reservation sites

[rangerjean]

What in the holy heck is going on with the reservation sites. Recreation.gov and reserve America. I have used these in the past and had no problems.
I just tried to get availability and have no luck. I understand you can reserve 6 months in advance but I cant even get the individual cg to show up. What is up? I guess I can call it in but this is crazy.

[sgfrye]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The Recreation.gov reservation system contract was moved from Aspira, the ReserveAmerica.com folks, to Booz, Allen, Hamilton last month, and there are no more cross listings between the two sites. It'll likely get even more confusing soon when Aspira launches a totally redesigned ReserveAmerica. And then there are the states like CA, SC, and others that go their own way, using their own systems...

x2
reserveamerica has been working fine for us on the nc and virginia state parks

south carolina uses their own system but has worked fine for us.
i always call a week out to the park to confirm regardless

[agesilaus]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
It took a little feeling around the new Recreation.gov site to sort it out, but I was able to make a reservation for a full hookup site at the Lake Powhatan Recreation Area campground near Asheville, NC for next April.

I think they'll be OK after getting the pages updated. That is a massive undertaking, how many parks and how many campsites are there for 365 days a year? Apparently when a takeover occurs the old company is not required to hand over their old work. A stupid lapse on the Feds part but only expected. This happened to some degree last time this happened, at least they lost the 100,000's of site photos then.

[Dutch_12078]

It took a little feeling around the new Recreation.gov site to sort it out, but I was able to make a reservation for a full hookup site at the Lake Powhatan Recreation Area campground near Asheville, NC for next April.

[agesilaus]

I did finally manage to make a reservation with rec.gov for a minor cg in the Everglades (Midway) for 2 days in January. They do force you to change your pw, understandable after a takeover. The process was more or less painless tho some site features don't work. The cg map for one. They have an apology up on the webpage.

BK

[agesilaus]

Thom02099 wrote:
Tried to check on/make reservations at several locations here in Colorado that use Recreation.Gov. Today/11.18.18 is supposed to be the opening of the 180 day window for reservations for the weekend of May 17, 2019. I've checked several USFS and RMNP campgrounds, they are all indicatinng "not yet released" and the BOOK NOW button is non-functional. It's early in the morning here; I'll check back after noon EST to see if the status changes.

I looked a day or two ago and found it impossible to make reservations at any Federal park that I checked. Even those like Everglades and GSMNP that should be taking them. They didn't even show the sites as reserved already, just blank white. ReserveAmerica seems to be perfectly functional on the other hand.

[Dennis58]

As with all Govt contracts you get what you pay for and cheaper is not always better.

[JKJavelin]

Yesterday I made reservations on Oregon's state Park system (ReserveAmerica) and had no problem at all.

[Thom02099]

Tried to check on/make reservations at several locations here in Colorado that use Recreation.Gov. Today/11.18.18 is supposed to be the opening of the 180 day window for reservations for the weekend of May 17, 2019. I've checked several USFS and RMNP campgrounds, they are all indicatinng "not yet released" and the BOOK NOW button is non-functional. It's early in the morning here; I'll check back after noon EST to see if the status changes.

[D_E_Bishop]

bikendan wrote:
IMHO, the new ReserveCalifornia website is worse than ReserveAmerica.

There is a Two Word phrase that tells it all about ReseveCal., Unintended Consequences. Great idea but having someone who knows nothing about reservation systems develope the system????.

My wife has talked to some folks in Sacramento about it, they are folks that have heard all the problems but are powerless to change how it is run. They tell her that there is a rework formulated so maybe you'll see improvement. But for me it's better than having some company running it from their offices in Rhode Island and getting all the gravy and never fixing the system.

We'll get there.

[bikendan]

IMHO, the new ReserveCalifornia website is worse than ReserveAmerica.

[Dutch_12078]

agesilaus wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The Recreation.gov reservation system contract was moved from Aspira, the ReserveAmerica.com folks, to Booz, Allen, Hamilton last month, and there are no more cross listings between the two sites. It'll likely get even more confusing soon when Aspira launches a totally redesigned ReserveAmerica. And then there are the states like CA, SC, and others that go their own way, using their own systems...

Well darn that's the second time they moved the vendor and the site was fouled up for a year after. The first one that had was the best, easy to navigate.

It's all about who bids the most for it...

To be clear, the first Recreation.gov contractor was ReserveAmerica, Inc. which was then sold a couple of times until it was spun off by ACTIVE Networks as the independent Aspira, Inc. that continued to operate both ReserveAmerica and Recreation.gov until the federal contract expired and Booz, Allen outbid them for the new Recreation.gov contract. Aspira still owns and operates ReserveAmerica though, that contracts with state and local government parks and a number of private parks.

[garmp]

I have to agree that Recreation.gov has become about the worse site I have used. I can't even log in. I keep getting told to wait a while and it will be fixed. Yeah, I've been waiting.
Guess it just goes to show you, the almighty dollar speaks. You get what you pay for.
And we suffer!

[agesilaus]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The Recreation.gov reservation system contract was moved from Aspira, the ReserveAmerica.com folks, to Booz, Allen, Hamilton last month, and there are no more cross listings between the two sites. It'll likely get even more confusing soon when Aspira launches a totally redesigned ReserveAmerica. And then there are the states like CA, SC, and others that go their own way, using their own systems...

Well darn that's the second time they moved the vendor and the site was fouled up for a year after. The first one that had was the best, easy to navigate.

[Dutch_12078]

The Recreation.gov reservation system contract was moved from Aspira, the ReserveAmerica.com folks, to Booz, Allen, Hamilton last month, and there are no more cross listings between the two sites. It'll likely get even more confusing soon when Aspira launches a totally redesigned ReserveAmerica. And then there are the states like CA, SC, and others that go their own way, using their own systems...