The new way of booking! I foresee problems!
Well I want to go to the steam gala at Burrs country park site in late February, early March. 2019. The East Lancs Railway will not announce their dates for 2019 until November, so I have booked two lots of three weeks, with a Tuesday and Wednesday between them. When the East lancs railway announce their dates, I will then edit my dates to just cover the period that I want.
Someone should have thought this ongoing booking through just a little more!
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You’ve always been able to do that, PR, with the only difference being that you can now secure the dates further in advance. That’s surely much simpler than taking your chance on December frenzy day.
Look at it this way, ELR will not play ball by announcing their dates at a time you would prefer. If they announced them 10-12 months ahead you’d be jumping up and down with glee. The issue here only concerns the one event you happen to be interested in while thousands of others are probably very happy. Why not lobby the ELR rather than seeing it as a failing of the club's booking system?
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Having been to Burrs in March I don't think that your block booking is going to have any impact on availability for anyone else. It's a big site with plenty of pitches.
No booking system is perfect and all systems will throw up anomalies like this.
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I doubt anyone will be waiting for a pitch on a cold damp weekend in Lancashire in February PR, just cancel what you don't need!
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It could well have implications for a lot of sites. The dates of quite a few events for the following year are known by December, not so many over a year in advance. As a for instance take the flower show at Chatsworth in June. The site was sold out for those dates within about 30 minutes. I have no idea if dates for 2019 will be available before the 2018 event has even taken place. If not it could result in several weeks being booked initially and later released. However, as the club will have foreseen this happening, it is clearly not a problem.
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You could have booked one long stretch to cover possible weekends then amended the start and end dates accordingly when that announcement was made. If over 21 nights you could even make it two separated bookings. We've always been able to ammend in this way, it's just that now we can do it further in advance. Don't really see such amendment as block booking or problematic, just helpful to those who do not abuse the system. Others will get fair change of those days relinquished as they will become available, I'm sure, a long time in advance.
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I can see problems for people wanting to book weeks/ fornights for holidays if most of weekends are already claimed if you try to book a little later than usual start day. You can tell which sites have this problem as they try to fill them midweek by offering discounts. surely longer stays should be encouraged to maximise income and site use. Most w/ends are filled very quickly .(just try to book a week or two at most sites in areas that you want from now and you will find it hard to as w/ends stated as full??
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It's not a problem really. Take opening post, if dates for event are released in November, member will cancel what they don't need, giving other visitors four months at the least busy period of the year to book what dates have been cancelled. I can't really see what the problem is to be honest. We used to book provisional dates a year in advance, for a whole month at a popular CL, and then just tweaked our arrival and departure dates once A/L dates were confirmed. It was never an issue for the whole 12 years we did it, and that was on a five pitch site in Cornwall! There are far more things to worry about in life, honestly!
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How very dare you.
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This has always been a problem at popular sites, such as Chatsworth and York and nothing is going to change in that respect. To get a guaranteed week you need to be there on booking day. It's just that there will be 10 or 12 of them now.
As far as the less popular sites, it is generally no problem booking a week well after booking day. Although those including a bank holiday can sometimes be a problem. Take for instance Cirencester Park, which has mid week discount out of season. Except for Saturday 5th May all weekend dates are available right through to 3/1/2019. Plus every weekend in March 2019 when the site reopens.
Similarly with Clumber Park the only weekends taken between now and the end of March 2019 are the bank holidays and for some reason a Friday in November.
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You know I am joking! We had tickets to go see FS, but had to cancel due to ill health, so we nearly got our Yorkshire passports stamped!
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Members don't want / like booking day because some people will miss out .....so it's been altered & changed & still its not suitable .
What do members want then .....lets do away with bookings all together & who ever turns up first gets to stay .....& the rest ...you get to go home .
Easy , simple solution everyone will understand some get what they want ....& some are still disappointed .
No that can't be right ....lets start again .....😂
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So, it's at midnight all to man the keyboards to book the honeypot sites for Easter 2019.
Get set, go for Frenzy Day No1 in a few short hours
Maybe the variable Frenzy Day per month going forward and the late night / early morning opening for July & August booking will provide the new adventurers (families) the CAMC wants to attract, the opportunity to book their full 2 weeks school holiday on one site and keep sites full the whole week in the peak season, unlike in summers past where even Chatsworth was only 68% occupied mid week.
