New Year’s Eve
I wasn’t going to bother going away this new year but was in the pub yesterday and saw that there were pitches still available even at so called honey pot sites, I had choice of Chatsworth or York Beechwood grange. Chose york due to risk of snow in the Peak District so easier to travel to york on Friday. Will be a nice chilled time and will treat our selves to the marks and Spencer’s New Year’s Eve meal deal..
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Best of luck with that, me thinks stay in the pub😀🍷
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Hope you have a great time. I've not stayed on a club site over New Year but have heard that people come out if the vans and wait together? Not sure how first footing works though?
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There have been several pitches available since Christmas under "Late Availability". These are on sites that were showing full a few weeks ago. This just goes to prove beyond doubt that the early booking system with no deposit is being abused. The three main sites in the Cotswolds were all showing availability for New Year earlier in the week.
If the club won't introduce deposits how about a balance due by date. That would sort out the abusers
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Unfortunately quite a few cancellations will be from people like us who have become ill over Christmas with a variety of "bugs." We'll be missing our usual New Year break, have done lots over the years on different sites. Hillhead was great with friends, a big social event, lots of food and dancing and a firework finale.
Hope all away have a good time.
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Not beyond doubt to me at all, You can't base a proof on one event or just on one year. There are no abusers simply people who follow the rules as they are now, how can that be abuse? Everyone is subject to the same rules and therefore is no abuse as you call it.
You joined the club accept it's rules and procedures willingly didn't you? If you don't like the way these rules are then don't join or rejoin.
Also what makes you think that deposits will change anything at this time of year?
You say yourself they were full a few weeks ago, so even with a deposit system people will still cancel within the 72 hours rule. I suppose you could say this period should be extended, to what? a week? still cancel, two weeks still cancel, you get the idea. Unless you are suggesting a non returnable deposit? A bit OTT in my view.
Remember when the club had deposits there were more no shows, now at least people cancel within the rules and tell the club so that people like the OP can get a pitch. Win win
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I'm not surprised at all that there would be a few cancellations at Cirencester, Broadway or Moreton in Marsh, given weather conditions and police advice regarding travelling over the past few days. Add in illness and you have your reason for pitches becoming available. Nothing to do with abusing the system, more a combination of bad luck (illness) and common sense (travel), surely?
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The system is there to be used or abused which ever hat you wear, I will continue to work within the rules.. and if everybody did the rules would be changed😉😉
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Yes+1
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We left Southport CC site today. Earlier this week it was showing 1 vacancy over the coming weekend. Now showing 3. Personalty I think that is very good. There is always a lot of illness about at this time of year and difficult local weather conditions.
Last December we went away to Southport and I was on an inhaler and antibiotics for a chest infection and bad cold. We were however away for 15 nights as we were this year. It is only 70 mins drive and as I was fit enough to drive decided I might as well recuperate in the caravan as at home. Had we been away for 5 nights it would have been a different decision. After a few nights I was more able. At this time of year, and if paying £35 a night anybody intending to be away for a shorter break would possibly have stayed home.
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My son took ill whilst driving last week , he has been diagnosed with a brain blood clot. We have had to change our plans numerous times whilst we travelled up to Yorkshire as his condition changed. The booking system has proved invaluable as have the wardens who have helped me. Not all cancellations are abusers.
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Firstly just let me say that my reply seems to have come across as contentious to some. That was not my intention; none of my posts are like that.
Maybe the word abusers was a bad choice and it is perhaps that which has caused the post to be read in the wrong context.
Every year in December when the new bookings go live there is a plethora of posts about the booking system and what members view as its shortcomings. My reply was intended to refresh the thoughts of many members on views of the booking system. Sites showing full, not just at present, but over many weekends throughout the year when nothing is available but suddenly becomes so just a few days before cause much annoyance to those who would like to book but see no availability for their particular date.
These replies are posted out of frustration and rightly so. Talking to wardens backs up my thoughts and they tell me that it is not just members who get frustrated but they do too, knowing that the system needs redressing because it is undesirable and unfair.
It had nothing to do with rules and was certainly not a slur on anyone who has become ill. That was not how my reply was intended.
I wish you all a very Happy New Year
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We got to Cirencester a week ago and the site was almost empty with less than 50 vans. It started to fill up yesterday and today my goodness it is busy. Some bollards were put out of action it appears with people running heaters in awnings and I'm not sure if that's the reason for some pitches being sealed off with cones.
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Harry,
I think you were basically correct so don't be too apologetic....
