No Reservations?

One thing I learned recently: On-line reservation systems do not show all available campsites at private RV parks and even government-run parks. I made reservations in South Florida for middle to late February this year. I had to wait until mid-November of last year to start reserving when our availability to travel became known.
In at least two cases, the on line booking systems showed no availability, but after calling the parks, the person on the phone was able to find an open slot. I can only speculate that some places hold one or two back from the system, the system is faulty or behind on the availability of sites that come open, or the filters to specify the type of site you need is buggy or poorly designed. On the older system for Texas state parks, the person helping me on the phone suggested I always provide no specifications whatsoever about the type of site I need to be sure I saw what was really available.

In short, call if your computer says they are completely booked.

As the regulars on here know, I am truly a reservation guy. We like to spend our time seeing what we go someplace for rather than be chasing from park to park (if there are more than one in the area) finding a site. Or if they do have one it is very tight, next to the dump station, etc.

And, if you have to cancel, the price is cheap compared to the potential time consumed, added cost, etc.

It also depends upon you desires - we tent camped for decades before we started RVing - now we like FHU.

The answer varies depending on where you want to camp and the type of camping you like to do. I know of non-reservable NFS CG's where we can go on a Sunday through Wednesday morning and get spots. But if you're a family on your annual two week vacation to see some of the National Parks, you should plan on getting reservations early. Otherwise, you won't get into places like Arches or the Yosemite Valley. Often a family wants to camp in the park rather than at a RV park outside the National Park and having to commute in every day.

wowens79 wrote:
I'm finding it harder and harder to find empty sites to make reservations. We are still working, and have kids in school, so we have to go on the weekends. We also like the lake, beach, and mountain parks, so we are typically looking at popular places at popular times.

We didn't reserve for Memorial Day weekend since my son had ankle surgery a couple of weeks ago and we were not sure how mobile he would be. We now would like to go, but I haven't been able to find anything in GA.

We have more and more friends that are getting campers. I'm glad people are getting out and enjoying camping, but dang I wish some would stay home sometimes :)

Are you able to go last minute? It is possible that there will be an opening at whichever campground when people do the cancellation thing. The problem (for us, at least) is that it takes a couple days to get the camper ready and all our stuff loaded - so "last minute" camping trips are hard. If it is nearby campground it might work out for you.

trailertraveler wrote:
We have stayed at over 300 different public and private campgrounds/RV parks located across the country in the past 12 years. We have stayed in 21 different campgrounds/RV parks in 9 states since February 2017. Reservation policies run the full spectrum from just taking a name to charging the cost of the entire stay at the time the reservation is made. Likewise refund policies vary with each park from complete refund to no refund.

Thanks for the head's for the future. Since neither of us will be working by the time we start the RV adventure I imagine we'll have less impromptu emergencies to get in the way of arriving on time. That being said I imagine I'll keep to our norm of making advance reservations as often as possible; not broken so why fix it?:)

folivier wrote:
Do state and national parks keep some sites not reservable?

For Yellowstone, some of the campgrounds are on a reserved basis and the rest are on a first come basis. The campgrounds that don't require reservations fill up very quickly and you need to get there early in the morning to claim a spot. Grand Teton Natl. Park has some no reservation campgrounds that don't fill up quite as fast.

NYCgrrl wrote:

trailertraveler wrote:
How about cancellation fees that can be 100% of the total for the entire stay. Some parks will only give credit for future stays which may amount to a complete forfeit of the deposit if one can not reschedule a visit/trip to that area. Every parks reservation/cancellation policy is different. For those travelling fulltime or for extended periods of time, extensive advance deposits can effect the budget. For these reasons we only make reservations that require advance deposits when we are reasonably sure that we will actually arrive on time and stay the planned amount of time

This is something I haven't encountered although it's not to say it can't happen. Currently, we camp at the same locale for at least a week and sometimes as much as 3 weeks.

We have stayed at over 300 different public and private campgrounds/RV parks located across the country in the past 12 years. We have stayed in 21 different campgrounds/RV parks in 9 states since February 2017. Reservation policies run the full spectrum from just taking a name to charging the cost of the entire stay at the time the reservation is made. Likewise refund policies vary with each park from complete refund to no refund.

to westernrvparkowner:

Thank you for your insight and your policy; the State Park policy of refunds or small cancellation fee is definitely ruining my experience; I've seen so many times now that a SP shows no vacancy and when you go there a large percentage of the sites lie unoccupied all week-end.

I wish the SParks would have a similar mind set to yours

trailertraveler wrote:
How about cancellation fees that can be 100% of the total for the entire stay. Some parks will only give credit for future stays which may amount to a complete forfeit of the deposit if one can not reschedule a visit/trip to that area. Every parks reservation/cancellation policy is different. For those travelling fulltime or for extended periods of time, extensive advance deposits can effect the budget. For these reasons we only make reservations that require advance deposits when we are reasonably sure that we will actually arrive on time and stay the planned amount of time

This is something I haven't encountered although it's not to say it can't happen. Currently, we camp at the same locale for at least a week and sometimes as much as 3 weeks. Should I miss one or even two days due to life, I just call the camp's office and let them know my new ETA and the site is held for us. I'm out the full cost of any nights I've missed but still have the remainder.
Not sure how this will play out once we set to touring the continent with shorter stays though.

Tvov wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
Because of the reservation systems. It is almost impossible to get reservations for state parks for weekends anymore. Many are completely booked for every weekend within walking day after the reservation period opens. And then many sites sit open and unused because reservations are cancelled at the last minute. And campsites sit empty and unpaid for all week because only two days are booked and many travelers want a place to stay all week. It is no wonder that many state and COE campgrounds sit empty ty and losing money.

I've got no problem with campgrounds "keeping" the reservation fee if you cancel, or at least charge for one full night. Or, better yet, keep it as a "credit" for a future reservation. With most places keeping computerized records these days, it is not hard to keep track of that.

We did this last year... had to cancel a weekend at a New Jersey county campground due to a family emergency. They have a "No Refunds" policy (I think because it was last minute), BUT they will give you credit for a future stay. So this spring I called up to make a reservation at the same campground and the nice lady said I was already paid for, as I had that credit - which I had forgot about.

I hear so many stories of people "gaming the system" and playing with reservations that making a No or just partial refund policy would help to reduce that... and allow other people to use (and pay for!) those campsites.

If there are not substantial financial penalties for cancellations, people will gladly overbook and then prune their reservation tree at the last minute, or just accept the small fee as the cost of doing business. This hurts everyone but them. The other travelers are shut out of getting a reservation, the park loses money because there are empty sites and people who have the other reservations are upset because some of the best sites are reserved, yet not occupied.
Giving credit for future stays is the same as not charging a fee at all to most people. They are going to go to that park at some time, just not that rainy weekend they booked 6 months ago. Plus there is a cost to carrying those deposits, processing the cancellations and then making the new reservations that incurred by the park. Stiff cancellation fees only hurt the people who cancel, everyone else benefits and that isn't necessarily a bad outcome.
Our policy is clearly posted and explained, therefore we do not generally waiver from it. On a space available basis, we may waive a cancellation fee if the guest is running a day late and needs to bump their reservation, but that is about the limit. We don't get into the Judge Judy role of determining a valid versus and invalid reason for a cancellation. As we developed and refined our policies over the years, we have found that our cancellations dropped dramatically when we increased those fees and tightened the exceptions, yet the number of reservations stayed the same while the occupancy levels increased. It became apparent to us that the tougher policies just weeded out the "maybe will will come" reservations from the actually will come reservations.