How to get campsite availability notifications on Reserve America

Most of us (my teenage sons notwithstanding) enjoy leaving work behind and going out camping. A little fresh air, a crackling campfire, and perhaps a cool beer makes for a pretty darned relaxing setup. This is in stark contrast to booking a campsite—which is a universally stressful 😩experience. That’s why we’re around. Our mission is to help people go camping.

Nearly 18 million folks research and book campsites through the Reserve America booking system. This platform supports roughly 290,000 public and private campsites across North America and the company been around for nearly 40 years. You can make bookings through Reserve America’s website and mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS.

But, what if all the campsites you want are already booked? In this article, I’ll help you get set up on Reserve America and create a campsite availability alert on that platform. I’ll also explain how you can use Campnab to monitor Reserve America’s campgrounds for canceled campsite reservations. Let’s do it! 🚀

How to set up your Reserve America account

Although it’d be nice to book all campsites through one app, doing so isn’t practical. There are many different booking technologies. Meanwhile, planners in each of those states, provinces, counties, and municipalities needs to choose the system they believe will best suit their constituents’ needs. Meanwhile, even though some areas use the same booking systems, login credentials typically don’t transfer from one to the next.

This is one of the benefits of Reserve America. Much like recreation.gov, a good number of regions rely on this booking platform. Even better yet, once you have an account on Reserve America, it will allow you to book campsites in the many different areas that it serves.

Setting up your Reserve America account is super easy. I’ll walk you through the steps:

1. Visit the Reserve America website.

2. Click the Sign in button.

3. Under the New Customers heading click Create an Account.

4. Complete the form, entering your first and last name, email address, phone number, address, and a secure password of your choosing (many of the other fields can be left blank).

5. Click Continue.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be signed into Reserve America. (You’ll receive a confirmation email within a few moments.) Now, you can navigate the site as you wish, checking out campgrounds you’d like to visit, and booking them if you choose.

💡One tip: So long as you’re on your personal computer—don’t do this on public machines—you can set your browser to remember your sign-in credentials for Reserve America. By doing this, you’ll save yourself time when you’re rushing to book a spot before it gets snapped up by someone else.

What are campsite availability alerts?

You’ve probably already heard of campsite notifications, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll fill you in. There’s nothing magical about campsite availability notifications. In fact, they’re surprisingly simple. You just need to get past all the folks who’re freaking out about bots booking campsites. Spoiler alert: Bots aren’t a real problem for booking campsites.

Here’s the real issue: There’s a mad scramble when the booking window for campsite reservations opens—months in advance of the planned trip—and campers often need to make decisions in haste. In between this day and the arrival date, campers’ plans often change. When they do, they’ll generally cancel their camping reservations, so others can use them (and they can get back part of their payment).

If you check the booking site repeatedly, you can spot these newly canceled availabilities—and book these campsites for yourself. Practically, though, this takes a lot of browser refreshing. (You likely have better things to do with your time.) Campsite monitoring is a convenience offered by Campnab and some booking systems. It allows you to note when, where, and how long you want to camp for. When a suitable availability appears, the system will notify you so you can attempt to reserve that campsite.

How to scan a park on Reserve America for cancellations

Some booking systems have built-in notifications. This is an incredibly useful feature and one that’s available to anyone, free of charge. Built in booking systems tend to have fewer options than a dedicated scanning service, but they do exactly what they claim to.

To create a scan for new campsite availabilities on Reserve America, follow these steps:

1. Enter the name of the desired park or campground in the Search field on Reserve America’s homepage.

2. Select your preferred park or campground from the provided list.

3. In the Find a Site area enter your arrival and departure dates and click Check Availability.

4. If a site is available, you can book it and you’re done.

5. If no sites are available, you’ll see a box containing the text: “We were unable to find any available sites matching the entered dates and criteria.” Click the link that reads: Create Availability Notification.

6. This opens a new page describing your scan. If all looks good to you, click “Create this notification”.

Once you’ve completed these steps, Reserve America will monitor your chosen park and date, and notify you of new availabilities by email. Reserve America automatically creates a panel containing all of your availability notifications, where you can view your monitored campgrounds, and delete scans when you choose.

Use Campnab to monitor Reserve America for cancellations

My friend and I built Campnab to monitor parks in B.C. for new availabilities. A lot of folks found our little app handy and asked us to scan other areas—including campsites booked through Reserve America. So, we did!

To create a scan on Campnab follow these steps:

1. Visit the Campnab website.

2. Enter the name of your desired park in the Find a Park area.

3. Choose your park from the list of options.

4. Select the campgrounds you’d like to stay in.

5. Apply filters if you wish to filter out certain results.

6. Choose your arrival dates (if you’re flexible, toggle Flexible Dates to on).

7. Set the minimum duration you wish to be notified of.

8. Provide your mobile number so we know where to send your alerts (you can add an email address for email alerts later if you wish) and click “Verify”.

