Reservecalifornia Reviews 108

Hacked. I have camped at San Elijo for 15 years and have never had an issue. We go with a big group hit this past year- not one person was able to get anything. The system is hacked. Plus I have friends who pay for sites through a third party for way more money! It’s crazy.

The reservecalifornia website is being pounded by bots, or worse, by internal employees or contractors who have access to the database. We manage to get a couple of sites during the summer each year. To our surprise there is always a group of Russian campers who have had 5 - 10 sites every year. Always the same people. Hmm seems kind of fishy to me. As programmer i can tell you that this site is vulnerable to having the captcha defeated and the forms filled out automatically. Someone needs to look into this corruption, and,or, theft.

Just a terrible interface. I really can't believe how frustrating they can many the experience of trying to reserve a campsite.

This is one of the most confusing and least helpful websites I’ve had to use. I have been camping at San Clemente State Beach for 16 years—The website has been crashing or freezes when I attempt to use it. I am afraid that I will not be able to go this year.

We have been camping each summer at San Clemente SB for the past 16 years and have never had such a difficult time securing a site. The new changes made to the website in 1/2022 are horrendous! They are not effective. This process has been so disappointing to say the least!

The new 2022 version of reservecalifornia is terrible. I have been booking campsites for 20 years and it's never been great, but this is truly useless. Please restore the ability to look at the 2 week reservations.

If I could give zero stars, I would. I have been camping at South Carlsbad State Beach for more than 10 years. On this "updated" Reserve California website, I cannot even enter the date I want to arrive until close to 9:00, which is way past 8:00. I was able to enter the correct date once, but then the system glitched and threw me out. Then the spots are gone. I don't think this is people moving reservations dates either. I think there is some sort of corruption going on. Also, my husband has made the same observation as others I just read. Many empty sites when we were there the last two years. I'm starting to look into private campgrounds, but there just aren't as many on the beach.

I wouldn't even give this site a 1 rating. Site is glitchy, kicks you out right when you start to book and all around garbage. Ruining the camping experience for everyone.

website is trash... no words to describe the amount of frustration just to book anything. who is the moron at reservecalifornia that thinks filling the website with nonsense icons and scripts would make it better?...it has become a worthless website.
I have more chances of becoming governor of CA than getting a campsite thru this website.

Been camping at the same spot for 30 years, until ReserveCalifornia took over the booking. Now its impossible to reserve anything. You can't even put in the dates you want. How hard is it to find a company in California that can handle a broken website?! All the reviews on here are true. Its very sad. When is this going to be fixed?!

Because of Reserve California camping in the state park system has become almost impossible. People will reserve campsites all over the state and then cancel just before to get a refund if they decide not to go or just eat the $(people are also selling spots like scalped baseball tickets). The few times we have been able to get a spot there were dozens of empty sites with reserved tickets on them, usually the best sites in the park…Reserve California has ruined camping for the state park system and the people who actually want to use the campgrounds. Not only that their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced.

reservation fees. cancellation fees. fees. fees. fees. That's how the system is run folks.

Camp for $50 a night and pay $15 for 6 pieces of firewood.

I recommend if you're looking for a bad experience.

Lived in CA all my life. I can't even take my family camping in a state park anymore due to online reservation system. It's really sad. We have a 27ft trailer, so that already restricts us to what spots we can fit in and good luck getting those even while attempting 6mos to the second on the botched reservation site "reserve california". You'd have a better chance winning the lottery. Thank goodness we're 1000 Trails members through my in-laws. Always a spot there when I need it for a fallback plan.

California Parks need to address the professionalism of Reserve California, there is something fishy going on. Spots show up as available then prior to 8 the next morning they are gone. Same excuse every time someone extended. That is an untrue reason and someone needs to look into this. We have been booking spots for 30 years. This is the most blatant fraud we have seen. Get rid of Reserve California or check into their system California!

I would like to make a suggestion ReserveCalifornia!
It would be so nice if we could search for campsites by entering arrival date, stay length, rental type, camping equipment, etc. and your site can tell us what CA State Parks have availability. Then we won't have to check each park one-by-one. That would be amazing :)

Having to wake up every morning before 8 am sucks especially when you end up not getting any reservation for the campsite you want. You will have to wake up the next day to try again. The once a month opening is better. It gives you a better chance. I agree with everyone ....Reserve California fix this mess!

I've been reserving several campsites a year for more than 25 years. Reserve California started out bad, and each year it gets worse. It is now virtually impossible to book any popular sites. I don't know how anyone could be doing it more quickly than me, so I have to think there is some inside funny business going on.

But let's get specific. Every browser is a different experience. Some show you a clock, but not always. Some let you refresh and stay on the spot you are looking for, but not always. At other times a refresh brings you to the top of the list. If you have to scroll down, you've missed the boat. Sometimes when you refresh at 8AM it hangs up for 10+ seconds - leaving you out of luck. Sometimes you are required to re-do the Captcha verification after you select a spot - rendering you totally out of contention. The State Park system collects so much money (premium sites are $60+ per night). They should be able to pay for a decent interface.

I know how government contracts work. They have to give the contract to the lowest bidder. Often that is a small, barely qualified company. I believe that is what happened a few years ago when we ended up in this nightmare.

CALIFORNIA STATE PARK SYSTEM -- FIX THIS!

I'm about to give up entirely. Every day is another exercise in frustration. I know that more people are camping now due to COVID, but is it 10X more? I doubt it.

"403 Forbidden" all the time Reserve America never let me down. Went from a rolling month 2 years ago to a rolling DAY also. This is ridiculous!

Website is junk. Good luck trying to reserve anything

Glitchy, slow, takes your money.