Standards at Clumber Park Site
Comments
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If it was a problem for me, then I would
1. Have a polite word with the Wardens, explaining the difficulty.
2. If no joy, then contact the Club via the complaints procedure, and let them know what if anything has been done/ discussed, and actions taken. Include a photo, to illustrate the issue, and let them know what you expect to be done.
1. What, and tell him that he hasn't cut the grass or cleaned the toilets? I think he will already know this.
2. See above comment regarding writing to the Club.
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I spent a working lifetime in service industry. There is often a lot more going on behind the scenes than visitors can imagine, likewise, complaints that come in should be dealt with as close at source as possible. The service should also be pro active about
dealing with complaints, and never, ever give the impression of a "fob off", at any level. A canny member of staff, who may or may not be struggling to fulfil the work commitments will learn to use visitor complaints to their advantage. For example, additional
spending, extra help at busy times.Reception on a busy Club Site will require more than one person to meet requirements Ian, booking in, handling phone calls, dealing with sales of other items, handling help requests or complaints, checking vacancies
etc...... Not all of the time, but a good part of it. No idea how many Warden's work at Clumber by the way.0 -
I spent a working lifetime in service industry. There is often a lot more going on behind the scenes than visitors can imagine, likewise, complaints that come in should be dealt with as close at source as possible. The service should also be pro active about dealing with complaints, and never, ever give the impression of a "fob off", at any level. A canny member of staff, who may or may not be struggling to fulfil the work commitments will learn to use visitor complaints to their advantage. For example, additional spending, extra help at busy times.
Reception on a busy Club Site will require more than one person to meet requirements Ian, booking in, handling phone calls, dealing with sales of other items, handling help requests or complaints, checking vacancies etc...... Not all of the time, but a good part of it. No idea how many Warden's work at Clumber by the way.
..You have answered for me to IanH thankyou,there are 3 couples at Clumber Park but of course with the WTD there is normally two on duty or three on fri/sats when site busy,they did two bin runs daily but what seemed very minimal anything else,the difference between there and Ferry Meadows(much larger) was so noticable
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We were there in February and it was all fine and dandy then. We had no complaints whatsoever on the state of the site.
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I spent a working lifetime in service industry. There is often a lot more going on behind the scenes than visitors can imagine, likewise, complaints that come in should be dealt with as close at source as possible. The service should also be pro active about dealing with complaints, and never, ever give the impression of a "fob off", at any level. A canny member of staff, who may or may not be struggling to fulfil the work commitments will learn to use visitor complaints to their advantage. For example, additional spending, extra help at busy times.
Reception on a busy Club Site will require more than one person to meet requirements Ian, booking in, handling phone calls, dealing with sales of other items, handling help requests or complaints, checking vacancies etc...... Not all of the time, but a good part of it. No idea how many Warden's work at Clumber by the way.
TtDA.......all the CC reception offices I've seen only have one 'booking in computer'. In my industry, they would say "you can only get so many people to dig a hole". If they have more than one person in the office, the rest are just getting in the way.
They don't 'handle phone calls' at booking-in time, they put the answer-machine on and deal with it later.
At busy booking-in times, no reasonable person goes to buy some toilet fluid or to ask touristy questions.....do they? If they do, they just take their turn.
Really, booking a few people in is not a difficult or stressful job (although I agree that some do make it so.......maybe not in the right job?)
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We don't use a lot of Club Sites, but the receptions are usually very busy on most sites. Not all day, but a good part of it. Especially on the larger sites, can be a right old queue waiting at some times. I can't recall ever getting an answer phone either
when phoning a site.But this isn't really answering the OPs statement regarding standards, we could go on all day dreaming about what things should be like in a perfect world!
