It has not been lost on us that many park systems have moved to reserving specific campsites with their reservation systems. We have that capacity in our software and actually choose to not have the sites reserved by specific site.
Why? In a nutshell the reason is that our current method provides us with a flexibility to control site usage to best meet the needs of campers.
We actually have a couple of primitive campgrounds that allow site specific reservations so customers know where they need to go. One thing that happens is that at a certain point customers can no longer make multiple night reservations on the same site. What this means is that there may be a site or sites available for each night a customer wants but no one site is available both nights. With non site specific reservations, customers are shuffled to sites to keep this from happening.
In a perfect world all of our sites would be able to accommodate all of the different camping equipment customers bring. That is actually our current design standard. But many of our campgrounds were built many years ago when folks did not drive 40 foot RVs. We have expanded sites as much as possible but we would stand to lose a lot of really nice smaller sites that are still great for tents and pop-ups if we tried to make all the sites uniform. With site specific reservations there is nothing to prevent a customer with a tent reserving the largest site we have available in a campground which could needlessly prevent a camper with large equipment from enjoying the campground.
We do understand that there are a variety of reasons customers want to reserve specific sites. The main reason is often so that multiple families or larger families that need multiple sites can be sure they can camp together. Actually it is in our best interest you can camp together because it reduces traffic in the campground if folks camping together are really together. The best way to be together is to have one person make all of the reservations for the group in the same name. Individuals can still call in an pay for their individual reservations but you tell the reservation counselor and the park that you want to be together. If you book on line, you can just call at your convenience to let us know at least a week before your arrival. The only restriction is that you will have to all arrive together and coming in on a Saturday will add complications. Holiday weekends can be a challenge too but the park will do its best to get you together.
Other campers may have equipment or a special access need. Again, if you make us aware of the problem, we will make every effort to accommodate you. The park can pre-assign sites to accommodate both groups and campers with special needs.
A smaller group of campers really like a special site. I'm afraid that is still the camper we can't promise to accommodate. However arriving earlier in the week or earlier on Friday will give you optimum choices. Since many of our customers do not have a preference or have never been to a particular campground, their selection of a specific site could easily result in them selecting one that they don't like. We do not have the staff, and often not a great internet speed, to be able to make complex site changes. When all the sites are sold out on a weekend, there is really no way we can help these folks. Again, the non site specific reservations give us more flexibility.
With the exception of our most popular campgrounds, the weekend is the sell out time. Park staff pull arrival reports and pre-assign sites for the campers with special needs. Many parks then allow customers to select their own sites. The exception is some of our smaller campgrounds who carefully assign sites upon arrival based on the size of the equipment.
We are working hard with our new campgrounds to design sites so that all camping equipment can be easily accommodated. We have opened such campgrounds at Lake Anna, James River, Chippokes Plantation and Belle Isle in the last few years. We have purchased former private campgrounds at Hungry Mother and Douthat to provide more campsites (Douthat's new campground should open next year). This summer we will be opening new campgrounds at Shenandoah River, Natural Tunnel and Holliday Lake state parks.
I would be remiss if I failed to brag about our wonderful new bathhouse design. If you have visited of our new campgrounds or a park that has gotten a new or substantially remodeled bathhouse, you will have seen our design. In addition to the rest room portion of the bathhouse, we have four family friendly shower rooms. Single parents camping with children of the opposite sex no longer have to worry about sending their children alone into a bathhouse.
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A trip to the beach or manual labor doing work around a Virginia State Park? That is the choice 11 college students are making for their spring break this year.
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