Community Forums

texax · 02-02-2023, 06:28 PM

Hello!

We are relatively new to camping, and I'm frustrated.

I guess that RV camping saw a BIG boost two or three years ago when COVID hit, making it tough to find campgrounds.

I was a hotel/resort general manager for many years, and we had websites or apps available to us that served as booking engines where a potential customer could punch in their criteria (desired location, budget, desired dates of stay, type of property, etc.) and the search results would show only those properties that had availability that met all the criteria that the customer asked for.

Does anyone know of such a website for RVers and campers? My fingers and brain get tired of going to each website, punching in our desired dates, only to find that they have no availability. Then, on to the next one......and so on, and so on.

If there is no such animal out there, I'm going to start one, and I'll let you know when I do. And I'll be rich.

Camp CA · 02-02-2023, 07:59 PM

RV Life.......https://tripwizard.rvlife.com/?msclk...#5d94b25ceb785

**NLOVNIT** · 02-02-2023, 08:04 PM

To my knowledge, that program doesn't show campsite availability, which is what the OP is requesting. It's database is driven by RVLIFE Campgrounds, which doesn't have that capability.

BeatCJ · 02-02-2023, 08:40 PM

For me, I look around at where I want.to go. My state parks department has a website, Oregon State parks does, too. Maricopa County North of Phoenix had a decent site, I have used it with success for Lake Pleasant several times.

Edit: Oops, I see that you don't want to do it that way. Sorry, I think you're out of luck. I usually don't have an issue, but we camp off season. During summer camping season, either my wife (early season) or I (mid and late season) can't get away from work. We don't have much problem finding openings.

Camp CA · 02-03-2023, 06:55 AM

If you are having difficulty making a reservation on line, call the park directly or consider joining a private camping resort club like Resort Park International, Thousand Trails, Coast to Coast, Colorado River Adventures to name a few, and once you find a rv resort in their system call their reservation line to make reservations.

DerekF · 02-03-2023, 07:29 AM

Look at campspot and dyrt. Might help some.
Good luck

leethomas · 02-03-2023, 08:13 AM

I feel your pain, we go through the same hunt/search routine as you and many others. We have not found the one stop camp reservation system you are asking about, not sure it exists. I did come across one that comes close. They do not cover every campground in the US but they claim to have thousands and are expanding. There is a fee for there service. ( Campnab.com ) Let us know if you use them, how it worked out for you.

Wayne M · 02-03-2023, 08:30 AM

The only one that I have used successfully is KOA.

The show availability and if your rig will fit.

There are a few more out there but it is a hit and miss. They show a calendar with different colors for availability.

Cumminsfan · 02-03-2023, 10:06 AM

Go to Google and type in Camping. When the map of the area you live in shows up click on it and zoom in or out to the area's you plan to camp in. You can slide the map which ever way you plan to travel.
You can do the same by just entering camping followed by your State.

goallight · 02-03-2023, 06:32 PM

Someone mentioned it already but rvtripwizard. I have used it to plot multiple trips all over the country. I even use it when planning non-camping trips now.

seaeagle2 · 02-03-2023, 06:42 PM

This is hard to word, most State's State park reservation web sites ( alot are Reserve American based) will let you search by availability without specifying a specific campground. It will show all the availabile sites some will let you narrow to a region. Honestly, for State Parks, you might be looking at reserving at midnight the day it opens for the date you want.

Buckmountain · 02-11-2023, 05:13 AM

There is no booking engine out there, but as you suggest, it's a gold mine if you can build/find one.

While not an answer to your problem, there are some tips that improve the likelihood of finding campsites. This only applies for retired folks:

--Plan most of your travel in the shoulder seasons, i.e., before school is out for the summer, or after it starts.
--Avoid "spring break" similar to the above
--Try to schedule reservations in the "arrive Sunday, depart Friday" timeline. The masses leave on Sunday to go to work Monday and arrive Friday for the weekend.
--If you need weekend reservations, as mentioned above, KOA campgrounds have an excellent reservation system that can be done easily from their app.

I know that RV Life Trip Wizard mentioned above doesn't address your need, however, it's a worthy subscription app used for trip planning. I highly recommend!

Wayne M · 02-11-2023, 08:53 AM

Another way of searching that is pretty easy is to bring up a city you are interested in on the google map.

Up in the left hand corner of the map will be 3 bars, the name of the city, a search icon and an X to close.

In the space where it says the city name remove it and type in "rv parks" (without the quotes). The map will be populated with RV Parks.

Just be aware that the meta tag of a web site determines if it pops up with a specific word. So if there is a site with the word "park" in it, or "RV" it will pop up but it is pretty easy to tell as the icons will be slightly different and when hovering over the flag with a mouse it will pop up the name and a decision can be made to click on it.

You can move the map in any direction and at the top of the map it will say "Search This Area" and when you click on it it will re-populate the map.

Happy trails

Buckmountain · 02-11-2023, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texax

Hello!

We are relatively new to camping, and I'm frustrated.

I guess that RV camping saw a BIG boost two or three years ago when COVID hit, making it tough to find campgrounds.

I was a hotel/resort general manager for many years, and we had websites or apps available to us that served as booking engines where a potential customer could punch in their criteria (desired location, budget, desired dates of stay, type of property, etc.) and the search results would show only those properties that had availability that met all the criteria that the customer asked for.

Does anyone know of such a website for RVers and campers? My fingers and brain get tired of going to each website, punching in our desired dates, only to find that they have no availability. Then, on to the next one......and so on, and so on.

If there is no such animal out there, I'm going to start one, and I'll let you know when I do. And I'll be rich.

As a reminder, texax is looking for a "campground availabity app," not just campgrounds.