Reserve America - Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation

copuswalker · 05-24-2006, 07:43 AM

I am more than a little ticked off with this mickey mouse service. I spent an hour this a.m. re-registering and e-mailing to get different passwords than I had applied for. Finally sent them and the park service a letter of my experiences.

My wife walked in and said "Hell, don't bother with them they are a pain in the a$$."

I finally decided to wait till 9:00 and make the call the old fashoined way

Is this common? I know I did everything they asked?

Turn Key · 05-24-2006, 10:01 AM

Used them once as a "last resort". Worked out OK but have heard and read of way too many "horror stories" to count on them for reservations. Hope the State never decides to use them as the "prime" reservation service.

Happy Camping (even if getting the reservation wasn't).

4everfrio · 05-24-2006, 01:43 PM

I mainly use them to see what's available for the park I'm interested in. Then call TP&W to reserve the time. I have used them without any problems for a couple of years. But, you know things change and problems occur. Hope you work it out and enjoy the outdoors.

rockhill · 05-24-2006, 03:51 PM

I have used the link to Reserve America thru the TPWD site since it began. Have never had a problem. Not saying others have not, just that all my experiences have been good. Have slowed down recently but used to be 10 or so reservations per year with out any problems.

As you gather data on those having problems, might as well know about success stories as well.

copuswalker · 05-30-2006, 10:04 AM

Did receive a response from TPWD that I wanted to share.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for taking the time to let us know of your frustrations with Reserve America's web reservation site. There is no denying that the performance of the site has been less than we would like. Believe me, they get copies of all the complaints as well as frequent communications from us.

They have admitted that their equipment, software and net capacity are overwhelmed at times and fail to update correctly. We have been assured that corrections are in the works.

We'll keep the pressure on Reserve America until their performance is satisfactory or we find an alternative way to provide web reservations. They do feel the pressure, since they don't get paid unless reservations are made.

campermom · 05-30-2006, 05:55 PM

Never had an issue. It is so convenient to book at the last minute, afterhours. We've booked 10+ trips in the last 6 months.

06-21-2006, 11:51 AM

I consider it a tragedy that Reserve America is gaining (or perhaps already has gained) a monopoly of handling campground reservations for public recreation sites. I will never reserve with them again if I have any other choice! Their policies are unfair and statements used on their web pages are misleading. They are making big bucks at the public trough and do not deserve to be supported by the American public. Am I mad!!! You BET!!

Shannon · 02-05-2008, 04:03 PM

Effective Today, February 5, 2008:
All Reserve America links have been pulled from Wild Texas.com and we officially recommend that no one use Reserve America to secure their camping reservations. After trying to work with them since November 28, 2007, and receiving nothing but excuses, scoldings about business hours (nevermind the web is 24/7), and promised responses and resolutions that never come, we GIVE UP.

We were a Reserve America affiliate, earning a (small) affiliate income from them for every brand new registration we generated them via links from WildTexas.com. So, this decision comes at a price -- some lost revenue for us. However, we no longer trust this company, either as an affiliate or as a customer, and we cannot in good conscience continue to send them business.

The good news is, you will save money if you avoid making your Texas State Park reservations online through Reserve America, anyway -- From TPWD's site "A $3 non refundable service charge applies to each reservation you make on the Internet. Why we have web fees: The only way the Internet Reservation Service can be offered is to charge users the direct costs. Without these fees, TPWD could not offer Internet reservation service."

All of our old RA links to TPWD-managed parks and facilities have been replaced with a direct link to TPWD's Park Reservations page, which includes info. on TPWD's Central Reservation System at (512)389-8900 as well as email reservations.

Sadly, Reserve America has long-term government contracts to provide online reservation services for the NPS (through Recreation.Gov) as well as most/all U.S. State Parks, so there is no alternative to them if you want to make reservations online.

JohnK · 03-02-2008, 10:32 AM

Interestingly, I just tried unsuccessfully to make reservations at Balmorhea SP by going to RA's website directly. I kept receiving error messages and statements indicating that sites with my search criteria were not available. However, when I went to RA's website via the Internet Reservations link on TPWD's reservations page, no problems. Got just what I wanted.

TPWD: State Park Reservations

The RA pages I was directed to via the TPWD link looked somewhat different and definitely worked better. RA definitely still has problems and I would have used another reservation method if I weren't trying to firm up plans today.

JohnK

almitra · 03-02-2008, 12:13 PM

Don't blame ya' a bit!

Shannon · 03-02-2008, 12:47 PM

We booked our April camping trip with Sara (just one night close to home; we're all easing back into camping after too long away!) via email and it worked like a charm. We'd tried to use the Central Reservation Line but they were so clobbered with calls they weren't getting back to us, so we opted for email. It was the first time we'd used that reservation method. It's not immediate--you have to wait until you hear back, hoping it's a confirmation, so when you have short notice it may be of little use.

Troop198 · 03-02-2008, 01:22 PM

Online Reserve America still has problems as of yesterday
(3/1/2008)
I now do not call the center before Wednesday afternoon, by then it seems they call back, usually 3 hours later. Had no problem getting spots for Memorial day weekend and Fourth of July.
I know it seems early but because its hard to get through...

brackwl · 03-05-2008, 12:04 PM

They had a bad start in 2008...but give them a chance.
I don't have a lot of nice things to say about TPWD either.
We tried the whole month of Jan. to get our dates in for the next 3-4 month's camping and they 'phone number & email' took 2-3 days to reply and only to say "this spot/day was full...try again. Gave NO options at all.

Shannon · 03-05-2008, 03:41 PM

For the record, WildTexas.com has been giving them a chance for a lot longer than January-March 2008. That, and this thread alone dates back to mid-2006 so that tells you something right there.

crazy4disney · 03-06-2008, 10:48 AM

Is Reserve America the same as the Recreation.gov site? The latter is where I made reservations a couple of weeks ago at Double Lake for this weekend, and I had no problems at all. Really easy to use, and went right through. Are they the same thing?

-gina-