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Okay, lets put a bit more context on this issue. The site has not changed in size, still has the same amount of pitches, the site overall area has not been increased, occupancy looks to remain the same with the site full every weekend, the facilities are
still identical to the previous seasons and the amount of staff remains the same. However, member complaints appear to be increasing and reviews are on the slide. To me the issue is very apparent, the new Wardens are not doing as good a job as the ones who
were there in previous years. The Area manager needs to follow up with an improvement conversation, monitor and if no improvement, remove. Simple, thats how it works in industry, perform or move on.For clarifcation, I raised the issue with the Warden and with the club
The wardens are new this season
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We were at Chatsworth over the bank holidsay weekend and, although there isn't a lot of grass there, it was very long! We try to go there often and like the service pitches with grass at the back so it's nice to sit out but really too long for that.
Three sets of wardens there but only ever saw two sets. Perhaps it's time the CC went into the 21st century and had self booking in screens so you just type in your membership number and it brings the booking up. Pay with a card, find your pitch and go
back for the key. Wouldn't be any need for an 8pm cut off either.0 -
Here at Broadway the grass hasn't been cut for a while. It's quite long and lots of weeds etc in it.
Doesn't bother me in the least.
The number of wardens has been cut from 6 to 4 so that might explain it.
What I do have a problem with is the significant price increase over last year. How is that justified when their main cost area has been reduced by a third?
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Here at Broadway the grass hasn't been cut for a while. It's quite long and lots of weeds etc in it.
Doesn't bother me in the least.
The number of wardens has been cut from 6 to 4 so that might explain it.
What I do have a problem with is the significant price increase over last year. How is that justified when their main cost area has been reduced by a third?
nice mixture of exact and inprincise there Ian to cloud the off topic isses - a third and significant? The warden numbrs have been cut by a third but unless the wages of the remaining wardens are exactly the same as last year, which seems doubtful, it cannot be a third. Also what might besiginificant to you might not be to the rest of us, so in real money how much more expensive is it from last year, I assume you must have the figures to make such a claim?
Also I assumed you knew the price before your stay, and yet you paid this significant increase?
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I stayed at clumber over the may bank holiday and travelled to work from there we arrived on the wednesday late but the wardens were very obliging , and left on the following tuesday and it was sooo busy , there seemed to be quite a few groups and parties
and people actually enjoying themselves, gawd knows when they would have time to get the mower out , it didnt seem unkempt to me , i like it cos its spacious
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My intentions are not to belittle the people who in most do a great job as wardens and assistant wardens, but a stressful job....come on please! They may have a few irate customers and a peak rush hour with a few van waiting
to check in, so if that is what we consider a stressful role they want to swap with me when I’m running a busy inner city hospital Emergency Department on a Bank Holiday Saturday night.Different things trigger stress in different people but to summaries a Caravan Club site Warden as a stressful role in my opinion is stretching it a little too far!
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Apart from some really remote sites I don't see a problem as sites would be contracted out by location/area/county and why 7 days on one site. With more and more sites converting to hard standings and that the fact that for long periods of the year, even
in the summer, grass doesn't grow too quickly. Spring and Autumn are usually the fastest growing period. Contractors would use their own equipment which I suspect would be larger and more efficient so need to purchase machines that sit idle for months etc..
Golf clubs already do this, my own clubs greenkeepers only cut the greens and tee boxes, everything else is cut by sub contractors. As far as Clumber is concerned there are too many negative reviews for the club not to take it seriously. In 2014 the annual
accounts show that sites made nearly £1.5million profit so on the face of it there shouldn't be a problem maintaining sites!0 -
Apart from some really remote sites I don't see a problem as sites would be contracted out by location/area/county and why 7 days on one site. With more and more sites converting to hard standings and that the fact that for long periods of the year, even in the summer, grass doesn't grow too quickly. Spring and Autumn are usually the fastest growing period. Contractors would use their own equipment which I suspect would be larger and more efficient so need to purchase machines that sit idle for months etc.. Golf clubs already do this, my own clubs greenkeepers only cut the greens and tee boxes, everything else is cut by sub contractors. As far as Clumber is concerned there are too many negative reviews for the club not to take it seriously. In 2014 the annual accounts show that sites made nearly £1.5million profit so on the face of it there shouldn't be a problem maintaining sites!
