campsite will be available

I'm cancelling a campsite and it will be up for grabs if anyone is interested. I'll cancel at noon.

Lower Pines #53 arriving June 5 for six nights

Thanks for letting us/me know, thats cool that you gave us a heads up.

I'm just curious what use it would be to know, since they're no longer automatically released back into "inventory". I recall this was done because scalpers were just cancelling and rebooking immediately when they knew it would be available again. By requiring an operator to release it back into the inventory, the scalpers have no idea when they'll be available again.

I've seen a campsite be released into inventory while I was in the campground office. It has to be done manually at one of their terminals, but once released it's available to all users - online, operator, or at the campground office. They had two rangers working together to make sure they could obtain the site for me.

Hmmm, I have cancelled many Pines, Wawona, and Tuolumne sites in the past few years. They always go right back into inventory?

NPS claims that since 2011, cancellations no longer go back immediately. The way I saw my reservation being handled at the campground office looked like it had to be done at the campground office. I'd actually called in to say I'd be missing my first day, and I got a call back asking if I would release it for a partial refund. Later I checked my reservation, and the last two days of my reservation were gone. So I called the campground office and was told to get there before they closed and they'd take care of it. They also gave me the option of releasing a site then and me booking that online, then cancelling what was left of my original reservation. At the campground office, I got three days from a previously cancelled reservation, and the only way to put it back in the inventory was at those terminals.

This is how NPS describes it:

Quote

https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/news/recgovchanges.htm

The final change to the campground reservation system will be implemented later this summer. This alteration will change the way in which cancelled reservations are released back into the system. Currently, once a reservation is cancelled, the campsite is put back online to be purchased. However, under the newly implemented system, the campsites that become available can only be reserved by calling the campground reservation phone number. There is no date available for this change.

It's not necessarily that accurate. My understanding is that it's not really done by phone, with a waiting list at the campground office.

Quote
y_p_w

NPS claims that since 2011, cancellations no longer go back immediately.

They don't. It takes about five or six minutes.

---

Leave No Trace

Quote
plawrence

Quote
y_p_w

NPS claims that since 2011, cancellations no longer go back immediately.

They don't. It takes about five or six minutes.

Back in 2011 they were saying that by late summer they were going to stop putting cancelled reservations automatically back into the online inventory to try and deter scalpers who would reserve, sell, cancel, and rebook under a client's name.

The way I saw it work at the Valley campground office looked like they were dealing with cancelled reservations.

Yesterday it was released right back into inventory. I could've picked it up again. The six nights were gone in about five minutes.

I gave notice because I believed that it would be back in in about 15 minutes. Anyway it gave someone here at least a chance...

Twice in the last year I've cancelled a Valley site and both times they were back in inventory and picked up (by friends) within 3 minutes.