Booking it

Trying to plan his summer vacation in the dead of winter, Otto Laszlo of Simi Valley floods the Internet with reservation requests in January as soon as online bookings at California campsites for July become available.

Laszlo has been camping at prime beachfront sites such as Leo Carrillo State Park north of Santa Monica since he first came to the United States as a student more than 30 years ago. But thanks to a system that accepts phone and Internet reservations, getting a spot for the busy summer months is a crapshoot.

“The first of the month, a million people call in,” said Laszlo, 58, a businessman born in Hungary. “If you are in the right place and the gods are willing, you get a campsite. If you try to book on the Internet, it’s virtually impossible.”

Such are the vagaries of the reservation system, whether the prize is a site along the California coast at a state beach or one at a choice national park such as Yosemite or Joshua Tree.

The lines are overloaded; agencies and private-sector copycats create confusion, and software glitches are commonplace. The online reservation systems are also maddeningly devoid of human beings who might actually help campers navigate a confusing jumble of handling fees, seasonal restrictions and first-come, first-served availability.

But there is no turning back. The federal government announced Friday that it had awarded a contract to ReserveAmerica for operation of a single online and telephone reservation system covering all federal recreation land -- more than 57,000 campsites, cabins, parks, historic homes and caves.

The consolidated system, replacing separate networks currently serving the U.S. Forest Service (www.reserveamerica.com) and the National Park Service (reservations.nps.gov), will be accessible on the Internet at www.recreation.gov by December, officials say.

ReserveAmerica was initially awarded the contract in August before a competitor’s protest forced the contract to be rebid. The firm, a subsidiary of Ticketron, already operated the Forest Service system and 14 state systems, including California, New York, Florida and Texas.

John McDonald, ReserveAmerica’s spokesman, said the online reservation crush experienced in California by campers such as Laszlo was really no different from the past, only now people don’t have to drive two or three hours to find out their favorite campsite is full.

Recent improvements in software and a single national network, he said, should make it easier for consumers to search campsite availability, find nearby alternatives through web links and make reservations.

In California, ReserveAmerica broke a “one-day reservation record” on New Year’s Day 2004 taking 13,589 July reservations at state campsites, 60% of which were made online, the firm reported in a news release.

In anticipation of the onslaught, ReserveAmerica added capacity in an attempt to handle as many calls as possible and appears to have broken its own record by close to 1,000 reservations, said Roy Stearns, California State Parks’ deputy director for communications.

“On that day, you need a 50-lane freeway,” Stearns said. “And they handled it. We got a handful of complaints, and they weren’t about the reservation system. They were about the lack of sites for people who want them.”

The state could easily use 5,000 more campsites, although the odds of the system expanding are long, given a deferred maintenance backlog now in excess of $900 million.

“You look around at the California population, it’s young, it’s healthy, it’s outdoors, and they want an outback experience,” Stearns said. “It’s tough to keep up with the demand. For the summertime, it’s safe to say, the vast majority of weekends are gone, especially the coastal and south coastal campgrounds.”

Stearns said his agency has been pleased with ReserveAmerica’s performance. “They have been very responsive to any and all complaints, and they have worked hard to make changes to the system,” he said.

His advice to people such as Laszlo who are frustrated by the rush of online reservations and the lack of human interaction: “It behooves people to practice. Look around at what you can find, and how you find it, before the day you have to make that reservation.”

Peter Mason, a Sierra Club member from Los Angeles and veteran camper, recalled his most recent experience waiting in the online cue.

“It was frustrating, because you never got a large view of what was going on,” he said. “They never gave you a large map and said, ‘All this stuff is gone, don’t even try for that.’ It was kind of like poking in the dark.”

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Vernon Loeb can be reached at vernon.loeb@latimes.com.

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Staking a claim

TIPS

California state park’s website, www.parks.ca.gov, lists 29 campgrounds that are available first-come, first-served:

Northern California

Auburn State Recreation Area

Austin Creek State Recreation Area

Humboldt Lagoons State Park

Fort Ross State Historic Park

Manchester State Park

Navarro River Redwoods State Park

Sinkyone Wilderness State Park

Tolowa Dunes State Park

Westport-Union Landing State Beach

Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park

Plumas-Eureka State Park

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park

Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area

Castle Rock State Park

Forest of Nisene Marks State Park

Mount Tamalpais State Park

Central Coast and Central Valley

Andrew Molera State Park

Emma Wood State Beach (North and South)

Gaviota State Park

Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area

George J. Hatfield State Recreation Area

Southern California

Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area

Saddleback Butte State Park

Topanga State Park

Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area

Picacho State Recreation Area

Providence Mountains State Recreation Area

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Source: California State Parks