Cancel the upcoming 7-night maximum length of single booking stay reduction between July 1 and the Saturday of Labour Day weekend in 2023 for ALGONQUIN, BON ECHO, KILLBEAR, PINERY, and SANDBANKS!

 

Algonquin is where I personally choose to spend 2 consecutive weeks of relaxation with my hard-earned vacation each summer, but I know this will affect many others who stay at one of the above parks in the only 2 months of actual summer we get in Ontario.

 

Yes, something must be done in the short term to address demand, and a reduction to 14 nights for ALL parks across the board may have been seen by most as a reasonable compromise but a reduction to as little as only 7 nights for these specific parks is NOT the answer!

"Such a reduction was tried before in a pilot project at Killbear to reduce the maximum length of stay on the reservation service to 16 nights, and it did not eliminate the issue and created a new one for folks who do camp for more than 16 nights." *

This is because the average length of stay has been 3.5 days for the past ten years. ***

How does this upcoming change help with capacity, if 90% of bookings are shorter than 5 nights? Only ~0.5% of all reservations are ever booked for the maximum 23 nights. *

The only REAL permanent solution to handle more visitors camping at Ontario Parks over the past several years (4.3 million camper nights in 2014 to over 6.6 million camper nights in 2021) is to have built more (quality) sites in the most popular parks to satisfy growing demand.

In 2014 there were 19,075 developed campsites, and as of 2019 there were 19,253. Less than 200 campsites have been added in that time despite the fact that there are over 2 million more camper nights. How does this make sense? ***

DON'T HURT YOUR MOST DEDICATED GUESTS/CAMPERS JUST BECAUSE EXTRA CAPACITY WAS NEVER ADDED!

Ontario Parks' choice of parks to impose this severe restriction on isn't even based on popularity/capacity numbers, other than Sandbanks. **

Why such a severe restriction on Algonquin but not Killarney, Sauble or Arrowhead?

(Did anyone notice that Pinery isn't even on that list? Hint: It's 77%.)

 

Focus on REAL temporary solutions such as...

Increasing cancellation penalties exponentially.
You may have some of the highest cancelation penalties in North America, but clearly, this isn't enough of a deterrent to those gaming the system.
Partial Cancellations: The more days you cancel, specifically at the BEGINNING of a booking, an extra cancellation surcharge percentage gets added.
i.e. 1 day = additional 10% per day, 2 days = additional 20% per day, 3 days = additional 30% per day, etc.
Full cancellations could retain the same fee structure, as they are likely legitimate.

Eliminate no-shows.
Maintain physical check-ins. Maybe an app? Temporarily an app that's just a wrapper for a check-in page on your website? Scan a QR code displayed on a monitor at the office to check-in?
Something quick to prevent congestion yet ONLY can be done by someone physically present in the park at that time. Plenty of room for ideas here.
If you don't call the park ahead of time to let them know you're going to be late, and especially if you don't eventually show up after you do, you don't get your money back, at least not automatically. Extenuating circumstances? Apply for a refund and it will be reviewed along with supporting documentation.

Early access for Ontario residents.
Of course, we welcome ALL visitors, but residents should have the first chance at OUR parks. Verification of provincially issued ID cards should be a requirement to process a purchase during an advance booking period. If there's not enough time to implement that for 2023, have a restriction that the billing address on the credit card must be in Ontario. Again, plenty of ideas.
That's over 10% of all bookings that could potentially go to Ontarians first. ***

Website security.
CAPTCHAs should be used throughout the website to help prevent mass purchases by bots, even if you don't believe this is an issue, it's a simple security addition.

I understand that Ontario Parks has a position that occurrences of such events as overbooking, no-shows, and bot purchases are rare, but the public feels these are REAL issues and need to be addressed regardless of their perceived impact.
I can't believe how many times I find myself surrounded by empty sites in prime camping season and there has to be a reason for this. Let others get the chance to use the sites that people aren't occupying. I don't think your "data" lets you see this issue but it's all over Facebook, Twitter and Reddit comments.

 

In addition to signing this petition, please send your comments directly to the following decision-makers...

Ontario Parks
op-concerns.comments@ontarioparks.com

Jason Travers - Director, Ontario Parks
Jason.Travers@ontario.ca

David Piccini, MPP - Ontario Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
david.piccinico@pc.ola.org

 

*** https://imgur.com/XeRSoNf (Ontario Provincial Parks Statistics 2019)

** https://data.ontario.ca/dataset/visitation-to-provincial-parks

* Bruce van Staalduinen ([Former] Manager, Operations & Development, Ontario Parks)

CITATION: https://www.change.org/p/ontario-parks-please-put-in-place-a-no-cancellation-policy-for-campsites-but-allow-date-changes/responses/2961