Perhaps the occupancy figures available to CAMC illustrate the cyclic full weekends, empty mid week peak season are a missed opportunity to get full whack
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It sort of works
It appears the online booking facility and the App are taken down until 08:45 on the morning of the bookings opening, to coincide with the telephone booking opening hours.
Had the App and the online booking page open from about 06:00 was awoken by the rain. At 08:00 the online page went to a queue message, until 08:45 when it activated a position in the queue and a time till lift off. The App became live at the same time. As did the telephone lines.
Got an awning pitch at Baltic Wharf for Easter 2019, which is the only booking wanted each year in order to mark a family anniversary.
Clarification of times and dates of bookings opening would be beneficial going forward, rather than the trumpeting of 'one year ahead'. It still disadvantages those who are unable to be online/on the phone / on app at the allotted time.
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Makes you wonder why they could not have had a queue system for the December Frenzy. Folk might have been happier if they new those that had made a booking were sent to the back, rather than having an equal chance with those still trying. When I had a look at about 8:55, although the queue page appeared I was instantly granted access. So hardly seems needed for these mini frenzies.
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Hopefully the frenzy minded club and members will lose their zest for this and in the end only those who want a definite time and date will engage. All 300,000 plus members are surely not going to get in a queue for Easter and Christmas a year ahead? As there is only a months worth of release each time no-one can book lots of sites on each release date.
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It's time the club took a non returnable deposit of say 10% or 20% on all bookings. Or as many restaurants now do take the full amount at the time of booking and only refund when cancelled (less an admin charge say 20%) if the pitch is re let
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Toby - I don't know what restaurants you're referring to there, but I've never had to pay in advance to eat!
The club has said repeatedly that since deposits were dropped the number of non-arrivals and late cancellations has dropped. Why would they return to a system that worked less well?
Personally, I'very nothing against deposits - I'very already paid 3 ( one CL, one private site and one C&CC), but re-introducing deposits would do away with a USP of club bookings. For what benefit?
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Never had to pay a deposit or the full bill in advance at any restaurants I've ever been to and we often enjoy eating out in quality restaurants.
In any respect, how would they know how many courses you were to consume, what dishes you were to choose from each course and what wine from the list you were to order.
What type of restaurant would charge for the Bill in advance. Toby ??.
I've no problem with paying a Deposit when booking a Campsite/CL/CS. It shows commitment and intention to turn up, but paying the bill in advance for a Restaurant meal would be a definite No No.
K
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I can only imagine Toby might not actually be from Leeds, no right thinking Yorkshire person would part with money before eating a meal!
Mind you, thinking about it, Leeds can be a tad pretentious............. at least since Harvey Nicks moved in!
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Your deposit thoughts of 10-20% would equate to approx £1.50 to £3 p/n for 2 people most of the year, Toby. I can’t see that making any difference at all.
This much debated idea has been countered by the club several times as they say their experience proves deposits only result in more no shows and not in a change to cancellations.
I could go on but it’s all been said before.
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It was just a slight exaggeration, he meant a chippy.
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So the OP complains about the system but still uses it to their advantage "block booking" weeks on end until a third party ,not connected to the CAMC, releases dates to a rally.
Sounds a bit "selfish" to me as the saying goes on this forum.
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He's not block booking at all. He has just reserved possible dates on a big site in Winter, for a one off event, and will be giving around four months notice to anyone else that fancies the same dates, when he amends his arrival and departure dates! All within the booking rules of the Club. The only difference is, he is doing it twelve months in advance rather than having to get up early on one day of the year to join all the other desperate folks who seem to enjoy Frenzy Day!
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The only difference is, he is doing it twelve months in advance rather than having to get up early on one day of the year to join all the other desperate folks who seem to enjoy Frenzy Day!
There are now 12 mini Frenzy Days
From this mornings one, you get a lie in til 08:45 too. And there is a queuing system on the online option that holds your place and gives you an estimated time till you get your 10 minutes to book.
All part of the booking roolz of the CAMC that one has to learn to play to get the site you want when you want
The new 12 month advance booking system may be easier than the single Frenzy Day one and give more folk a chance of getting what they want
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he is doing it twelve months in advance rather than having to get up early on one day of the year to join all the other desperate folks who seem to enjoy Frenzy Day!
I resent that remark!
I am not desperate but I rather liked doing all my bookings in one hit (including commercial sites).
Late November was a good time to get the maps out and plan a few tours over several evenings. I liked the fact that early December all planning done and dusted for the year before our December break.
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