-out, quiet hours, pets, fires, speed limit, and generators. Keep the wording plain and in your own voice. Rules in print also settle disputes, because a guest who was handed the rule at check-in has a harder time arguing they never knew.
Why print beats posted
The map goes into the cab or onto the dash. The rules go with it. A sign by the office is passed at 15 miles an hour by someone looking for their site number, and a laminated sheet in the bathhouse is read by nobody who is not already there.
Which rules to print
The ones that change what a guest does: check-in and check-out, quiet hours, pets and where they go, fires and firewood, speed limit, generators, vehicles per site. Your full legal terms can live on your website or the registration form; the map carries the ones that matter at 7 p.m. on a Friday.
Wording that works
Plain and warm. "Quiet hours are 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Generators off at 10." Not a wall of capitals and threats. Guests read the tone as much as the content, and a guide that sounds friendly gets followed about as well as one that sounds angry, with fewer arguments at the office.
The enforcement benefit
Parks tell us the same thing: a printed rule handed over at check-in is much easier to point at later. "It is on the guide we gave you" ends most conversations that would otherwise go on for a while.
Related questions.
Where should campground rules be printed?
On the guide you hand out at check-in. It is the one piece of paper guests keep and refer to.
How many rules should I print?
The ones that change behaviour, usually six to ten. The full legal terms belong on the registration form.
Should rules be in capitals?
No. Plain sentences read better and get followed about as well, with fewer arguments.
Does printing rules help with enforcement?
Yes. Parks report it is much easier to point at a rule the guest was handed than one on a sign they drove past.
More on what's on it: What should be on an RV park map? · What do I put on the back of a campground map? · How many pages should a park guide be? · all questions
Want a map for your park?
Send a site list and an aerial photo and we will draw it. Free when local businesses sponsor it, or bought outright with no ads.