Corruption in the Booking System - Yes or No

[Sprocky]

Clever Amoli!!

[Bushcraft]

I have said this before.

On the internet 'online booking' you can book temporarily and then you must stop before e-mailing
You pick up the phone and you book. The lady tells you there's no more space - and you say, just wait. You erase your booking on the net,
and - whalllllaaaaa - she suddenly sees there is space on her screen.

Underhanded - I don't care - it works for me.

And through all of this, I have not moved from my office chair.

Clever Amoli , but only 10 months in advance for online bookings, so won't help with the winter school holidays which are booked out in a few hours after bookings open 11 months in advance, especially since most family units are "booked" even before that by unknown individuals

[PRWIN]

Total corruption, know for a fact that travel agents can book before the general public

[RobertT]

Thought I read somewhere that most of the family units were donor units giving them preference, if they didn't take it up, it then went out to public.

[Bushcraft]

Total corruption, know for a fact that travel agents can book before the general public

Please tell us which agents I will use them

[Bushcraft]

Thought I read somewhere that most of the family units were donor units giving them preference, if they didn't take it up, it then went out to public.

Guest houses and bush camps like Biyamiti, Talamati, etc, not the general family accommodation in all the main camps

[Bushveld Jock]

Hi BC,

I thought of converting you to camping and invite along for the July holidays to Tsendze, but there is no place left anymore, except for about 3 days but no consecutive days to make a trip worthwhile. Looks like Kruger is just too popular and even north of Satara places are limited. No camp sites at Maroela and Balule, except right north at Punda Maria and 2 sites at Shingwedzi.

We will have to plan again and might do a KZN trip again.

[Bushcraft]

We will have to plan again and might do a KZN trip again.

We will have make a plan for KNP in October which are the next holidays for us but KZN in the winter months is definitely on the cards. I have already booked 2 nights in June 2014 at Imfolozi

[Dzombo]

When I booked for my December 2013 trip this past January, I telephoned as soon as booking opened. Called the Jhb centre.
But it was 3/4 hour at least, if not longer, before I got to speak to someone.

I got family units at Skukuza, Satara and LS over the Xmas period. No problem.
Fortunately that worked out for me.

Maybe there is a conflict between what is online and what is actually available??

Firstly the December period isn’t the most popular period due to the heat, long grass, etc. The most popular periods are the winter months which offer the best game viewing, especially the winter school holiday period

Check online now if you can put a family holiday together for July 2014. (bookings only opened 4 hours ago)

Secondly there should be no conflict between what’s shown as available online and what’s actually available at 6:50am (time of the screen shot) as bookings supposedly haven’t opening according to SANParks and only open at 7:30am. Don’t get confused between availability, which is shown 11 months in advance and using the online booking method which only opens 10 months in advance.

I have phoned head office and a few satellite offices many times and the below is the order that I was given by all.

They all access the same availability database at 7:30am 11 months in advance on the first working day of the month (not a Saturday)

The people in the queue outside all these offices are served first.

When these people have been processed they start to take phone in bookings, hence people phoning in are often on hold for 3 hours.

Then faxed, email, etc bookings

Then 1 month later online bookings (try and book online now for July 2014, you can’t)

So based on this there’s a definite issue

December is pretty busy too.
School holidays and over the Xmas period.

Do they really answer phonecalls after the walk ins have been dealt with?

How often is the availability, that you show a screen of, updated?
After I did my booking, I went online to see if there was availability because I wanted to make a change (didn't in the end). It was showing full availability (more or less) for a few months, and then all of a sudden, it changed to what I would imagine was more or less the actual sitaution .

I think that the screen that shows what is available and what is not, is not very accurate??

[Mel]

I can only talk for KTP but whenever I amend my reservation online, it immediately shows in the availability.