Booking a hard standing pitch
Comments
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I don't understand why the trial of being able to book hard standing was dropped when the club continues, through the annual improvements scheme, to develop more hard standing. There is obviously a demand for such pitches or the club would not continue to lay more. In fact many sites are now nearly all hard standing. One way to guarantee getting a hard standing pitch is to book a full service pitch as these are always hard standing, which I always do if they are available. Otherwise wardens are generally happy for you to move if pitches become free but this does take time and easier for us motorhomers than caravans with awnings.
Personally therefore I really do think the club should, on mixed ground sites, allow the booking of hard standing and if bookings do actually drop then it's a clear indicator that more pitches need to be converted on such sites, a no brainer really. I would also be happy to pay a small premium for hard standing as it does cost the club to lay them.
So come on CMC let's put it to the test and provide what members prefer. It's not confusing for members booking, either pick std grass or std hard standing, members of the CCC do it all the time.
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As per some earlier posts, if all the HSs are booked, some members would go elsewhere rather than know they will have fo use grass, certainly we would. If choosing on arrival then at least you know you just might get a HS.
I would imagine that there may have been a few confused members who, when arriving at one of the trial sites, could not understand why they were not permitted to take a free HS. (because they were already booked by members who had yet to arrive)
We used one of the trial sites and did book a HS. On arrival the warden reminded us that we had booked a HS, and commented that many arrivals could either not remember what they had booked, or had forgotten that there had been a choice at booking.
On the site we used, all the HSs were in use, but only a small percentage of the grass pitches.
This year we have recently returned from LMP at Chirk, again, all the HSs were in use, and new arrivals had to take grass, so there is indeed large demand for HSs.
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Kjell, your points are perfectly valid, but each is just as applicable to the current awning/non choice at booking time.
do folk who 'always' must have an awning pitch, go elsewhere if they see none are left when they come to book?
are members 'confused' when they see unoccupied awning pitches yet they couldnt book one?
why does this similar 'detrimental effect on booking levels' not cause the Club to withdraw the facility to book awning/non?
i see no difference in the way these two 'choice options' work and to dismiss one yet embrace the other is likely to 'confuse' members
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Exactly BB, there is really no difference......I am all in favour of booking the type of pitch one prefers!
For us, awning or non awning is not particularly important, certainly would not stop us booking a site, but if we knew there was absolutely no chance of a HS, that would be a totally different matter in the UK climate.
We are happy to take our chances, but after a very bad experience on an all grass pitch in Cornwall 2 years back, we will not be using sites where we have no chance of getting a HS.
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Regarding pitches "elsewhere"......we generally go over there in April, and have extensive experience of very wet pitches in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France unfortunately. Even just bare mud. No fun with a heavy twin axle.
We don't like it, or understand why they allow campers to put down groundsheets that kill the grass, but we put up with it as we want to travel to these places. We wish they used hardstandings.
Come May/June the situation usually improves, but last year there were a lot of dire pitches in France!
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Yes me too. Don't want to change footwear either going out or into the van.
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well actually the only people to wear shoes past the hall and kitchen in our house don't live there. We do keep a set of 'slippers' in the van well canvas slip on ones that will do a quick dash to the car on dry gravel, and that's why we always have a porch/full awning which is where the outdoor ones are.
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There's obviously also a demand for grass too. Currently at a CC site near Looe where it's about 50 / 50 grass & gravel, if you were to be believed, all the gravel would have been taken before the grass pitches were used ..... they're not. I say enough is enough in making CC sites into gravel car parks. If grass can't be be used all/most of the year, then there's a drainage issue that needs sorting .... & not turning into more gravel.
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I was thinking we should have at least one grass pich on every site just for you MM!
Yes, drainage is the key, but not everywhere can have really good drainage, even if drains are installed. Clay subsoil just does not drain well, We know as that is what we have. In our (very) sloping, terraced garden we have field drains installed at every change of level, which do what they are intended to do, but we cannot change the nature, and effect, of the subsoil.
It may not be soggy, but it is still wet. A sandy soil is a different matter.
Caravanners want level pitches, level grass on other than sand does not drain well.
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I think another reason for HSs is the use of awnings, awnings, especially if a groundsheet is used, are grass killers.
We were recently on a grass pitch in Amsterdam and put up our full porch awning, normally we just use the roof. We noticed that after only 6 days on the site the grass under the mud flaps was already going yellow.
Interesting that, on the Dutch Caravan Club sites we have used, the caravan goes on the grass, but there is paving where the awning goes.
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We have a mat by the door in the house and a mat in the van, nobody gets past that with outdoor shoes on!
Where I come from, very few roads are surfaced, so shoes can gather a lot of sand. Everybody removes their shoes when coming into a house, nobody wants the sand in the house. There will be a sea of shoes just inside the door of all Norwegian houses!
So we do the same, we do not want the grit on our wooden floors or the dirt on our carpets.
Just good manners as far as we are concerned.
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Shoes worn in my study, tiled kitchen, tiled sitting room ......... slippers in living room.
In the caravan we have 4 small mats on the carpet and I can use these when going in and out with shoes. However I will wear carpet slippers on the hard standing and wipe my feet to enter the caravan ....... hence why I generally avoid grass.
