Reserveamerica.com - terrible idea

[bpaikman]

As you probably know, many state parks use reserveamerica.com for all reservations. Here is why I hate it.
One of my favorite parks is Cheyenne Mountain State Park, and one loop (RG) we especially like: we try to book there whenever we're passing through. It has five-pull through sites with beautiful views of Colorado Springs and Fort Carson. At night you can hear that bugle (recording) playing taps at 10 PM and then again in the morning at 6 AM.
You cannot book at these parks for more than five months in advance so five months to the DATE that I will be needing, I start trying to book. It's already completely booked. How? But it is so. I check it every morning at 8 AM as soon as availability is released and it takes weeks to see an opening pop up. I did snag two nights finally after about six weeks of trying (I kept checking for weeks and weeks after, up until our day of departure, and it was completely booked at RG.
In the months preceding our trip, our plans changed and I needed to book one more day, earlier. I was able to snag one night, in a diff loop (SP) back-in.
Now, I know that we need the highly desirable RG site for only one night, not two. But I'd have to cancel the entire reservation, wait for the opening to pop up (if it does), and rebook? NO WAY.
. When we arrived, I tried to notify the front office that we would not be needing our highly desirable site on the second night but they said there was nothing they could do about it because it's all handled through reserveamerica.com.
So, today, as we're readying to leave, I try to cancel our reservation for our site tonight, Since I no longer have to worry about losing the entire reservation. I know I can't get anrefund, but I want to open up the site for someone else. At reserveamerica.com , there is no option to do so. So, tonight our site will also be empty.
Here's the frustrating part. during our entire stay, we noticed two sides of the five highly-desirable sites were unoccupied. And tonight one more site will be unoccupied.
The 5 nearly-impossible-to-gets sites were essentially 40-60% occupied.
So, I tried once more: I went to reserveamerica.com very early this morning to cancel tonight, since now I didn't have to worry about losing a booking. No "cancel" button anymore, So, I can't cancel, the headquarters can't use it. It'll sit empty tonight. I doubt they care: the park is 90% full - less work for them with sites empty.
smh.

 

[Joe Hogan]

ReserveAmerica gets a cut of all reservations, once you are using a reservation, they get their cut. No cancellation because they have booked their fee.
This is a Government agency not a public service

 

[Neal]

This is a Government agency not a public service

Shall I mark this "answered"

 

[Trav_lr]

Did you telephone customer service?
Yesterday, I had questions about booking a site at a state park in Oregon for which I could not find an answer online. A simple phone call answerd by a very friendly customer service person resolved the issue to my satisfaction = site booked (online).

 

[Wemustrv]

ReserveAmerica gets a cut of all reservations, once you are using a reservation, they get their cut. No cancellation because they have booked their fee.
This is a Government agency not a public service

I am not sure what the issue is here or if it is different by location. I have been able to cancel a reservation as recently as this July.

 

[bpaikman]

The issue is, I had a two night reservation and I didn't need the second night but in order to cancel the second night I had to cancel the entire thing. and having super slow Internet wasnt helping any

 

[LMHS]

Read the reservation rules. While many are the same, some will be different at specific parks. I have cancelled with Reserveamerica. But I also did it two weeks in advance (work schedule was rewritten). I was not charged. It sounds like, you tried to change your reservation after the date it could be changed. But I may have read that wrong. I think it takes a couple days for a site to get put back into the reservation pool. I know the site I cancelled was not available for 2 days after I cancelled my reservation. It wasn't showing up for me to rent again. I rented a site next to it.

 

[bpaikman]

Read the reservation rules. While many are the same, some will be different at specific parks. I have cancelled with Reserveamerica. But I also did it two weeks in advance (work schedule was rewritten). I was not charged. It sounds like, you tried to change your reservation after the date it could be changed. But I may have read that wrong. I think it takes a couple days for a site to get put back into the reservation pool. I know the site I cancelled was not available for 2 days after I cancelled my reservation. It wasn't showing up for me to rent again. I rented a site next to it.

Of course, I have read the reservation rules, over and over. I've used RA many times over the years, and I've noticed how weird it is about sites appearing and disappearing. That's why I'd never risk canceling and re-reserving in CMSP.
I think it's a terrible system for heavily used parks because the only way I could have dropped my extra night there, is to drop the entire 2 days, and try to pick back up one day. Nope. I'd lose even that one day.

 

[LMHS]

Perhaps next time you should go thru the Co State Park website instead of Reserveamerica . This notice was on both Reserveamerica and the Co State Park website:
"Attention:
Please use www.cpwshop.com to make, cancel, or change reservations or make any license, pass, or retail purchases. ReserveAmerica.com has limited functionality for CPW customers."

I imagine that many people do not bother to cancel their reservations. Or they pay for two or more nights and end up staying for fewer nights. This results in empty sites which is frustrating.

I find the 2 night minimum stays frustrating when I only need one night due to traveling. I don't mind if it's in the description BEFORE I reserve but I got caught on a 2 night weekday minimum and ended up paying for two days and only staying one.

It's now on the website but wasn't when I reserved. It only popped up when I couldn't checkout on the reservation after filling in all the info including my card info and yes, I left a few nasty reviews due to this con. That meant an empty site for the 2nd night. I was not happy. I was standing at the park ranger office, 6 ft from the park ranger who told me all the "new" info, while I was trying to make the reservation.

