Reservation blues - UPDATED

[2oldman]

CA state parks recently opened back up, so I hightailed it back to one of my favorites. Every site in this park is reservable, including the no-hookup ones (grr), so I checked the reservation board daily until day of arrival. I really don't want to reserve ahead of time because I'm a long rig, and if there are campers across the street I can't back into a site.

I got all set up, paid cash for a couple nights (reservations must be 3 days out) then went online to reserve for another 12 days. Sure enough, someone had reserved my site, for ONE night. This is by no means a busy crowded park, there must be 40 other sites that are not reserved. Just my luck.

Now the rangers come around warning me that I may have to move if the person insists on taking my site for a night. My reply was that I will bargain with them and gladly reimburse them for their payment, and a bit more for their understanding. I can't imagine anyone being so unreasonable as to insist I move for one night. It's not like this park is full.. unreserved spaces are everywhere, including right around me. I think I did my due diligence and just had a spat of bad luck. Many times one-night reservations don't even show up.

I wish CA would consider that not every campsite has to be reservable. Leave some open for FCFS. At least that's how I would run it.

[CavemanCharlie]

dieseltruckdriver wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:
In MN State Parks all spots are reserveable 120 days out for up to 2 weeks at a time. Same day reservations are also accepted. So if I want a certain spot I reserve it 120 days before hand. The system is purdy easy to navigate.

Iowa and SD State Parks are 90 days out but have some first come first serve spots.

Some of the county parks are I frequent are all first come first serve spots with a 7 day maximum. But, some people, at my favorite park, break that rule and stay there longer. Sometimes much longer. I hate to be a rat but, if the park is crowded this summer I might start turning people in for that.

Just FYI, there are not many first come first serve sites at SD state parks. There are a handful of campgrounds that are, but not many. At every campground I have been to, if a campground is on the reservation system, the whole campground is reserve only. County and city parks are a different story.

Your right, me bad, I should have said that just Iowa parks have some first come first, serve sites. I shouldn't have included SD in that part of the sentence.

[2oldman]

The fun isn't over yet. The sewage systems backed up and they closed one of the 3 bathrooms. One hasn't worked in years, and another is open. They also closed the 4 hookup sites, and kicked someone out who had a long reservation. They are turning away new dry campers for now, but there's no notice on the website nor at the guard shack. Beats me why they do that.. just don't use the bathrooms. Must be some legal thing.

This always seems to happen after a weekend, where I suspect people put things in the toilet they aren't supposed to. That's a guess.. I don't know what the problem is. They threatened to evict everyone, but since I'm self-contained with a long reservation, I get to stay...for now.

This is a beautiful place but it's old and they do have their share of problems.

[dieseltruckdriv]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
In MN State Parks all spots are reserveable 120 days out for up to 2 weeks at a time. Same day reservations are also accepted. So if I want a certain spot I reserve it 120 days before hand. The system is purdy easy to navigate.

Iowa and SD State Parks are 90 days out but have some first come first serve spots.

Some of the county parks are I frequent are all first come first serve spots with a 7 day maximum. But, some people, at my favorite park, break that rule and stay there longer. Sometimes much longer. I hate to be a rat but, if the park is crowded this summer I might start turning people in for that.

Just FYI, there are not many first come first serve sites at SD state parks. There are a handful of campgrounds that are, but not many. At every campground I have been to, if a campground is on the reservation system, the whole campground is reserve only. County and city parks are a different story.

[BarabooBob]

We once stayed at Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin, due to it being a spur of the moment decision to take the trip, we ended up moving three times during the week that we were there. We even had to leave our TT in a parking lot next to their maintenance building for 8 hours because we wanted to get an early start to our day and didn;t want to wait for that night's site to get vacated. We are easy going and just go with the flow.

Edit-We had to move twice, used three sites during the week.

[CavemanCharlie]

In MN State Parks all spots are reserveable 120 days out for up to 2 weeks at a time. Same day reservations are also accepted. So if I want a certain spot I reserve it 120 days before hand. The system is purdy easy to navigate.

Iowa and SD State Parks are 90 days out but have some first come first serve spots.

