Weekend bookings something has to be done
Comments
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It is hard to believe that those who are so opposed to booking changes and insist they honour bookings are so against any form of up front payment.
You can believe it in my case PD. Last year I used 16 club sites and generally for 5 night stays. I like to plan my tours for the year during November. If the Club sites had been C&CC sites I would have needed to pay up front £400. I can happily easily afford to do so. The 5 commercials that I used cost £230 in total deposits.
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ET, but it would still not have cost you anymore however you paid. Surely you are capable of planning your finaces to make up front payments. Any other form of other holiday you normally have to. If large sums are involved its sensible to insure
peedee
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In my view some form of deposit would at least reduce the lead time of advance bookings, especially that for weekends, and give those wanting longer stays a better chance of obtaining them.
but JVB if the above statement is correct and it appears to be from the experience of other organisations, the honeypot sites would not be booked up quite so far in advance.
peedee
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It is interesting, and I think I am correct in saying all the complaints I have seen about unable to obtain pitches come from members wanting longer stays than just a weekend. It would be impossible to measure how many of these actually give up and go somewhere other than a CMC site, I know I would. I have yet to see a complaint from someone who cannot get a weekend booking possibly because for a short stay it is easy to pick up a cancellation and the destination may not be quite so important.
peedee
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But remember that when the club had got rid of deposits the number of cancellations and no shows went down. Why bring them back and have more empty pitches that could be used?
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I am not saying they will never get fully booked JVB, Of course honeypot sites will, even those that take deposits and full payment before arrival do. I believe what up front payment does is reduce speculative long lead time bookings especially for the majority of short stays, i.e. weekends and should give those wanting longer stays a better chance of making a booking.
peedee
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As posted before (several times)when wanting a period longer than a weekend that shows full at times, a call to the site has, for us anyway, normally had a positive response, the reliance on websites to book is a modern "lazy"method ,and we only very rarely did not get our booking when a telephone call to sites was the norm for bookings
"IT PAYS TO TALK"
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I’ve certainly seen people complaining they can’t get weekends.
Weekends or weeks, it proves the popularity of some sites and reinforces the need to book early at those sites. The club’s aim is bums on seats so if the sites are full, then it’s job done. Why would they look to change a system that, in their view, is working well?
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But that was something like 12-15 years ago when deposits were dropped. £10 was worth more then than it is today.
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It does not matter when bookings are made ,and as the club advise there is no evidence to suggest it is speculative booking that is stopping others getting a pitch, whether any periods from 1 sat night to 21 nights "blocking?"3 weekends
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I am fortunate in not having to plan our finances PeeDee. Others at the point I was when aged 28 with a young family may not be so fortunate. The caravan club did require a deposit then I think.
It could be that not having to pay up front in a lump encourages folk to choose a caravan club site in the first instance PD
As for insurance would it provide cover if I had to cancel due to a mechanical problem?
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I don't disagree but even then £10 was not enough. I also don't think paying a much larger deposit would worry some and there would still be no shows but would it be any worse than the current system which I am sure still has its fair share of no shows? I don't know the answer but the Club should. What I firmly believe is speculative booking should be discouraged and the current system in no way does that.
peedee
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What I am saying is you can book site's to infinity in blocks of 21 days then amend the time you want to go nearer the time you want or not go, and as you say there nothing wrong with that.
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what? actually I have the first site handbook from when I joined in 1999 and it was £5 per booking.
So what price would you have now?
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The last time that I remember paying a deposit was in 1994 (last caravan holiday with my late wife). I believe it was £10 and equivalent to £19 now. I think that the deposit took no notice of how long a booking was. I often found far less need to forward book by a great then however. The last holiday with my wife was 7 weeks+. We used 15 sites and moved every 3 or 4 days. The bookings were made about two weeks before we travelled. I booked Saturday only on 6 sites. The rest we just phoned ahead the day before travel. At that time I rarely made advance bookings and simply phoned a couple of days ahead. Deposit were generally waived as I would have been on site before the cheque arrived.
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but whatever number of no-shows, which of course you have no idea at all they are lower with no deposits? Why do you want to increase the number of no shows? That just makes life difficult for more people to get pitches.
Also remind me how many nights you book on club sites?
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The problem in the past with the deposit system is as stated before is that there were more no shows as some people tendead to book several sites nag to the one that suited at the time ,although that cannot now happen a deposit no matter how much for some is not going to stop them thinking I will not bother as the weather is not to my liking now,
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As I have said in the past JVB. I used to typically drive up to 90 mins to and from site. Often 70 miles each way. Towing that would cost about £30 in fuel plus say £60 for a 2 nighter (we usually did three nights). So would folk wish to travel in torrential wet and windy weather to spend £90 in order to save a £25 deposit? I think not.
It is different for us in that it is just the start of a holiday with more sites to follow
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A booking platform is an online resource where you can search your site by date, feature, and pitch type and get immediate availability and book. How do I know that this type of business is rising, I live in the modern connected world. If you research ECommerce you will understand why the club will come under increasing pressure from this type of business.
Club sites are popular because they have a historical monopoly which ensures a historical membership who like what they know and stick with it. Align this with the growth in popularity of the hobby, rise in active retired people, then you will see why some interpret this as the sites being popular.
The thing is that the club has a massive monopoly and are seen by joe public as the definitive Caravan/Motorhome body.
I have not complained about not getting a club site booking, I very rarely use club sites. I commented on the ability to book as many sites as I want, 12 months in advance without and form of deposit and then to have the ability to change these bookings virtually right up to the departure date. I personally think this excludes a great number of the membership from their fair share of club facilities.
I do use commercials, and trust me many are better than the club sites. I book dates that suit me and I do not have to participate in a crazy stampede for availability.
I do use other club resources that have proven to be very good.
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A booking platform is an online resource where you can search your site by date, feature, and pitch type and get immediate availability and book.
Apart from pitch types, and even that is done on certain sites, doesn't the club's booking platform (a good example of word salad IMHO) do that?
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