What is it with campgrounds nowadays?

JaxDad wrote:
I'm sure it doesn't apply to all parks but I've discovered that with good many parks, even public ones, it's the computerized reservation system that's the problem.

If I want to book a particular site for a week but someone has booked a single day in the middle it will just say the site is 'unavailable' or 'booked' but not show the dates it's booked.

I see this most often in places that are on major routes and someone books a single night on their way through. The Parks Canada system along the Trans-Canada Hwy is notorious for this. Thankfully however their system now let's you see what days are booked so you can work around it.

Yes, that is how any system I have seen works, and it is probably the way it should work. As upset as someone would be to not be able to make reservation under your scenario, they would probably be more upset if the system booked them a seven night stay and when they checked in they found out they had to change sites every day. This is why we don't put an availability calendar online, don't assign specific sites when you reserve, and why we have humans handle all reservations, both online and phone reservations. We can make changes to make those reservations work. BTW, in your scenario, that full week reservation only works if the park is not sold out on the day that one night stay is reserved and if any other available site will hold that rig. What if the one night reservation requested a huge pull thru because they are a 40foot fifth wheel towing a ski boat and all the other available sites are short back in sites and you are also a big rig? There still would be no way to accommodate your full week even though the park had multiple vacancies.