Questions people actually ask
Is this official?
No. CampFromTheCouch is an independent hobby project, not affiliated with or endorsed by BC Parks, Parks Canada, or any park operator or reservation provider. Availability shown on the official booking site is always authoritative.
Does it book the site for me?
Never. We alert; you book on the official site with your own account. We never see your park credentials or payment details.
How fast are the alerts?
Free watches check every 10 minutes; supporters every 2. When something opens you get one Discord ping per opening — and another if it's snapped up and later reopens.
Why Discord?
It's free, instant, works on every phone, and doesn't cost per-message like SMS. Set up a private server with one channel and you have push notifications. Email is coming for the Discord-averse.
Why invite-only?
We poll the reservation systems politely — shared checks, rate caps, automatic backoff. Growing slowly keeps it that way. Ask Rob for a code.
Is scraping the parks' sites okay?
We read the same public availability data your browser does, far less often than a person mashing refresh, with shared caching so popularity doesn't add load. We think being first to know about a cancellation should not require staying up until 2am. If a park operator ever asks us to stop for their system, we will.
What happens to my data?
Your email (from Discord/Google login), your watches, and where to ping you. That's the entire database. No trackers, no ads, no selling anything.
Who's behind this?
It's a one-person hobby project built and run by Rob — a camper who got tired of refreshing park booking sites late at night. No company, no team, no investors; just someone who wanted their friends to stop missing trips.