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

Shannon · 02-05-2008, 05:30 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.

Troop198 · 02-05-2008, 10:46 PM

I agree that the "new" Texas system is still bad. Keep in mind you can email reservations on the state reservation page also.

Right now Texas waiting on the phone is long and tedious.

Not all parks have shifted into the "new" system

They do sometimes call back.

Shannon · 02-06-2008, 11:45 PM

It's not just Texas. ReserveAmerica has a veritable monopoly on State and Federal lands' reservations in the USA, and their competitors have won in Federal court $6 million due to issues found in the procurement and bid award process. Yet, we are apparently all stuck with them.

With R.A. useless (and, indeed, that is what they are now--at this very moment, in fact, the site won't load at all and instead dumps programming errors to the screen), the TPWD phone lines are tied up and we have yet to successfully get through to make a reservation for our next trip with Sara. While email is an option, it's not as secure as we'd like and for our tax dollars, ReserveAmerica should be far, far more customer service oriented, far, far more reliable, and far more transparent in its operations and issues.

Sadly, TPWD seems to be making excuses for ReserveAmerica -- many of the issues they note in their news release are issues related to ReserveAmerica, not TPWD itself:
TPWD: State Park Internet Reservations - Service Interruption

Turn Key · 02-07-2008, 01:32 AM

I’m registered on RA but have only used it a couple of times. For Texas SP’s, I prefer to call TPWD and make my reservations that way. I see no need to give RA $3.00 every time I go camping. Would just as soon give that money to our Parks and Wildlife Department and let them use it to improve the system (not that I'm really convinced that that money would be used for that purpose

). Looks like the question is moot at any rate and we’ll all be calling TPWD for SP reservations! Boy, is that going tie things up!

Happy Camping!

ploddinTod · 02-07-2008, 10:04 AM

Who, at the top of the chain, do we complain to? Shannon, if you could post a link to a top official, at least we could make our feelings known.

Thanks

srds · 02-07-2008, 11:52 AM

We are also regestered on Ra and like TurnKey we called the park we plan to go to.I have only used the service to see what was open and then it can still be wrong.It looks like we are stuck with a broken system.

srds

Have Fun

Shannon · 02-07-2008, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ploddinTod

Who, at the top of the chain, do we complain to? Shannon, if you could post a link to a top official, at least we could make our feelings known.

Thanks

I've complained to a couple points of contact at ReserveAmerica, but have gotten no resolution. They're a well shielded organization, it seems. I can't find reliable info on who their present CEO is nor email contacts that actually result in positive action.

ReserveAmerica is owned and operated by Ticketmaster, an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI). (Source: IAC's business detail for Reserve America)

As I understand it, they have their own corporate structure and CEO. Their business address, and I presume headquarters, is actually located in Canada:
ReserveAmerica
2480 Meadowvale Blvd. Suite 120
Mississauga Ontario CA L5N 8M6

I doubt a letter-writing campaign will do anything, and in my particular case the tipping point were issues I have been having with them from a business-to-business perspective, as one of their affiliates. That said, with their reservation system's (and at times, entire website's) downtime from December to still today (selective availability for only part of the TPWD park inventory), these behind-the-scenes issues we've had with them are doubly upsetting because they seem to indicate everything's out of whack.

almitra · 02-08-2008, 01:36 PM

I completely understand this move, Shannon. I have had nothing but troubles with them myself, although I loved their site some time ago---it is not reliable enough for me. I did not know (way back in the day) that I could reserve camping spots free via phone or email....LOL! Live & learn.

dallanta · 04-05-2008, 06:16 AM

I have not tried to contact them yet, but aren't they under the department of interior?
I did not realize they had outsourced this to another country

Turn Key · 04-05-2008, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallanta

I have not tried to contact them yet, but aren't they under the department of interior?
I did not realize they had outsourced this to another country

I'm a bit confused here. Are you asking about RA or TPWD? If it is the former, I don't know but it WAS based in the US the last time I talked to them. If the later, Austin.

HAppy Camping!

Shannon · 04-05-2008, 02:01 PM

TPWD is state (Texas) run and their headquarters is in Austin.

NPS is Federal and most federal lands that take online reservations use a variation of ReserveAmerica's service (branded with a different name which escapes me at the moment but was mentioned earlier in this thread.)