Reserve America: a minor rant.

[mosseater]

For those of you who book ahead, what do you think of Reserve America's software format? Pa State Parks went to this service and I really dislike it. I've used it several times for other bookings in other states and it just seems overly cluttered, glitchy, and not intuitive at all. I always find myself getting irritated when I use it. And now, since almost all our travels throughout the season are in PA, I get to use it every time I book. Very disappointed and told them so. That and $1.06 will get me coffee at McDonald, I know. I'm sure they have a very good reason for screwing up the system they had. They were even starting to put pictures of each site on the net when booking so you can see exactly what you're getting. Now that's out the window too. Grrrrrr.....

[BubbaChris]

puttd wrote:
IMICHABOD,

There are areas where you lose the entire fee and then have to pay a penalty. So, if you have something unexpected come up, and you can't go, you don't cancel. Tough nougies to the people who might want to use that limited resource and can't plan a vacation because the site isn't reported as free.

We had to drop out of a local trip last year at a point where cancelling would not have made a difference to our pocketbook. The next week we found out my DW's co-worker went up there unplanned and used our spot because it was empty. But she hadn't taken note of the name on the pedestal.

I'm disappointed we won't likely be trying any parks in Nevada this year as everything we've investigated so far is first-come, first-served. Our friend mentioned above frequently reserves a Group Site at one of those parks because it is the only part of the park you can reserve.

[Mich_F]

puttd wrote:
I wish that the cancellation fee weren't so high. i have had instances where I wanted to cancel, but because I had reserved with the disability pass, it actually cost me less to just not show up, sometimes by alot.

I reserved and stayed at a FL. state park last Sat.,Sun and Mon. Late Mon. evening, a friend who works at the park, invited me out fishing on Tues the 24th. I didn't want to drive home after a full day out on the water, so I went online (on my smart phone) and saw there was an open site (2 actually) for the following day, so I reserved one.
I went up to the ranger station Tue. morning, to tell them what I was doing, only to find out the site I had reserved, was for a Tues in April, not Feb. 24th. :S
They told me they might have 1 site open and to check in later. I went out fishing and was called by them (a courtesy call she said) about 12:40, and was told if I got right up there I could get the site. I told her that would be difficult and she said they weren't allowed to hold sites, but she would see what she could do and would call back later. She called back about an hour later and told me that if I got there by 5:00, I could still get the site.
I got there around 4:00 and paid for the site. It was very nice of them to "bend the rules" for me.
I ended paying $22.75 for the site (since I'm a "senior" Fl resident and get a sizable discount). It then cost $17.75 to cancel the reservation for the 1 day in April. 🙂

[schlep1967]

One issue PA State Parks has had for years is related to length of unit. It seems that the person they had enter possible lengths for the individual campsites either went with odd (15, 25, 35) lengths or even (10,20,30,40) lengths or just put in the maximum length. So if you enter 35 feet in a site that the computer sees as 40 feet it will not show up as available. And after booking using the new system this week it seems the same problem has carried over.

When talking to a woman that worked in the local state park she said she puts in 10 feet and electric and it will give her every available electric site in the park. Which works for her because she know how big every site in the park is. Doesn't do much for a person online trying to book a space at a park he has never been to.

[wbwood]

I've u8sed it for different states and it all looks the same to me...never have had a problem. They've changed the format recently, but once you get used to it, then it's no problem.

[IAMICHABOD]

wnjj wrote:

Washington's system only lets your reserve days that are actually within the window. The problem with that system is I had to log in each morning for 4 separate mornings to reserve 1 day at a time for a group camp site to be sure we got consecutive days.

LA County uses this method on a 90 day window and it is the easiest and most friendly and fair way to reserve a site Its rules are the best I have seen.

Reserve America should adopt their rules.

