Arrival Times
Comments
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The thing is David that if any site gives an earliest arrival time I respect that time. Certainly on busy sites having a proportion of grass pitches I can see a possible logic; having on occasion noticed wardens resiting marker pegs to even out wear or cutting grass when pitches are emptier. Have seen wardens on various commercial sites finishing off hedge cutting etc behind vacant pitches. Grass and hedges seem to grow quickly in the UK.
If I have a particular reason for wishing an earlier arrival time I phone and ask and normally the day before.
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I did post this upthread BB, perhaps the reason for Edinburgh at least. Perhaps you can suggest a few others with easy turning access and plenty of space for waiting if necessary.
Don't know about CP but Edinburgh has a large area where vans could wait or turn and there is plenty of parking locally, if they had to be turned away because of unavailability. Of all the sites we have visited I would say these types of conditions are the exception rather than the rule. Clumber would also probably be OK as there is plenty of parking in the park. Although you would have to pay for it if not an NT member.
It does no good to keep quoting this trickle of vans that will obligingly correspond to the number of leavers. There must be a contingency for when this does not happen.
Let's for a moment consider the residents of Old Hartley, who if more than one van is waiting have their drives blocked.
I have no problem at all with early arrivals as long as the infrastructure is there to handle them. I do think it will lead to further confusion though, just as the 12 / 13:00 issue does at the moment.
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Let's for a moment consider the residents of Old Hartley, who if more than one van is waiting have their drives blocked.
I commented on this earlier Steve in that around half an hour before the arrival time when I left there were three outfits waiting in front of the houses to enter.
The warden was busy cutting the grass around vacated pitches.
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Probably much to do with site, location, road infrastructure, ownership of land, local 'regulations', staffing levels, data related to pitch occupancy levels, whatever, those site specific aspects will to a large degree determine the arrival, departure arrangements one would think. A one 'model' across the network I guess would not fit all sites. Where possible, and those on/working the ground, will be in the best place to make that call, should set the befitting arrival/departure arrangement.
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Steve, when i visit a site, wherever it is, i dont spend my time documenting the 'turning areas' or length of drives or the siting of the MHSP or tne number of SP or HS or.....or....or...or the myriad of other 'problems' that folk seem to be able to trot out at a moments notice....
i just arrive (within club rules if on a club site) park up and get on with it.
i couldnt tell you anything about which sites might cause mosre issues than some, though the ones i have been on more regularly i could probably have an opinion.....but this would surely be a different one to others on here.
AD sums up this whole situation well.....there is a different mentality to customers (and their needs) away from the club.....and to scoff at the 'lunch hour' over there. where many, many sites have dedicated office staff checking in for 12 hrs a day shows a blinkered view....and perhaps the club could learn from this....
yes, this does happen, perhaps in the country, but generally the larger sites that we would 'compare' to CC ones wouldnt be turning customers away for 'arriving early' when pitches are free.
it may just be a British trait to treat (paying) customers like children and, again as AD says, cutomers of French sites would most certsinly 'go away' (and never come back) if treated like this.
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We arrived once at site in Denmark where they had just closed for a 3 hour "lunch", quite unusual for Denmark.
Barrier firmly down, baking hot weather, space to wait but no shade. We left and found another site.
The lunch time/quiet time 2 or even 3 hour shutdown can be a problem in Germany and Austria in particular. Not so bad if you know a site will be closed, then you can plan accordingly, but often you do not know.
I notice ACSI now have a symbol to indicate if a site does close, but it would be better if they also gave the times, some are 12-2, some 1-3, others 12-3.
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Quote by SteveL 'does no good to keep quoting this trickle of vans that will obligingly correspond to the number of leavers. There must be a contingency for when this does not happen.'
Does the Club have a contingency for when every van booked in do arrive all together at 12 noon - or is it just sheer panic!
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Why not have a global policy of 12pm arrival but with a proviso that early, say from 9am is allowed but an additional fee would be levied. This can be pitched at such a level to encourage/discourage as required. Perhaps for the pernickety it should be stated that a five minute leeway would be allowed but arrival at 11.54 will attract a full fee.
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That's never going to work CY.......
You've got members here that think they've "been ripped off 2 quid by the establishment" because they personally chose a Calor premium product, imagine the confrontation in the wardens office if the warden tries to extract an extra fiver or whatever at 11.54am or 11.40 or 11.30 etc....
Sadly some early arrivers will refuse to leave or pay the extra and say " I will just wait" so causing a blockage that on some sites will back up to the public road, causing issues with the police, council, local residents etc ... (Someone detailed all this early in the thread).
The whole thing has fallen into the "Too Hard" box for the club to deal with. Many can see a (possibly minor) risk of allowing anytime arrivals and we can all see the current problem. The club doesn't know what to do except leave it to "warden discretion" so perpetuating the current situation where many perceive that rule breakers steal a march on rule abiders.
Perhaps it will get solved after the North Korea crisis...
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As KN says if a lot of vans arrive at 12 and it was causing an issue, queuing back onto the main road for instance, they could be let through the barrier and membership cards taken. They could then pitch and come back to reception. This certainly happened to us when about 15 vans all arrived together at 17:30, as we had all been held up for hours by the iron man event. In that case we were told to come back the next morning.
The main point is, if a lot of vans turn up at 12 there would be spaces for them, so options on how to deal with it are available depending on location,
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- BB you possibly did not notice the little winky icon on the post about lunch time closures.
- If you don't take any note of the nature of site entrances. How can you be so certain that flexible arrivals will work.
- I also arrive within the times designated and don't have a problem with this continuing.
