Last minute cancellations
Comments
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Here we go again, sitting on a popular CC site which has shown full for all this week for some 2 weeks or more. Low and behold a poor weather forcast for the weekend has suddenly provided some 7 vacant pitches.
As I understand it from more than one warden, free pitches are not all shown online. They always keep some back in case pitches have to be taken out of use particularly due to bad weather. We have been advised to phone a site if it is shown as full, especially
if we want to go at short notice, as the wardens will have a better idea if any pitches are likely to be unavailable, usually due to waterlogging. If not then there will be a few short notice pitches.0 -
Managed to remove error page. However, I think page 6 is lost forever.
Roll on the the new improved non error strewn forum.
a pity there was a good post from DavidK
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I just wish that someone would offer a coherent argument supporting the (often repeated, but never demonstrated) view that taking deposits (with its improved cash-flow and the recovery of something-rather-than-nothing for cancellations) would somehow "cost"
the CC and its members money......because I'm blowed if I can see it.have given it some thought. If they took a deposit by credit card and then a balance by credit card they would suffer two bank charges which if they were fixed rather than a percentage would increase costs.
However the biggest area would be admin. multinationals often quote a price per computer transaction of more than £1 (Some considerably more) this covers cup, disk, operational support etc. extra transactions would be taking deposit, legit refunds and transfers
between changed bookings. This would no doubt ,generate a new department.So it is possible it could cost money.
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They could kill discussions like this and the endless repeats stone dead by publishing annual figures especially for cancellations just before the deadline. I don't join in the December rush and if I see a site fully booked I just go elsewhere. Simples
peedee
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I can't understand why people are so keen to apart with their money (often months in advance) rather than keep it in their bank accounts. Especially as there is no evidence at all to show there is a problem with no shows, there is this thread but there was usual high winds this weekend. Also it is odd that the OP has not come back on say which site it was.
Of course if someone can offer some real evidence to show there is a problem?
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As there is rarely a response on here from the cc about things ,I would dought that anything would be forth coming,and making my own"enquiries " there does not seem that the need for such infomation is there,as for deposits I understand that the reason for not taking them is as in an earlier post Cost
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As there is rarely a response on here from the cc about things ,I would dought that anything would be forth coming,and making my own"enquiries " there does not seem that the need for such infomation is there,as for deposits I understand that the reason for not taking them is as in an earlier post Cost
But how does the Club respond to a thread like this? Has the OP has made an assumption on the reason for empty pitches and as a result suggested that the Club should change its entire policy based on what he reports. We know that wardens have the ability to hold back a number of pitches to cover for emergencies, I think the figure is around 5% of the total pitches on site which could easily amount to 7 pitches? Normally if circumstances permitted the warden could allow those pitches to be booked but is it not possible that given the forecast rather than cancellations no one wanted to take up the wardens allocation of pitches? Generally speaking where the a genuine concern has been raised on the forum the Mods will often ask the Community Manager to get an answer for us.
David
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It has been many years since the club stopped taking deposits and has stated that the number of no shows actually went down when it did stop deposits. The system works well at present, if there was a problem the club would have reintroduced deposits by now
Write your comments here...i entirely agree, the 72 hour cancellation rule, is working fine, with penalties for persistant no- show-ers. Which makes allowances for illness, breakdown or dangerous weather (but NOT just rainy weather !).
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I would think that the CC have a 'no deposit' system in order to differentiate themselves from the other major Club and the vast majority of their competition.
That's fine, provided that the strategy benefits the CC (and its members) by producing a higher level of income and thereby higher profits (which would benefit us all, presumably).
But I'm struggling to see how this tactic can be of benefit to a commercial organisation like the CC though? What exactly are the benefits of not taking money from their customers in advance? Does anyone know or can anyone hazard a guess?
And, if it's such a brilliant tactic to employ, how come no-one else uses it?
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I understand that all sites have what its called "off set" which is as the name suggests its a few pitches to off set any problems that can and do arriise,a as can be seen by at least two grass pitches on here that are out of use because of inconsiderate
use of ground sheets0 -
Ian
I did provide an insight into why, in terms of cost, the Club might not want to go down the route of taking deposits on page six but that now has an error. There would be disadvantages in terms of extra costs but I suspect your first comment in the post
above is a pretty powerful argument in favour of no deposits. You might wish to visit the C&CC forum to see that the way that Club runs their booking system is far from universally popular!David
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I would think that the CC have a 'no deposit' system in order to differentiate themselves from the other major Club and the vast majority of their competition.
That's fine, provided that the strategy benefits the CC (and its members) by producing a higher level of income and thereby higher profits (which would benefit us all, presumably).
But I'm struggling to see how this tactic can be of benefit to a commercial organisation like the CC though? What exactly are the benefits of not taking money from their customers in advance? Does anyone know or can anyone hazard a guess?
And, if it's such a brilliant tactic to employ, how come no-one else uses it?
Write your comments here...i am glad that they still not 100% pure profit driven, long may it remain so. Now if they would just get rid of those stupid Pods, they would be.....almost perfect.
