Reserve America is just about the only was to grab a site these days sort of walking up praying for an available site.I have herd from more than one person that the trick is to be on te site at EXACTLY 8:00AM & be redy to search & select your site. I hae herd from others that it's midnight!Whats the real deal on reserving a site on Reserve America?

It's not so much a trick as a problem with the system.If you try for a specific site or time frame, if ANY ONE of those days is taken or overlaps, you can't make the reservation.Assume you want two weeks in Yellowstone, and you pick a site and dates. IF someone has a weekend, or even ONE day in your date choice, it rejects it. The only trick I can see is to look at the sites, find sites that are open first -- say you can get seven days on one site, five on another and two on another. Then you make three reservations -- and decide if moving, and paying three RA fees is worth it. When we reserve here in Florida state parks, we look at the sites open for the day we want to start, then look at how many days each of those sites is open longest days in a row, then reserve that site for those days ... then find another site that is open on the day after the first reservation, and see which one has the longest time frame open and reserve that one. We usually only have to move once in two weeks (and we are easy to move - a Truck Camper) The other way to do it is "show up" take one or two days open at a time - usually, unless it's peak season, at least a few sites are open between reservations, but no one asks which ones online (can't ask, actually) So, it depends on how much time and effort (and reserve fees) you want to spend getting camping days in a specific area.We've been camping all over the USA for a lot of years, and I can remember only a few times we had no luck with at least one or two nights in any CG. And, then we spend a day or so occasionally in overflow until something opens.Is it a hassle - NOPE -- we make the effort because we don't want to get stuck with a reservation we can't get to, or when we decide we want to spend more days where we are before leaving ... Families have different issues, but the same sequence of searching will often get you the days you want, even if it means a move or two - and an extra fee) And, we all are 'fairly mobile' -- that's what RV is all about.

It is in the morning, not midnight.The trick is to see what is available, look at the pictures and description and decide if it is for you. Have alternatives as well.Once you put in a site to the reservation spot, that site is assigned to you, giving you time to arrange payment. I think that you have 10, 15, or 20 minutes. Often, spots get assigned, but then the reservation does not actually get paid for, so they become available after that 10,15, or 20 minutes expires. It's worth trying again if you don't get it right.

mchero wrote:Reserve America is just about the only was to grab a site these days sort of walking up praying for an available site.I have herd from more than one person that the trick is to be on te site at EXACTLY 8:00AM & be redy to search & select your site. I hae herd from others that it's midnight!Whats the real deal on reserving a site on Reserve America?It really depends on what state or states you are making reservations for. As a for instance, CT, allows you to book no more than 11 months in advance but NYS allows you to book 9 months in advance. I generally book around 2 in the morning on the day the window opens and have no problems since I already did my research and know what my favorite sites are. reserveamerica also helps the date challenged amongst us by allowing you to put in an earlier than the window date reservation and then telling you it's not opened yet for reservations and what the actual date IS for making one;). Now the Fed system for booking @ Fire Island's National Seashore is not a part of reserveamerica so I go to that site separately and book at the stroke of midnight. And cross my toes and fingers since the system is slower and not as intuitive as RA's. HTH!

monkey44 wrote:It's not so much a trick as a problem with the system.If you try for a specific site or time frame, if ANY ONE of those days is taken or overlaps, you can't make the reservation.Assume you want two weeks in Yellowstone, and you pick a site and dates. IF someone has a weekend, or even ONE day in your date choice, it rejects it. The only trick I can see is to look at the sites, find sites that are open first -- say you can get seven days on one site, five on another and two on another. Then you make three reservations -- and decide if moving, and paying three RA fees is worth it. When we reserve here in Florida state parks, we look at the sites open for the day we want to start, then look at how many days each of those sites is open longest days in a row, then reserve that site for those days ... then find another site that is open on the day after the first reservation, and see which one has the longest time frame open and reserve that one. We usually only have to move once in two weeks (and we are easy to move - a Truck Camper) The other way to do it is "show up" take one or two days open at a time - usually, unless it's peak season, at least a few sites are open between reservations, but no one asks which ones online (can't ask, actually) So, it depends on how much time and effort (and reserve fees) you want to spend getting camping days in a specific area.We've been camping all over the USA for a lot of years, and I can remember only a few times we had no luck with at least one or two nights in any CG. And, then we spend a day or so occasionally in overflow until something opens.Is it a hassle - NOPE -- we make the effort because we don't want to get stuck with a reservation we can't get to, or when we decide we want to spend more days where we are before leaving ... Families have different issues, but the same sequence of searching will often get you the days you want, even if it means a move or two - and an extra fee) And, we all are 'fairly mobile' -- that's what RV is all about.RA added a "Not Flexible", "Flexible for 2 weeks", and "Flexible for 4 weeks" drop down to their opening page for making reservations a year or so back. Makes life a little easier although I wish they would add an ending date box for reservations instead of simply how many nights you want to stay.

mchero wrote:Reserve America is just about the only was to grab a site these days sort of walking up praying for an available site.I have herd from more than one person that the trick is to be on te site at EXACTLY 8:00AM & be redy to search & select your site. I hae herd from others that it's midnight!Whats the real deal on reserving a site on Reserve America?It's more like be on the RA site BEFORE 8:00:00am, have your campsite scoped out and be ready to hit "book now" right at the stroke of 8:00:00 a.m. And then be ready to see "Inventory Not Available" at 08:00:01 as I always do when trying to get that ever-elusive waterfront site at Bahia Honda. Ahhh.....someday ;)

OK, What's the trick to reserving on Reserve America?

2gypsies1
Explorer III
Jul 21, 2015
noplace2 wrote:
Big Katuna wrote:

That's another thing that RA does that gripes me is they will stick a pop up in a 40' site.

OH dear god, the horror!!!!!

That's not Reserve America's fault. I believe when you make reservations, you can put in what size your RV is. I'm sure many folks with small RVs put in a 40' just to get the added space. How does RA know if you're telling the truth or not?

Florida may be different than many other states but with our 40' motorhome we rarely made reservations unless we really needed to be in a place at a certain time - like visiting relatives. We don't like to be that structured. We honestly have never been turned away because there were no sites available. We arrive early morning when folks are leaving. We've stayed in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon and the state parks down the Oregon coast without reservations. We utilized forest service and COE campgrounds. We don't need hookups so perhaps that makes it easier for us.

Also, we found many campgrounds do not reserve all the sites. Some are left open for drive-ins. There are even campgrounds in the major national parks that don't accept reservations. It's not everyone's way of travel but it worked very well for us.
titanhick
Explorer
Mar 20, 2016
hey guys - kinda sad to see all the trouble must go thought to reserve through reserve america. On the other hand, I can easily understand, they're the most beautiful and a whole less expensive than private campgrounds around.

I suspect the nearby private campgrounds to be aware of that, and boost prices because people have NO CHOICE!

I KNOW how to give myself good odds on reserveamerica.com and I can most probably help you. MAIL ME: tcm@distromtl.com

...or reply in here, I believe I will be warned of replies, but emails would just be better.

Meanwhile, have fun and good luck, fellow campers!!!
time2roll
Nomad
Mar 20, 2016
If I post the tricks then how will I get a site? ;)

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