I have 3 trips planned for this year, all with every night a reservation. It looks like it's going to be mandatory in the future to do it this way. What a bummer trying to plan trips a year in advance with no flexibility.
I seldom stay in commercial campgrounds unless for one night when traveling down the interstates. But, I get this feeling they will be like hotels, and go with a nightly rate based on demand and availability. "If we only have 3 sites left and the demand is there, we can get 50% more for the site".
Yeah we have seen that with notices of increase rates for holidays and special area events and probably whenever the spirit moves them. A lot of the issue is where you're going and at what time of the year. Our Disney trip in June had to be a year in advance and with the uncertainty of covid also playing a roll in it but we expected that being Disney. Our trip from Disney in June up to the Bristol area and continuing north up toward southern Ohio, we just completed and found a little problem making reservations, not terrible though. We prefer reservations so we know we have a spot at a minimum of 10 days to two weeks or a month.
This year our wintering in Galveston, we didn't have to reserve that far in advance but we did to get a special rate that included electricity. Normally the rate would have been 699 plus electricity but we got a special rate of 599 which included electricity, so that was a good surprise. That's $20 / night. The RV Park was never close to being full. But it also had good amenities, cable TV, heated pool, store, propane, pickle ball etc, didn't expect the great Texas freeze out through!.
We don't mind State Parks if we can get at least 2 weeks, and they are updated. We don't like moving every week and we will not stay at these kinds of parks (reading reviews and personal experience) if they are old and outdated no matter how cheap they are. Terrible power hookups, broken power receptacles, over hanging low tree limbs, very narrow roads and sites, vehicles parked all over the road. So we are picky about National, State and COE parks. Some are extremely nice.
Yeah it can be more of a time consuming task these days, its just the nature of the popularity. But we recall camping with our kids back in the late 70s, 80, and into the 90s, online reservations was unheard of and even back then you couldn't expect to just show up on a weekend or long weekend and get a spot, especially on a holiday weekend.
