Book of French Aires - Not Updated
Comments
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Just back from an extended tour of some of Europe. Spent quite a lot of time in France using aires and the aires book. Not impressed with the 2016 book. So many of the stops have not been inspected for at least four years and many are out of date. IMO
the book is becoming a waste of money and is certainly not worth replacing every year. Has this been your findings and does it apply to their other offerings?...It might help with the publication name?
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We used the Vicarious book for the first few years of visiting France and it was a great help but unfortunately, as it's only printed yearly, it soon gets out of date.
We've used CamperContact on our tablet for the last two years and with its up-to-date reviews and more Aires available it has, from our point of view, left the book far behind in usefulness.
As you say many were inspected years ago and are not relevant now - some have closed, many have been upgraded and new ones open – but for a first time traveller they probably still come in useful.
We still carry a battered copy of the book with us but it's pages are turned less and less year by year.
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i assume its 'all the aires' from Vicarious Books?
we have the 2015 version (2 volumes) and did use a few last year, however i generally use my satnav and just find whatever is in the location....
the thing is, the VB version is only a very small subset of the complete 'set' provided by campingcar-infos.com (loaded to my tomtom) BUT the advantage (should be) that these have been inspected and recommended...
personal recommendations on some of the forums are also a useful barometer.
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Am I right in my understanding that the All Aires Book is compiled and updated by the couple that run Vicarious Books. Given the number of Aires in the book I would have thought it an impossible task to update every Aire on a regular basis. I don't know what method they use to update. Do they for instance ask readers to provide updates? Might be worth a quick e-mail direct to them?
David
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They own their own camper van and go off for several weeks each year inspecting as many of them as they possible can. also there is info inthe books for you to report any thing you come across with a form to fill in. They are a hands on couple running their
buisness with a couple of employees. I also believe they have touring people reporting back to them on a regular basis.0 -
I get the feeling that the business has grown but the data input has not. Their customers have a right to expect better. A few people cannot cover such a large area in just a few week.
DD
To my knowledge the people concerned are not members here so you are unlikely to get an answer or explanation. Far better as I suggested to contact them direct.and then perhaps share their response with us ?
David
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I think lots of organisations are not good at keeping their information up to date. There is a huge amount of work involved in starting a guide, and many organisations don't realise the amount of work involved in checking details regularly and keeping things up to date.
I know keeping 'Archie's Camping' information up to date could be a full time job for several people, and if organisations, or individuals (such as 'Archie'), don't get enough feedback from 'customers' who use a product, then everything has to be checked.
It takes an enormous amount of time, because there are so many details - website, phone number, opening dates (tend to change every year), facilities, number of pitches, photographs, and so many other things, and most people don't realise these all need checking before any republication.
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I can't believe that any large general site guide would ever be completely up to date.
3000 aires would take 1 inspector about 10 years to visit all....logically with 10 full time inspectors inspections would be over 1 year plus publishing date delays!
It's a fair complaint, I've been let down by Bord Atlas a few times, but the next aire/stellplatz is probably very close, so it's not the end of the world!
Here's hoping the publishers will achieve the impossible!
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The CamperContact site has reviews of sites posted almost by the minute, a least 30 added today already, and book producers obviously cannot keep their products up to that level of helpful information.
What they do provide is a basic guide to Aires that is useful to those do not have access to electronic devices – which is no bad thing!
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