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With 60 mph winds forecast we would have cancelled.It's far too scary for me to be towing in high winds.
I dont see it as about scary, its just about common sense - if winds are that bad setting out is just reckless unless you really have to. Deposit or none, safety is paramount.
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With 60 mph winds forecast we would have cancelled.It's far too scary for me to be towing in high winds.
I dont see it as about scary, its just about common sense
Yes it is about slowing down and taking it easier than you normally would unless of course the winds are hurricane force which is very very rare.
peedee
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Would the CC want to give out detailed information on cancelations to its competitors. Particularly the large one that currently charges deposits.
Why do you see this as commercial information Steve? Anyone can get a pretty good idea by checking the late availability figures.
I suspect it is not really a problem in fine weather but otherwise it is open to abuse if the forecast is not that good. Yes it is nice to have good weather but some of use are not that fussy.
peedee
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With 60 mph winds forecast we would have cancelled.It's far too scary for me to be towing in high winds.
Exactly, and other circumstances can arise which mean you need to cancel at very short notice. It most other areas of life this may well involve loss of deposit, or even the entire cost. If so you just have to take-it-on-the-chin, but there are no further consequences. It appears that with CC there is no such option, and ANY cancellation/no show results in 'black marks' and ultimately possible sanctions, however willing a member might be to honour paying.
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yes but then there would be more no shows and poeple wanting to a pitch lose out?
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CC members have different circumstances. 20 years ago in kids SUmmer hols I would book the Saturdays on a tour and maybe the Fridays. 15 years ago I would say to present partner (who was not working at the time) on a Tuesday 'do you fancy a week away' and
we would book 2 sites for 9 days perhaps. These days we go away for between 4.5 and 7 weeks and so no point in cancelling if the weather is wet on the first stop. When I was working and had children, say 25 years ago, although there was a deposit system in
place we would often book after work on a wednesday break. Deposits were often waived as the sites were not full and a posted cheque qould not arrive before we did.0 -
Ian
I did provide an insight into why, in terms of cost, the Club might not want to go down the route of taking deposits on page six but that now has an error. There would be disadvantages in terms of extra costs but I suspect your first comment in the post above is a pretty powerful argument in favour of no deposits. You might wish to visit the C&CC forum to see that the way that Club runs their booking system is far from universally popular!
David
David,
Sorry, I didn't see page 6 so I don't know what you said there.
So I still don't see how taking part of the site fee in advance could actually cost tbe CC anything.....quite the reverse, in fact.
Regarding your latter point, I don't doubt tbat there are some C&CC members that don't like the idea of deposits (several similar views have been expressed on here). No doubt that is because some people want to have the ability to book, even though they aren't really sure that they will take up the booking. They do not like to commit, if it might cost them something to do so.
I find this a rather selfish attitude personally, but that's just my view.
It would not benefit me in tbe slightest to have deposits. We tend to book early to get the few bookings that we want and anyway, we rely less and less on CC sites for our breaks. My comments are based more on what is good business sense (and the CC is most certainly a commercial business these days) and not on how deposits would affect me personally.
But others only consider what is best for them. Their perogative, of course.
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Ian
Forgive me but your comments don't make business sense because you have not once mentioned the likely costs and possible long term damage that would have to be part of any business plan to support introducing deposits.
It would not be a cost free option. There would be extra transaction costs because each booking would become two transactions. Whilst I accept that each extra charge could be quite small given the hundreds of thousands of bookings the Club handle during
the year it could be a substantual amount of money. The point of sales systems would have to be changed and staff trained in the operation of the new system, so not a cost free option. In preparing a business plan you would also have to take into account the
possible detrimental affect that deposits might have on members booking habits. The risks might be that the Club would not be able to maintain occupancy levels if people leave booking to the last minute and them have second thoughts about booking at all.0 -
David - The booking system is already capable of taking deposits......they do it for ferry bookings etc. So no extra cost there.
The staff wouldn't need extra training, because the booking system would deal with the change. Anyway, the staff are all employed, so any extra training (unlikely) would just be done during their normal working hours (I did plenty of training and carried out lots of training of other staff and it cost tbe business nothing extra).
On your latter point, if the CC were going out on a limb and were the only business to experiment with deposits, then it might cost them some business (at least initially). But the fact is that they would only be doing what virtually all their competitors are already doing. So customers cannot avoid deposits by going elsewhere.
I doubt that many people will leave booking to the last minute generally. It will only be the 'speculative' bookers (those most likely to cancel at the last minute) who would hesitate to book.
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We have had to cancel on rare occasions, due to family illness, never due to the weather and never within the 72 hour limit. I don't think that deposits are the way foward. I think the present system seems to work. Even with deposits some members would
still cancel, but if loosing a deposit anyway they are unlikely to give any notice, meaning little chance of re-letting the pitch, so more empty pitches.0 -
I appreciate deposits might have a few initial one off costs and two transaction costs but given the number of bookings the total cost would be very little per booking. The two booking costs though should be easily covered by the improvement in cash flow
with many deposits being held for months.0