It was during the COVID crap and the park rangers were careful to not say there was a 2 night minimum stay for reservations until I asked them why I couldn't checkout on the reservation website ("Oh, we have a 2 night minimum stay. Everyone local knows that." "Ma'am, does that turquoise coloured NM license plate remotely resemble a local plate to you?"). It was reservation only for the park (COVID rules). All of this was a surprise as I had checked their website a few days before leaving NC.

I was tired and didn't really want to fight the Chattanooga rush hour traffic on 127 again to get to the road for Harrison Bay State Park. So we paid $60 to stay one night at Chester Frost County Park. It used to be our favourite park and we were leaving TN again for who knows how long (took 12 years to get back). So my daughter insisted we stay. Since she was paying, we stayed. And I will never stay there again. But I also was not really surprised as I was very familiar with Hamilton County's money-grubbing ways (lived in the area for 10 years).

Perhaps it would be a good idea to find a lesser used park? It's how we found some really great places. And some really bad ones. Mostly some decent ones.

I've been building a spreadsheet on public campgrounds, with a few private ones thrown in, to upload to Google My Maps for my personal use. I am noting all the "Reserve Only" and the minimum stays for each of the places that meets my personal criteria. I try to add two links to a review website.

I have found a lot of parks that sound nice but there are zero reviews to be found on the popular campground review sites. And I don't think it's because the places are bad as I've been reading recent reviews on Google Maps. I think it's because many people simply do not leave reviews. And many people who have RVs are not on RV forums or do not think of themselves as RVers so they don't think of leaving reviews.

Perhaps you should be willing to risk not following the crowd. If you must follow the crowd, then you need to expect places to be crowded. It sounds like your "preferred" park is preferred by a lot of people who spend their money on empty sites and the government workers don't care about good customer service. Most government workers don't care about customer service, good or bad.

 

[bpaikman]

Perhaps next time you should go thru the Co State Park website instead of Reserveamerica . This notice was on both Reserveamerica and the Co State Park website:
"Attention:
Please use www.cpwshop.com to make, cancel, or change reservations or make any license, pass, or retail purchases. ReserveAmerica.com has limited functionality for CPW customers."

I imagine that many people do not bother to cancel their reservations. Or they pay for two or more nights and end up staying for fewer nights. This results in empty sites which is frustrating.

I find the 2 night minimum stays frustrating when I only need one night due to traveling. I don't mind if it's in the description BEFORE I reserve but I got caught on a 2 night weekday minimum and ended up paying for two days and only staying one.

It's now on the website but wasn't when I reserved. It only popped up when I couldn't checkout on the reservation after filling in all the info including my card info and yes, I left a few nasty reviews due to this con. That meant an empty site for the 2nd night. I was not happy. I was standing at the park ranger office, 6 ft from the park ranger who told me all the "new" info, while I was trying to make the reservation.

It was during the COVID crap and the park rangers were careful to not say there was a 2 night minimum stay for reservations until I asked them why I couldn't checkout on the reservation website ("Oh, we have a 2 night minimum stay. Everyone local knows that." "Ma'am, does that turquoise coloured NM license plate remotely resemble a local plate to you?"). It was reservation only for the park (COVID rules). All of this was a surprise as I had checked their website a few days before leaving NC.

I was tired and didn't really want to fight the Chattanooga rush hour traffic on 127 again to get to the road for Harrison Bay State Park. So we paid $60 to stay one night at Chester Frost County Park. It used to be our favourite park and we were leaving TN again for who knows how long (took 12 years to get back). So my daughter insisted we stay. Since she was paying, we stayed. And I will never stay there again. But I also was not really surprised as I was very familiar with Hamilton County's money-grubbing ways (lived in the area for 10 years).

Perhaps it would be a good idea to find a lesser used park? It's how we found some really great places. And some really bad ones. Mostly some decent ones.

I've been building a spreadsheet on public campgrounds, with a few private ones thrown in, to upload to Google My Maps for my personal use. I am noting all the "Reserve Only" and the minimum stays for each of the places that meets my personal criteria. I try to add two links to a review website.

I have found a lot of parks that sound nice but there are zero reviews to be found on the popular campground review sites. And I don't think it's because the places are bad as I've been reading recent reviews on Google Maps. I think it's because many people simply do not leave reviews. And many people who have RVs are not on RV forums or do not think of themselves as RVers so they don't think of leaving reviews.

Perhaps you should be willing to risk not following the crowd. If you must follow the crowd, then you need to expect places to be crowded. It sounds like your "preferred" park is preferred by a lot of people who spend their money on empty sites and the government workers don't care about good customer service. Most government workers don't care about customer service, good or bad.

Agree

 

[bpaikman]

Read the reservation rules. While many are the same, some will be different at specific parks. I have cancelled with Reserveamerica. But I also did it two weeks in advance (work schedule was rewritten). I was not charged. It sounds like, you tried to change your reservation after the date it could be changed. But I may have read that wrong. I think it takes a couple days for a site to get put back into the reservation pool. I know the site I cancelled was not available for 2 days after I cancelled my reservation. It wasn't showing up for me to rent again. I rented a site next to it.

yesssss I tried Several times over several weeks. always same risk - lose it all or just pay extra night.

 

[LMHS]

yesssss I tried Several times over several weeks. always same risk - lose it all or just pay extra night.

Then find another campground.