[IAMICHABOD]

puttd wrote:
IMICHABOD,

There are areas where you lose the entire fee and then have to pay a penalty. So, if you have something unexpected come up, and you can't go, you don't cancel. Tough nougies to the people who might want to use that limited resource and can't plan a vacation because the site isn't reported as free.

I have not seen any Reserve America sites that do that but if you can show me some language from a particular state that does I would like to see.

[puttd]

IMICHABOD,

There are areas where you lose the entire fee and then have to pay a penalty. So, if you have something unexpected come up, and you can't go, you don't cancel. Tough nougies to the people who might want to use that limited resource and can't plan a vacation because the site isn't reported as free.

[bukhrn]

wildtoad wrote:
I don't really have an issue with the technology. I'd rather complain about the high booking fees but that would not be productive either. Information and pictures about each park varies, but not sure who you is to blame for that.

I agree with wildtoad, I have no problem with the site it's self, but I hate that they charge you to make a reservation.
I've only used PA's old reservation system once, but find RA a lot easier.

[BubbaChris]

RA works pretty good for me, and I'm tickled to learn it will help me find a spot and hand me off to Recreation.gov for the actual booking when appropriate.

I do find the functionality is different on different platforms. For example, it behaves much more reliably for me using my Windows PC and the Chrome browser. I can't seem to get the same efficient behavior from my iPad (then again I'm still fairly new to IOS). Other folks that complain about things like the Map/Zoom function may be running into similar issues.

[wnjj]

IAMICHABOD wrote:
I wish that the cancellation fee was a lot higher or you had to pay at lest one days fee for each day canceled.

That would stop the game playing that people do by reserving a whole week or 2 just to get a certain day then canceling all but the day or 2 and leaving others out

I like the way Oregon does it.

"If you reserve a site/area for 6 nights/days or longer and then make a change that reduces the time of your stay, you must pay a fee equal to the nightly/daily use fee for each night/day canceled as well as the $8 transaction fee. The $8 transaction fee applies to all site/date changes regardless of length of stay."

That would stop it I think.

People would use that method to reserve something say, 9 months and 1 week out when the normal window is 9 months away. They'd reserve a 10-day stay starting 9 months from out then cancelled the first several days to keep the 2nd weekend.

Washington's system only lets your reserve days that are actually within the window. The problem with that system is I had to log in each morning for 4 separate mornings to reserve 1 day at a time for a group camp site to be sure we got consecutive days.

[IAMICHABOD]

I wish that the cancellation fee was a lot higher or you had to pay at lest one days fee for each day canceled.

That would stop the game playing that people do by reserving a whole week or 2 just to get a certain day then canceling all but the day or 2 and leaving others out

I like the way Oregon does it.

"If you reserve a site/area for 6 nights/days or longer and then make a change that reduces the time of your stay, you must pay a fee equal to the nightly/daily use fee for each night/day canceled as well as the $8 transaction fee. The $8 transaction fee applies to all site/date changes regardless of length of stay."

That would stop it I think.

[hawkeye-08]

It is what it is, they have room for improvements... for sure.

[puttd]

I wish that the cancellation fee weren't so high. i have had instances where I wanted to cancel, but because I had reserved with the disability pass, it actually cost me less to just not show up, sometimes by alot.

[rr2254545]

rockhillmanor wrote:
I think the issue of making reservations in advance is surely a problem for RV'er's trying to plan for a vacation or that special weekend or maybe a planned Snowbird destination.

Those of us who full-time don't have those constraints.

I don't think any of us should be forced to pay extra fees by having to use Reserve America. I think it is just laziness on the part of the CG and I am sure they are getting some sort of kickback on those fees too.

I full time and tried Reserve America ONCE when I was a newbie full timer and never again. In fact I never got out of their change your dates jail and went elsewhere where I could talk to a human.

Since tht day I have not made a reservation for any CG in the past 6 years. :W

Then you are missing out on some of the best campground in the country. State parks in Oregon, Florida and Ohio that I have used lately

This is your loss