Booking Fees for the Honeypots
Comments
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Yes, On the 7th of December. Opens at 8am. Can be slow until around 8.30/8.45 as the system is set to give all booking then a fair crack of the whip. I booked 17 sites on the day and hope to use each on my travels. Can book as far as 3rd January following year I think. You are able to book from 3rd January until April (I think) probably around September
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The so called honeypot sites are obviously priced too low.
Easy answer is to double the price on those sites for a trial period of a couple of months and then gradually reduce the prices till a break even point is reached in availability.
Problem solved, A win win situation all round.
Cheers..................K
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What do they say about competition to get a honeypot site on Booking day.
You've got to be in it to win it. Actually I cannot think of any honeypot site that I would wish to use. Mind, I am not aware of all of them perhaps. I can think of Chatsworth and the one in York. Neither would I wish to use.
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I see that this issue features in this months magazine with the Club saying they don't know what the answer is and inviting suggestions. Since a number have been proposed on here in the past, they clearly have no intention of listening to the membership despite their assurances that they do.
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I think the simple answer is that there isn't one. The demand for these sites is far higher than the room available. The only way of cutting it down is to increase the site fees to the point that mo st people go elsewhere but that would be even more unpopular than the current system.
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I've managed to get on this site regularly by contacting the site direct closer to the time I'm wanting to go. This method has worked without fail. I do join in the booking frenzy as I teach and my holidays are dictated, but even then I can't always get on a specific site, but have used the method above with a lot of the fully booked sites. Namely Rowntree, Baltic wharf and Chatsworth. These can be weekend as well as peak holidays.
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I had a long chat with their facebook reps. So clearly my feedback *hasn't* been passed on at all, despite being told it would be.
One solution is to simply allow people to book X number of months ahead, and have each day open up at midnight.
Then there's no longer a single "booking day", where you're totally screwed if you can't be on the phone/web that day. And if you miss out for your preferred dates, you can try again the day/week after.
It would also make life MILES easier for CC staff too - I'm sure they wouldn't miss getting rid of "crazy day".
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I never understand how this solution would work.
If I want to book a 5 day stay at a site in X-months time would I have to sign on and book one day at a time for five days in a row?
If I didn't but waited until day 5 I may well find the first 4 are all fully booked.
Sounds just as bad to me.
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Or wouldn't be able to pony up 10% for every trip in advance.
That's the other issue with the current system, you can book without paying. Make people pay at the point of booking, even if there is a full refund on cancellation.
Then the number of advanced bookings would drop massively, making it more accessible to all.0 -
Well, I'll very shortly be joining the queue of non members. The way the caravan club works basically sticks its fingers up at people who work.
I barely used a CC site last year - could never get in where we wanted to go as it was all booked up 6 months in advanced.
It shouldn't be ran as a club for the "in crowd", it should be equally beneficial for all members.
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Talk about throwing a hurdle up for the sake of it.
Ok then, open up a week at a time, or a fortnight at a time - or allow any continuous booking as long as it starts on the day that you open the system. i.e. give it some decent thought, propose it to the membership, then if it is agreed, run a pilot test at a limited number of sites to iron out any unexpected issues.
Seems like you just want to rubbish any other idea because it threatens the system that favours you today.
But nobody would be that selfish, right?
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As far as I can see what you propose is something that suits you better, not something that is necessarily fairer for all. You are never going to please all the people all of the time. Even when we worked we managed to sort things out and secured the bookings we wanted. Yes occasionally there would have to be compromises but that is just life. In my opinion the majority who moan that they can't get this that and the other, are simply not prepared to try.
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Petertr, the CC treats us all the same. We are all equal. Can you not see that it is your personal circumstances which are causing you a problem?
What you want CC to do is to change the system to suit you at this time. When your circumstances change, as they surely will one day, will you want CC to again change to something that suits you better?
Have you tried booking earlier?
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Outside school hols there are normally pitches available. However at school holiday tomes these are more limited and advance booking becomes necessary - same for everybody.
If you want time during August school holidays at a particular site then now is not too early to book
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Peter- we've all been there in the past - even us retired old fogeys worked at one time. But instead of throwing in the towel we worked round the system, and, yes, if that meant not getting our first choice of CC sites we'd look for an alternative.
But there are a lot of willing helpers on here; if you could give us some idea of where and when you want to go (but apparently are unable to at the moment) I bet we could come up with any number of alternative suggestions for you. Seems a bit "cutting off your nose to spite your face" if you're leaving the club simply because you can't get one particular booking.
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Even the drip feed of say a week or two or even a month does not work if you want to book from one period into the next. Basically you would have to book as far as the system would let you go and then hope you could then get the rest of the booking when the next period was released. The shorter you make the period between releases the worse the problem becomes.
As an example if the release period was a month and you wanted the last week in July and the first in August you would book the first week in July and then have to hope you beat the rest to the August dates.
There is simply no answer to this problem that will suit everyone or possibly even the majority.
Maybe if there is a problem with people booking several weekends on the first day, that day could be limited to one booking per site on the first day and then the free for all on the next.
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one more pitch 
