Africa Wild

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

I think you are very mistaken

It’s very accurate and is integrated with the same database. It’s only the database refresh time that can cause delays and obviously your own PC’s refresh time, but it’s only a few seconds. (If you refresh your PC)

As it’s a shared database any booking change is almost instantaneous, which is how all the SANParks satellite offices are kept up to date and the reason why there aren’t double bookings when multiple people are trying to book the same unit from different offices/phone/etc and it’s integrated to the availability on the web site.

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

Correct. I have been to multiple satellite offices to book on the day that bookings open and all phone calls are ignored until people in the queues have been served. My brother has stood in the queues outside head office many times (he gets there at 6am and normally around 22nd in the queue) and the same applies (A guy even got a fine for camping outside head office last year to be first in the queue and it made the papers) Why do you think saffies queue when they could just phone

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

The same applies for KNP Mel

When I booked our KTP trip for next May by phone I first checked in advance the exact time it was in South Africa (and the province). Then at around 7.25 a.m I phoned and immediately went on hold. However I was only on hold for about 2 minutes before being answered and we were able to get nights at three of the wilderness camps (not all we wanted but still a pretty good result). Then I read on SP FB forum or elsewhere that someone who queued and was third or fourth in line missed out on their wilderness camp choices for the same month. Not sure how that happened?

You were just lucky MITH as the office doors only open at 7:30am and if you are in Durban it depends if the staff get to work on time. Once the staff only arrived a 7:55am and there were 10 very angry poeple in the queue.

I visit KNP 3 times a year and use a many options to try and get a booking. I’m always in the queue and on the phone to head office while standing in the queue. The SO is on the phone to a satellite office the entire time also, but I have always got to the front of the queue before the phone is answered.

I have never seen the phone answered by anyone while in the queue either

We normally call the reservations office in Pretoria when making our bookings BUT now we call the reservation office in Johannesburg, they always answer the calls promptly, they are better mannered than the staff in Pretoria and we always get what we want, maybe we are just lucky

I use "availability", then drive down to our satellite office...definitely the same database!

But never tried a year in advance...

We always book a year advance. My dad gets to the satellite office in Northcliff before 7am on the day bookings open. Most of the time the camps we want are already gone but he books what he can and then we keep an eye online and make changes as we find a booking we prefer.

This year we booked on the 16th January for December 2014. The bookings for Dec opened on the 16th Jan. I got through after 3 rings and got what bookings we wanted. I was very surprised

Yip, no queue for December as it’s not that popular hence the offers in the past for discounts over that period If you check the availability now for December there’s still more available now then July 2014 and it’s been open for bookings for 7 months vs 6 days

Try and phone on the 1st of May for April holidays or on the 1st of July and 1st of August for the June/July holidays, it’s crazy

But all this aside

The availability is accurate on the web site so all units should be available in all camps if no prior booking is permitted as stated by SANParks and that’s not the case as per the screen dumps, so there’s an issue