It’s a problem that RVers frequently complain about: campsite reservation cheating. You try to get a site at your favorite campground, but despite time limits, the same people are in the same site, seemingly perpetually. It’s a problem that New York’s state park officials have been fighting with. So they rolled out a new plan to “combat” the issue, and now the public has spoken. The plan is dead. But, it seems, the problem remains.
Campsite reservation cheating game in the Adirondacks
New York’s DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) oversees the state park system. Last August, DEC officials got an earful about how campers were “very creative with extending reservations,” that is, playing the campsite reservation cheating game. This was at Rollins Pond Campground. It’s an extremely popular 266-site campground in Adirondack Park.
How were these folks being “creative”? By using different email addresses to secure reservations was one trick. Another was to have family members tack on additional stays, exceeding the two-week limit, and essentially acing out other users. That 14-day limit is the standard in DEC-managed campgrounds from the first of July to Labor Day. One director of the agency that specifically manages Adirondack Park pointed the finger at some northern neighbors: “Our Canadian friends have taken advantage,” Art Lussi claimed. “The same families have the same site for six weeks, and it’s just not fair.”
Lussi’s claims that campsite reservation cheating was a Canadian innovation proved unfounded. DEC officials pointed out that the same problem occurs in other state parks, far south of the Canadian border. But a problem is still a problem, regardless of who the villain is. What would DEC do to stop it? Evidently “checking up” on who is occupying a given site longer than the two-week limit didn’t work. The trouble is, park staffers rotate around, so there just isn’t the consistency needed to physically eyeball if some is cheating.
If you can’t beat ’em…
Some “clever” thought came up. One that adopted the old philosophy of “If you can’t beat them, join them” instead. A DEC planner described it as a way to “diffuse the situation for staff and the public.” This quote comes from a print-media source. Our bet is the actual thought was “de-fuse the situation.” So how do you stop the flame before it hits the public powder keg?
New York’s official response to the campground reservation cheating problem was to simply legalize it. How? Use the Rollins Pond Campground as a pilot case. Instead of watching campground reservation cheaters game the system, just let them apply for longer-term use. Get rid of the two-week limit for some sites.
But then the public heard about it
That was last August. The DEC published its plan and opened it to public comment. After hearing from the public, the DEC has recanted. One news outlet described the response as, “a flurry of public comments.” Hundreds of comments came in, both in writing and electronically. The same DEC planner who brought out the grand plan was forced to admit the majority of comments were completely thumbs-down.
The plan is dead. But the problem remains.
Apparently, from a physical “on the ground” perspective, occupancy averages 32% at Rollins Pond. At the same time, the park reservation system may show no sites available. Not only does campsite reservation cheating allow folks to overstay their limits, others are reserving sites and not bothering to show up.
It’s a problem that’s not unique to New York. And it may require the revival of someone like Solomon to figure out.
##RVT1144b
Maybe the easy way is to have campers log their RV license plate number in when making reservation. Then have them show the RV registration when checking in. When I camped in NY two years ago, I had to stop at the reservation desk.
California State parks require an RV license plate number for each site reservation when made and park rangers or hosts can enforce it if they so choose. I think it is a good idea that the license plate number can block a reservation or stay at the park. Turn abusers away a few times and they may give up or find another way to abuse the system.
They shorten the limit from 14 to 7 days. It won’t stop cheating but make it a little harder for extremely long stays.
Once upon a time in NY you arrived at the gate to the campground and available sites were given out in order of arrival. Two weeks max and the rangers would make sure you vacated your site. Perhaps we need to go back to this system. It worked.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! Surely the state of New York has enough smart people that they can assign some to solve this problem. 🤔 They just need to keep trying. 🙂 We’ve never taken the RV to New York. I wonder if we ever will? Meanwhile, safe travels! 🙂
We stayed a week at the KOA in the poconos because of a passprt kerfuffle, and a bunch of nicer folks I never met.
I would not hold my breath…I live in upstate NY and try to get some of these coveted campsites. Unfortunately, our state government is non functional which extends to all aspects of the state business. Just take a look at our commander in chief in Albany !!!
Non refundable payment in advance for the whole stay. If you haven’t confirmed you will be there by 11 am the site is opened back up to others. Yes people go to hospital and stuff but they have to PROOVE it and the system keeps 50% to cover expenses
This is the policy in many states, stays are fully prepaid. It doesn’t solve the no-show problem.
Keep track of the RV License plate for each site. Having a computerized system would work best so that it would also track if they changed sites within the same park. If they cheat, they are banned from the park. If they cheat again, they are banned from all parks in the system. The only way to stop cheaters are to make it worth it to them not to cheat. Plus evict them on day 15 if 14 days is the max. Sob stories don’t change the rules.
The exact same thing was happening at Gamble Rogers in Flagler Beach Florida.
I’ve been saying for years that it would be much harder to cheat if reservations required the license plate number. But, just like any rule, it doesn’t mean anything if it is not enforced.
Unless you are going to actively patrol the campgrounds, daily and have the right folks patrolling that don’t have a problem evicting campers and towing their rigs away, then nothing will change. National/state parks need to be properly patrolled and monitored, not just someone going around cutting grass and emptying the trash. We can no longer count on the benevolence of folks to do the right thing anymore.
License plates are part of the registration process. The problem will not be addressed as long as the ‘power’ cheaters have the influence that they currently have in state operations. My letters are completely ignored!
Link reservations to RV License Plate Numbers. Doesn’t matter how many email addresses, phones, etc. reservations should linked to registrations.
The solution to limiting stays seems simple to me. Rather than reserve a site by name or email address, use the RV’s license plate number. The rig has to move after their time is up and it’s very easy for park staff to track that across multiple shifts and turnovers.
I don’t think it takes Solomon to solve this, just make it expensive for no shows. In Michigan, we pay upfront for the entire reservation when booking it. If one day’s cost doesn’t deter people, make it two days’ fine and so on until people are motivated to do the right thing.
I don’t understand why government officials find this so difficult. All reservations should be prepaid in full and you must use a license plate number. If you cancel before x number of hours (or days), you get a full refund minus either one nights fee or an admin fee. If you fail to show for the first night you obviously forfeit that night. If there is no call for the first or subsequent nights, then those sites are now available to others. No refunds for no shows. People may think it’s harsh, but thats the price you pay for not using common courtesy.
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable approach to me! Something definitely needs to be done!
Police departments now use automatic plate readers in their cars to find offenders. You can debate the ethics of this technology but why can’t the same technology be used to identify campsite reservation abusers in a campground?
License plate numbers don’t change (hopefully) so a simple list passed to the next host/ranger would take care of that. As to the empty sites when the computer reservation system shows nothing available, a human can tell if sites can be shifted around, the computer only knows that no site is available for all of a two week period requested even if there are a hundred sites available on every single day during that period. AI should be able to figure it out if and when the systems are upgraded.
As far as empty sites, The site is paid for, it’s their site
I live 15 minutes from the campground in question. You do have to pay in full in advance for your site, and they do ask for your license plate number on your reservation. I think the problem is staffing. This particular campground complex has about 500 sites. The DEC does not use camp hosts and the staff they have is spread thin. I believe there are only one or two law enforcement rangers for this campground and several others nearby. The rangers are spread really thin and kicking people out of campsites isn’t a priority because they are constantly doing search and rescue work for the woefully unprepared hikers that swarm the area. Definitely a management problem.