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agree with David, and Kjell, sand and carpets dont mix....hence we dont have carpets in the van.....we have heated 'wooden' floors...
when we stated vanning, we had carpets all the time....they got dirty in winter and felt 'hot' in warmer weather.....so they got ditched in summer.
they still got dirty in winter (even with runners on top, just more stuff to lug about) so ditched the runners and the carpet.
now we have a nice, easy to clean, heated floor that feels warm in winter (i have a nice pair of slipper, too) and cool(er) in summer.
just requires the occasional sweep out. carpets still in original packaging.
outdoor shoes generally removed at the door.
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i have to agree with MM, IMHO there is certainly a different ambiance when faced with a fully (car parked) caravan site.
it doesnt have the more relaxed feel to the place that you get with a more open area of grass pitches.
we would much rather have a grass pitch (obviously unless unusable) as it just seems to 'feel more like i think it should'.....the increasing number of installed HS may be the way forward for the main club sites, but i, for one, am happy that there are still plenty of grass pitches/sites about....
in the 'main season' (we dont actually have a season....) we would choose grass over HS every time, perhaps our penchant for THS/CL type sites reflects this.
i, too, dont like the gravel car park 'look' (though ive spent plenty of time in gravel car parks
) but this was not on Club sites where many sites could have their drainage improved before going down the hs route.i feel it would be sad for all pitches within the club to become the same........large patches of gravel....
whilst the majority of customers do want a HS (hence the driver for the trial) there are still those who feel grass is for them.
surely the obvious answer to pleasing as many people as you can most of the time, would be to get the ratio of pitches in balance with the members wishes and then allow those members to book what they want.
perhaps 'more' HS but not 'all' HS?
this would meet customer requirements and still allow those who 'must' have a HS to be confident they will get one (at booking time) and not be 'confused' on arrival (poor old souls
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...but look at the alternative.....awful gravel car parks, with the inevitible price hike (membership and gerenal fee increases) to pay for the infrastructure.
not an attractive proposition but 'progress' i guess
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We have been on sites like North Ledaig where hardstand for caravan, aquaroll and awning... car on grass. Worked for me but not all layouts. It is not the hard standing that effects 'the feel' in my opinion, so much as the 'cramming them in'. I would sooner that the number of pitches on site were reduced by a third and prices increased ............. not every body would though.
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Interesting the different perceptions we all have. I dislike campsites which have all grass pitches, especially those sites which are just rows of units in lines as they feel crowded to me, and a bit like a car park! I am sure if you got a tape measure out you would still have the same amount of room, but that is my perception. I never think of a site with all hardstanding pitches as resembling a car park as I prefer the clear delineation of pitches which hardstandings provide. Must be my tidy mind although I suspect Margaret might question that thought!!!!
David
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@ DavidK
But some hard standings don't have have clear delineation between them. There are 3 or 4 gravel pitches here that are just one massive patch of loose gravel, likewise with some hard standings at Black Horse Farm where they are marked out with 'paint'
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Whilst I am far from convinced that grass pitches are less expensive to run than grass, there probably does need to be a significant price differential to make surface type selection work. Otherwise, particularly at the two ends of the season, even those who want grass will be selecting hardstanding. Knowing full well they can switch on arrival, with no penalty, if grass conditions and available pitches are favourable. So perhaps at peak times like Easter / May holidays, £3 less for grass, £2 more for hardstanding, with less differential at summer peak as conditions are generally better then. Although back up to the higher differential for October half term. I suppose at popular weekend sites it would have to apply every Friday and Saturday, all grass season.
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I'm with you so +1
The steady on going conversion of grass to HS has been going on for a few years now and I've not noticed a huge increase in pitch or memberships fees, What did the membership fee go up by? Most pitch fees have remained the same, others by a slight margin. I would imagine these increases will hardly covers the expense of these conversions.
Every love grass it seems - until its rains.
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Haven't seen those at BHF, though we have not been there this year, is that in the "ferry pitches" area?
At Malvern there is a large area of tarmac in one place, usually see only MHs on there, and at Chapel Lane we noticed a couple of areas where it was just a sea of gravel, though still possible to peg down an awning.
My preference would be for HSs with a decent size bit of grass between each, which is how the newer sites seem to be being laid out. Newer sites also seem to have slightly larger pitches.
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What we all want but don't realise it is more gravel!
It drains very well and even with a level flat top surface can have an incline on the bottom surface to carry water off to the drain. Where the Caravan Club has not made a simple 20th Century advance is to put grass in top of the gravel. Then we can have grass pitches that look like part of the overall meadow effect but will support the 5 ton motor caravans.
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For us, the site is just a base from which to explore the area or meet up with friends, so the "ambience" is not a priority.
What we want is a reasonably level hard standing, a bit of green, some trees and shrubs, but not so many it is gloomy, service points positioned so that all pitches are within a reasonable distance of a SP, and a facilities block or blocks similarly positioned.
We also hope for peace and quiet at night, so preferably no busy road too close.
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On the recent tem or so club sites I've been there is a strip of grass in-between pitches and like you I like it very much.
Of interest in Melrose there is a pitch area which is all tarmac which really does look like a car park (obviously non awning pitches) and it is always full, and gets full before the gravel non awning pitches get taken.
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