'Aggressive' camping reservation system sparks calls for change

The system is very broken and extremely frustrating, I gave up trying to reserve and bought my own site, I now have my own private site to do with as I please when I please
no more reservations, I leave the trailer up there year round and just load up the family and we are camping within an hour and a half,
 
Similar issues here in Alberta. Big problems with people booking their max stay blocks (up to 16 days) then changing the reservation to only the days they need. Another problem is people 'sliding' their reservation by pushing the dates back until they get what they want/need.

Thankfully, we have first rights of refusal for our annual month long pilgrimage to the Comox Valley. It's taken years to build up the 'seniority' but it has its perks!
 
Province would never give up the reservations cash cow and go back to first come first serve, unfortunately. I agree that its darn near impossible to book a spot for some of the more popular parks in the summer - Rathtrevor Beach comes to mind. Having said that, our BC Parks are amazing and there are many hidden gems out there that you can drive into any time during the summer and be surprised to see it half full - get off the beaten path, you won't regret it!!

Cheers!

Ukee
 
Our BC parks are certainly located in some amazing locations, but the parks themselves look pretty ordinary when you see the Washington and Oregon state parks. Beautifully maintained, better services for less money, and staffed by uniformed state parks personnel. BC parks uses contractors and offers unserviced sites, ie parking stalls, for $35 a night. Fortunately we have forest rec sites for $12 a night, fewer people and less money.
 
sly_karma said:
Our BC parks are certainly located in some amazing locations, but the parks themselves look pretty ordinary when you see the Washington and Oregon state parks. Beautifully maintained, better services for less money, and staffed by uniformed state parks personnel. BC parks uses contractors and offers unserviced sites, ie parking stalls, for $35 a night. Fortunately we have forest rec sites for $12 a night, fewer people and less money.
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I agree on the quality of State Parks, priced and maintained better.
 
I have camped in many Oregon state parks and the worst one was better than any Provincial park I have stayed in. They use the lottery revenue to maintain the parks. Easy reservations and very low cost. Never any issues with other campers as the rule breakers get removed pronto.
 
Rumor has it if you missed out getting a site. There are some being scalped on Craigslist.

I can remember the old days when you could walk down and grab an arm load of free firewood, thank you corrections programs of old.
 
Maybe it's just a quirk of mine, but seeing contractors running our parks just pisses me off. The message is all wrong, everything sold off to the best bid, our parks aren't worth enough to use well paid government employees with benefits. I'm sure most of the contractors do a decent job, but to me it seems like a massive cheapout exercise.
 
Prairie Locked said:
Similar issues here in Alberta. Big problems with people booking their max stay blocks (up to 16 days) then changing the reservation to only the days they need. Another problem is people 'sliding' their reservation by pushing the dates back until they get what they want/need.
Click to expand...

Wow that would be infuriating if you're trying to work within the system and legitimately book for only the actual days you need. It's always the few jerks that ruin it for everyone else.

Maybe they should institute some sort of cost for reserving site. ie. 20% of your total bill is payable at the time of booking and non-refundable, and applied every time you make a change. Not a surcharge, as it would just be a portion of your camping fees paid in advance as a show of good faith. If they want to game the system at least they should pay for the privilege.
 
I like to camp where it's strictly first come, first serve. Usually it works in your favor to show up a little early. Last weekend however, I arrived at 5am on a Thursday morning to secure the best spot on a beach we were camping on. Not even 30 minutes went by after getting to the spot, and there were already several people wandering around the corner also hoping to get my spot...

The back roads need to be opened back up for the diehard backwoods campers, so the tourists can fight for the city/drive in Glamping spots...
 
Never stayed in one. Too many gorgeous FS sites for free with no people. Yes, you do need gear but given what you aren't paying in fees .......
 
DanL said:
Wow that would be infuriating if you're trying to work within the system and legitimately book for only the actual days you need. It's always the few jerks that ruin it for everyone else.

Maybe they should institute some sort of cost for reserving site. ie. 20% of your total bill is payable at the time of booking and non-refundable, and applied every time you make a change. Not a surcharge, as it would just be a portion of your camping fees paid in advance as a show of good faith. If they want to game the system at least they should pay for the privilege.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. Each modification to a standing reservation is currently $5 so people don't really care if they have to eat $20 to ensure get the dates they want. They are supposed to monitor for this and can revoke the ability to reserve but I've never heard it happen.
 
The reservation system led me to buy my first cruiser boat. Now we just find a bay to anchor in. Less crowds and no reservations
 
Reselling site reservations should be totally illegal. The camp operator should check that the person who shows up at the site is the name the reservation was made under. If it is not the person who made the booking then the get they should get the boot. Reselling the reservations would end pretty quickly. But the govt would never Institute that policy because they make too much money off the whole reservation system. The system is total bs in my opinion.
 
TheBigGuy said:
Reselling site reservations should be totally illegal. The camp operator should check that the person who shows up at the site is the name the reservation was made under. If it is not the person who made the booking then the get they should get the boot. Reselling the reservations would end pretty quickly. But the govt would never Institute that policy because they make too much money off the whole reservation system. The system is total bs in my opinion.
Click to expand...

completely right
I agree it is complete BS. but the liberals are actually promoting the reselling of the sites. anything for a quick buck .
 
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