Service Pitches
Dear Caravan Club,
We have been enjoying my retirement by spending many extended stays on club sites, usually the bigger ones. While this has been most enjoyable, we have noticed something that is a cause of irritation to both us and many other members that we have spoken with on the subject. This is the usual inability to obtain a service pitch on site. Although we book most of our stays via the online facility, (in the main many months in advance) which we find most convenient, we never seem to be able to obtain a service pitch. We have just returned from a 21-night stay at Hunters Moon, from 26-12-16 to 16-01-17. We did try and book a service pitch way back June 2016, but with no luck. So, we settled for a standard pitch. Imagine our surprise, when by the 3-01-17, 98% of the service pitches had been vacated, and they remained empty all bar the odd member popping on for the odd night until we departed the site on the 16th of January. In the case of Hunters Moon, every service pitch has already been booked out for the 2017 Christmas Break, this before the 5th of January. (we know this as we have already booked our stay for the 2017 Christmas break with the warden whilst on site) Now we fully accept that each member has the right to book the nights that they desire. However, it is quite clear that the present system is being grossly unfair to a great number of members whose desire to have an extended stay on such a pitch, but can never get one. It appears that the club are more than willing to allow these premium pitches to be booked out for very short periods, at a severe cost to both other members and more importantly, club finances. Surely a more logical approach should be adopted? Why does the club not restrict the booking of such pitches to say 30% of short term stays, 30% for one to two week stays and the remaining 30% for those wishing to use the 21-night maximum stay? The club could, if this is not found to be a workable proposition, greatly increase the number of service pitches on each site, this would alleviate some of the problem. But if the present system stays in place, then it’s quite clear that an even greater number of service pitches would perhaps sit idle, costing all concerned both money and inconvenience. Many feel, that with some constraints put in place, the club will have a greater number of contented members, while enjoying a greater revenue stream. With all this new found extra income, perhaps the club would put in place some dog washing facilities on each site, hot and cold water please!
Tony Gardham
Moderator Comment
This has been moved from the story section as its unlikely to reach the intended audience in that place. As an individual complaint it should have perhaps been sent direct to the Club via post or e-mail to the Sites Department.
Comments
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Perhaps this is a good reason to introduce the taking of a 25% deposit on all site bookings as the CCC do and preferable make them non-refundable at that.
The present system is reminiscent of the German habit of placing booking towels on poolside sun-loungers.
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could you not have moved to a serviced pitch on 3/01 when they all became free? you would still have had two weeks benefit?
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I am not sure what take up the club would get on the 30% reserved for 2 weeks and 30% for 3 weeks. We tend to stop everywhere for a week, very rarely two and our perception is that we are a small minority. The only time we have stopped for the maximum, was when we were visiting my mum in hospital and we could not book that in advance. Where ever possible we book a service pitch and have never had a problem getting one if we book well in advance. True we have never tried to book a site over Christmas / New Year, these are very popular times at most sites. The only real way to try and ensure your requirement at these times is to book on frenzy day in December. Personally I would not like to see the club go down this route, it is what makes it different. Several commercials that we have used insist on filling whole weeks first, and will only let odd days nearer to the time, so there is always that option.
As a for instance, you can still get a service pitch at Grafham Water for any three weeks in July and August, as long as it's not the one that includes the BH weekend. For that you would probably have had to book in December.
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in my experience, many commercials have far more serviced pitches (percentage wise) than CC....
the ones we regularly use have their own taps, or at the very least, a tap shared among two to four pitches.....
with the taps in such close proximity, you dont really need to have full 'serviced pitches' as, by default, theyre all serviced....
ok, it will then be the removal of grey water that becomes the issue on those pitches without drains, but certainly many MH waste tanks are pretty large these days and should last many days, while caravanners seem happy to use wastemasters, halving the amount of water moving duties.
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yes, we can stay put for many days...
my point was that many sites have taps but not drains, so fresh water can be topped up as and when, with grey being dumped only when necessary...
i would be bothering to stand at the mhsp filling with fresh water if there was a tap on the pitch...
yes, pull the grey dump lever and wait a minute or two, but unneccasy to do both operations at the SPoint and hog it when not needed...
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If you look at booking for the Christmas period the service pitches (which are limited) always book up first. So the answer is to book up as early as possible. I see the OP booked in June for December but I expect many get booked up when the booking day opens or soon afterwards. It might also be possible that some had been on a long stay through Christmas and the New Year as the OP arrived on Dec 26th.
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I wonder if the OP realised that the CC have two opening booking dates - I can't remember exactly when dates for the later part of January (well after 3rd is it? BB will know.) are released. But if they'd tried booking then they might well have found service pitches available for the latter part of their stay at least and possibly also available for earlier.
