Find More Canceled Campsite Availabilities with the Help of Unlock Alerts

Did you know that we send two types of alerts at Campnab? We call these “regular alerts” and ”unlock alerts”. Regular alerts are for campsites that are immediately available. Unlock alerts are for sites scheduled for future release. In this article, I’ll speak about each of these alerts—and explain how to get the best out of them.

Regular Campnab alerts are for real-time openings

Since 2017, we’ve scanned sold-out campgrounds for newly canceled campsite reservations. (This is our story.) At that time, if someone canceled their campsite reservation that opening would almost get put right back into the booking system’s available supply.

This kept things reasonably simple. If you received an alert, you just needed to click through as quickly as you could. Some sites got rebooked within a few minutes. At Yosemite, they rebooked in seconds (seriously). Yet others remained available for a while before they were rebooked.

How to identify a regular campsite availability alert

We still send lots of these regular (or real-time) campsite availability alerts. In fact, they’re the most common ones we send. This is because most booking systems still release newly canceled campsite availabilities in as they become available.

Regular alerts start with the words “Hurry!” or “Yay!” and you need to act on these as quickly as possible because others might want to book the same campsite and dates as you!

Here’s an example of a regular alert from Campnab:

Set a custom ringtone to catch your attention

We learned this next trick from some Campnab members. They told us that they had set custom ringtones for any incoming alerts from Campnab. These unique sounds prompted them to act quickly so they had the best chance of booking that newly available campsite or permit. Here’s how you can do this, too:

How to set a custom ringtone for campsite alerts if your smartphone runs on Android

1. Select the conversation from us (1-877-626-0108)
2. Tap the menu icon (three dots) in the top right
3. Tap Details
4. Tap Notifications
5. Tap Sound
6. Select a tone
7. Tap the back arrow, Save, or OK

How to set a custom ringtone for campsite alerts if your smartphone runs on iOS

1. Select the conversation from us (1-877-626-0108)
2. Tap the arrow (beside the phone number) to expand options
3. Tap the info button
4. Tap Create new contact
5. (Optional) Type “Campnab Alerts” in the Company field
6. Scroll to Text Tone and tap
7. Select the Alert Tone you like
8. Tap Done (top-right corner)
9. Tap Done again

⚠️ A special note: If you receive an alert while driving, please pull over safely and stop fully before responding to it. We want you to get that campsite, but it isn’t worth your life or someone else’s.

The emergence of locked campsites

A few years ago we started noticing something strange. A bunch of newly canceled campsites in California were getting released at 8 AM. We knew that folks weren’t all canceling their reservations at this time, but we didn’t have much more information to go on.

Turns out this was a new approach used by the booking system USeDirect (since acquired by Tyler Technologies) at California State Parks. What was strange was that this release approach wasn’t uniform. Some parks seemed to hold all of their newly canceled campsite availabilities until 8 AM. Others released all of their new openings in real-time. Yet others seemed to do a bit of both.

Unlock alerts are for campsites set to release at a future time

Another clever Campnab member (we love when y’all share your ideas with us) got in touch with us around that time. He noted that he disliked having to check Reserve California every morning to see if something was set to unlock. He explained that he’d love a heads-up whenever a campsite matching his needs was set to unlock. That sounded like a heck of a good idea—so we got to work.

These “unlock alerts” now identify when a campsite has been released and what time it is scheduled to be released. We’ve sent a whole lot of these alerts over the past years—to campers interested in state parks in California and Florida. Alabama, Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio state parks also use the same booking system. So, folks camping in those parts probably get some unlock alerts too. 🙂

How to spot an unlock alert for a campsite opening

As I’ve explained, unlock alerts are for sites scheduled to release in the future. To help you spot the difference between these alerts and regular ones, we start each unlock alert with the words: “Heads up!”. We also note which site is set to open up and when the booking system indicates that they plan to release that newly canceled campsite.

Here’s an example of an unlock alert:

But… this is where things get complicated (and why I generally prefer regular alerts). Site unlocking isn’t as clear as you’d think it might be. As such, we share this next bit of information with a lot of Campnab members. Please pay special attention to this next section, as it can help make those unlock alerts work for you.

The sticky part about unlock alert release times

In California, most locked sites are set to release the following day at 8 AM. In Florida, locked sites release at a future time but those don’t seem to follow a set pattern. It could be in a few minutes, in several hours, or on the following day. We don’t have any sway over this. We just report the time that the booking system tells us they’ll release a locked site.

In theory, this should be easy. In actuality, site unlocking is kind of wonky. These locked sites can be released earlier than scheduled—and sometimes later. Sometimes we’ll see each day in a block of openings in one campsite get released 5 minutes apart. We’ve also seen locked sites that simply didn’t release when they were scheduled to.

Additionally, when these campsites do release, they get snapped up quite quickly. Others know that some sites will come available at certain times, and often check back to try to scoop them up—even if they don’t rely on campsite availability alerts from Campnab.

How to interpret site status and prepare for unlocking

If you see a lock symbol on the site and date they still haven’t released it. If you see a lock and it rapidly switches to a red slash, it just opened up and someone booked it. If you only see a slash, they probably released it earlier than scheduled and it’s long gone.

As I said, we don’t have any control over what that booking system does. We just monitor these systems for campsite status changes and report the time the booking system tells us they’ll release a locked site.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to pull up that page 30 minutes in advance and keep an eye on it. If it hasn’t yet been released, you might consider watching it for a while past the scheduled release time. As with most things campsite booking related, patience and persistence are the name of the game.

Although I recognize how weird site unlocking can be, a lot of our members have booked sites that unlocked. So, just keep at it. If you keep your scan criteria reasonably, you’re bound to see a number of openings—and each one represents an opportunity to get lucky. 🙂

Additional resources

With each of these articles, I try to offer up some extra articles, videos, and resources that you might also find informative. Here are a few that relate to unlock alerts—and optimizing your scans:

• Can Campnab Send Notifications About Locked Campsites That Are Set to Release?
• Why Didn’t the Campsite Unlock When It Was Set To?
• Get Notified About Campsites Set to Unlock in Florida and California
• Campsite Availability Notifications: Pro Tips to Make the Most of Your Campsite Tracker

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