How disasters and policies impact notifications

Photo: Luke Flynt

Some have asked how Campnab works when the park they’re scanning experiences a disaster or local closure/issue. The simple answer is that the scan keeps running—and this is for two reasons.

The first is that these are dynamic situations. So, booking systems don’t always reflect if a disaster has affected the ability to book a campsite.

Our app essentially looks for campsites that have changed status from unavailable to available. It doesn’t have another way to recognize if a disaster or local policy might prevent you from booking an available campsite.

The second is that the duration of such issues is unknown. For example, a local flooding issue might impact a park for a month and then get resolved. Although your visit might be affected by this situation, someone else might want to scan anyway—given the unknown duration of such conditions.

As there are so many variables, the scans you set up will run as you directed, and produce alerts when it spots an availability change. We recognize that this can seem in bad taste (especially if there’s a forest fire at the park).

That said, there’s just no way for us to monitor the status of natural disasters and relate them to specific parks. It’s also impossible for us to know who wants to keep their scan running and who doesn’t.

For this reason, we encourage you to stay informed about the parks you’re scanning for availabilities. Check their websites to read updates and review their policies. Then adapt your scans—and plans—as necessary.

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