Reserve America

[scf31]

There must be some kind of system for getting the good sites in Florida, Are there any tips anyone has ?

[HowieE]

If you want a site in any of the more popular parks handled by Reserve America you have to book 11 months in advance. Site come on line 11 months to the day from the check in date and most GOOD SITES will be booked almost immediately.

I got up and was on line at 8am EST the day one site in Oscar Shear was to come on line. I got it and went back to bed.

[Hodag]

I use them for WI State Parks. No real issues, its kinda nicing searching for a spot 1 week before you want to camp and picking up a nice site cancellation.

[Hodag]

Originally Posted by HowieE

If you want a site in any of the more popular parks handled by Reserve America you have to book 11 months in advance. Site come on line 11 months to the day from the check in date and most GOOD SITES will be booked almost immediately.

I got up and was on line at 8am EST the day one site in Oscar Shear was to come on line. I got it and went back to bed.

not that I recomend it...but if you really want a spot

most parks you can reserve a site for multiple weeks after that 11 month date , so in essence you could reserve it 11 1/2 months out, then wait a few months and cancel the days you don't want

[scf31]

I picked up someones cancelation for this Saturday thru Thursday at Bahia Honda SP, We will head out early in the morning,Rode thru there last year, it Looks awesome !!!! around 30 bucks a night , very hard to beat for the Keys, sounds like a good trip report when we return (my first trip report)

[ROBERT CROSS]

We have been camping at Poplar Point in the Adirondacks for 30yrs.

It was always a pain to reserve a site before RA. Sometimes it took more than a few phone calls to get thru to the Ranger when he wasn't out Rangering.
Although we are very familar with the three DEC Campgrounds on Piseco Lake, it was hard too remember just which sites we could fit on after moving up from tenting.



$9.00 works for us.

Your State DMV may be the one responsible for sharing your info and those unwanted subscriptions. It happens in NYS.

[dogpound]

This sure clears up a lot of stuff for me and my wife. We have been receiving several different magazines and had no idea who subscibed to them. We took a trip to the Great Northwest in August 2007 and all (and I mean all) of our reservations were made through RA. Now I know "The rest of the story".
I don't mind RA because several states use them for placing reservations. State of Colorado uses them along with National Forest Park System. We use them at least twice a year.
Bob and Lou
Members Four Corners Unit/CAC
WBCCI # 10105
AIR # 28748

"Life is an adventure, live it to it's fullest."

[Gene]

Now I know why we have been getting Prevention.

It seems to me that once you set up the computer system, that part runs itself and then the fees are mostly profit. I think they are $6 in Colorado for SP's. Combined with the camping fee and the entry fee, it's not very competitive with private campgrounds so far as fees go. Private ones have amenities public campgrounds often do not, though it varies a lot. The public ones are often in a nicer setting, so it depends what you want. Privatizing the reservations system means higher prices.

I like to be able to find information on the internet about the availability and location, but have found that in the winter months RA shows everything reserved though reservations are not accepted. That has been true here in Colorado and I understand also in Cal. In the summer, the website has useful information.

I see that popular places are always reserved unless I reserve them long before I even thought of going there. What happens, I think, is that people that live within a few hundred miles are the ones who get the spots while those of us traveling long distances who make plans a few months ahead don't have much of a chance. When I've tried to use the online systems on the road, it's pretty hopeless the day before. What this means is there aren't enough public campgrounds. Here in western Colorado the FS has been closing campgrounds, not opening new ones.

What I've learned is that attempting to reserve a day or a week before is usually a waste of time. If it's off season or a less popular place, just going there and not reserving makes sense. If I have wifi somewhere beforehand, I may check to see if there are empty spaces at a park, then go there and get a space at the park and avoid the fee. If they have no more spaces, go somewhere else. If the park seems close to full and is a few miles off the highway, we may just go on down the road.

So I don't find the reservation system does much for us (except tell us how popular a campground is) unless we know long in advance what we want—I don't like making reservations months ahead of time for anything. Some destinations leave no choice. But I don't like being tied down to specific dates, especially when I'm traveling long distances and may not be there on the appointed date. What reservation systems do cause is that spontaneity is lost and out of state travelers have less chance at public campgrounds.

I've never tried to call RA. I prefer to avoid the phone because I assume service is poor—"your call is important to us…".

Gene

[jcanavera]

This might be a Florida perk but I do know that we reserved a site through RA for a spot at the state park in Destin a couple of years ago. We decided to leave a day early and got a refund check or a credit back to my credit card a few weeks later. I was surprised to get a refund.

Compare that to the Missouri state park system that uses some other processor. I forgot I had reserved a site from Friday through Monday. I showed up on Thursday and a site was available. I told them that was my error and what I wanted was a Thursday through Sunday site.

Unfortunately they said, because it was done through the Internet, there was no ability to swap my Monday payment for the Thursday charge. In essance I had to pay for Thursday, and lose my money that I had paid for Monday. Now that sucks.

