Africa Wild

Yes there is! Obviously!

IMO the Tour operators have the faculty to book ahead, even if Sanparks refuse to admit it.

Today was the “official” opening for July 2014 bookings and due to the continued price increases we decided to only do one KNP trip next year and that was going to be an extended July holiday, but as it was school holidays I knew that we had to be on the ball to get a booking, so I was standing in the queue at the local KZN booking office at 6am this morning.

At 6:45am I switched on my laptop to check the status and again noticed that most of the family type accommodation was already booked. By the time I got to the front of the queue all that I wanted was already gone. (10 minutes after official opening)

Check out the GC6 type units at Satara below. There’s definitely an issue. The same applied to family bungalows at Lower Sabie (FU4V) and Skukuza (GC4V)



In 2012 I mailed screen dumps to the head of reservations and another senior SANParks official asking for comment and no response. You can post these proof screen dumps on the official SANParks site and they disappear and if you persist then you will also disappear.

I’m sick of trying to force honesty out of the system, so I’m keen to use any other means or unofficial booking methods just to get a bungalow family holiday in Kruger, so if anyone has another method, please let us know.

I agree, this is absolutely annoying! For KTP the official explanation on SPF is that they
do give away whole camps (as in wilderness camps with 4 units each) before bookings open.
But that can't be the whole truth as they also sell individual units beforehand.
(as per screenshots here ),

It's all rubbish Mel. They certainly aren't giving away 6 sleeper units at Satara and every school holiday is the same pattern. I have been following this pattern for 2 years

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??

TBH, I prefer the phone method to online.
At lesat you can ask questions and double check points etc.

I have never really understood how online booking systems can work.
Be it SANP reservations, or sports tickets etc.

I go to Premiership Football quite often - Arsenal Fan
When I book for myself and my son to go, I log in as me, choose my seat, then put his details in, then book his seat.
So if I choose my seat, how can I be guranteed that the seat next to me will be free a minute or two later? Some of the big matches sell out in an hour or two.
So there must be thousands of people online at the same time all trying to choose the same seats...more or less.....

And I guess the same goes for the SANP booking system. If I am trying to sort out accomodation at a peak time, how does the system prevent one booking from conflicting with another one??

Lisbeth wrote:IMO the Tour operators have the faculty to book ahead, even if Sanparks refuse to admit it.

I seem to remember the SANP representative on "the other side" more or less admit that this happens.

Dzombo wrote:

Lisbeth wrote:IMO the Tour operators have the faculty to book ahead, even if Sanparks refuse to admit it.

I seem to remember the SANP representative on "the other side" more or less admit that this happens.

Hey Dzombo,

Have you checked out page one of this thread

SANParks representative

Dear All;

All divisions of Sanparks open at the same time which is 11 months in advance for Year in advance bookings. The only exception is made for conferences who take up the whole camp and this is authorised by our ME for Tourism. No tour operator has preferential treatment, and as their peak season does not coincide with ours, it would be fruitless and would not make good business sense for SANParks.

Please remember that when we open for bookings there are 300 consultants making bookings at once ,and this does not only slow the system down but also blocks all incoming call as it chokes our switchboard.

Warmest wishes,
Sly

Dzombo wrote: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

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.