Some of the county parks are I frequent are all first come first serve spots with a 7 day maximum. But, some people, at my favorite park, break that rule and stay there longer. Sometimes much longer. I hate to be a rat but, if the park is crowded this summer I might start turning people in for that.

[Grit_dog]

Understand the frustration, sort of, but as professional RVers, as many are here, it should be evident that if you need reservations, you need reservations and there is no preference based on age, ability or otherwise.
Glad it worked out, but I also wouldn’t expect the park employee to care about or try to negotiate the “deal” you proposed.

Think about changing your habits. The ability to “wing it” based on what you think you know, is not guaranteed.

[Sjm9911]

I would have booked another site just in case someone came. My luck the whole park would be booked that day, lol. Yea its weird, but i do book day only sites when traveling, and really dont care where i am. But if approched by someone else to take another site, it would be a bit weird and i may not do it because i am generally distrusting of others.

[MFL]

Thanks for the UPDATE! I am glad it worked out like it did, but would think most folks would be understanding, and would have changed their site.

Jerry

[2oldman]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
why didnt OP reserve it for the whole 14 days to begin with?

I already explained that.

[2oldman]

Seon wrote:
This thread inspired me to book a weekend space at a CA State campground. Went on a reservation site but dummy me booked at a wrong campground :S .

LOL. It's not an easy site to navigate.

[2oldman]

way2roll wrote:
If I were to summarize, you are upset because someone reserved your site when you chose not to? How is someone on line supposed to know not to book an open site because you are there and wanted to keep it?

Walaby is right, (and thank you) I wasn't upset with someone else, I was more upset with the simple luck of the draw where someone just happened to book one site out of about 40 at the exact worst time for me to show up, set up, and discover that. In all honesty I should have verified my site was available before setting up, but sometimes the reservecalifornia site is difficult to navigate, and I just thought the odds of that happening were small.

It's a big job for me to move, and I'm also suffering back pain which doesn't help. I was praying a nice person who wouldn't consider making me move would show up, but the rangers were not as understanding.

All is well today. Nobody showed up, as I well expected. It was a stressful day, but we're good. I'm not sure if people book and just abandon it, or forget about it, or there's some glitch in the reservation system.

[way2roll]

Walaby wrote:

way2roll wrote:
If I were to summarize, you are upset because someone reserved your site when you chose not to? How is someone on line supposed to know not to book an open site because you are there and wanted to keep it? If you wanted to stay there why didn't you just book it yourself? Maybe I am missing something.

Yeah, I think your missing something. I believe he said reservations could only be made 3 days out. He found his site open, took it for two days, tried to make the reservation for day 3 through 12 (remember, reservations 3 days out), and someone had already reserved it.

I don't think he's "upset" or mad. He's got the reservation for day 4 through whatever, and hoping he can convince the person who has it for one day to take another spot.

If I were that person, and there were open spots that I could fit into near it, I'd switch no problem. Different story if that was the only site open I could fit in. And I wouldn't accept your money Oldman.. I'd just consider it an act of kindness that is far to rare in today's society unfortunately.

Mike

Yes that does make sense. Thanks. I agree, I have no problem switching with another camper. Have done so on a few occasions.

[Seon]

This thread inspired me to book a weekend space at a CA State campground. Went on a reservation site but dummy me booked at a wrong campground :S .

[Walaby]

way2roll wrote:
If I were to summarize, you are upset because someone reserved your site when you chose not to? How is someone on line supposed to know not to book an open site because you are there and wanted to keep it? If you wanted to stay there why didn't you just book it yourself? Maybe I am missing something.

Yeah, I think your missing something. I believe he said reservations could only be made 3 days out. He found his site open, took it for two days, tried to make the reservation for day 3 through 12 (remember, reservations 3 days out), and someone had already reserved it.

I don't think he's "upset" or mad. He's got the reservation for day 4 through whatever, and hoping he can convince the person who has it for one day to take another spot.

If I were that person, and there were open spots that I could fit into near it, I'd switch no problem. Different story if that was the only site open I could fit in. And I wouldn't accept your money Oldman.. I'd just consider it an act of kindness that is far to rare in today's society unfortunately.

Mike