Jack

[Pudentane]

I resent the system and the fee - and they really don't always know what specific sites are available or what the electrical power avaiable is. Unless it will break my heart to find the CG full - the odds or which are small - I opt for showing up at the gate early in the day an usually can get what I want without an extra reservation charge.

Now I know where that subscription for PC Mag came from - I was wondering - it turned out to be useful as I'm about to buy a laptop - so it was worth it this time.

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by Pudentane

I resent the system and the fee - and they really don't always know what specific sites are available or what the electrical power avaiable is. Unless it will break my heart to find the CG full - the odds or which are small - I opt for showing up at the gate early in the day an usually can get what I want without an extra reservation charge.

Now I know where that subscription for PC Mag came from - I was wondering - it turned out to be useful as I'm about to buy a laptop - so it was worth it this time.

That's well and good if you have lots of choices but to drive the distances I drive and not get a site or the site I want....that's unacceptable. I've used them twice and was able to get the exact site I wanted. Maybe the variance deals with the information provided to them from the specific park system.

The fee is there because it's a business and in this day and age a lot of these governmental agencies can't afford the costs much less get the folks to staff a phone reservation system. If you can find someone to do it for you, I can certainly understand why they do it.

We quit camping in the governmental campgrounds at one point after driving hours to either find nothing available or early birds who would arrive and stake out sites for all their pals who got there later in the day.

Maybe when I'm retired I'll be able to be footloose and fancy free and have no time schedule. Until then, I just have to plan ahead, make my reservations and pay a fee. For me I'm $$ ahead knowing that spot is there.

Jack

[Gene]

I think refund and reservation fee policies are for the most part set by the state or federal park systems, not by RA or others. Of course, the private company will try to get the best deal for themselves. It seems to me in this system, the public, which often owns the land, is the voice not heard at the negotiating table. If a private company can make money at this, it seems the state or feds can make a modest profit by setting up a similar system. Then the public benefits and there's a better chance our voices will be heard.

Making reservations at national parks with concessionaires can sometimes be a challenge too. These guys are allowed to charge very high prices for lodging that ranges from clearly substandard to fairly fancy and food that ranges from pretty bad to pretty good.

I think the refund and reservation policies can be pretty rigid. I find the same at private lodgings in many places, and especially at destination motels, hotels and resorts. They know they can get away with it because of demand, though eventually it can bite them. Treat people badly enough, and hopefully, you lose the business. A few people posted the RA phone reservation system is not very good, but others report the online reservation system works well. As I said before, the online system is not good for everyone and no system can satisfy all of us. Part of the problem is that some parks do not leave spaces, or enough spaces, for drive-ins (like a walk-in, but with wheels; feet optional). Without reservations, early arrivals get all the spaces, a situation that can mean driving like a maniac to get there early, or delaying arrival so to get there the next morning. I've been in that situation too.

I think the best way to get what you want is to be internet savvy. A lot of people aren't and that they have to deal with bad telephone systems is unfair.

I have made reservations 4 to 6 months in advance when I had no choice. One time, with the Alaska state ferry system to make sure I could get all the different ferries on our odyssey from Haines to Pr. Rupert, BC; then I made reservations at a bunch of lodgings in the towns we would stay in (no Airstream then). While in Yukon Terr., I realized I'd better start driving to the ferry and made it with a day to spare. In the midst of the Inside Passage, we found out the ferry wasn't coming because of a fire, so we spend an extra 2 days in Petersburg waiting for another ferry, and had to cancel reservations in Wrangell—no problem, but this was a small lodging and I talked to the owner. Stuff happens. It poured every day in Petersburg and Juneau before that and rained everywhere else. I bought a book and spent time in the room being lazy.

It's pretty hard to design a system that works for everyone. I wish the states and the feds could do it themselves, though in recent years they haven't given the chance.

Gene

[StreamNTyme]

I have tried endlessly day in and day out to get a reservation at one of the state parks in the keys for just a week not a month in Jan or Feb next year and every single day all the sites are gone for the day 11 months later, the limit to get a site. So how are people doing this? How do they get enough days in a row to make it a visit, when all the sites for that day 11 months later is gone at 8AM. I can not even get 1 day when that would do me no good anyway. I am frustrated with the snowbirds hogging all the months and wish I could just get a week. If I could figure out how to get a week .

[Gene]

kmtyme, have you tried calling the park directly and going around the RA system? In some states the parks will take reservations directly. At the least, you may be able to find out what's going on and how to solve your problem. it could be the RA system isn't working right. In Colorado (and I've heard in California too) if you try to make an RA reservation at a state park off season (the parks are always open, but I mean the cold months) the RA website will tell you all the spaces are booked. In Florida, the off season is at the other end of the year, but websites often have problems that make no sense. If you can't get through to the specific park, try the state park headquarters and tell them your problem.

