The snow is melting and Joe Ontario's mind has turned to summer camping trips. Unfortunately for him, many prime sites are already long gone.
Ontario provincial park sites can be booked five months in advance.
If Joe wanted to book a weekend trip to Lake Superior Provincial Park for Aug. 1–3, he could have secured a campsite at 7 a.m. on March 1. However, sites at Lake Superior during that time frame can be booked for a maximum of 14 nights. So, to get a jump on Aug. 1 bookings, some will log on in February to reserve a two-week stay starting on July 18, then cancel the nights they don't want — netting themselves an Aug. 1–3 getaway ahead of the crowd.
Meanwhile, Joe logged on on March 1 to find all the best spots already taken.
Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks said historically, only "a very small percentage of visitors" have overbooked their reservations.
"We are continually reviewing our policies and conducting jurisdictional scans of similar systems to ensure we provide fairness and equality to all who wish to visit Ontario Parks," spokesperson Gary Wheeler said in a statement.
After the surge in the popularity of camping during the pandemic, Ontario cut the maximum number of nights one could book for one trip from 23 to 14 — or to seven at five popular parks (Algonquin, Bon Echo, Killbear, Pinery and Sandbanks).
"Overall Ontario Parks has seen an increase in bookings at these parks," Wheeler said.
The ministry said it charges "the steepest cancellation/change penalties in North America." Users must pay $7.52 to change their reservation online. To cancel, users must forfeit 10 per cent to 50 per cent of the campsite fees paid. The charges increase the longer the reservation is held.
For example, a two-night stay in the Algonquin frontcountry, which costs $75 in campsite fees, cancelled four months after booking, costs $37.50 in penalties — meaning the person who made the reservation would effectively receive a 50 per cent refund. In the backcountry, a two-night stay costing $22 in total costs $11 to cancel.
"Ontario Parks sees cancellations for a variety of valid reasons," Wheeler said.
He added that, in an effort to clamp down on the issue, Ontario bars changes to reservations more than four months before one's arrival date.
Still, the issue persists. But other jurisdictions have found ways to improve their campsite booking systems.
In British Columbia, if you reserve a provincial park site exactly four months ahead of schedule (the furthest in advance you can book), you can't alter your dates without cancelling and re-booking entirely — putting you at the back of the line.
If you're caught "intentionally violating" the policy, B.C. Parks will cancel your reservation and keep part of your fees.
“B.C. has effectively remedied that," said Eric Karjaluoto, who runs Campnab, a service that alerts users to available campsites.
No-shows are another headache for campers. People snatch up campsites and then either forget to cancel or decide they don't want to go five months later.
"I've experienced it, and I've spoken with numerous campers who've said they're at a park and it's only actually at 60 per cent occupancy, in spite of being sold out on paper," Karjaluoto said. "So this unutilized supply is a real problem."
Wyoming has a "four strikes" no-show penalty for its state parks, disabling future bookings for repeat offenders. California has done the same, reserving the right to block reservations for people who "failed to show up for at least three reservations in one calendar year."
Ontario Parks' booking website is another common gripe. Aficionados will be familiar with the slow, glitchy booking experience on busy mornings.
Parks Canada has limited the number of bookings individuals can make and has a virtual waiting room on busy days, with each would-be camper assigned a random number in the queue.
As a website designer, Karjaluoto said he had sympathy for the Ontario Parks site. It was built by CAMIS, which is common across parks' booking systems, he said.
"In our opinion, it's one of the better systems out there. It generally does what it's supposed to do," he said, noting that busy mornings see thousands of people all pushing the same button at once — a hard problem to solve on a technical level.
"I never thought that my life would end up revolving around campsite reservations. In these eight years (of running Campnab) I have not spoken to one person who went, 'Oh my god, we have the best booking system.' Nobody ever tells me that, but everyone will tell me how their region has the hardest campsite to book," he said.
Correction: a previous version of this article referred to Eric Karjaluoto as a coder. In fact, he works on design and customer support for Campnab.
