Weekend Bookings
I know this is nothing new, but it is so infuriating that sites are fully booked on Fri/Sat nights and the rest of the week free. Chatsworth Park is a classic example and looking through the calendars, this applies to much of the year.
I was hoping to book a week in September/October but this is now not an option.
When is the Club going to wake up and realise that allocating a percentage of bookings to "longer stays" will generate more income.
Not sure that the membership is value for money nowadays.
Comments
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It's close to big conurbations, tourer owners who can only get away weekends will make the most of things, arrive late after work Friday stay until Sunday. Also September in particular is a very busy tourer month, children back at school, so those who can take a late holiday. June is similar, just prior to holidays. You just have to get organised I am afraid to get exactly the dates you want in busy times, and book very early. There are events on in September as well that make it extra busy. Keep checking dates, you might get lucky closer to time you want.
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Mike, you need to book earlier. We all have the same opportunity.
When your described scenario happens to me I think good luck to those who only have weekends and I look for somewhere else. I consider it my shortsightedness for not getting my act together earlier.
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Mike
I don't think the Club will go down that route. However may I suggest a possible solution to your problem. You obviously have the dates when you want to be there so look at the availability and book what you can. Then just go back to the website from time to time to see if there has been any change to availability and adjust booking as the opportunity arises. I have done this a couple of times and it has worked for me. No guarantees of course but it might we worth a try.
David
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+1, why should those who work be penalised by you not booking earlier?
Also not sure that this would increase income? Sites are empty midweek as most people work during the week not because of weekend booking. As the club said recently:
members will naturally want to book weekend stays as the majority work and and to get away fro the weekend
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I can see this is a problem if you want a longer stay, but is Sunday to Friday, 5 nights , not enough? You do not need to work in full weeks.
We do long tours, at least 4 weeks, often far more, we try to arrive on a Thursday or a Sunday if it is a busy site.
Most of our stays are 5 nights or less.
If we want longer, and it is a popular site, we make sure to book on "frenzy day".
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Just had a quick look and full weeks are available on a standard non awning pitch for the last two weeks in September and all of October. Or on a non awning super pitch from October 15th. If you need an awning pitch 5 / 6 days are available for most weeks in September and October, and as DK stated there is always the possibility of picking up additional days.
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I have rejected booking some sites -AS and commercial because at the times I wish to use them they have a minimum 7 nights booking. On any CC site there will be a tendency for Fri/Sat nights to be booked up. It has been the case at certain times of the year for a while. Would I like to see minimum booking periods? Not at all. Would I like to see a minimum 7 days for a third of bookings? No - it is no more savoury than having a minimum 3 nights booking period which might also alleviate the 'problem'.
If we had minimum 47 nights stay we could doubtless eliminate the problems of weekend bookings. No way!!
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As Mike says there are several weeks free on the hardstanding pitches so could you perhaps book a grass pitch for in the week and hardstanding at the weekend if you particularly want grass. Then as David says in the meantime check every week to see if a grass pitch has become free.
We once wanted three weeks at Black Knowl and none of the weekends were free nor certain odd days in the week. I started off in February booking what was free and by May had got my three weeks in July in about eight separate bookings. The girl at the CC said she had never seen such a mess when I asked her to sort it out into one booking.
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I do book early, but only for the last 7 years. The reason I started doing that is that on a tour of say 7 sites there might be one that I could not get my dates on. Usually got round it by altering my direction of travel and instead of sites A,B,C,D,E rebooking in reverse order as E,D,C,B,A.
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You just have to get organised I am afraid to get exactly the dates you want in busy times, and book very early
That's what I would love to do but still awaiting the long overdue handbook.
Please dont mention that I can do it on line, I know that. The handbook is my bible, part of my membership fee and like the argument between, Kindle or book, I prefer the book. It is always there and always works.
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so how many do as I do
I would imagine (as the OP said the sites are full) all the people that can't get a pitch on club sites for whatever reason. But as the club sites are full anyway your money can't be any loss to the club?
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When we were working with a young family in toe weekends were crucial. Now retired with just the two of us we can to a degree choose our time away. What tends to happen is that folk prefer what suits them at that moment in life and that becomes the cornerstone of their reasons for preferring one system over another. Maybe with the possibility of taking the grandchildren away at weekends may become important for us once more. But no, keep as is for me, with no restrictions on the number of nights booked. We just need to get our act together and enjoy that extra and privelidged flexibility that retirement offers us and allow the workers amongst the chance of weekends just as we did then!
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Like you Harryb, we still use our handbook, and find it a tad frustrating that it is so late this year. However, we use ours for the CLs. The Chatsworth Club Site number is practically embedded in the dna of most members it is so popular, besides, even if they don't know it, it will be shining brightly on possibly the most dog eared page of the old handbook, so that's no excuse.
You can have the website, you can have the handbook, but you also need the element of being organised, and if that is not as urgent, then others with more motivation will get in there and beat you to it!
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What is the "big" problem because the Directory is late this year ,the phone numbers of the sites concerned will not have changed ,the information about each site will not have changed,the opening dates may have changed a bit,but the info is always available,on the website,
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A couple of years ago when my mum was in hospital, we had to cancel a lot of our bookings and rebook closer to where she lived. Once she was sorted out we were into September, and as Chatsworth is close to us we looked at calling in there for a break on the way home. Initially we could only book 3 days, arriving Sunday. I then managed to extend that to 4 and then 5. If we had wanted we could have extended over the weekend as there was a cancellation. However, as I put earlier Chatsworth currently has much more availability than that. So I would get something booked, if I was you.
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The "big" problem is because the CL search is appallingly bad, you get different results each time you search! Don't care a hoot about the Club Sites, those that are still open will still be there, unchanged numbers most likely, and that bit of the website isn't too bad. It's the CL element, take a look on the CL section here and you will read how bad it is and how frustrated CL owners are and how badly they are being let down.
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There is no right answer to this one. You have a choice of either prejudicing those wanting longer stays or those wanting weekends and you cannot satisfy both. If a site is not getting booked up during the week then a midweek discount should help attract people but as it stands you can only satisfy a minority whatever you do.
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As has been stated many times before, a lot of those blocking the weekends are also stopping for the week. We almost always do Sunday to Sunday, so it includes one weekend. Talking with folk and just generally observing, this would apply to quiet a few at Chatsworth.They have managed to plan ahead to secure their full week. I do not think that effectively setting aside a number of pitches, that could only be booked for full weeks, would be in the spirit of the CC's first come first served. As others have stated a lot of commercials do operate this policy, only releasing short stays closer to the date. So the OP must decide wether the restrictive practices😉 of the CC are his cup of tea and worth the membership. Personally I find other savings more than cover it, even if we never used a CC site or CL.
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Hi Mike
Yes welcome to the CC way of doing things, basically what you are suggesting is the way the Camping and Caravanning Club do their bookings.Some of their more popular sites require minimum 3 and some 5 nights bookings.
And yet if you read their forums, members who require to book one night complain that they cannot do it.
What I would suggest make a note of the advanced booking day (normally around 8th December) and just go for your bookings and plan in advance.
The days of "hitch up and go" are in the past now.
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