- By your quoting the statement, "there is a different mentality to customers ( and their needs) away from the club" I assume you mean over there in relation to arrival times, as we have not had a lot of evidence presented of numerous commercials allowing it in the UK.
- As to lunch time closing only affecting smaller sites. That is just wrong. Just this last visit 2 of the four sites we stopped on closed totally for lunch and they were both the size of large CC sites.
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....hmmm, puts the world's problems into perspective, TT
im sure that DT or KJ-U would have a simpler solution to the 'arrivals' crisis
seriously, its like the HS/grass booking 'conundrum' the club has just put its head in the sand and hopes it will (like some customers are told) 'go away'...
the desire to be able to book HS and to extend the time on site (especially for those working families who pay the most for weekends but end up with scant value for their dosh) by arriving when pitches become vacant will remain at the forefront of regular discussions on CT.....
add in the high price of pitches and the artificially lengthened peak pricing periods and you'd have a full house.
shame they dont seem to take any notice of the 'hot topics'
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1. no
2. my suggestion was that, as the club allow this at some sites, why dont they roll it out elsewhere, where there isnt an issue. i also said that the site i first saw this happening was one of the busiest weve been on, full right throughout its season. i also said it had a short, narrow entrance, but this was never compromised as there was always room for the first arrival....due to the early times of the first departures.
3. well done. however, theres nothing wrong (in my mind) with reviewing older practises.
4. i said there was a different mentality over there....i dont need to support this with examples of uk commercials, that may suffer from the same uk habits....
5. i did say 'generally' and you have been unlukier than us, only once (on a smaller site) were we asked to wait....we took the generally offered advice and went elsewhere....
although we (you) seemed intent in getting bogged down with the detail of each driveway etc, what it does reveal is how we view 'problems'.
i was always brought up (and in my working life) that problems were things that needed resolving to make other (better) things happen.
some on here seem to thing they are things to be wheeled in to prevent other (better) things from happening
as many have said before.....glass half full, half empty, or full of air
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So in the end we seem to be comparing over there with here. Not a particularly valid comparison as the styles of holidaying / short breaks is totally different.
My working life was also devoted to trying to solve problems. However, this generally involved getting well bogged down in the detail as you so aptly put (italics below). Not to have done so, to have ignored "each driveway etc" could have been very costly!
although we (you) seemed intent in getting bogged down with the detail of each driveway etc, what it does reveal is how we view 'problems'.
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steve, of course the details matter, we've all been involved with expensive projects where all the issues have to be taken into account....but part of the project is to 'manage' those issues, including finding resolutions to some and working around others....
those issues youve raised are not serious ones, were talking here about letting a few vans in site not building a new block of flats or implementing a new NHS IT system.......
we have to get this thread into some sort of perspective.
my view is that, deep down, its a culture thing....customer or rules.
...the owner of our favourite site in La Flotte (like many others) has a vested interest in getting his customers to stay and enjoy the site, spending plenty of cash as they go...
to tell someone to 'allez y' or worse (when they've probably driven hours to get there) and they were 'too early' would be unthinkable....
instead, they would be made welcome and told to come onto the site and choose a pitch from those vacant, or if none available (but leavers due) they would be told to leave the van at the entrance to wait for a pitch.....and probably given a coffee or wine while waiting.....
any vehicles needing to enter (or exit) the site (for whatever reason) could be allowed in via the exit barrier, controlled from the office.
getting a customer onto site as quickly and easily as possible would be seen as a priority for that customer not a inconvenience to anyone else due to his 'early' arrival.
as i said, depending on attitude this can be seenas simple and customer focussed or full of problems and 'unworkable'.
we're obviously in two completely different camps so we wont agree, so ill leave it there, throughly deflatedwink......
.or, rather, elated that im off the land of the early arrival at the end of the month
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I noticed you mentioned that guide before David, sounds like a good thing to have.
The fact that ACSI do now have some guidance in their CC book suggests that there have been plenty of comments on this from the public.
Now 3 have most of Europe in their "feel at home" scheme, it should be possible for us to check out individual sites when necessary. Does the book cover all of Europe, or is it just Germany?
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I am surprised that TT has such a negative view of my suggestion. It was an attempt to mitigate the Club's apparent reluctance to allow 'full' flexibility. Provided that any additional cost is clearly stated, members can have no complaint if they incur additional cost.
Personally, I infrequently use club sites and rarely arrive anywhere at 12:00 so I can adopt the "Rhett Butler" position.
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I am surprised that TT has such a negative view of my suggestion
I don't have a negative view of your suggestion at all CY, I think that if it was actively enforced it would cure the perceived early arrival problem overnight.
I do have a very negative view of a small minority of the public, after having dealt with the public all my working life, which I personally suspect is reflected in the Club Membership. I don't think that the wardens would have much luck extracting a "penalty fee" out of some early arrivers. The ensuing confrontation would be unpleasant for wardens, (who may therefore avoid implementing it), it will slow down the booking in of other members and some would undoubtedly refuse to pay it, as I said, causing blockages. For those reasons I personally dont think there's the slightest chance of it happening.
I'm afraid I also subscribe to the view that most of the time, the trickle of arrivers would match the trickle of leavers. As BB has said there may be the odd site where this wouldn't work, but we seem very risk averse to the slightest chance that someone may arrive super early and simply have to wait for a spot.
I wouldn't mind which solution the club implements, but I have a feeling they won't bother with either.....
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Look at the smiley.
If it was genuine name calling the post would have been moderated. Don't take things so literally, Chrystal.
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perhaps we could arrive as early as we liked, David, if we wore a smile
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Whereas being called selfish & thick is more acceptable?
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Some constantly struggle with netiquette
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Look it up 👍🏻
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