9. Check your text messages for an access code and enter it when prompted to do so.

10. Choose between a one-off scan or a membership. Generally, you should opt for a pay-per-use scan if you only need one scan, and choose a membership if you want to scan more parks.

11. Select a service tier based on how often you wish to scan and how many scans you’d like to run.

12. Enter your payment information (name, email, credit card number).

13. Hit Pay or Subscribe to complete your scan and purchase.

14. Visit your Scans panel to view, edit, pause, or resume scans.

Here’s a video of the above, in case you prefer to see the campsite scan creation process for yourself:

Are Campnab alerts better than Reserve America’s notifications?

I just offered up two ways to scan parks for newly canceled campsites. Odds are that you’re wondering which one is best for you. I’ll share my take on this in the most objective manner I can. Admittedly, I’m a tiny bit biased.

Let’s start with the embedded alerts provided by the booking system itself. In my mind, you can’t lose by setting these up to notify you of new cancellations. They’re free and come directly from the source—meaning you should (theoretically) receive them faster than you would from a third party. So, if nothing else, create a few scans on Reserve America and see how they work for you.

For many, Reserve America’s built-in alerts will do just fine. That said, they do come with some limitations. For those who want a little more control over their scans, Campnab is a worthwhile addition. I’ll walk you through some of the benefits of adding scanning with Campnab.

Campnab lets you dial your campsite availability scan with a little more precision. You can limit a scan to only monitor certain campgrounds within a park. Campnab lets you apply attribute filters to only send alerts for sites that match your rig or preferences. You can even set up a scan that only monitors specific campsites within the campground.

Every notification system will offer somewhat different results based on when it scans and how frequently it sends alerts. Although Reserve America should send alerts faster than Campnab, given that it has that information in real-time, I generally find that Campnab alerts are a bit faster. That said, your mileage may vary.

Here’s a video that shows you how to use either Reserve America or Campnab to create a scan to monitor sold-out parks for newly canceled campsites:

Other ways to find openings at sold-out parks

Of course, scanning for cancellations isn’t the only way to find a campsite availability at a sold-out campground. In fact, when you get to the day of arrival, campsite availability alerts aren’t always that useful. Some parks limit the purchase of last-minute cancellations to those on-site, meaning these openings might not even appear on the booking system.

For this reason, checking directly with the park isn’t a terrible idea. A lot of times folks get jammed up on their way to the park and can’t make use of their booking. These campsites are generally forfeited after a certain cut-off time, making them available to other campers.

So, you can call the park directly to ask about such openings, or, you might just drive up. Keep in mind that park attendants are often busy and overworked, so, cut them some slack. It’s great when they can sneak you into a spot, but this is far from a sure thing.

You can also monitor social media groups in which campers make note of campsites they intend to cancel. This method is a bit dicey, as some parks don’t allow you to transfer a campsite reservation. So, check the park’s most current policies to ensure that you’re allowed to purchase someone else’s reservation.

Mindset is everything

Truth is, booking a campsite is hard and can feel almost impossible on opening morning. Some take this personally and respond with anger and frustration. Fair enough. I’m hot-headed too and tend to react strongly when things don’t go my way. When it comes to booking campsites, though, such emotion is about as helpful as kicking your tire when you get a flat.

The trick to getting campsites is to be like the Fonz. By that, I mean: cool. Think about this less like a clinical hotel stay and more like an adventure. Check out all kinds of parks. Shift your camping days to weekdays or the shoulder season when there’s less demand. Explore private parks and nearby ones. Consider boondocking (we’ll show you how in this introduction to boondocking article).

Of all your options, I still think setting up a campsite cancellation scan is one of your best options. It allows you to set up a scan for your favorite park, go back to your business, and let the scanning service do all of the checking for you. 💡 Pro-tip: Keep your scan parameters as broad as possible so you’re alerted to the greatest number of availabilities.

One more thing: If your plans change, be sure to cancel your reservations. In doing so, you help other campers make use of the campsite, instead of having it sit vacant. 🤙

Additional campsite scanning resources

Looking for more information on how to scan parks and get notified of newly canceled campsite reservations? Here are a handful of links to other articles you might find useful:

• How to get campsite availability notifications on Recreation.gov
• How Do I Get More Campsite Alerts?
• How to Receive Availability Notifications for a Sold-Out Campground
• How Do I Set up a Campsite Notifications Scan?
• How to Make a Last-Minute Campsite Reservation

P.S., I used much-emoji in the above post. Did I do it right? I sure hope so! 😉

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