REGINA – Some people may have to take a number to book a campsite in 2015. Any campers who want to spend their holidays at one of Saskatchewan’s provincial parks this summer will be able to start making nightly campsite reservations in March.
But fair warning says the provincial government, when nightly reservation launches online, the Reserv-a-site system may experience times of unusually high volume which can affect processing speeds.
“In fact, it is so popular that in past years the campsite reservation system hasn’t been able to keep up with demand,” said Mark Docherty, Saskatchewan minister of parks, culture and sport.
“The experience of our visitors is very important to us and we have made some important changes to our reservation system this year.”
During the busy 2014 launch, a technical error led to a booking mishaps where customers were incorrectly charged on their credit cards.
READ MORE: Campers in Saskatchewan getting $100 cheque for booking mishap
Launches will continue to be staggered this year, with different parks becoming available on different days. However, it will be spread out over 10 days instead of three.
Here is the 2015 schedule for online reservation launches:
- March 2: Blackstrap, Pike Lake
- March 3: Buffalo Pound, Danielson, Douglas
- March 4: Echo Valley, Rowan’s Ravine
- March 5: Duck Mountain, Good Spirit Lake, Greenwater Lake
- March 6: Crooked Lake, Moose Mountain
- March 7: Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
- March 8: The Battlefords, Saskatchewan Landing
- March 9: Meadow Lake
- March 10: Bronson Forest Recreation Site, Chitek Lake Recreation Site, Lac La Ronge, Makwa Lake
- March 11: Candle Lake, Great Blue Heron, Narrow Hills
In addition, a queuing system will also be implemented to let people know they are in line and to manage the number of users accessing the system.
Customers attempting to access the reservation website at peak volume times will be moved to the queue and assigned a random number. The queuing system will begin 20 minutes prior to launch each morning.
Starting at 7 a.m., customers will be redirected to the reservation website to book campsites based on their assigned number. Any new users attempting to book at that time will also receive a place in line, online.
In 2014, Saskatchewan’s 35 provincial parks registered 3.76 million visits.
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