...can the whole of the site be cut in one fell swoop? Surely it's a rolling opportunistic 'programme' where many areas, including around hard standings, can only be cut once vacated and then only when the weather/ground conditions allow.
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Clumber is fairly remote, in that it is the only CC site in Notts, so a contractor would not easily be able to move round a close group of sites. It also has a lot of grass pitches, unlike a golf course these often have vans on them. Using a contractor would make it very difficult to react to people leaving, and just get the mower out to cut an area. I have seen this senario in action at several sites with lots of grass pitches. So if anything using a contractor, in my opinion, could lead to a worsening of the situation. We were at Clumber on Monday and yes the grass was slightly longer than normal, but not excessively so. The toilet blocks were clean, wardens friendly and we had no complaints whatsoever.
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The only time sites could be cut as a whole would be just before they open and just after it closed or never on all year sites unless parts were closed to enable (more ct complaints) ,any other time it is an as req when pitches are not in use or just vacated(,a
golf course is a completly different ball game
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Several posts which contained either personal attacks or insults have been removed.
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i have visited larger sites where the person in charge deals with reception, the office, general management, reservations and customer service - while contract cleaners, plumbers, electricians, maintenance men and gardeners come and go from outside and deal with those jobs. The Club has decided it doesn't want that model and some members get hot under the collar when it's even suggested. But it is a workable alternative model.
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Now that this thread is back on track thankfully, lets continue with the thread subject.
I have not stayed at Clumber but I have always found that CC campsites are of a similar good standard with the Wardens cleaning the public lavatories and showers, the chemical disposal point the water tap areas, the dish washing area and the clothes washing area to a good standard.
As far as I'm concerned, a highly manicured lawn is way down in the priority stakes.
Much rather see the Wardens spending more of their time ensuring that the CC's on-site rules are strictly adhered to.
K
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I Have stayed at Clumber many times and through all seasons and can honectly say i have always found it well kept, Yes occasionally the grass gets a bit long and some of the pitches when raining can get waterlogged. But certainly not bad enough to put me
off going(it is a camp site after all not a hotel!!)I have yet to find the facilities any thing other than clean(not that i use them much) However the only thing i will say is i cannot comment on peak seasons as i plan my breaks at quiter times.
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i have visited larger sites where the person in charge deals with reception, the office, general management, reservations and customer service - while contract cleaners, plumbers, electricians, maintenance men and gardeners come and go from outside and
deal with those jobs. The Club has decided it doesn't want that model and some members get hot under the collar when it's even suggested. But it is a workable alternative model...All the outside contract staff that you mention are as per the caravan club on sites
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I Have stayed at Clumber many times and through all seasons and can honectly say i have always found it well kept, Yes occasionally the grass gets a bit long and some of the pitches when raining can get waterlogged. But certainly not bad enough to put me
off going(it is a camp site after all not a hotel!!)I have yet to find the facilities any thing other than clean(not that i use them much) However the only thing i will say is i cannot comment on peak seasons as i plan my breaks at quiter times.
..Have you stayed this year yet?
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I Have stayed at Clumber many times and through all seasons and can honectly say i have always found it well kept, Yes occasionally the grass gets a bit long and some of the pitches when raining can get waterlogged. But certainly not bad enough to put me
off going(it is a camp site after all not a hotel!!)I have yet to find the facilities any thing other than clean(not that i use them much) However the only thing i will say is i cannot comment on peak seasons as i plan my breaks at quiter times.
..Have you stayed this year yet?
Yes In march for 7 nights and had no real issues, the warden who booked me in was pleasant enough and given the time of year and the rain we had been having the site was more than acceptable. Guess the toilet block needed a bit of TLC and a few pitches could
have been tidier But certainley nothing that spoiled the enjoyment of my break. But why would it, its somewhere to park my outfit that enables me to enjoy the area not sit around the site looking for faults.( but hey we are all different)0 -
It will be interesting to see if the club add some context / feedback to this thread
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