Kruger's 'first come first serve' booking system causes frustration
Cape Town - Kruger National Park regulars say they are frustrated with South Africa National Parks' 'first come first serve' booking system, which opened for call centres and email bookings on Wednesday, 22 July.
Bookings can be made through the Central Reservations line (012 428 9111), via e-mail on
reservations@sanparks.org or in person at park camp receptions and SANParks Satellite offices throughout the country.
On Wednesday the situation was compounded after SANParks confirmed its central reservations line was unavailable for the first few hours when bookings opened on Wednesday.
Despite this, when online reservations eventually opened to the public on Thursday, 23 July, it already showed very limited availability in the Kruger National Park, especially for popular accommodations sites like Lower Sabie and Satara.
As soon as the first bookings opened on Wednesday, prospective visitors took to social media - and the Kruger National Park's official Facebook Page - to share their frustration with the system.
Kruger National Park's General Manager Reynold Thakhuli said, "There was a problem with the head office telephone line [which] was out of bounds for the first hour (on Wednesday)."
Those who had hoped to book their Kruger holiday telephonically were then left disappointed when the lines were finally operational again.
Jacqui Kaminer, a SANparks member for the Kruger National Park, said in a comment that she had tried to book from as early as 07:30 on the morning the bookings opened but the line was "constantly engaged".
Another SANParks member Guy Lerner said, "Finally got through, only to be told Lower Sabie was sold out for the entire holidays in minutes! Surely there has to be a better system..."
Thakhuli said the opening of bookings for the winter holiday period is always the busiest day in the SANParks reservation calendar.
Thakhuli told Traveller24, "We had hundreds of people at the SANParks offices in Pretoria, queuing from three days ago."
But this is typical behaviour for holiday-makers wanting to secure a reservation for a specific destination in Kruger.
According to Tamara Schmidt, also a SANParks member for Kruger National Park, people had been queuing at SANPark's reservation house in Blackheath, Johannesburg from 02:00 the previous morning.
Schmidt had been in the queue from 05:00 on Thursday morning.
"I was #48 in the queue. If all the centres are that busy then getting the booking you want becomes a matter of luck," Schmidt said.
Another point of frustration is that regular Kruger visitors find that chalets and bungalows are often unoccupied even in the most popular visiting times for Kruger, including the winter holidays.
A common complaint seems to be that despite the reservations being full, the follow-through booking procedure is sometimes not completed - with accommodation then becoming available at a later date.
Pix Du Preez commented on SANParks Facebook page saying, "The reservations are always full, but at night half of the huts are not booked".
The SANPark's booking system requires visitors to make the first deposit of 50%, 30 days after the booking has been made. The second deposit of 50% must be paid 60 days before arrival.
It is within these time frames that bookings fall through, and chalets are left vacant during prime holiday times.
"We regularly find the accommodation we want closer to the time. Have been in luck over the long weekend this year April and July school holidays the previous two years. Once the hype of booking has worn off everyone needs to pay their deposits and often space comes available then.. as well as a month prior to arrival when all needs to be paid up, " said Liesel Otto Schafer in another comment.
'System needs an overhaul'
The park's visitors say they are extremely frustrated by the reservations system, which sometimes requires them to make multiple bookings across different camps, during short periods in order to be accommodated.
André King posted a comment saying, "Every year when booking opens we have the same problem- by the time you get through you are told all accommodation is gone. You are told to look online as spaces will become available. We did that last year and as a result in a 9-day stay we had to move 4 times!
"Even more frustrating," King says, "is that we twice ended up in exactly the same unit. We had to drive around with all our baggage -no unpacking , only to end up in the same unit we had occupied 2 days back!"
Thakhuli said, "It must be kept in mind that there are about 400 operators on the system simultaneously when bookings open at 07:30" on the day of the opening of the bookings.
Thakhuli confirmed that the Kruger National Park aims to address the frustrating booking system by upgrading the reservation system through a queuing mechanism, which would ultimately manage the flow of requests to the web reservation application.
http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/B ... n-20150723
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