"Phantom Campers" Stealing Campsites

Above, empty campsites with reservation cards posted at Chaco Canyon's Gallo Campground. Photo by Armand Vaquer

Five years ago, I made a reservation to stay at North Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley.

I knew ahead of time the date and time when reservations would open on the government's reservations website. I went there and secured a campsite. But within minutes, the campground was booked up.

That one went without a hitch, but people are finding that there are cheaters going into the reservations website and booking up multiple campsites at the same time.

Here's what RVTravel says about this:

Last spring, I wrote an article about how little strings of computer code called “bots” were beating you to the punch when you’re trying to reserve an RV site at popular camping destinations. Well, there’s another culprit out there stealing your next camping opportunity, and this time it’s your fellow campers.

Reservation websites like Recreation.gov, the official booking site for many public facilities, are facing an increase in “phantom” reservations. Driven by the massive increase in campers this summer and the accompanying increase in competition for sites, some campers have apparently taken to securing reservations at several popular locations for the same day and then only using one. The others are left empty for the night.

Phantom reservations are most prevalent at public campgrounds that charge far less per night than most private parks. Greedy campers are grabbing up as many sites as they can on a given day, then waiting until the day of their trip to decide which one to use without canceling the rest.

Recently, I used the Recreation.gov website to reserve a campsite at Chaco Canyon. That, too, also went without a hitch. But I did notice some campsites that remained empty despite reservation cards posted at those sites. It wouldn't surprise me that those sites were reserved by these cheats.

To read more, go here.