Obviously it is a great shame if an illness in a family causes a caravan holiday to be cancelled, but that is why the rest of the leisure travel industry recommends Cancellation Insurance....
The Club effectively offers this for free.......except of course that nothing can ever be truly free, the cost is borne by the members somehow, and that can only be in the pitch or membership fees.
We would have gone away in our van for NYE but when we looked around a couple of months ago everywhere was fully booked so we have made alternative, non vanning, plans.
Yes, there is now availability pretty much anywhere, but that has come too late to be of any interest to me and indicates to me that the Club has lost money because it failed to take deposits or indeed full payment. The Hotel we have booked instead took full payment at the time of booking.
The Laissez faire attitude to basic running of a business (free cancellation, free electric) will all change when they float on the stock exchange........
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Hope all goes well Canenriot
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Happy new year too
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"We would have gone away in our van for NYE but when we looked around a couple of months ago everywhere was fully booked so we have made alternative, non vanning, plans."
But surely there were pitches available at non club sites if you'd been really determined to spend NYE in the van, TT? Given the torrential rain we're having down here in Cornwall at the moment and the snow and ice further up country I'd find it hard to blame folk for having second thoughts about travelling. But they'd have booked in good faith, wouldn't they, so it's not really a case of them denying you a pitch.
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All the years of New Years away I can't recall many empty places on club sites and on one occasion friends and ourselves even took up cancellations for the New Year party at Hillhead, it works both ways.
edit OH and I are still ill so I'm glad we cancelled and didn't attempt the short break away. Best wishes to anyone who has had similar problems.
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Looks like Cirencester where we are currently staying has had a good few cancellations. There are 11 pitches vacant tonight and 19 tomorrow. It was fully booked a good few days ago.
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M, you are of course correct, I could have booked a site with another provider, but my point was really in support of the original complaint that sites appear to be booked up and then dropped at the last minute (72hrs). All within the rules I accept.
But more or less unique to the CC as a major player in the leisure travel industry. Thomson (TUI), Thomas Cook, British Airways, Easyjet, blah blah, nor the hotels we booked in Nice, Vienna, Florence, Pisa or Portofino this year allowed us to make a booking and then cancel it a few hours before travel without a cost.
Similarly we've booked a tour at Easter. A C&CC site, £25 deposit paid (and H/S selected..
), a private site, paid in full, CC site, nothing asked for.The Club stands almost alone in the way it operates and it is only correct that it comes under close scrutiny and sometimes criticism from members as to the way it operates. Obviously I think the Club is wonderful at 95% of what it does, but think change is required on deposits.
As to the rain & snow........In December/January, hardly a surprise! My Sister in law dug her car out of a snowdrift at 5am two weeks ago and set off 5hrs early to Manchester Airport for a Morrocan holiday. People can be quite determined & resilient when it suits them....
But I have joined in the spirit of frenzy and booked our favourite CC site for NYE 2018. In reality, do I know my family circumstances in 12 months time, of course not, madness really, but that is what we are encouraged to do......
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But I have joined in the spirit of frenzy and booked our favorite CC site for NYE 2018. In reality, do I know my family circumstances in 12 months time, of course not, madness really, but that is what we are encouraged to do......
Hardly Madness. I have booked my December break well ahead for the last 7 or more years. I have taken them all up. I suppose that I could be prevented from taking up if ill or snowed in.
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I recall the site at Dulverton was inundated with floodwater from the river Barle about four years ago, NY holidays cancelled for all. All sorts of things go wrong at this time of the year but on the whole looking at site numbers the cub does well at this time of the year.
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But the often raised criticism of the system from members who work is that few organisations would allow you to book your leave 12 months in advance. Everywhere both me & OH have worked has a leave rota, my organisation is still sorting out the next summer leave........
I appreciate the current system works OK for retired folk, but some other members feel differently.........
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I am not quite sure why it does not work for those in work. Book the site for next Christmas / New Year in the expectation of getting the leave. If you don't you would probably be releasing the booking many months before, giving others the opportunity to take it up.
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I appreciate the current system works OK for retired folk, but some other members feel differently.........wink
I was not always retired TT.
Most of the complaints are for bookings around popular holiday weekends and I don't think that you will find them generally dominated by retired folk. When I had children at home and was constrained by term times I generally used bank hols etc to extend my leave time. Complaints about New Year? Most (not all) folk know their likely situation for new year.
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Exactly, which is what I have done for next year.
Or introduce a deposit system which discourages the speculative approach you are advocating.....
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