First choice reservations. Scam???

The way they operate is they have you set up your reserveamerica account, they take over your account and credit card info and their super fast computer and software makes the reservation for you in your own name. They charge per day for this service. It is site specific. They do not buy up sites and sell them. I have not used them, would never give credit card number nor pay that much.

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:


I don't have first hand experience with the name change thing, but we see posts frequently on this forum about name changes and selling spots in Florida state parks (a Reserve America reservation system)
....

I do not recall seeing posters here reselling Florida State Park sites; certainly not frequent resale offers. I'd be surprised if the moderators would allow such.

I have posted before cancelling a site, in hopes a fellow forum member might be able to use the dates. Not really a name change though, just offering them a timing options so they can be seated at the computer ready to book when I cancel.

garmp1 wrote:
Not necessarily the first choice site, but in the same vane. Has anyone heard of or used WanderLabs? They seem to offer a similar service, but sounds to be more up front. Almost tempted to try them but I haven't tried either, just throwing it our there.

I have two free requests in with them. I'll see in a few weeks how well it works out before I decide whether to upgrade with a donation or not. I do think their concept is more reasonable than First Choice. And less likely to get shut out by ReserveAmerica...

I have built a program to do pretty much the same thing. You run it in multiple windows on a few different computers and it checks every few seconds for a site to be canceled and when one is it holds it and sends an email for me to check it. I also can use it for sites when they first become available and have a bunch of session hitting it. They are doing the same thing imagine.

Not necessarily the first choice site, but in the same vane. Has anyone heard of or used WanderLabs? They seem to offer a similar service, but sounds to be more up front. Almost tempted to try them but I haven't tried either, just throwing it our there.

DrewE wrote:

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

I doubt that they are buying up a bunch of sites and reselling them. That would show up quickly if people started changing the name of the primary camper. When we got to Zion NP last Nov they wanted my drivers license to verify my name matched the name on the reservation.

I've seen an increase in checking the reservation name against an id in recent months.

I don't think ReserveAmerica lets you change the name a reservation is under (i.e. transfer it to someone else). About all that can be done is to cancel it and coordinate with whomever you're "transferring" it to so that they reserve the newly-cancelled reservation as soon as it comes available again.

My guess is that Reserve America will do what they can to block access to them and similar companies that are operating contrary to their terms of service. I rather hope so; I don't really like having professional campsite reservation scalpers to compete with.

They already have a "I am not a rob". And hope they can stop people from reserving multiple sites. It's getting impossible to get a site in The Florida Keys.

"You need to contact us BEFORE the site becomes available on Reserve America".

I wouldn't trust this site at all..... besides.... we don't make reservations and don't have problems.

http://firstchoicereservations.com/

DrewE wrote:
i don't think ReserveAmerica lets you change the name a reservation is under (i.e. transfer it to someone else). About all that can be done is to cancel it and coordinate with whomever you're "transferring" it to so that they reserve the newly-cancelled reservation as soon as it comes available again.

My guess is that Reserve America will do what they can to block access to them and similar companies that are operating contrary to their terms of service. I rather hope so; I don't really like having professional campsite reservation scalpers to compete with.

I don't have first hand experience with the name change thing, but we see posts frequently on this forum about name changes and selling spots in Florida state parks (a Reserve America reservation system)

Frankly, I've been able to change a name a few times at the COE and once under USFS. I usually had multiple spots reserved and was able to authorize friends to use the other spots. Our camping group used to have one person reserve five or six spots for a weekend. The names would be changed when we arrived.

They may be not allowing that any longer. As I mentioned, I've seen a change at COE parks in Texas in the past year to ensure the name on the reservation was actually the person checking in. Once we came in late, setup in our spot and the DW went to the gate the next morning. She came back and told me that I had to check in because my name, not hers was on the reservation.

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
It isn't terrible hard for a good programmer to write a program to flood the Reserve America / Recreation.gov web site with thousands of requests for a site, group of sites.

I doubt that they are buying up a bunch of sites and reselling them. That would show up quickly if people started changing the name of the primary camper. When we got to Zion NP last Nov they wanted my drivers license to verify my name matched the name on the reservation.

I've seen an increase in checking the reservation name against an id in recent months.

I would not be surprised if we start having to enter one of those "I am not a bot" scrambled puzzle things soon.

When folks start complaining on this site about that - remind them why.

Pretty much this. The algorithm needed would not be that hard to write and I'd assume they'd put most effort into the most popular parks already listed on/or about to be listed on reserveamerica.com.

I have to say I really don't have any problems booking the exact spot I want at any park as long as I remember what day and time the reservation window opens.

At this point all my camping trips have been in the NE and perhaps my reservation experiences will change as I go to other regions in the country.

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

I doubt that they are buying up a bunch of sites and reselling them. That would show up quickly if people started changing the name of the primary camper. When we got to Zion NP last Nov they wanted my drivers license to verify my name matched the name on the reservation.

I've seen an increase in checking the reservation name against an id in recent months.

I don't think ReserveAmerica lets you change the name a reservation is under (i.e. transfer it to someone else). About all that can be done is to cancel it and coordinate with whomever you're "transferring" it to so that they reserve the newly-cancelled reservation as soon as it comes available again.

My guess is that Reserve America will do what they can to block access to them and similar companies that are operating contrary to their terms of service. I rather hope so; I don't really like having professional campsite reservation scalpers to compete with.