Friend of mine called in advance, and was told that there are plenty of sites available for the last weekend. I did the online reservation foolishly thinking that this should be enough until I get there. For the online reservation they had 2 types of sites, one with a lake view and one in the forest. I picked the lake-view one on the reservation form and since the information provided earlier was that there are "plenty of available sites" I assume that this should be enough.
On the way to the place I noticed that I have a response email stating that the type of site I requested is not available due to some construction. This was not mentioned during the registration, and this type of sites are pretty much 50% of all tent sites showing on their map. Since I was already driving, I decided to get there first, and just to pick an available site, no matter from what type, so I just kept driving. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic, so my son (14 years old) and me managed to get to the park at 9:55 pm and it was already dark outside. No one responded to my call from the gate (they have a system for communication at the gate if the office is closed). I spent about 20 minutes trying to get a signal on my phone so I can call the number form their website, and finally managed to speak to someone who sounded like a manager, or most likely owner. He put considerable effort to make sure that I understand that this is private property (although there is a huge sigh on the way there that states exactly that), after which he told me that the office closes at 9pm (something that I could not find on their site, because it is either missing or well hidden). After telling me that it is past 9pm, so he "cannot do anything" about it, he stated that we are better of finding a hotel in the area (gave us some vague directions). I was really frustrated, because we were prepared for camping and drove for hours to get there, but said that this is fine and turned the car around. Before leaving the place someone in a truck drove next to my car and started asking me for more information. His voice and attitude matched the ones I heard on the phone, so I am assuming that this was the person I spoke to, few minutes earlier. He repeated that the office is closed, so ....this is it for tonight, and pointed me again to hotels. At some point he said that if I had a reservation, something can be done after all, and asked me if I had a reservation. I told him that I sent the form few days earlier, but assumed that this is enough (since they stated that there are "plenty of sites available" for the weekend), and did not follow up after that assuming that it is not crowded, and I can make the payment and pick a site when I arrive. He said that he is sorry, but sending a form is not a reservation, and I should have called in addition to the form with a credit card number, which would have made it a reservation. His tone and attitude were very frustrating, so I said that this is OK, and drove away.
Apparently for this place it is really important to make sure people know that it is a private property, but whoever manages it acts like a government employee, for whom the office hours are determining if some business can be done or not. In my opinion, if someone runs private business, and a client comes trying to pay for services, it is obvious that the transaction should be done, especially when in this case all that needed to be done was to take the money and lift the barrier.
I am not sure why this attitude was displayed since I was with a nice, couple of years old car, there was a rack with bikes on the back and kid on the back sit, but apparently if I didn't "call with a credit card number" all bets are off. The only thing that might have confused this person is the fact that I have some eastern European accent, but I don't believe that this fact might stop someone who wants to make a sale from making it, or someone that want to help from helping.... or both. read more