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Some interesting comments. However, in my experience many of us who stay on sites during this festive period do so only for a few nights during the 12 'official' days of Christmas and very few indeed in my experience do so for more than a week. The system at present allows those who can only make a few of these days to book their holiday and they may well make up what is the majority of nights sold during this period. I'm not sure at all that the suggestion would work and could in fact be counter productive as far as the total number of pitches occupied during those 12 nights. Keep as is for me, I've always managed to book those days I wanted even if it meant, on that odd occasion, checking and checking again as the period advances towards us and modifying our booking as needed.
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I would think it is a combination of high demand at that time of year, not booking as soon as booking opened, and not realising that bookings beyond 3rd January are not yet available.
A quick look shows that only the 30th and 31st December are fully booked for serviced pitches at H M at the moment.
We too would have asked to move to a vacant serviced pitch part way through the stay, if a serviced pitch was what we really wanted, but we do not use an awning, we only have a Fiamma Canopy, so moving is easy.
When we arrive at a site where there are serviced pitches, if we want one we always ask if there has been a last minute cancellation.
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M and Brue, youre both right, its much later in the year....may even be into the autumn....we've been caught twice, must be the only CC members who want to take a New Year break beyond 3rd Jan....
...apart from the OP...
yes, this club 'anomaly' might in fact help the OP with the dates beyond New Year....
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Firstly like BB why didn't you move to a service pitch when they were vacant. Also did you ask the wardens why so many were vacant?
I am a service pitch user as well and they do go very quickly and this is compounded by the fact that there are only a few of them compared to other types. Your system would lead to even more loss of income, the short stays and medium stays are full, but the longer stay pitches are empty? I can't book them as I only want to stay a few days?
I think you are trying to change the way the current system works to suit you as a long stay user at the expense of others who don't have that luxury. Getting a service pitch is all down to booking early, its first come first served in booking I'm afraid
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Some good points from Corners there.
My personal preference would have been to stay at Birchfields which is almost opposite Hunters Moon. In my opinion it's a better site and has more serviced pitches.
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If possible we always book a service pitch if they're available and we don't always get one. I always ring the site to see if any become available and sometimes we're lucky sometimes we're not.
It's more annoying when you're told you can't have one because they're all booked up to the extent that there still aren't any when you check in but, in reality, due to no shows you find when on site you could have had one!
Even more annoying are the units that have one but then don't use them by not connecting to the water or waste!!
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That's their choice whether to fully utilise the service or not, Mbee. If they've paid for the pitch they can use the services to whatever extent they like. We've discussed this before.
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Your second paragraph applies equally to non service pitches as well. It's just more noticeable because of the fewer service pitches which on most sites number about 10. You couldn't really have had one as it was booked. Also you don't know it was a no show, it could have been someone leaving early.
I'm sorry but I cannot agree your last paragraph at all. They have paid for their service pitch and what they do with it is up to them. Do you feel annoyed about people not using the EHU on other pitches? Or non awning on awning pitches?
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No I don't because there are so few non electric pitches on Club sites. I appreciate members pay extra for a service pitch but I just don't understand why pay extra and not use them when I want to pay extra but can't use them because I can't get one!
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They probably do use them but not in the intended way. Neither you nor I can know for sure.
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Well I can say why we were on a service pitch but didn't use the facilities by pluming in. The reason was quite simple, it was the only available pitch, we would normally not use a service pitch as we don't need one and being a tight wad wouldn't pay the extra for one. However we wanted to go to the site and was on a waiting list for a cancellation, which just happened to be a serviced pitch. We did notice however that not many of the service pitches were connected due I would imagine to the sub zero temperatures. Which when you think about it, it could happen over the Christmas New Year holiday, imagine paying all that money and not being able to use the water tap and drain because they were frozen
Back to the OP, no I wouldn't like to see the club take up your suggestion, I know I don't use them but I don't think this would favor the majority of users, there cannot be many members that stay on one site for 21 days, most seem to move every 5-6 days or stay put for a week, 2 weeks when taking their main holidays in the summer usually with families in tow.
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I don't believe it........ Victor , I thought cost would have to be mentioned somehow 🙈🙉🙊
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I don't understand how you can't get one. I use them every time we go away, and that has been at all times of the year. You just have to get in early to book. They go very quickly. Hopefully more and more will be installed in the future. If you like the lakes Troutbeck head as 30+ but gain at bank holidays they all go, but at least you can book a little later.
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+1
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Ian, would you still be charged even if the 'service' pitch was unserviceable?
£3.90 a day (or whatever it is now) is plenty even when its working, surely the club wouldnt/couldnt charge a customer for a service that wasnt being delivered?
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I see far fewer long stay caravanners then those staying for less than a week.
The present system is fair.
I for one do not wish to have to pay for a serviced pitch and so have no great desire to see a great increase in their provision as I do not consider that, for me, they have sufficient value to justify the price increase.
That they are fully booked during the New Year period is certainly no surprise.
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