Pitch a tent, and a fit while you’re at it

Went camping with a millionaire and a billionaire the other day, and of course I’m the one who came home poorer. And crankier.

Did Schwarzenegger lug the firewood? Did Diller spring for the kindling? Did anybody but me spread the drop sheet, raise the tent, light the stove, stir the beans, scrape the oatmeal from the pot, get the drop sheet muddy, rinse it, and then muddy it again?

No. It was all me. But Arnold and Barry were there, all right.

The campsite in question was No. 57 at South Carlsbad State Beach in northern San Diego County, a bluff-top spot wedged between the sea and the river of traffic on I-5. For my night there, the state charged me $17. But six months from now, the same spot will cost $31.

That’s because Gov. Schwarzenegger (a millionaire in his spare time) on Dec. 30 announced a statewide boost in campground fees, starting with stays beginning July 1. This move, along with other park fee boosts, is aimed at shaving $18 million or so from the state’s deficit of many billions.

At California’s most-coveted campgrounds, including such ocean-adjacent spots as Bolsa Chica (in Orange County), Carpinteria (in Santa Barbara County), San Clemente and San Elijo (in San Diego County) and Seacliff (Santa Cruz County) that means fees of $39 nightly for a patch of dirt, a picnic table and an RV hookup or two. That’s a top base rate of $20 -- up from $15 now -- plus up to $10 more for premium sites and $9 for hookups.

Back in 1989, these campsites cost $8 to $10.

Then there’s the other part of this equation: the $7.50 fee (per reservation, not per night) tacked on to every campsite reserved by telephone or the Internet. (And campgrounds themselves don’t take reservations, so there’s no other way.) In other words, my site really cost $24.50, not $17.

Those fees go to concessionaire ReserveAmerica, which won its state contract through competitive bidding in 1998, then renewed it in 2002. Since winning that first contract, ReserveAmerica has been acquired by Ticketmaster and Ticketmaster has been acquired by InterActiveCorp, a publicly traded multibillion-dollar conglomerate whose other tentacles reach from Expedia (Internet travel booking) to Interval International (timeshare membership and exchanges) to Entertainment Publications (marketer of coupon books). And the chief executive of InterActiveCorp is Barry Diller.

Yes, this is the billionaire Barry Diller who cut a swath through the television and movie trades in the 1970s and ‘80s as an executive with ABC, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, then turned away to build an empire around the predicted convergence of the entertainment, telecommunications and retail businesses.

California campsites may be a small part of that (the company doesn’t disclose its reservation-business profit), but income is income. The $7.50 reservation fee, which dates to 1998 and isn’t affected by the state’s budget crisis, is part of the contract that runs through 2007.

I should say that my night above the beach did beat working. I got there early, took a long, ankle-deep meander through the stones at low tide, played guitar by the fire, took a run on the beach in the morning.

But camping with Arnold and Barry -- that is, camping at any state site with an advance reservation -- is beginning to feel like drinking with somebody who never buys a round. If I’d canceled, even months in advance, ReserveAmerica would have assessed me the $7.50 reservation fee and $7 more for canceling -- that is, $14.50 in fees over a $17 campsite never used.

“I don’t know how much profit they’re making,” says James Luscutoff, manager of the state park system’s concessions and reservations division. What he does know, he adds, is that the company’s contract with California brings in more than $5 million a year.

And California is just the beginning. ReserveAmerica’s leaders, headquartered in Toronto, say their call centers in five states process 3.5 million reservations yearly for some 150,000 campsites. Clients include the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and more than a dozen state park systems, including those in New York, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Texas and Florida. In November, says spokesman John McDonald, the company added Arches, Big Bend and Bryce Canyon national parks to its list.

So how many people are grousing about the rising cost of reserving a campsite in California? Pretty much just me, apparently.

State parks spokesman Roy Stearns reports that on Jan. 2, the first day that California campsites were offered at the higher rates, “we were a little frightened,” anticipating complaints. Instead, the ReserveAmerica troops logged a record 12,255 reservations that day -- up about 3,000 from the year before -- and fewer than 10 complaints. Says Stearns: “We were stunned.”

The park system’s Luscutoff says he is “generally happy” with Reserve- America, especially its handling of the early-January reservation onslaught. (In the mid-1990s, before online reservations, hopeful campers routinely spent days just trying to get a phone call through.) Further, Luscutoff says the company’s California reservation fees are among the country’s lowest. In New York and ReserveAmerica’s national parks, the figure is $9.

As online reservations become the rule and phone reservations the exception, is there a chance of that $7.50 fee ever shrinking? Next time the contract comes up, “that will be a consideration,” says Luscutoff.

Meanwhile, I have a few ideas for the next camping trip. Schwarzenegger carries the firewood and grills dinner. Diller springs for the kindling and washes dishes. I’ll sit by the fire and share more opinions, no charge. After all, I’m the customer and the constituent. Doesn’t that mean I’m always right?

To e-mail Christopher Reynolds or read his previous Wild West columns, go to latimes.com/chrisreynolds.