10% deposits at all UK Club campsites
Comments
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Bump!
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Competetive edge has been lost,
We can get used to the new booking system in time however the terms and conditions will prevent us using the clubs sites exclusively in the future, the club had a unique policy that gave great flexibility over its competitors.
The problem we have is that sometimes plans need to be amended for personnel reasons which could be a week or two before the booked dates so now we will incur a penalty.
I cannot now book any dates for next year without incurring cost so in our case you will loose bookings as there is no advantage booking a club site apart from its location.The deposit is not the main problem its the 21 days cancellation and loss of deposit, this benefit was more important to some than cost prior to the changes which were supposed to enhance our booking experience.
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I was pleased that a deposit system was introduced. I was often trying to plan a holiday and all the sites were booked only to find a few days before I was going to depart there were loads of spaces because people have cancelled at the last minute. Too late I was already booked somewhere else.
I think the reason for the drop in bookings is the escalation in prices to stay!
if you are booking a hotel room or any other type of accommodation you would be asked to produce a nonrefundable deposit! At the very least
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I disagree. I am sat in a hotel room at this very moment and I paid absolutely nothing in advance but settled on arrival.
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I think the problem of the drop of bookings is down to the increase in prices, extortionate. I must say I welcome the introduction of a booking fee. It was ridiculous before, people booking up for a year in advance and then changing at the last minute. This meant some of us were unable to plan a holiday at all. Often a book would appear fully booked until a few days before you’re about to depart by which time you would’ve hadTo book into somewhere else. If you’re working you have fixed holidays. It must’ve resulted in many space is not been filled.
To book into somewhere else. It must’ve resulted in many space is not being filled. I
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The Club feels much more like a commercial venture than it used to. Tempting but fairly meaningless offers such as half price deposits, but no change to the minimum, and the other marketing ploy of ‘prices from’ which is of course for a single, out of season, lowest price pitch possible. I’d like to be treated as a member again, rather than a potential customer.
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Agree with your comment on prices. The Club is out pricing itself against alternatives. Maybe it’s time to look at the cost of running the sites to see where savings can be made? I’m also ok with the idea of a deposit, even though my only pitch fees so far this year are a £23 lost deposit. I’ll leave it to the last minute next time!
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Perhaps the running of the whole organisation not just sites. I don’t know enough about the Club to know which bits of the Club income pay for which parts of the club. So does site income only fund sites etc. The visible running costs of the sites seem quite lean to me.
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The "Visible running costs" you perceive to be quite lean aren't. The not so visible costs aren't either.
JK
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I got an email yesterday about the 20% off offer at certain Club Sites. Includes Ferry Meadows, so I thought aha, maybe one for OH. You can get offer from 1st July onwards, so I thought maybe next week for him? But no, offer only applies if you book a minimum of 14 days in advance. Quite how you do this to get the offer for next week isn’t computing with me at the moment.🤔
OH solved the problem. He’s booked a CL just South of Grantham😁
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It would be interesting to see if at the end of the season the new rules have benefitted, or not. Unfortunately I doubt if the true answer may be forthcoming as no one likes to admit to mistakes. One thing we did notice after 6 weeks on various sites is that ones that were full last year were much emptier this year. For example I booked the Norfolk Broads site early this year, and was advised that pitches were down to ‘5 or less’. Yet during our stay there were a good number free and a sign at the gate asking you to extend your stay if you wished. Similarly Ferry Meadows where during the week I estimate the site was 2/3 ‘s empty, last year a similar stay showed the site almost full during the week. This was after a discount (with conditions) being offered this year which basically returned the site fees to the rates asked for last year. Weekends were still as busy as normal but I suspect many members are not booking ahead as much and just booking a few days at a time. Whether that has resolved the ‘block booking at weekends’ I do not know. When we look at rates of nearly £38 for a pitch and 2 adults, that can get quite expensive for a long’ish stay. Some may say compare it to hotels, but that is not really the same. I tend to compare a long stay in the UK against travelling to the Med and here the costs now are pretty much equal even adding on ferries etc. So you can compare a ‘pitch’ and a toilet block at £38 against a pitch, pool, bar/restaurant and of course a better chance of sun at an ACSI cost of 23 euros. Of course everyone has their own ideas of what is best for them but it does start to make you think a bit more.
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Many have commented that it's not just the level of deposit required that is impacting site occupancy....the high pitch prices themselves must be a major contributor.
Then, as you say, the worse terms for getting a deposit back has certainly changed booking habits. The club wants folk to book early to 'get the best prices' but perhaps fewer members are prepared to commit until they are sure they can meet the date..
yes, £38 a night is a level we're not used to paying...and remember ACSI has a range of prices starting at €13, with €23 being the top end of the scale.
