Saving sites - opinions

Wow lots of antagonism here.

We have a class c. No toad.

In Provincial Parks in BC there are a couple systems for payment. A gate house, where you pay first and are assigned a site, a evening walk around by a camp host who collects fees, or the honour system, when you put your money in a post.

Gate house model, we get both a paper for the windshield and one for the post.

Evening walk model, we do not get any paperwork until late in the day (could be 8 plus hours after arriving), ticket for post and windshield.

Honour system, usually nothing for vehicle or post.

Private campgrounds, no post for put up a ticket.

If camping close to home, we sometimes drive the car as well as class c. If the car arrives first and there is no gatehouse, we put a couple chairs and a cone with our name on it at the site. There is no way to make a payment right away.

Then the driver of the car may go for a local drive to check our amenities and attractions, plus pick up any last minute groceries and ice before the rv arrives.

The arrival time of the RV has never been more than an hour after the car. Often the RV arrives first.

Now that the kids are older, we could leave one of them at the site.

We always stay and pay from the day we arrive.

Jayco23FB wrote:
Lately we have been seeing more and more none paid "site saving" in campgrounds. What we typically see is a camp chair sitting in the drive of the site. I find it incredibly rude when people do this. Last weekend we went to a remote USFS campground where 5 of the 18 sites were saved this way. And of course they were all of the best sites. The people didnt show up until hours later. I dont have an issue if someone gets there early and PAYS for the sites but just saving sites at first come sites isn't right. What do you think?

Must say I don't remember ever having any problems with this.
Actually if there's a host onsite the chair thing ain't happening.

I do agree it is inconsiderate to expect others that show up ready to camp to move on because you think you have reserved with a chair.

In our case a camp chair or kooler left in a site meant for saving was never in a spot we'd want anyway.
Seems there were always other open sites we liked better.

We camphost in New Mexico State parks and we, not the campers,run the campground. If you Reserve a site then that is the site you get. We do get people who reserve too small a site for their trailer or come in and say they don't like the site they reserved and if I have a walk in site that I can give them then I will and if not then they get what they reserved. All the sites are listed on the reservation system as to size, location and so on so they have no right to complain. Absolutly no walk in sites are saved by other campers and until a camper arrives aand pays then they own a site, whatever site is available period. We stick to the rules and everything runs smooth that way. I don't care if you are in a ten dollar tent or a one hundred thousand dollar motorhome you get treated fairly and equally always. If we have a problem, which is rare, we call the ranger and he comes down and explains to the camper that we run the campground by the rules and there is nothing else to discuss. Our handicap site is only occupied by a handicaped person or it stays empty. I really don't see how the campground in question can operate that way. No way I could work for them.

Go Dogs wrote:
Gee, If this is a frequent occurrence, (you reserve a spot, someone else takes it, and the camp host won't help), you are doing something wrong. This has never happened to us, once. I would not blame the guy with a little trailer, I would re-examine the way I booked my sites.
If you have a super large RV and require a special spot, better go to the high-priced parks or stay at the Wal-Mart. If you don't want to reserve, you take your chances.

That's why I reserve....

Since we don't go to the same camp each time the only way I have to book is to call and specifically request a site large enough for my trailer.... I'm not looking for the spot with the best view or the best fishing spot... just a site that we can park our trailer and TV in without hanging out in the road.. I'm very attentive to asking the right questions and getting it in writing... The fly in the ointment is the guy with the little trailer...

As for making the camp host move the guy... The DW says that at 64 I'm to old to make the guy move and you think I'm gonna ask a guy who is old enough to be my dad to go make some 40 year old punk move his trailer... Right...

This doesn't happen every time we go, but it isn't a once in a lifetime experience either...

Gee, If this is a frequent occurrence, (you reserve a spot, someone else takes it, and the camp host won't help), you are doing something wrong. This has never happened to us, once. I would not blame the guy with a little trailer, I would re-examine the way I booked my sites.
If you have a super large RV and require a special spot, better go to the high-priced parks or stay at the Wal-Mart. If you don't want to reserve, you take your chances.

what you are describing is a totally different thing than this thread is addressing. If I reserve site #50,site #50 had dang well better be waiting for me and I will not be leaving without a full cash refund and a handful of freebies, even if that means my rig "breaks down" blocking the entrance road.

On the RV suitable to site size issue I have come across a few CGs which follow this policy. It is for their own good. A class B may be able to get into a site suitable for as class A moho but the class A moho is not going to fit into a site suitable for a Class B.

If tenters, small trailers, small class Cs have taken up all of the large sites the CG loses. The larger rigs take their money elsewhere. The CG most likely has empty sites that the smaller rigs could have used.

The assumption is that all sites are more or less equal as far as views & access to CG amenities go.

It is called having consideration for others. That RVer with the large rig could be a fulltimer, or a multi month traveler who does not know every park & does not make reservations because he does not know where he will be from day to day not a weekend camper who goes to the same park every weekend & knows every site well.

Only recently we had to move in a Washington SP because there was no tag on the post to indicate that it was reserved. It was one of only a few sites capable of taking our size in the park. No special views. Not close to the restroom. Nothing special about it at all except the size of it. Turns out the rig that reserved it was a tiny Scamp TT which could have easily gotten into any one of a number sites in the park.

