Blue Lake Resort

I had to booked in January so I could get a lake front site. The only available site was for September. Even though Blue Lake calls it a “deposit” they charged me the full amount of my stay at the time I booked. So essentially, I pre-paid $285.60 for the site, 9 months in advance.
Most campsites have a non-refundable booking fee, other campsites charge $10 to cancel, but Blue Lake charges full fees up front and only give back 50% if you cancel less than 2 weeks before your stay. If they rent the site again, there is a chance to get more back.
I ended up with an emergency medical situation and had to cancel. I canceled on Aug 30, which was the soonest I knew I would not be unable to make it. Blue Lake refused to refund my anything because they said I was one day past the 2 week deadline, and according to their customer support email “The cancellation policy is clearly laid out and we do not cheat it”
I had an unforeseen medical emergency. You think that some leniency could be given as a compassionate gesture, but they refused to make any concession and kept ALL of my money.
To add to my bad luck, my booking was for Sept 12 – 15 which happened to be the worst timing. There was an out- of-control forest Fire near Hope. People were being evacuated from homes in the area, smoke was very thick with health warnings in place, and Hwy 1 was closed in places. It is no wonder that nobody wanted to book the site once I cancelled. If there was no fire, I am certain that the site would have been rebooked because it was still very warm and dry conditions. Both circumstances that caused me to lose close to $300 were beyond my control.
I will definitely not go back to Blue Lake Resort. I cannot afford to throw money away if an emergency happens again. I was a loyal a return customer, but I will no longer recommend Blue Lake to my friends and family. There are plenty of campsites that do not have such a harsh cancelation policy.
To be so inflexible under the circumstances shows to me that Blue Lake is more concerned with profit rather than promoting Customer Service