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Hi there, everyone! It's Erin the Park Manager at Rochon! I really hope everyone has had a wonderful winter so far and is starting to think about the warmer months that will be here soon! Summer will be here before we know it! If you don't know me, I have been the main girl at the park for reservations and office for 10-ish years. I mostly do the Facebook posts, Website updating, and for many campers I did your reservations and greeted you as you came in. Last year my role changed a bit, and I have been mostly at the municipal office. Thankfully I had great help last year to help me juggle both places. I work more behind the scenes and I am the next person that my staff escalate situations to. That will happen again this year, but for the few months I am solo until my students return, I am now able to do it all at the municipal office, so you don't have to wait forever for me to get back to you. This will save filling the voicemail and can do it day-to-day than all in one day once a week. I would like to do a bit of an update on what will be happing this year. We have decided to change our software so we could do online bookings. We are not through Alberta Parks' Reservation and can not even think about going on it (if we wanted to) until sometime in 2024. That left us looking at a few companies and we decided to go with a Canadian company that has been working with many types of campgrounds. The company is Camp Reservations Canada. Their team and I have been working together to get the system ready and hopefully, we won't have many glitches! Well...that is hopeful. With any technology, there will be growing pains, and learning a new system can be a bit challenging too. For myself, I have been working with the last system for 9-10 years and figured out how to work with its quirks. Now I and my team will have to do it all over again. Please bare with us since this is new for everyone. So CampReservations.ca is all online. You make your own profile and you can amend, make, and cancel your bookings. That makes this easier on everyone! Also since this is on the internet, I can log in from anywhere to help you. There is no waiting for a week or more for me to get back to you from March to May. You can message me on Facebook, email, or phone the municipal office. I am in the office most days from approximately 9 am to 3 pm. For me as a staff member, this is a big perk for me. Another perk, of course, is campers who are more tech-savvy can make their own reservations. I and my staff can still do reservations too. You can still talk to a person if you want. Changes:
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:The website is live! You can start to reserve on March 1, 2023 at 10am! You can book at anytime between May 15 to September 3, 2023. We are still open until Thanksgiving (weather permitting) and will be FCFS after September Long. Very exciting! The Narrows PRAThe Narrows will still be FCFS and open and close the same time Rochon does for camping. We will be adding more signage at the park this year. Our winter maintenance working has been working hard to clean up many of the dead trees (standing or down). As some are aware, there is a family of beavers over there and have chewed down a lot of trees.
I think that is all! Have a wonderful day! I have some great news to share! As of the last Regular Council Meeting this month, the Council has approved hiring Digital Adrenaline from Calgary to create our online reservation system. It is NOT on the Alberta Parks online reservation website, but a third party that will be linked to this website and Facebook link. Digital Adrenaline is working hard to have this going by the end of the April/Beginning May. Soon, Campers will be able to make their own reservations without having to wait back from me (Erin).
Online reservations will cut out the waiting game for sure. I know it can be very frustrating for the first few months when we take reservations since I am only in the Park office once a week, so this will help! Campers can still call/email/message as well. We will not be going away from that because I know a few repeat campers like that they can call and talk to a human. So....With saying all of that, I want to thank you ahead of time for your patience while the campground reservations move to a new system. There will be some growing pains for everyone and I know many campers are anxious to book their camping dates. I will try not to let the switch over get in the way of reservations. Thank you!!! Phew! What a year we had! In 2021, we saw many new faces and the campground was very busy, especially on weekends during July and August. We loved everyone coming out and making their memories within our parks! THANK YOU!!
With a new year, we have some changes coming. First off, there are price increases that are in effect for the 2022 season. The Summer Village of Rochon Sands council approved the increase. Due to the ever-increasing expenses and supplies, we are forced to make the increases to help cover the costs. The fees for the provincial parks are as followed:
We are still encouraging campers to please buy and burn local firewood. By buying local and burning local, we can help stop the spread of diseases, and also what we are burning in the environment. Burnables like pallets are not the greatest because of the nails/screws that are left behind, which is harmful to the environment and fellow campers. Signage will change to reflect that in the spring. We do have firewood available to purchase through the office during office hours, and the park truck that drives around. The Narrows firewood will be available in Site 6 when the Narrows managers are there. The administration is looking into possibly doing online reservations (not through the Alberta Parks Reservation system). If we continue on this route, we won't be ready for the March 1st opening of reservations for Rochon Sands PP, but hopefully not too far after! With this idea, we are looking at payment-in-full for ALL reservations, regardless of whether we have online reservations or not. This will help the office staff make check-ins easier and quicker, and also help for late arrivals too when the office is closed. Fingers crossed on the online reservations! At the moment, no one is manning the Rochon Sands PP office. Emails will not be returned promptly if you are inquiring about reservations. NO emails, social media messages, or phone messages will be considered for reservations that are received BEFORE March 1st. Please call or send messages/emails on March 1st or after that date for reservations. I think that is it for now! Keep yourself in the loop via this blog or by the Facebook Page. *Here is the policy that was approved by the SVRS council. PPC 1.2 |
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