the last time i was in your hiking boots and showed up at a permit office without a permit,, the person working there handed me the phone after they dialled  the reservation number and told me to make a reservation,, just like that,, i did not feel a thing!!!   
     perhaps things have changed,, and this was pre covid 

Even for last minute quick trips, why not just book online the morning of your trip before you leave?  I have done it that way.

Online saves you $2 instead of in person/phone reservation fee. I feel like I will earn the title of board cheapskate, personally I prefer being known as frugal ;-) Hey save a couple bucks on the hundreds if not thousands of things you buy every year, grocery items, gas, etc.. pretty soon your talking real money!

swedish pimple wrote:

 the last time i was in your hiking boots and showed up at a permit office without a permit,, the person working there handed me the phone after they dialled  the reservation number and told me to make a reservation,, just like that,, i did not feel a thing!!!   
     perhaps things have changed,, and this was pre covid 

Permit offices should be able to issue a permit without a prior reservation but I can see a trend away from providing that service as a way to streamline the operations of the permit offices.   We were at Sandbanks PP recently and I believe they had signage indicating that you had to have a booking before coming to the gate.   Considering how busy that park is I can see them not wanting to have to deal with people who don't already have a reservation.  Kind of annoying having to pay a reservation fee knowing they are not full.

We also saw this in Nova Scotia the year before Covid.   The park attendant could not give us a site -- we had to go into a room beside the office and call the reservation service.

It was great touring the Yukon this summer.   All campsites are available first come first served (no reservation system) and only $20 a night which included firewood.
 

Can you imagine going to a restaurant that has empty tables and they charge you a reservation fee on top of what you pay for the meal? I'd call that a reason to not go back to or even enter that restaurant. Streamlining your visit? Got to love having a monopoly. Perhaps a better term for this is theft.

SeekingSolitude wrote:

Even for last minute quick trips, why not just book online the morning of your trip before you leave?  I have done it that way.

Online saves you $2 instead of in person/phone reservation fee. I feel like I will earn the title of board cheapskate, personally I prefer being known as frugal ;-) Hey save a couple bucks on the hundreds if not thousands of things you buy every year, grocery items, gas, etc.. pretty soon your talking real money!

Because if you show up without a reservation you don’t get charged that fee at all so you can save the whole fee (not just the 2$)
 

SeekingSolitude wrote:

ChristineCanoes wrote:

Because if you show up without a reservation you don’t get charged that fee at all so you can save the whole fee (not just the 2$)
 

 
Really, I wonder if that was a mistake & they should have charged you but didn't?

Reservation Fees from Ontario parks website very clearly states

"Reservation Fees for Call Centre and Park
Base Fee    HST    Total
Reservation Fee    $11.50    $1.50    $13.00
Cancellation Fee (minimum)    $9.29    $1.21    $10.50
Change Fee (minimum)    $9.29    $1.21    $10.50"

So in person at the park should incur $13 reservation fee.

Nope not a mistake. I’ve asked at multiple park offices about it in multiple parks. And I’ve reserved at multiple parks in person. There is no fee in person. And why would there be? How can they justify charging a fee to charge you? It would be like a hotel charging you to book a night. It makes no sense. The parks have never chatted a fee to reserve in person. The fees were created because the park is a paying a company to run a website/ phone line.
 

SeekingSolitude wrote:

Strange, even if it does not make sense, it does seem clear on the website that Park reservations cost $13. As a result I have never tried in park reservations.

Ok, In the future I'll give in park reservations a try for a last minute trip.

Certain things are just more efficient online/automated (eg telling counter person how to spell everyone's names, adress, etc, much faster to type it in & in fact likely pre-filled on your browser...). Imagine if everyone realised in person is free & more do it this way? I imagine in park offices would get bogged down with lineups & as Swedish Pimple said, maybe they just hand you the phone.

 
If you have an account all that info auto fills once they pull up your account. For multi day trips I just pay the fee and do it online.  It if I’m booking 1-2 nights at a place with low reservations I do it in person.

As for the line ups, yes imagine that we actually all booked at the Parks and the Parks instead of the contracted out companies hired the staff 🤷🏻‍♀️