No News Yet on the New Booking System
Comments
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What about the focus groups, how are they formed and informed?
I think they formed from Club Council members, DSB should be able to confirm that. As for input, as most of the council are centre members, that is probably one of the routes.
peedee
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Some years ago ,it was accepted that there were not enough pitches if all members in peak periods wanted to go to a site,
Since then we had staycations (it seems shows little reduction)and an explosion of the memberships of both major pitch providers
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Without fishing out the magazine, the new mag said something to the effect that new systems would take into account all sectors of membership.
I can see how booking pitch type can do that, provided that those wanting a particular type of pitch can get it at popular sites, with the part week booking that obviously will happen.
I am not sure how dynamic pricing can help everyone - whether it be cheap prices early or late - it penalises those who cant (for what ever reason) book at the cheapest time. Also anything that makes sites even more expensive will be a negative.
Obviously those with the need to book their 2 weeks summer holiday in the school break need to book , & I assume they book early. Most people in that circumstance are going to need to book time off with employers - probably at the start of the leave year. They may benefit from pitch selection. They may or may not benefit from dynamic pricing.
I really dont think the Club should be copying Ryan Air or Easy Jet.
Deposits - I dont like deposits. We have only had to cancel Club sites one occasion (leave one site early - already paid so lost that, and cancel next site) because of medical issues.
I do think a lot depends on size of deposits and T & C. We dont use Club sites that often, so transferring to another date would probably not work for us.
Booking pitches should, surely, sort out the issues of early arrivals. However, I can see a situation where someone is not leaving until the last minute (within the rules) and the people booked for that night have already arrived, and still have to wait! But that will clearly be their own fault.
I am not sure what the issue is that is to be remedied by being able to book several sites at once. (Info from the magazine)
Perhaps my biggest overriding concern is will the Club IT system cope. If there are more than some fairly minor early IT issues, this could all go very badly wrong. There will be plenty who dont like what ever new system is put in place - if they then cant book because of IT problems the howls of protest will be deafening.
These are just some random thoughts really. We increasingly use CLs & private sites, I am not sure the apparent proposals are going to change that. Our biggest preferences on sites are those with no facility ones, & I dont think these changes will impinge.
If the Club really is interested in our views and is reading this forum, then the issue that would make the greatest difference to whether we use Club sites would be a greater control being exercised on irresponsible dog owners.
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If the Club really is interested in our views and is reading this forum, then the issue that would make the greatest difference to whether we use Club sites would be a greater control being exercised on irresponsible dog owners.
I have rarely had trouble with dogs on site but it is noticable that Club sites have a high presence of dogs on site. Dogs are usually charged for on commercial sites and that probably keeps numbers down.
peedee
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Basically a deposit system has to relate to something, in the club case it's a pitch. My own preference in that case would be an actual pitch type.
I was able to freely book a multi-surface pitch at Tewkesbury recently. The other options were taking pot luck on a grass pitch or paying for a service pitch. This seemed like a mish mash of possibilities so I'd prefer to see a tiered cost system for pitch type and a moveable non refundable deposit to confirm the booking.
Even better I'd like to see the option of non ehu on all pitch types but that might be a pipe dream! (Unless we can't run on gas in the future.)
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Your last sentence, is quite interesting More control ?how do you propose that to be ,carried out
How about the more dangerous and unsocial act of not keeping to speed limits
As any site manager will tell you, it is very rare that either of the above is seen by themselves
The First they know about either is normally If they read reviews of the site they are working
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Pentewan Sands here in Cornwall survives pretty well without them.
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I don't like deposits and I don't want deposits. I feel strongly about this.
The club allow us to book as many sites as we want for a year ahead. I take advantage of this. They also allow us to cancel a booking or change it , which I also have used, although more so in later years through ill health. I pay extra for all this by way of the sites being more expensive than the commercial sites for just a basic site and of course the membership fee. I use the club sites because they are, for the most part, the same good standard.
If deposits are brought in , I wont be paying it, we shall be looking elsewhere as it wont be in my interest to stay. It reminds me of when we were all encouraged to buy diesel cars and now the government are phasing them out.
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Several Club centres hold rallies there without prices being eye watering.
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Leave well alone.
No deposits and late cancellation are major benefits which it would be a shame to lose.
A better way of addressing the 'we'll book everything and then cancel at our leisure brigade' would be to simply limit the number of bookings one could hold on the system. If you were unable to hold more than, say, 5 simultaneous bookings over a year, then the net effect would be to smooth out a significant amount of the sites fully booked issues.
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As any site manager will tell you, it is very rare that either of the above is seen by themselves
Doesn't that say everything about how Club sites are run. More time spent cleaning toilets than actually running and supervising the site.
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But then they would loose the tourers like us. This year we have used 38 sites so far, mainly CAMC, and normally have 20 or so bookings. If I couldn’t make them with this club, I would look elsewhere. Having said that, if deposits come in we are likely to use the other club more, as they are generally substantially cheaper.
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I stay with the club because there are no deposits to pay, it makes booking so much easier if there are unforeseen problems along the way. If the no deposit system is taken away then I just as well book some where else or perhaps join the other club.
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Mikey I'm really struggling to see why you wrote that?
Firstly toilet cleaning accounts for about at most two hours per day?
But more importantly and secondly why pick on toilet cleaning? JVB's post that you quoted from was talking about speed limits and dogs?
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The unwillingness to financially commit to bookings is concerning.
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