State campsite reservations going to cost campers

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 01/19/03

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Travelers booking campsites at Massachusetts state parks this summer are being hit with a new reservation charge of $8, which is nearly as much as a night's stay at many of those places.

The state had been picking up the cost of the private company that has been handling campsite reservations since 1998, but with a huge budget deficit looming, officials decided they could no longer afford the estimated $328,000 a year.

It makes sense for consumers to pay the cost of making their own campsite reservations. After all, why should Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill so that residents from Maine, New York, or Pennsylvania can book a state campsite here for free?

But paying $8 to reserve campsites that range in cost from $6 to $15 a night seems steep to me. It costs only $5 to make a flight reservation on Orbitz, Travelocity, or Expedia, while the surcharge for buying a ticket online to a Bruins game at the FleetCenter is $6.25.

Reserve America, the company that processes campsite reservations for Massachusetts and many other states, is a Toronto-based subsidiary of Ticketmaster, the premier seller of tickets to concerts, theater shows, and sporting events.

Reserve America spokesman John McDonald said the company's reservation charge is not an Orbitz-style sales commission, but a basic fee for services offered.

"You may not realize that camping reservation management is very complex, as every campsite is unique," McDonald said. "This is much more complex than offering tickets for a standard event, where the only criteria is price or date."

Daryl Pressley, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Management, which oversees the state's campgrounds, said he thinks campers appreciate the convenience of being able to call a toll-free number or go online to reserve a spot at a campground six months in advance.

A hot line set up by the state to take complaints about the fee, which took effect Nov. 1, hasn't been very busy, Pressley said.

"We've gotten very few calls regarding the transaction charge," he said.

The reservation system was set up in 1998 when Massachusetts decided to shift from a system where campsites were booked in person on a first-come, first-served basis. The state hired Reserve America to handle reservations for 80 percent of a park's campsites, while the remaining 20 percent were reserved for "walk-ups."

After some initial glitches, the system has worked very well, offering consumers the ability to book a campsite months or days in advance and know it will be available when they show up. Now that consumers are hooked, its true cost is being passed along to them.

The $8 reservation charge applies to each reservation made, so a Massachusetts resident booking two nights at Nickerson State Park would pay $24 plus the $8 fee. A second reservation at Nickerson or another state park, even if it is made at the same time, would incur another $8 fee.

Massachusetts charges $15 a night ($12 for state residents) for campsites at coastal camping facilities, including Nickerson, Horseneck Beach, Salisbury Beach, and Scusset Beach. The charge for inland campsites is $12 a night, or $10 for state residents. Limited service campsites cost $6 a night, or $5 for state residents.

According to McDonald, the reservation charge varies from state to state depending on the level of services offered. In many states, it is $8.50. McDonald said he was not aware of any other state that was continuing to absorb the reservation charge.

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Car rentals

A number of readers contacted me after a recent column in which I suggested that the uncertainty usually associated with using discount travel sites like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com. did not exist when renting a car.

Ariana McDonough suggested readers may also want to check out Onetravel.com. She said the Web site offered her a very good price for a two-week rental of a minivan in Hawaii while still giving her the flexibility that is often lost with a bid-for-travel Web site like Priceline.

"The beauty of this site is that your credit card is not charged until you actually rent the car and the reservation can be canceled at any time," she said, noting two very big differences from Priceline and Hotwire.

David Tucker seized on the last sentence in my column. After my bid with Priceline was accepted, I was curious whether an even lower bid would have been approved. He suggested checking out Biddingfortravel.com, where users of Priceline often share their winning bids.

"It takes some of the guesswork out of getting the best deal for your bid," Tucker said.

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Lend a hand

I'm looking for first-hand reports on how the bag-checking experience at airports around the nation is going. If you have traveled since Jan. 1, how convenient or inconvenient has the new process of checking for explosives been? Were you delayed? Do you have security concerns about leaving your bags unlocked? Do you have tips for other travelers? Please include your name, phone number, and the names of the airports you visited.

Bruce Mohl can be reached by

e-mail at mohl@globe.com.