Had we not been able to shoehorn ourselves into a site & let 10' of our length hang out behind the site, the CG would have lost our 6 night stay. The Scamp only stayed 2 nights.

beemerphile1 wrote:

Javi1 wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:

I understand that some campgrounds only guarantee a site but not which one. I assume those parks are what you are referring to.

Unfortunately for you, if I get there first I will take whichever site I want.

It would be really STUPID for me to pass up a site that I like because someone with a larger rig MIGHT want it. I would feel even more stupid if the site I wanted sat empty all through my stay because you never showed! You obviously believe that you have some sort of entitlement, you don't.

Once again... I RESERVE MY SITE WELL IN ADVANCE... often as much as a year ahead...

I have driven hundreds of miles to arrive at a campground that I had reserved a 60 foot spot in several months in advance only to find someone who like you feels that my reservation is not important because they want to park their little pop-up in that spot... so I have a choice... blow off my vacation, lose my money that I paid to reserve that spot and head home...

If you are so jealous of the fact that my $20,000 trailer is longer than yours.... tough poop

I hope someday real soon you take a rare vacation from a 50-60 hour work week and find some guy just like you in the spot you reserved...

Huh? I definitely am not jealous, don't know where that came from. If you reserve a SPECIFIC site like say number 20, then you are entitled to that site. If not, you get whatever site is available when you arrive. I really don't understand your hostility.

Hostility... well try this...

More than once in the past I've called and made a reservation for specifically a 55 or 60 foot spot... was assured that one would be available on a specific date for a specified time period.. Paid my money in good faith and worked, saved and waited until the appointed day to arrive..

Hooked-up, loaded up the DW and pups... drove hundreds of miles to arrive and checked-in and was assigned a site... only to drive down with great anticipation of a week of relaxation.... What do I find in my site... A little pop-up or small trailer... Stop and ask the guy if this is site ____, yeah he says... I say well it was assigned to me just now... he says tough poop... take another

So I go back to the office and the folks in charge say.... He did what???? We'll fix it stay here....

Thirty minutes later they come back and say... we got another site for you, it's only a 20ft but I think we can squeeze you in...

So I ask why I can't have the site I paid for... Well, we asked but the fellow said to tell you to take that big piece of poop and shove it... He like that spot and he ain't leaving.

Please don't give us a hard time about it.. just take the smaller site and it'll all work out.. I asked, what site did he reserve... answer.... None he pulled in last night and we told him to take the site we're putting you in... When we did our rounds this morning... there he was...

Well, we drove by the site and there was no way we could put our trailer in there... So we just left.... Guy said he would try to get us a refund but doubted it would happen.. He was really apologetic but that didn't help a lot...

Other times have been similar......

We tried a little trailer but the DW is slightly claustrophobic and this was the smallest trailer she has been able to handle.... We work all year for a week off and it sucks to have it ruined by some punk who feels he is entitled to park where he wants...

Excuse me for feeling that my time and money is worth just as much as yours...


Good night and may you experience the same thing, then you'll understand..... or not

Javi1 wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:

Javi1 wrote:

I DO RESERVE and I do get P.O.'d at those who think they deserve a 60 foot site for their 18 foot trailer. and don't care that I paid my money and drove however many miles to get there only to find that they decided they should take a big spot because they can. it ain't courteous and it ain't right.

I understand that some campgrounds only guarantee a site but not which one. I assume those parks are what you are referring to.

Unfortunately for you, if I get there first I will take whichever site I want.

It would be really STUPID for me to pass up a site that I like because someone with a larger rig MIGHT want it. I would feel even more stupid if the site I wanted sat empty all through my stay because you never showed! You obviously believe that you have some sort of entitlement, you don't.

Once again... I RESERVE MY SITE WELL IN ADVANCE... often as much as a year ahead...

I have driven hundreds of miles to arrive at a campground that I had reserved a 60 foot spot in several months in advance only to find someone who like you feels that my reservation is not important because they want to park their little pop-up in that spot... so I have a choice... blow off my vacation, lose my money that I paid to reserve that spot and head home...

If you are so jealous of the fact that my $20,000 trailer is longer than yours.... tough poop

I hope someday real soon you take a rare vacation from a 50-60 hour work week and find some guy just like you in the spot you reserved...

I'm confused. If you reserve a specific site and someone is in it when you get there can't you have the camp host make the squatter move to another site?

Javi1 wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:

I understand that some campgrounds only guarantee a site but not which one. I assume those parks are what you are referring to.

Unfortunately for you, if I get there first I will take whichever site I want.

It would be really STUPID for me to pass up a site that I like because someone with a larger rig MIGHT want it. I would feel even more stupid if the site I wanted sat empty all through my stay because you never showed! You obviously believe that you have some sort of entitlement, you don't.

Once again... I RESERVE MY SITE WELL IN ADVANCE... often as much as a year ahead...

I have driven hundreds of miles to arrive at a campground that I had reserved a 60 foot spot in several months in advance only to find someone who like you feels that my reservation is not important because they want to park their little pop-up in that spot... so I have a choice... blow off my vacation, lose my money that I paid to reserve that spot and head home...

If you are so jealous of the fact that my $20,000 trailer is longer than yours.... tough poop

I hope someday real soon you take a rare vacation from a 50-60 hour work week and find some guy just like you in the spot you reserved...

Huh? I definitely am not jealous, don't know where that came from. If you reserve a SPECIFIC site like say number 20, then you are entitled to that site. If not, you get whatever site is available when you arrive. I really don't understand your hostility.