Open at 7:00. Still open at 7:05.
Pinecount's response to RFP ASP-2026-031, a campsite and cabin reservation system for Ardley State Parks. Every one of your 9,000 sites bookable from a trail map, a fair line on opening morning, and a ranger's tablet that works at a gate with no signal.
1Our letter, and where every point is answered.
Section 1 of the RFP, transmittal letter and the evaluation map
Dear evaluation panel,
On February 3, 2026, 140,000 people were waiting at 7:00 a.m. to book a summer at Ardley's parks. The old system was down four minutes later and stayed down until 10:44. You wrote that morning into this RFP, and we built this response around it.
Pinecount runs reservations for parks that sell out the minute they open. We'll bring every site onto one map, put opening morning behind a fair line that doesn't fall over, and give your rangers a tablet that checks in a family with no bars on the phone. Five years, one price, $8,400,000 as configured in Section 7.
We'd be glad to show the map live at orals.
RFP Section 6, evaluation criteria and weights
2You told us what happened at 7:04.
Section 2, understanding of the requirement
The summer window opened at 7:00 a.m. The site was unavailable from 7:04 a.m. until 10:44 a.m. Families who had waited since 6:00 a.m. were sent to the back of no line at all.RFP ASP-2026-031, Section 2.1
3.1Book any site from the map.
Section 3.1, booking and inventory. Wrenhollow Lake State Park, one of 64
3.2Run February 3 again.
Section 3.2, high-demand release. Each dot is 1,000 people
Drag the clock from 6:45 to 9:00. On the left, the morning as it went. On the right, the same 140,000 people in a virtual line that hands out places at random to everyone there by 7:00, so refreshing faster gets you nothing.
Modeled from the arrival counts in RFP Section 2.1. The line admits 2,400 people a minute, the rate we'll prove in the September 2027 load test at three times February 3 traffic. Lottery entries close two weeks before the window and winners book from a private link.
3.3One family's trip, from 7:00 to the campfire.
Section 3.3, visitor journey and field operations. Scroll
- January 14, 2027, 7:00 a.m.Maya joins the line from her phone at 6:52. At 7:00 she's given place 3,812, with a clock that tells her the truth.
- 7:06 a.m.She books B-14 at Wrenhollow Lake for July 9 to 11. The permit carries her plate, so nobody prints anything.
- July 6, three days outA text with gate hours, the burn ban, and a one-tap way to give back a night someone else can use.
- July 9, 4:40 p.m.No bars at the gate. Luis reads her plate, his tablet finds the reservation from the copy it took overnight, and she's through in 22 seconds.
- July 11, 10:55 a.m.She checks out on the post. B-14 is back on the map in under a minute, and the next family on the waitlist gets a text.
4One answer for each office on the panel.
Section 4, responses to the evaluating offices. Procurement's answer is the matrix in Section 5
Each office asked us something different in the pre-proposal conference. Each gets its own page and a tool to check our answer with Ardley's numbers.
4.1Is it fair to Ardley families?
Nonresidents booked 39 percent of last summer's weekend nights, by your count in Section 2.4. Pinecount lets you open the window to Ardley households first, for as many days as your office decides. It's a setting you change, with no change order and no call to us.
of summer weekend nights booked by Ardley households, in our model of last summer's bookings
4.2What do we connect, and can we leave?
Pick the connections you want at launch. Each one shows who builds it and how long it takes, against the nine months we have before the first opening morning on Pinecount.
4.3What happens at my gate when the signal drops?
Every tablet takes a copy of the day's arrivals overnight. Cut the signal and keep checking cars in. Nothing waits on the network, and nothing is lost when it comes back.
4.4What the state pays, in plain words.
The state pays Pinecount $8,400,000 over five years. Most of it comes in the first year, when we build and move eleven years of records. Ardley sets its own booking fee. Every dollar of that fee on about 410,000 reservations a year comes back to the parks fund, so you can see what the system costs the general fund once fees are counted.
5Every requirement, our answer, and where to find it.
| Req. | Requirement | Our response | Section | Status |
|---|
6The climb to the first opening morning.
Section 6, implementation plan and schedule. Tap a marker
Nine months of building, a pilot in six parks over the summer, a load test at three times February 3, and all 64 parks live by October 2027. The first summer window on Pinecount opens January 14, 2028.
Award
7The cost proposal, line by line.
Section 7 and Form B, cost proposal. Five-year fixed price
8Terms in plain words, and what we don't know yet.
Section 8, contract terms, exceptions and assumptions. Full redline in Appendix C
- Ardley owns every record.Reservations, customers, site data and history are the state's. A full copy reaches your storage every night.
- Opening morning is a promise with money behind it.If the booking site is unavailable for more than five minutes during a release window, we credit 10 percent of that year's platform fee.
- The price is fixed for five years.No increase for more parks, more sites or more bookings unless Ardley adds a park by statute.
- Payment card data never touches state systems.Pinecount holds the compliance burden and gives Information Security our annual audit report.
- One exception, stated in Section 5.We host in the cloud only. We don't offer the on-premise option in requirement T-14.
- Either side can leave for cause with 90 days' notice,and we run both systems side by side during the handover at no charge.
Open questions
Things we can't settle until we're inside your systems. We'd rather say so now.
How clean are eleven years of site records?
Your inventory lists 9,000 sites, and our survey line in Section 7 measures every pad. If the survey finds more than 5 percent of records wrong, we'll show you the list before we migrate, and the schedule holds.
Will Treasury's payment gateway be ready by June?
The gateway upgrade sits with the Treasurer's office. If it slips, we take cards through our own processor for the pilot and switch over with no change to campers.
Which 12 parks go to the lottery?
That's Ruth's call, and the panel should make it before the 2028 window. We've modeled the 12 with the most sold-out weekends in your Section 2 data.
9The panel's questions, answered and dated.
Section 9, clarifications and addenda log. Newest first
- What happens to someone who arrives at 7:03?
They join the back of the line in the order they arrive. The random draw covers everyone who's there by 7:00, so nobody gains by arriving at 6:00 and nobody loses by arriving at 6:59.
Panel question, Dev - Can superintendents hold sites back for maintenance?
Yes. Any site can be closed from the tablet for a date range, with a reason the public sees on the map.
Panel question, Tomas - Addendum 3 adds the lottery as an optional line.
Priced as its own line in Section 7, so it can come out without touching anything else.
Addendum 3, acknowledged - Addendum 2 requires Spanish at launch.
Spanish is ready at launch. Hmong follows in month four, shown as Partial on requirement T-19.
Addendum 2, acknowledged - Addendum 1 moves the due date to October 30.
Response submitted October 30, 2026.
Addendum 1, acknowledged
10Forms signed. Orals on November 18.
Section 10, required forms and the next step
- AProposal signature pageSigned by Grace Whitlow, Chief ExecutiveSigned
- BCost proposal formSection 7, printed with the options chosenAttached
- CNon-collusion affidavitNotarized October 27, 2026Signed
- DSmall business participation planTwo Ardley firms, 14 percent of the contract valueAttached
- EAccessibility conformance reportBooking site and ranger tablet app, WCAG 2.2 AAAttached
Pick our slot for orals.
The panel meets on November 18, 2026. We'll bring the map on the big screen and run February 3 live.
Pick a time and we'll hold it.
Required forms
The respondent agrees to the terms of RFP ASP-2026-031 as qualified in Section 8.
Five-year fixed price as configured in Section 7. Total $8,400,000.