Fun with a reservation system

The process this time was frustrating. It was a few days after the national reservation service had opened for the season, so there was a large volume of calls coming in. We dialed 14 times, trying to get through. When we did, the person on the other end put us on hold. We waited more than 30 minutes before an "associate" came on the phone.

We gave the associate the dates we wanted. We were told there was only one site left on one set of dates, and none left on the other. When we pressed her, she discovered that there was indeed only one site left on the first set of dates, which we took, but on the second set, she was looking at the wrong park. There was actually a handful left on those dates.

We booked. We had an idea Keji would be popular this summer – the cost of gasoline means that people are traveling shorter distances than they used to, and the Tent Dwellers festival is putting the park on the map – but we had no idea that some dates would be booked solid by April.

The cost per night was $25.50, not cheap, but worth it for a spot in one of our national parks. What was irritating was the fact that there were significant costs associated with making the reservations. It cost $10.80 just to reserve, for a service once handled with cheerfulness and efficiency by people at Keji itself. Worse, we were asked to pay that $10.80 twice, since we were booking two different sets of dates.

We were given confirmation numbers, which we could check online. We did so, and discovered that the associate had booked us in for one less day than we had requested on one set of dates. Since making a change in reservations costs a further $8.80, we got back on the telephone to correct the reservation, and since it was their mistake, were not happy with the prospect of paying the correction fee.

There was another long wait. A different person came on the line, barely audible. She recognized that the mistake was theirs and corrected the reservation without the extra fee. Yet, when we went online to check the reservation, there was no way that we could bring it up. It had disappeared. And by now we had spent close to two hours booking our reservations.

We called Kejimkujik. Finally, a cheerful, friendly voice. Amanda Fleming answered. She said she would check the reservation through their system. She came back with the information that sometimes there is a little glitch in posting the reservations, and that it might take more time for it to show up online. We waited for a bit, then tried again. It never did show up.

In the meantime, Amanda was doing some checking on her own. Because of her efforts, we received a telephone call from a helpful supervisor at the national reservation service. He had taken on the task of trying to sort out what had gone wrong. Even he couldn't find our second reservation. He rebooked it and said he would make certain we weren't charged extra for the reservations.

Finally, when we checked online, there it was.

We appreciated the intervention by Amanda Fleming and by the reservations supervisor. Part of what happened was our fault, as we called at a busy time for the reservation service. It is hard to blame the people who answered the telephone, too, as they were quite likely overworked. Our annoyance comes mostly from the fact that in order to book a site at a national park just minutes away from our home, we had to call a reservation service in central Canada, where the requirement is that you pay a hefty fee not just once, but twice if you choose dates not in sequence.

A good lesson, though, is that Kejimkujik may be shaping up to be a popular spot this summer. You should get your reservations in early, either online at www.pccamping.ca or by calling 1-877-737-3783.

- Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com