Community Forums

chindog · 02-11-2019, 05:24 PM

The new format is very frustrating. Before the change, I could go to the summary page of a park I had never visited before and see the site lengths. Now, I have to drill down to each site to see how long they are. Also missing are a lot of the site photos. I don't want to reserve a site and arrive to find a tree in front of my door, or blocking my awning or slides. And no matter what others have said, the maps still suck (when they are available).

raytwntrvlr · 02-14-2019, 04:04 PM

Well, at least now I understand the reason for the change. New vendor! Too darn bad they couldn't have worked out a deal with the previous to just "take over" so much lost trying to figure it all out. At least this was not pushed out here to us as an "upgrade".... or was it??
Had to cancel some January reservations at COE parks damaged by Michael and they had to issue hard checks. No refunds back to our CCs. When our mail finally caught up with us, I learned government checks can not be deposited via the handy cell phone app. like most other checks. So now I am carrying around $500 worth of endorsed checks until I get home in a couple months.

Danj2001 · 02-14-2019, 05:00 PM

Please, leave the politics out of this forum. If objecting to change and the future of medicine, stay home, get sick and...well, just assume room temperature.

neoflyer · 02-14-2019, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RKins

I think he is saying when you back in you're going to "hang over" the area behind the actual campsite. From the front of the coach to the rear wheels will sit on the campsite, while the aft portion behind the rear axle is hanging over the extra room in the site if there is any. (What if the person in the site behind you is doing the same thing and "hanging over" part of your site). I've seen it happen before. Not a good plan but some people will try it.

What if there is a tree at the back of the site? I plan to overhang but try to see a picture of the site before making a final decision.

Ed
‘05 HR Ambassador

rvethereyet · 02-14-2019, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danj2001

Please, leave the politics out of this forum. If objecting to change and the future of medicine, stay home, get sick and...well, just assume room temperature.

wow that is kind of harsh

Walt Graham · 02-14-2019, 05:39 PM

Using the site as modified is very simple but usually slow to respond. Regarding the length in most cases a fair number of parks have a limit of 35 feet. The big caution is to double and triple check the reservation because this system along with reserveamerica.com is prone to screwups. Case in point: I reserved a site #28 at a specific park and when we checked they had reserved site #28 but at park 100 miles away and a totally different park name.... we went into scramble mode to find a site for that night.... so therefore triple check. In this case I emailed a complaint to Florida DEP/Recreation Division a week ago and never had a straight answer as to what happened. To say the least I'm gun shy to use that site again but it's the only way to make a reservation..... not happy !!!!!

rvethereyet · 02-14-2019, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoflyer

What if there is a tree at the back of the site? I plan to overhang but try to see a picture of the site before making a final decision.

Ed
‘05 HR Ambassador

Yep

GScott423 · 02-14-2019, 06:52 PM

Just use all stays. I have so many camping and RV apps on my phone and I keep coming back to the gold standard of all stays camp and RV. It may not be perfect but it is close to it

DWeak · 02-14-2019, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spdracr39

It still has some rough edges but they are constantly working on it. Think of it as an entirely new site and don't try to use it like the old one. They are having to input all the data for each campground so some features that don't work at one place will work at others. Give it a little more time and I think it will get better. The length filter works on my local campground that we frequently stay at now that there is finally a map.

A technical term: It sucks. I was able to reserve a couple camp grounds that I was very familiar with but no maps, no pictures... Only hope it gets better (because it can't get any worse!).

Airedale · 02-15-2019, 07:18 AM

And just because I feel like grumbling...it appears that everytime a site goes through an "improvement", they actually get worse! Not really happy with the so called upgrades to Newgle, RV Park Reviews, and now Reserve America. Sometimes simpler is just better [emoji846]

egwilly · 02-15-2019, 07:57 AM

The new site does have an amusing side to it.....my reservation picture when I log in shows the public restroom and showers instead of the actual site!

Lovely.

Need to send the Google Car Cam to tour all the parks.

craigbenoit · 02-15-2019, 08:58 AM

2 Weeks ago I used the site to reserve a site at Ortona South the Core of Engineers Campground at the Ortona Locks on the Caloosahatchee river.

In my previous life at the tail end of a 33 year career with one company that included frequent systems design and implementation as a member of various operational teams we would have been roasted if an upgrade was released with this many bugs, glitches and incomplete base data. Just an upgrade and the existing campground data wasn't uploaded to the system? A couple of hours of programmer efforts versus weeks of manual data entry.

I understand that any time we begin to use an upgraded site it takes time to become used to the layout and features. BUT design cooperation with users beta testing with a talented pool of actual users and training are critical these steps seam to have been missed here.

This reminds me of the fiasco that Hersey Foods had with implementing an SAS Distribution system just prior to Y2K. They were unsuccessful in migrating from their previous system and missed the Halloween Candy shipments for that year with a tremendous financial loss.

Happy to Be Retired:
Happy Hobos, second generation

craigbenoit · 02-15-2019, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raytwntrvlr

Well, at least now I understand the reason for the change. New vendor! Too darn bad they couldn't have worked out a deal with the previous to just "take over" so much lost trying to figure it all out. At least this was not pushed out here to us as an "upgrade".... or was it??
Had to cancel some January reservations at COE parks damaged by Michael and they had to issue hard checks. No refunds back to our CCs. When our mail finally caught up with us, I learned government checks can not be deposited via the handy cell phone app. like most other checks. So now I am carrying around $500 worth of endorsed checks until I get home in a couple months.

RAY,
Check out the expiration dates on those checks, they may be expired before you get home. Have a plan B if you can.

craigbenoit · 02-15-2019, 09:29 AM

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=3]The Recreation.gov camping reservation system is not run by the federal government (despite the “.gov” at the end), but by a private company under a long term contract. In October of 2018, Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), a Virginia based company

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=3]An article called “Reserving Campsites Is About to Get So Much Easier” was published in August 2018 by Outside Online and detailed the transition. “make good-faith efforts to negotiate business relationships with third parties that create campsite-reservation applications
Mary
[/QUOTE]

NOTE: The original quote has been heavily redacted for the sake of humorous security.

Booz Allen
So Much Easier
Good-faith efforts (In a multi year multi million $$ contract) Only if the signers of the contract accept no risk for performance.

4ina4x4 Thanks for the detail behind the problem, good job.