D Day approaching
Comments
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Although I'd personally welcome more midweek discounts, I can't see how it would do much to solve the problem of fully booked weekends on it's own. It would just make me think "oh good, I can afford to stay for an example couple of nights anyway. "
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What it might do it change the demograph from retired members who could actually go more or less anytime to working members who might be able to book nearer the actual weekend they want to go. So if i knew I had some time owing to me I could decide to go somewhere and hopefully find a pitch which can be difficult to do certainly at the sites that are close to me.
I believe a combination of deposits, a maximum number of nights booked at any one time and more mid week discounts could well alleviate the "blocked" weekend problem.
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I think the biggest problem with frenzy day is the lack of pitches available, surely if so many get booked up at weekends then that should be a big red flag to the club that they need to increase the pitches available, for the last few years the honey pot sites just seem unable to cope with the volume of members. Increased pitches, new sites or improved sites would maybe help move the honey pot sites
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I'm a working member but I don't feel any great need to change a system to suit me. I've never failed to get something using late availiability including Chatsworth at August bank holiday weekend.
Bringing in deposits and limiting the number of nights you can book wouldn't guarantee that you'd find a pitch when you fancied travelling. People will still book before you and you'd be less likely to find anything through late availability.
Why shouldn't retired members use sites at weekends? If they are there as part of a longer stay are they expected to leave the site to make room for others?
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It certainly should Hakinbush.
And JayEss, I'm not saying retired members should leave the site at all. Any member can use any site. Frenzy day, however, disadvantages working members who aren't able to log on for 8am and, as is evident from this thread, some members tour for 8 to 10 weeks at a time. They're obviously retired and have an advantage in being to book all their sites at once.
So I get home on Wednesday and login to find that some sites are fully booked for weekends all through next year. If deposits were asked for and if a maximum number of booked nights was in place then working members might stand a chance. Likewise offering more midweek discounts to attract people who can holiday during the week I believe would increase the overall figure of nights used at a lot of club sites.
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As a retired member who tours the UK do you seriously believe that I would go away for 5 days and go back home?
It's an awful long drive from Chester to John O' Groats for a 5 night stop just to drive home again. I thought many of us retired folk did our bit by avoiding school hols. Now you want us to stay within 200 miles of home. You were joking I hope!!3 -
There will never be a fair system all the time demand is more than pitch's available , it's the same with gig tickets ,it doesn't matter what time of day they sell them there will always be people who loose out .
Members are allowed to look outside the CC sites and book elsewhere
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So I get home on Wednesday and login to find that some sites are fully booked for weekends all through next year. If deposits were asked for and if a maximum number of booked nights was in place then working members might stand a chance. Likewise offering more midweek discounts to attract people who can holiday during the week I believe would increase the overall figure of nights used at a lot of club sites.
No what you do is the same as many. If you want to book a site when you return from work (if nobody else is able to do it for you) is book sites that you want. I never found it to be a problem. An odd site may be booked for the weekend you want. Not many however get booked quickly.
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Frenzy day, however, disadvantages working members who aren't able to log on for 8am
I thought that the opposite was the case with people at work getting all their mates to log-on for them so that once a booking was completed there was another log-on immediately available to make the next one.
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W/end booking is not as bad as some try to make out it is,we have so far this year done over 145 nights away on cc sites and must say that the Friday mass arrivals has not been noticed by us on any site,on a couple of big sites we have noticed more arrivals but nothing like some would think as stopping others wanting longer periods
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JVB, you dont need a mass arrival to have fully booked weekends....they may be booked by those already on site
Nav, i wonder how many working folk have 'mates with logins' allowing them to get the prize weekend sites?
surely, if they have logins, then they are members and, rather than giving up 'frenzy slots' to others, they would be booking the prime sites for themselves?
ive read some interesting takes on frenzy day 'scenarios' but, im afraid, Nav, this one is the most unlikely ive seen....
great imagination, though
i think id rather side with Mbee's 'version'....
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sorry, i was just trying to help you understand why you havent seen 'mass arrivals' at the weekends...
the 'complaint' as you describe it, is that folk cant get weekend pitches, which might be for any number of reasons...the bottom line being that 'they are already booked'......but as i said, not necessarily from folk arriving on a Friday.
this ties back in to Mbee's point about the (non) ability of some to be at the starting line at the same time as some others....
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this ties back in to Mbee's point about the (non) ability of some to be at the starting line at the same time as some others....
As I have said before I wish that they would start on a Sunday and earlier in the day (say 6am). Pay staff double time - a drop in the ocean. Sure some would not be able to take part but they would be fewer. Doubt that I would be there at 6am but then I don't want the likes of Rowntree, York.
Not sure that many sites get booked up for weekends on day one. In fact few do.
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I do agree about more midweek discounts.
However I'm also a working member who doesn't always take time off to be at my PC at 8am and may only find there's an opportunity to get a weekend break a few days before. I don't expect there to be a pitch available within 50 miles but very often there is one.
I don't really mind what the system is but your suggestion would put me off this club completely. Deposits are one thing, deposits plus limits on numbers of bookings would make me laugh as I cancelled my direct debit.
The club is only interested in maximising units on pitches and I'd guess that retired members make far more use of sites than working members. So I doubt there will be significant change. One thing is for sure - if one group is advantaged then another will be disadvantaged and the club will know more about the financial implications than any of us.
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I would think as most of the posters seem to understand is that most w/ends are booked up as part of longer stays, which could be up to three w/ends of a two week holiday when arriving on the Sat of the first week leaving on the Sat/Sun at the end of the second week,or in our case when useing sites in Devon would be four w/ends for a 21 night stay
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Whilst your statement applies to many sites and certainly in the school holiday periods, I don't believe it applies to the honey pots and other popular sites. At sites like Chatsworth and Baltic Wharf there is definitely a large exodus on both Friday and Sunday as the weekend folk arrive and depart. Amongst those there will be those who have stopped a week, like us, but they are a minority at these sites. Same thing happens at Clumber, often 70 or more arrivals on a Friday, even more departures on a Sunday.
Not that I am objecting to this of course. Just relating what happens.
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or as I do - have three different logins
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would cover most members who are working and give them a head start.
Buy why should any member be a given a head start? or any sort of advantage just because of their particular situation whatever it may be? We all pay the same membership fee.
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But then Chatsworth and Baltic Wharf are full most of the time,we were at Baltic last year for the Christmas market and it was "full"with only three arrivals for the w/end ,Clumber Park even when we were next to you, as Ferry Meadows have always been w/end sites and unless there is anything on locally have normally got spaces
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I would imagine most members have more than one internet connection device , I've used two tablets on eBay after a particular item both pre loaded with different bid amounts , I'm sure the club's web site doesn't allow more than one device using the same log on details getting access to the booking pages.
Ultimately we all have the same chance to get our first choices .👍
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Except those who work at weekends....
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