Hard standing booking trial
Comments
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As other's have said, another stupid mistake by the CC. If people can't remember, or have difficulty in choosing which pitch they want during the booking process, then perhaps they shouldn't be driving let alone towing a van behind them.
It's just another lame excuse by the CC. Have a look on any CC site when new arrivals turn up, where do they all head for first? the hardstandings. I've observed this for many years, the grass pitches are always last to be taken up where hardstandings are
available, even in summer when it's warm and dry.So if members find it confusing, how do people manage on private, commercial and even CCC sites where this option is available? Sites that we have used, that offer the facility to book whichever pitch type you want, work extremely well, but for some reason
it causes confusion where the CC is concerned.How hard can it be? because you can already book awning, non awning and serviced pitches. I suspect it's more to do with mates of the wardens and the hierarchy not getting their favourite pitch on hardstanding, because they had all been booked in advance.
Cynical me? of course.0 -
having read the 'report' in the mag, it seems the main driver for not continuing was that the number of pitches booked (assume for the trial sites in the trial period) were 1.4% down on last year.
Wonder how much they were down the previous year. Is that a 1.4% drop compared with two years ago when the trial started or was there an initial drop on top of this over the first year of the trial?
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It's just another lame excuse by the CC. Have a look on any CC site when new arrivals turn up, where do they all head for first? the hardstandings. I've observed this for many years, the grass pitches are always
last to be taken up where hardstandings are available, even in summer when it's warm and dry.Exactly my observations even in good weather in summer. Some indeed do choose grass as they like to sit on grass and some grass pitch areas on CC sites seem to offer more room.
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Until the powers that be at Grimstead, wake up to the fact that the majorityy of members of the cc are quite capable, of understanding an honest? article with the full facts , instead of the usual "air brushed" ways that we are informed , then all sorts
of suppositions are going to be posted which then causes more frustration,0 -
It's just another lame excuse by the CC. Have a look on any CC site when new arrivals turn up, where do they all head for first? the hardstandings. I've observed this for many years, the grass pitches are always
last to be taken up where hardstandings are available, even in summer when it's warm and dry.Exactly my observations even in good weather in summer. Some indeed do choose grass as they like to sit on grass and some grass pitch areas on CC sites seem to offer more room.
...Ferry Meadows is a case in point as the "old"side is mostly grass with lots of space,and just 20 HS(closed in winter inc HSs)
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So if members find it confusing, how do people manage on private, commercial and even CCC sites where this option is available? Sites that we have used, that offer the facility to book whichever pitch type you want, work extremely
well, but for some reason it causes confusion where the CC is concerned.On the point above I am not sure you can compare. Those private sites that I have used where you can book a particular type of pitch, including C&CC, have tended to not to be full unlike many CC sites. Private sites seem to operate
on a lower occupancy figure than Club sites.I have not yet got my magazine so have not seen the article. However if the loss is only 1.4% I wonder if all that can be attributed to the booking experiement? It seems a very close margin to base such an important decision on.
As to people being confused, what is the reason for this? Should the Club not have first looked at how they communicate the change to members? I think one thing we have learnt about the Club since Club Together has been up and running is that communication
with members is not their strongest point!David
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Before I joined the CC we used private sites and I can't think of an occasion where we didn't have a choice of grass or HS at booking.
It is one of the issues where the CC manages things completely differently to the rest of the industry. Anyone considering joining is likely to assume that HS is bookable as they are everywhere else.
I am disappointed in the result of the trial and I agree that 1.4% is too marginal to draw a conclusion but it will make no difference to me as I no longer use CC sites when grass is in use unless they are the Freedom sites. £14 is all a grass pitch is
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I too was surprised to read in the mag that people were "confused" about the trial system and this was used as one of the reasons to stop. Yet the CC are expanding serviced pitches which people will book and pay for the extra cost. The introduction of a pricing structure, like the C&CC were grass is cheaper etc would suit many. Other than that, booking a serviced pitch will assure you have a hardstanding and I wonder if the actual services are fully utilised by all who use them?
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A 1.4% drop in bookings may be due to inflationary pricing policy.
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Having just read the report I notice that members arriving at these sites seemed happier knowing that the had booked the type of pitch that they wanted (although for some no doubt Hobson's choice).
The number of bookings were up even though the number of site nights were down. Could be that some weekenders who arrived after work booked HS and others who might have stayed longer moved on as they could not tay longer without moving pitches. We may never
know.So the only plus was members feeling happier according to the club. Obviously not in members interest then.
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I too was surprised to read in the mag that people were "confused" about the trial system and this was used as one of the reasons to stop. Yet the CC are expanding serviced pitches which people will book and pay for the extra cost. The introduction of a
pricing structure, like the C&CC were grass is cheaper etc would suit many. Other than that, booking a serviced pitch will assure you have a hardstanding and I wonder if the actual services are fully utilised by all who use them?There used to be a few grass service pitches but not sure now.
I have done this in the past to guarantee HS but I've found a cheaper way to guarantee it now - use C&CC sites
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it also said that the number of bookings taken online were up, with the number at the call centre or direct to site were down...
so, is this (or not) in the members interest?
no idea, perhaps it just means that viewing 'more information' online, encouraged members to confirm at that point rather than (perhaps) then going on to make a call for 'reassurance'?
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A 1.4% drop in bookings may be due to inflationary pricing policy.
Not a drop in bookings as they were up. A drop in site nights
sorry to have confused....i wrote that....incorrectly...
for those who havent seen it yet...
overall bookings increased slightly over previous year
'encouragingly' significant increase in bookings made by website
corresponding reduction in bookings made via site staff or call centre
however total pitch nights fell by 1.4%
i was interested by the use of the word 'encouragingly' when reporting the increase in web based bookings, and the happier, more confident members who arrived on site, the Club still managed to interpret this as 'not being in the members' interests
the only downside seems to be the 'confusion' of some members on arrival......Oh, and the reduction in total site nights of 1.4%
apart from this, it seems a raging success
Right, lets abandon that, then......
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I see the confusion as members not understanding that the outcome had been decided before the trial was started.
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Interesting.
If I'd carried out this trial I would have considered it to be an overwhelming success. Increased confidence to book online, increased numbers of bookings, happier members and a statistically negligible fall in site nights would lead me to roll this out
across the network.I'd hazard a guess (although the data won't have been captured) that more bookings were made by younger members and families. The future of the club?
Interesting how data is interpreted differently. Perhaps some really important members were confused
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Further to my previous post it is interesting that the Regional Manager in his reply to my complaint made no effort to actualy address what I was saying. All he did was quote me the bl***ing obvious together with the paragraph regarding ending the trial.
I was trying to ask if it was possible that a grass pitch which was vastly inferior to a hardstanding pitch at Sandringham could be charged at a cheaper rate. No answer to this just a load of waffle. Who's confused??0 -
We used one of the trial sites, Sutton-on-Sea, we booked a hard standing. The choice was clear on the on line booking page, though I cannot remember whether there was any explanation re being able to choose.
When we arrived OH checked us in, the warden was aware that we had booked a HS, there were not many left as it was mid afternoon, but the warden suggested one that was suitable for our size of van.
Most HS were in use it seemed, also quite a few grass pitches as the weather was good and the site busy.
We did not see any members wandering around looking confused, the wardens were happy too it seemed.
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I think these schemes take awhile to establish with the membership and a trial scheme is probably bound to fail because it doesn't allow time for people to adjust. Since it works at the C&CC and on other sites it obviously does work.
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