While parks were once considered an important part of government services and a major benefit to society, more recently they have been required to pay their own way in terms of money only resulting in much higher fees. Privatization has occurred simultaneously and there's no proof that has resulted in any better service or reduction in costs. Since resources have been diverted from parks while population grows, competition for ever more limited spaces makes it necessary to book 6 months or 11 months or whatever ahead. Spontaneity is lost and those who know how to game the system do best. Our solution is to travel during Fall and Spring, but we are hardly the only ones, so that's getting crowded too. We would like to return to the Keys—I don't think we've been there for at least 15 years—but it sounds like it may not be worth the hassle.

I was checking the Superior National Forest website a couple of days ago. It's in northern Minnesota. It seems RA has lost the business and there's a new reservations system, perhaps a government one. I didn't spend a lot of time on it and never did bother with a new password, etc., but I did find out, at least for that NF, they hold back some spaces for drive-ins. Other park systems do the same. I just e-mailed the NF supervisor to find out a few things, so e-mail's another way to get information.

Gene

[Silverhobby]

I have been using Reserve America for several years now. I have stayed at the "full" campgrounds where there were "reserved" sites left vacant and unattainable for the whole weekend. The ranger said, as long as it is paid for, that's all that matters. The park is making money.

[Jim Foster]

We pulled into Huntington Beach State Park (California) with two other units. They had lots of spaces. When we asked "Can we have these spaces for three nights?" they said "maybe,,,,,,,,,,,we don't know until each morning which spaces are spoken for." We had to go back to the office at 8 each morning to see of we had to move or not.

There is no information shared between the campground office and Reserve America with regard to future reservations. Anyone driving down the highway and seeing empty spaces can not go in and reserve one for a time. They must contact Reserve America, or play the "go to the office each day" game.

Not too handy.........Pull into any privately owned campground with empty spaces and they are ready and willing to rent you one for as long as it is available. As for reservations in high use areas, the same thing. You can call any privately run campground and they will make you a reservation. I have never been charged a "reservation fee" at any privately owned campground. Have you?

[Gene]

RA's reservation fee is $6 in Colorado. I think in other places it can be $10. Once they have the software in place, costs to them are small. You can phone them, and that costs them more, but why do internet users have to pay the same high fee?

I have been charged all sorts of nuisance fees at motels and hotels. Energy fee, safe fee, resort fee, BS fee, etc. Campgrounds more than motels will have wifi fees. Midrange motels have pretty much given up on internet fees, but fancy resorts and expensive motels still charge them. There's less competition in the RV campground world, so wifi fees will be around for a while. Our problem with reservations at private campgrounds is all too often no one answers the phone or we leave a message and no one returns the call; no return call, no business. Then there are excessive propane charges…

Gene

[eubank]

Originally Posted by Jim Foster

We pulled into Huntington Beach State Park (California) with two other units. They had lots of spaces. When we asked "Can we have these spaces for three nights?" they said "maybe,,,,,,,,,,,we don't know until each morning which spaces are spoken for." We had to go back to the office at 8 each morning to see of we had to move or not.

There is no information shared between the campground office and Reserve America with regard to future reservations. Anyone driving down the highway and seeing empty spaces can not go in and reserve one for a time. They must contact Reserve America, or play the "go to the office each day" game.

Not too handy.........Pull into any privately owned campground with empty spaces and they are ready and willing to rent you one for as long as it is available. As for reservations in high use areas, the same thing. You can call any privately run campground and they will make you a reservation. I have never been charged a "reservation fee" at any privately owned campground. Have you?

That's exactly the reason why we told the RA people (and the others) to stick it. We wanted complete control over our own campground.

Gene mentioned wifi at parks, too. It is a problem, I think. First of all, you've got a crowd of owners who often know nothing about setting up a wireless network, so they tend to hire somebody. They often turn to the rent-a-connection types who promise huge profits for the installation. (Duh.) And, of course, there's the geography problem: Many campgrounds are physically set up so that reaching all corners of the property with a signal requires a bunch of infrastructure, if it's done right.

Bottom line: It's the lousy combination of poor knowledge/expertise on the part of owners combined with sales-pitch outfits that can pull the wool over anybody's eyes.


Lynn

[Jim Foster]

The city of Huntington Beach, Ca, operates an RV camping facility called Sunset Vista RV Park, located just south of the pier, right next to the beach. Great location.

Reservations may only be made by mail. No drive-in, or phone, or internet reservations. Very handy for those on the road.

You must pay for the entire reserved time when the reservation is made.

No changes in reservations allowed.

$60.00 per night, $50.00 for seniors (with ID) and disabled (with placard). Spaces have water and electric. There is a dump near the entrance.
Cancellation (with a $10.00 fee) must be made 30 days prior to scheduled entry.

No spaces available during the months of June and July. What's that?

Just makes a feller feel real welcome, Don't it?

[StreamNTyme]

Crawford Gene,
For instance, 8am today 18th of Mar. completely booked for the 18th of Feb. 2010 for all Keys State Parks. Not available yet for 19th of Feb. till tomorrow, but tomorrow morning at 8am. all sites will show booked and so on it goes.