Are you a B.C. resident who hopped online to make a campground reservation this morning? Because you certainly weren’t alone.
As of 7 a.m. Monday morning, Discover Camping opened their campground reservation portal for B.C. residents, and clearly underestimated the sheer number of British Columbians who were itching to book a site.
As of 11:30 a.m., over 27,000 reservations for campsites had been made, according to a tweet by Minister of Environment and Climate Change George Heyman.
He went on to add that there were approximately 10 reservations being made every second since the portal went live.
With the announcement that many campgrounds and accommodations will start to open on June 1st, along with most B.C. parks now open for day-use, Discover Camping made the decision to open up their campsite booking schedule on Monday, May 25th.
However the campground reopening is not without some changes to this summer’s upcoming camping season.
Reservations will only be available to B.C. residents at this time, and new reservations made after May 25th by non-B.C. residents will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.
For local residents, front-country and backcountry reservations will be available on a two-month rolling basis starting Monday.
This means beginning May 25th, the system will open to arrivals as far forward as July 25th, for example. This system will continue on, with each day allowing one more day of bookings two months in advance.
Campers can reserve a spot for a maximum of 14 days, and reservations made within the first two weeks of inventory being released cannot be changed.
“This is to prevent people from overbooking and subsequently changing arrival dates to shorten their stay in order to obtain a favourable site or time ahead of other customers,” said BC Parks in a release.
Group sites and reservable picnic shelters will remain closed for the time being, and double sites will only be available for double site bookings and cannot be booked as two single sites for separate groups.
Despite the overwhelming number of campers unable to get through to book sites at this time, it appears this is a result of the website experiencing technical difficulties; not for lack of sites available.
If you’re willing to take a gamble and join the masses in reserving a campsite, you can do so through Discover Canada’s online portal.
Maybe just make sure you’re comfortable; it could be a while.
