How do you feel about paying a deposit on CL site
How do you feel about paying a deposit on a CL site?
I hope owners of CL's and members will give your view here?
Your thoughts remembering CL sites are only allowed 5 pitches so should not over book due to possible cancellations.
One night cancellation is 20% income lost.
Should a deposit be refunded?
Should a deposit be moved on for later in the year?
Comments
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Having seen many times a pitch empty because the booker didn't turn up I can understand a CL asking for a deposit and would willingly pay.
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Have had to change plans before now and lost deposits a couple of times but not a problem. I think cls should take a deposit for bookings made at least a month in advance as they are putting their faith in you turning up and a possible 20% loss of income
if you don't.0 -
Just booked 3 sites for later in the year and asked each one if they wanted a deposit, which I would be happy to send, and each one said no, just let them know as early as possible if we can't make it.
Don't think there should be a hard and fast rule as the beauty of these sites are their individuality but do wonder how much they lose through non shows that don't let them know so they can re-let the pitch.
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In order to protect the CL owner's income, I fully support a deposit of one night's fee. Given the relatively small amounts involved, this is a situation where accepting said deposits by PayPal would be handy.
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I have no problem with paying a deposit, only ever had to pay the equivalent of one night, which was happy with. Wouldn't want to pay any more than that, the last few booked have just asked me tell them in plenty of time if we have to cancel.
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I have no problem with paying a deposit, only ever had to pay the equivalent of one night, which was happy with. Wouldn't want to pay any more than that, the last few booked have just asked me tell them in plenty of time if we have to cancel.
Same here. I can't blame a CL owner asking for a deposit, especially over a Bank Holiday period or in a very popular area. Last year we payed a deposit on only about 10% of the CLs that we stayed on.
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I think asking for deposits is totally understandable, we stayed at a cl last October that was meant to be full every night, only full on the Saturday night, every other night there was at least two spaces and two nights we were on our own. I presume the
rain had changed peoples mind which is fair enough but when we spoke to the owners they said that the people who hadn't turned up only one had phoned to say they weren't coming. This cl takes a deposit so if it happens to them what chance have those who don't
got.0 -
..... the last few booked have just asked me tell them in plenty of time if we have to cancel.
... and what is considered as plenty of time? I ask because the other year I booked a CL & paid a couple of nights fee as deposit. Circumstances meant that we then had to cancel, so I contacted the site months in advance. The reply was that I might get
my deposit back if she could re-book those nights. Needless to say I got the square root of nothing back. Who knows whether she re-booked or not?
Consequently
I'd be very reluctant to send a deposit again ..... there's loads of CLs so if one is booked up, there'll be space at another.0 -
As I'm happy to pay a deposit to the other place, I'd be happy to pay a deposit on Club Sites so to pay a deposit for CL's is just common sense. Cancellation, certainly with less than 2 weeks notice should forfeit deposit, more than 2 weeks forfeil 25%.
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In favour. I can't book a Thomas Cook holiday without paying a deposit, so it's no different to that.
Needs clear terms and conditions though so both sides are clear on cancellation and refunds
Russ
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More than happy to pay a deposit on both CL (and Club Sites), it makes the booking feel more secure somehow. Not like the time a couple of years ago when we turned up at a CL as a stopover on the way back from France and told by the rather rude owner that we were interrupting his dinner and our booking wasn't written down, even thoungh we rung twice a few weeks before to confirm
he did let us stay though - reluctantly .As we have to book our holidays around school and work holidays our plans are made far in advance and dont tend to change. We've happily paid deposits on two CLs we are visiting this year with the bonus of paying either via PayPal or website payment gateway.
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It has been shown that deposits do very little to reduce the number of no shows both at club sites and CLs. All they do is provide some compensation for the lost revenue but add an amount of administration. Judging by the number of CLs that don't ask for
a deposit, I suspect most feel that the administration is not worth the benefit. I don't have a problem with paying a deposit but I think it is really a case for each individual CL owner to decide whether they are appropriate for them. When contacting a CL
that I have not visited before I will usually ask if they would like a deposit.0 -
I don't mind paying a deposit at all. In fact, the one time I did cancel with very little notice, I sent the CL owner the ammount for the weekend as I felt it was unfair on him not to turn up.
However, having paid a deposit on two weeks in Cornwall, due to a change in jobs I asked if I could cancel and use the deposit for part payment later in the year as I coulnd't get time off work. Despite it being four months before the holiday, the CL owner
wouldn't even cosider this. He was obviously well within his rights but it was disappointing.0 -
Just booked Overwater Marina CL for April and had to pay full cost!!
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We, and I'm guessing most other busy CL sites, welcome the support for deposits and understanding of why they are required which is evident on this thread. Here at Cholsey Grange we take a deposit (50%). As soon as we started doing it (about 4 years ago)
our number of cancellations and no-shows fell dramatically. Our policy is that we will refund a deposit if (a) we are given at least a week's notice and (b) we can re-fill the pitch. It's a real faff when it happens - especially ahead of a busy weekend.
Thankfully we rarely have to consider this as most of our guests honour the system. As has been pointed out though, a cancellation is a 20% (or at least 10% if a deposit has been taken and not refunded) reduction in income. Not only that, but on a busy
weekend or bank-holiday you may have 'turned away' other Members who wanted to stay with you. BTW we accept cheques and Bank Transfers and an increasing number of members seem happy to do a bank transfer. Again, thank you Members for your understanding on
this topic.0 -
CL owners now have the ability to check if a membership number is valid at the time of booking, offenders should be reported to the club and dealt with under the same rules as club sites ?
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Hi, I'm a new CL owner from the end of last summer and my first bookings were taken without a deposit - I trusted the people who booked - sadly all of them cancelled at short notice and with no deposits taken. I started to ask for a £10 deposit for a weekend
or a £20 deposit for longer bookings and offered to receive them via BACS payment (which doesn't cost the sender or receiver) and it has worked very well - no problems (touch wood) encountered since then. The booking I took yesterday for Easter weekend said
he would pay in full and did it within the hour, happy days :-)0 -
Hi, I'm a new CL owner from the end of last summer and my first bookings were taken without a deposit - I trusted the people who booked - sadly all of them cancelled at short notice and with no deposits taken. I started to ask for a £10 deposit for a weekend
or a £20 deposit for longer bookings and offered to receive them via BACS payment (which doesn't cost the sender or receiver) and it has worked very well - no problems (touch wood) encountered since then. The booking I took yesterday for Easter weekend said
he would pay in full and did it within the hour, happy days :-)Beverley, where is your CL? Perhaps you could put a link to your site on your postings to enable CT members to view it, and so you may get additional bookings.
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I don’t mind how much I need to pay in advance. Just can’t be faffed with cheques and envelopes, though.
That is understandable in this day and age with cheques and envelopes. But there are still many members without online bank accounts.
Then there is the younger generation where some do not even know how to write a cheque. I saw this for myself a few weeks ago in an insurance company.(It made me feel VERY old)
Cl's often get asked if they take credit/debit cards,but unless they have another business to run this with it would not be cost effective.
It is more time consuming for a CL to take deposits and there are no special colums in the CL booking diary to write down the deposit and say cheque /direct to bank/paypal/cash etc and the amount.
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