monkey44 wrote:
When the original RA came up, it charged three bucks, now at eight or nine bucks, and a seventeen cancel or change dates fee
Those fees are what the state charges.
RA charges the state a flat fee per transaction. The fee varies a bit by state, with low number of transaction states like Louisiana paying near $5, and high transaction states like CA or the federal government paying near $4.
The state of CA was likely already making just as much money per reservation as Reserve America/ Active Networks.
Looking at the ReserveCalifornia web site - here are the major differences I see.
1. Customer Service support hours have been cut more than in half with the new operation.
2. Whoever designed the website expects all users have high speed full-time web access. It is extremely high graphics intensive. Making the website very un-friendly to people having to use a cell phone or a low speed wireless connection.
3. The search filters are horrible. There is a reason that RA had the search filters it used - tens of millions of reservations. It is no secret or proprietary data that people want to search by location, dates, available amenities such as water, power, sewer, etc.
If you almost never make reservations, haven't used Recreation.gov or RA frequently, then your comments are inaccurate or irrelevant.
