Group bookings for non members
Just bought our first caravan and joined the CAMC club.
Back from our first trip away. We went to the CAMC site in Bognor Regis for 3 nights. The facilities on this site were clean and very good
Our first two nights were quiet and there were no problems, but the third night was a different affair. A group of more than 20 non members turned up and decided to spend the night in the awning next to our caravan. Kids bikes everywhere and I was concerned that my car was going to get damaged.
I lay awake until 1AM in the morning listening to the group talking and the Boom boom of their radio. I believe a number of people complained but I was not one of them because we do not know the rules. I was told this was a rare occurrence by other members of CAMC but I only have this one experience to go.
I have to ask the question CAMC, why would you let a large group of non member book onto the sight. Surely you are just asking for trouble.
Brian Mascard
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Comments
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This is extremely rare I've never experienced this on a club site but have on a commercial one, in my experience usually the warden has a walk around the site after 10pm to check, you should have complained strongly to the wardens and send an email to the club with a strong complaint also put a review on The clubs Trust Pilot page you will get a response there but not on here.
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In such circumstances the site staff should always be your first port of call. If I recall correctly the Littlehampton site is unusual in that some private (?) static caravans have access through the Club site road system? Whether that access is anything to do with the problem you experienced I think only the site staff could tell you. In 40 odd years of using Club sites I would say that it was a very unusual experience.
David
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Brian, Sorry to read that you were unhappy. But honestly, look at the photo of that site. You don’t go there tor privacy. So choose carefully next time.
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Bognor Regis tends to be a noisy site due to traffic on the surrounding busy roads but what you experienced, BM, is unusual and unacceptable.
Some sites are forced to accept non-members as a condition laid down by the local authority so the club has to abide by that. Incidentally, how do you know they weren’t members?
As has been said, always tell the warden of such occurrences whether caused by members or non-members but hopefully you won’t meet this behaviour again.
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Looking at the photo it looks just like any other popular club site, the reason I joined. the club was we were getting similar experiences on some commercial sites, I joined because the club had high standards and rules, as such I have never been disappointed, there is no excuse for shrugging off such behaviour, the club should investigate the incident to prevent it happening to others, I hope the OPs experience isn't a sign these standards are slipping.
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I am not sure what privacy has to do with the OP as it was never mentioned? Also what does privacy and unacceptable behaviour have in common, or how not having enough privacy can lead to the behaviour described?
No matter what privacy one has the sound of twenty people in one awning would still carry?
In 24 years of using club sites this has fortunately never happened to me but if it did I would be straight round to the wardens caravan/MH/house well before 1 am. If am disturbed so that I can't sleep then the wardens can be too, that's the point of them living on site.
I am really sorry it happened to you BM, hopefully it won't again, as Arch says send in a complaint to the club direct to stop this happening again to someone else.
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It happened to us once at The Howard, one bank holiday break, a parent had obviously loaned out their van to a son in his twenties and he was joined by a huge group of pals complete with guitars etc. I don't expect the visitors paid as they just arrived randomly during the evening and stayed the night in the van and the awning. We decided it was a bank holiday and some only get that short time off from work so although it was noisy we didn't feel like complaining and it's never happened since.
If you do feel strongly about something it's better to act at the time of the event.
It's an outdoor type of holiday so it can happen anywhere, even with CAMC.
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What a shame for that to happen on your first CAMC site visit.
As others have mentioned it very unusual to have that happen, we've never come across that before in the UK.
Overseas on the other hand it can happen quite often when all the family members and friends decide to join in and it goes on for days.
Don't let it put you off, BHs can be the worse time to be away so if you can avoid them my advice would be do so. You might like to try out some of the excellent small sites called CLs only ever 5 vans on site perfect for BHs and high season.
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"Overseas on the other hand it can happen quite often when all the family members and friends decide to join in and it goes on for days. "
Spain is nortorious for this, they come out to party at 22:00 hrs and are still at it at 0200 hrs, but that is the culture, i guess if you dont like it, dont go, or better still get involved, had some lovely Spanish parties and the paella is gorgeous
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Could you give some more information please? You say 20 non members arrived next door. Were they visitors to that pitch or were there 20 outfits with non members pitched up? Visitors to the site are more than welcome but the member they are visiting is responsible for their guests behaviour.
Why do you think accepting non members to a site is asking for trouble? We have a very wide range of society of members in the club, what's the difference if you've paid your £59 membership subs or not?
If a number of people complained then I'd expect the site staff to have acted in a suitable manner, if not then I'd further expect complaints to EGH followed by a visit from the regional manager. Part of our job as staff is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our customers. It's never easy dealing with a late night crowd, especially if alcohol is involved and sometimes it's easier to have a quiet word then to wake people in the morning when their heads are pounding to give them the lowdown. Most of the time people forget that an awning isn't a brick wall and there usually isn't a repetition on another day.
It really isn't a regular thing.
JK
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ET, as this was the OP's first visit to a club site now were they to know how relatively close units are parked? They may be used to those sort of sites where there is much more space between units. They are new to caravanning but may well have stayed on other sites in the past.
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I suspect that many of them had not paid anything at all, as the Wardens are very unlikley to allow so many people onto just one pitch, regardless of how much extra they may have been paying. It is easy to just turn up on a site as the Wardens cannot be watching everything that goes on, or know if everyone has paid a fee or not.
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.... It is easy to just turn up on a site as the Wardens cannot be watching everything that goes on, or know if everyone has paid a fee or not.
Maybe the odd extra person turning up would go unnoticed, but I would imagine that on even a big site, the wardens would be savvy enough to know a large group are having a party at a pitch
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I have not really noticed many single sex groups on sites at all. I was pitched next to 2 very pleasant ladies from Nottingham, at Meathop last August, but most tourers appear to be couples and families and occasionally (like myself) single. My cousin and her husband caravanned for many years and after she died, her husband and dog, sometimes with grandchildren, still frequently toured. One year he booked at a commercial site for 2 weeks which he had not visited before and shortly before he was due to go, he was contacted by the site to say that they did not allow single males on site! It has not occurred since and I have never heard of any other sites which do so.
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JK if you're the guy that used to run the Marazion club site from my experience of you and staying there this situation would never have happened on your watch, you regularly walked the site, knew what was going on and would have quickly put an end to it without fuss.
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Not me Arch but we used to work together years ago
JK
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Brue said Maybe this could be one of the CT "improvements" so that posters are made more aware of movements of their contributions? I know they get a note but it's not there for long.
So many new post discussions or reviews start life in the story section. Clearly it needs to be made more intuitive all round?
especially if they want to attract new readers and posters.0