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Would think it mainly to do with the cost of living crisis ,last year you could not buy a new caravan, this year the yard are full of new unsold vans and motor homes etc
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It’s probably a combination of things to be honest. No one factor affecting pitch take up, but different things impacting on different clientele.
It’s the overall cost of a pitch that puts us off, and little choice in terms of what you can have if you are interested. The deposit scheme only impacts us as we currently cannot commit to long term bookings because I am caring, and we only tour a few days in advance. Certainly not going to book anything and risk losing a deposit because of the 21 day cut off when there are lots of other no deposit options out there. If it was a reasonable 7 days, we might be more tempted, but not at these prices.
The Club, and some CL’s hiked their prices vastly because of the energy costs early in the year, and might well be still tied into those expensive tariffs. We are finding places giving plenty of pitching choices though at the moment, next week is £20 per night with hook up and a tap on HS, in a nice quiet location a few hundred metres from a beautiful canal and pub, almost under Belvior Castle.2 -
There are a number of factors affecting pitch prices electricity being just one. Rates, wages etc have all risen far more than many of us expected (unless you are in receipt of the wage rise!!). Electricity prices are supposed to be dropping but I doubt that will result in any decrease in pitch rates. What I suspect we will see is more 'discounts' such as those introduced this year. Shopping around may give you deals more attractive to your wallet. As mentioned we have jsut completed a couple of months on various Club sites and enjoyed them, but later in the summer we are off to Spain for a month using our old caravan which is stored there. We will check prices of many things while there and if we still see the price advantage we have seen in previous years (Campsite costs/ local costs/fuel etc) then I suspect we may just do a longer trip to Spain next year and cut back on UK sites. The 90 days I am allowed as a tourist is more than enough for a great time on thebeach etc. Obviously if we do not see any cost advantages then we will ignore that factor when making our plans.
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I know this has already been discussed, but the huge hike in price negates the deposit issue for us as we are simply voting with our feet and camping elsewhere. For the past 25 years only using CC sites, but now only using CL, commercial sites and European sites (£20/n). Come on CAMC, listen to the sentiment and do more than lower deposits!
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Glad to hear they are sympathetic in some cases..... we were booked to visit Seacroft for 4 nights 20th - 24th July with our 10 year old grandson who broke a bone in his foot last Friday.
He has to refrain from any form of physical activity apart from trying to walk on it normally as soon as possible as it's the ball of the big toe & heel that is weight bearing but can't run around, cycle etc for 4 - 6 weeks so would be a complete waste of time for us to go, not to mention it being torture watching other kids enjoy themselves but our deposit has been retained.....
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Thanks for the support Steve..... my thoughts entirely, it certainly doesn't appear that there is any consistency in regard to these decisions.
A voucher towards my stay in Cayton in August would have sufficed.....
I'm going to email the club for reconsideration.
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What would be really interesting to know is what the situation would have been if the non deposit system of old had been maintained. I’m sure those who were warned to be careful for what they wished would still be around but I’d bet the level of disgruntlement across the many would be significantly less if not almost non existent. Sadly we will never know.
A modern phenomenon may be not but don’t you just despair when we are offered positive spin or u-turns on ill made decisions which directly impact on us.1 -
I suppose the problem for the Club is where do they draw that line regarding refund/voucher. The more exceptions there are the less use the deposit system is? Don't get me wrong I am not unsympathetic to your problem and maybe they will relent. Last year we paid in advance for 5 nights on a well known commercial site in Somerset but managed to catch COVID on the site prior to heading to Somerset, we lost the whole site fee of £175, no offer of moving the booking or a partial deposit on another booking. At least with the Club you only lose the deposit up to the day you arrive on site.
David
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.. when I had to cancel a booking with the other club at relatively short notice last year when Molly had a major operation I phoned to cancel. They effectively gave me credit note by moving my booking to 12 months later which then let me rebook to a later date .
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To our cost we found it quite easy to fall foul of the cancelation rules. We booked had a three-week trip Starting in Southport to take in the Eurovision song celebrations. Then onto Edenborough, from there we booked to go the Stonehaven site then back to Edenborough before heading home.
Unfortunately, on the second day in Southport we woke up to a loud chattering noise coming from the distribution box. On investigation the charging circuits were the culprit. We switched off the isolator that stopped the chattering but we also lost all the 12v in the Motorhome. The wardens were extremely helpful and gave us the number of there “go to” fix-it man. Unfortunately, he was taking a well-earned break. With the loss of the 12v and no way to fix it we reluctantly had to cancel our remaining bookings. Because of the 21-day rule this meant the loss of £25 per booking (£75 in total). We managed to get the problem fixed at the distributor's and booked the remainder of our holiday at another site but because it was not consecutive the deposits were lost.
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