Campsite stakers.

[Tilted Kilt]

Most of the time working families only have the weekends, so if they don't book the sites that way, they may not have the opportunity, and they may never get the opportunity to enjoy that site, and It's very difficult to book sites just on weekends. I think we're all very fortunate and would hope we could all celebrate that good fortune together. In the words of john Lennon "Let it be"
I wish you all a safe and wonderful fall season, I love the fall!!!!

[laj]

Originally Posted by gesteff

Nope! That’s what’s wrong with it today, it needs to go back to First come first served period

It already is. First to the internet reservation site, first to the camp site. One would be able to use it to the time limit, to your time limit, or to your money limit. Real easy, and everyone has the same choice, and chance.

[Marty1096]

//Some areas are becoming so popular in some seasons that one has to book a site when it opens. Utah State parks open sites 4 months in advance. However, if you wait till the morning of the fist day that you can book it, you will be too late by 5 minutes after 8 am local time. October used to be wide open using that 4 month lead time. Not so anymore. Now, if you want a particular date, you need to book a period 4-5 weeks before you actually want it. (That would be five months or more before you actual intended arrival date) Then keep bumping it back before it expires till you have the dates you actually want. It's a $5 charge each time you change your reservation, but an extra $15 -$20 for a two week stay is not a big deal. The park will still be full and they have gained the extra fees. If you don't "Play the Game", you won't have a spot.//

So this is the reason that at 8:05am on recreation.com....after telling me I have to wait 6 months and a day to reserve, all the spots are taken buy people who can book on a previous dates deep into my time frame.


And recreation.com holds back sites. They are unavailable to reserve. Makes it worse

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by Marty1096

Some areas are becoming so popular in some seasons that one has to book a site when it opens. Utah State parks open sites 4 months in advance. However, if you wait till the morning of the fist day that you can book it, you will be too late by 5 minutes after 8 am local time . . .

And then there's Campnab.

[Sgt_Dubie]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

Could you please share where your neck of the woods is located and the parks?

Manitoba Canada, and I’m referring mainly to the Provincial Parks campsites. Private campgrounds are probably even worse.

At some day in april, the various campgrounds open up for registration. You log in, wait in line and you can make up to 3 different bookings at a time. My wife and I have taken to sharing the morning booking duties and pretty much plan out our whole summer in our favourite campgrounds.

At one time it was all first come first serve, then it was about half the sites reserved for walk-ins. These days it’s all pre-booked. Honestly, I was annoyed with it at first, but now I find it kind of nice knowing I’ll have a spot when I show up rather than taking my chances and showing up to a full campground after a few hours driving. Now we even browse the booking site and make plans for some spontaneous come up. There is usually something somewhere when the time comes up.

Now, all bookings have an extra fee, so changing and canceling plans costs a few bucks, but it still is a first-come first-served system, and you can still just show up and look for an empty site, but it does create a few situations where you might see an empty camper once in a while with the rules.

And to be completely honest, the last couple of years has created an excess of time off with little else to do. There has been an unusually high demand for campgrounds making things even more difficult, especially for the walk-in crowd.

[Newmar nut]

Several of us just state at a State park north of Warren Ohio. a site right on the water was vacant entire 10 days. Camp ranger said it was sold and no one ever showed up. we had another friend wanting to camp. place was sold out. site was never cancelled.

[Souljourner]

Originally Posted by TechWriter

And then there's Campnab.

Has anyone actually used Campnab? Looks like someone figured out how to turn lemons into lemonade.

[largo1005]

Originally Posted by dizcom

They paid for it, they can use it however they want.

It's their money! You could do the same thing if you wanted that campsite bad enough.

[Dadeoo]

Originally Posted by Souljourner

Has anyone actually used Campnab? Looks like someone figured out how to turn lemons into lemonade.

I've been following Campnab. It appears to be a site which grabs cancellations and notifies you quickly that they are available.
But..
I don't think this solves the issue we are talking about here, where people are not showing up for their reservation and not canceling.

Right?

[rkbeasley]

We have been doing this since the 1970's. Go down to the COE after work on Wednesday night and stake out the site for the weekend. In those days at our small COE park maybe a third would stake out early. That left 2/3 open. Assuming that ratio continues today's COE receives dollars for sites unused. There is no perfect system. Today I get up at midnight 11 months ahead of time to reserve the sites I want. I certainly don't like planning that far ahead. But we do. Life is unfair. Camping is the life.

[Dadeoo]

This is an Econ 101 problem folks. Those who "buy" a site for a week but only use it on the weekend may (or may not be) playing by the rules. I don't know/care.

However, they do this because they are willing to pay more for the security / guarantee that they have the site on the weekend. Why not raise the price to meet the demand?

I think that raising the use/rent $$ would make it less likely that people would reserve a site and not use it. People would be far less likely to pay to keep a site reserved for themselves if they were paying more.

Of course this raises the equity issue... only folks who are able to pay the increased rate will be paying. And I am not sure we want public campgrounds to be available only to the wealthy.

But then again maybe if the price was higher we could probably go back to first come first serve too.

Again, FCFS means that locals are the most likely to get a spot.

There are plenty of conflicting and competing goals in setting a price for a publicly owned good.

Fun debate.

[owwagner]

Originally Posted by baraff

I see this more and more, people booking a site, setting up and disappearing on Sunday afternoon only to reappear on the weekend. Leaving a prime site occupied with an RV but not being used, thus depriving someone else the use of the site.
We're currently at a COE campground in Illinois where this is happening. Waterfront lake sites. Part of the problem is the Senior Pass makes these sites so inexpensive that it's worth it to them to spend $45 for the week to have a guaranteed site for the weekend.
I'm not even sure it violates the rules as I couldn't find anything about sites must be occupied. It is however, annoying and incredibly selfish. It's abuse of the system and it's going to ruin it for the rest of us.
What are your thoughts on this?

America at it's finest! We are conditioned to learn the rules & figure out how to ply the game to our advantage. If you want a site that's booked it appears selfish, if you're the booker it appears brilliant. I don't think we can blame the person paying for the site, weather they use it or not, that's want the campground is there for, to make money. The complaint should be in getting the campground to change the rules, if it's empty than rent it out, if there is a rv on site than does it matter if there is people?

[timdriver]

Exactly, you pay for It’s yours. I can’t figure out why this is anyone’s business other than jealousy.

[Cumminsfan]

I guess you could call it "Campsite Hoarding". Just like when there's a run on TP and someone buys 30 rolls when they only need 10.
It's the new all about me society. Heck with your neighbor if you even know your neighbor.