Campground Reservation Management System

The Commonwealth of Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, on behalf of the Kentucky Horse Park, is requesting proposals for a cloud-based campground reservation management system to replace the incumbent Aspira platform, with proposals due September 14, 2026 at 3:30 p.m. ET under RFP 758 2600000490. The vendor compensation model is entirely fee-based, with no state payments — the vendor charges campers per-reservation fees (currently $6.00), transaction-modification fees, and cancellation fees, all retained by the vendor; the vendor must serve as Merchant of Record and absorb payment-processing and gateway costs.

The scope includes an online and 365-day-per-year call center (minimum 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time) supporting approximately 13,000 annual reservations across 260 paved campsites with water and electric hookups, 55 primitive electric sites, and over 100 primitive non-electric sites. The platform must deliver real-time availability tracking, interactive campsite mapping, configurable cancellation and refund policies, payment processing integration compliant with PCI-DSS, customer database management, comprehensive reporting (exportable as Excel, CSV, PDF), and administrative access for approximately 18 KHP staff. All 12 years of historical data from the incumbent system will be migrated in SQL backup format. The system must be hosted on a FedRAMP-certified moderate platform (AWS Commercial, Azure Commercial, or GCP Commercial acceptable) and comply with SOC 2 Type II auditing standards, NIST 800-53 moderate-level security controls, and modern authentication standards (SAML 2.0, WSFED, OAuth, or OpenID Connect); any AI-driven features require prior approval from the Commonwealth's AI Governance Committee.

The initial contract term is two years from award, with four optional two-year renewals available upon mutual agreement, extending up to ten years total. The Commonwealth is tax-exempt; federal excise tax and Kentucky sales and use tax must not be included in pricing. Price adjustments are prohibited during the first twelve months; thereafter, increases require industry-wide justification and thirty days' notice. Proposals are evaluated on technical merit (maximum 800 points across seven criteria including executive summary, technical approach, implementation plan, project management, disaster recovery, turnover procedures, and security), cost (maximum 800 points), and optional oral presentations or demonstrations (maximum 400 points), for a possible total of 2,000 points. Proposals scoring below 50 percent of maximum technical points do not advance to cost evaluation. The Commonwealth reserves the right to negotiate with the top-ranked vendor or successively with lower-ranked vendors if negotiations fail, and may extend the contract to other state agencies with vendor consent. No set-asides or preferences are identified. Addendum 3, posted August 7, 2026, confirms no vendors' written questions were received and maintains the September 14 deadline.