Patience Pays
I just thought I would add this in as an encouragement for those that often find the sites they want either fully booked or partially booked for the time they want. We are planning a trip to Blackpool and Chester Four Oaks starting late October. About a week ago I tried to book but could only find odd days available. I booked the available days and for the past few days I have been going back into the booking system to keep a watch on availability. Sure enough I have been able to pick off the odd day here and there until I am now in the position where I have the entire stay booked. So my advice is that if you want to be on a particular site and don't mind a bit of a gamble it often pays off.
David
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We have done same occasionally, with same result. If we are close to dates we need, a phone call to site has usually seen us getting the dates we need. Enjoy your tour!
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A couple of years ago I wanted three weeks at Black Knowl in July. In February I tried to book and could only book odd days which I took. Over the next couple of months I looked about once a week and picked up cancellations until in the end I had the full three weeks in about nine bookings. When I rang the club to ask them to roll them into one the woman couldn't believe her eyes.
No, you shouldn't have to do it, but if you particularly want a certain site at a certain time then it can be done.
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What would you have done if you hadn't been able to get a couple of separate odd nights?
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In the years we have been members,I can count on less than 10 times that a call to sites when odd days are not available, has not resulted in a successfull outcome,for longer stays,, but we normally have a "back up"just in case of a "problem"
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JVB
I am not always around at the right time to make phone calls to sites, although I would have used that as a backstop had I not been successful with the booking system. It was easier for me to check out the booking page every now and then when I had a few moments and I find it usually works. Also I thought wardens no longer had any set aside pitches so would it not be the case that I would have had to have rung just after they had had a cancellation?
The Blackpool site was not my first choice but a smaller site slightly further north was also fully booked otherwise we would have gone there as it had better public transport connections.
David
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So what would you have done if you had booked days 1 to 4 and days 6 to 8 (for example). Day 5 (fully booked as it was a weekend) would have been interesting.
Although you could also have cancelled and given the chance for some other time rich person to win a line in the booking bingo tournament.
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If I could have booked one site but not the other I would have cancelled the one I couldn't book and look elsewhere, either a Club site or a commercial site. Not quite sure I understand your comment about being time rich as no one is busy 24/7 and it only takes a few seconds to check availability. I rarely book more than a month ahead so its an occupation hazard that you don't always get the site you want initially.
David
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We too have had success using DK’s approach.
Phishing - “booking bingo”? Hardly, as it’s all about first come first served. Exactly if as you were in a physical queue for a supermarket till. Or booking airline tickets.
One doesn’t expect to jump the queue just because your shopping pattern is different to people in front of you. The fact is that Supply of pitches/sites doesn’t always align to demand, and never will as there is a finite supply.
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Rang the site and asked for help as sites usually have a spare or so for emergencies. If that failed I would have looked elsewhere.
It is the only time that I have done this as we usually use CLs but Black Knowl is so perfectly placed to walk out into the forest and there aren't any CLs in such a good position.
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Glad you got booked David we were at Chester last year great city and I would recommend The Rake pub just at the end of the road from the site decent food at a reasonable price. Earlier this year we were going to book a last minute weekend at Graigie Gardens one of our regular sites. It showed full and calls to the wardens cinfirmed no availability . I kept an eye all week and on the Friday morning managed to get a pitch so hooked ok the van and headed down straigjht away. So being patient pays off.
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I think the booking bingo is a fair statement, after all in the words of the OP "So my advice is that if you want to be on a particular site and don't mind a bit of a gamble it often pays off".
Just collect enough random days until you have a line and bingo you can plan your trip.
Does this OP not show the futility of having anybody being able to book what they want with no punitive measures. After all they would not have got their trip if a high number of the early birds had not released speculative bookings. If the number of speculative bookings was capped at a reasonable amount then they would not to play bingo.
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I'm in a holiday rental just now, that came up as a last minute vacancy, it always pays to check things out for holidays, hotels, sites, cottages etc. We got extra days at the Knaresborough site on one trip, just by checking and phoning.
Cancellations due to illness, family events etc unfortunately happen to all of us so I expect the club are glad to fill the places.
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Does this OP not show the futility of having anybody being able to book what they want with no punitive measures. After all they would not have got their trip if a high number of the early birds had not released speculative bookings.
I was waiting for a few more to shoot themselves in the foot before posting a similar statement.
I love the desciption of playing Bingo, not a game I enjoy playing.
peedee
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After all they would not have got their trip if a high number of the early birds had not released speculative bookings. If the number of speculative bookings was capped at a reasonable amount then they would not to play bingo.
The old chesnut - speculative bookings. I am unsure of the definition of 'speculative bookings' as you use the term Phishing.
I have made one speculative booking a fair few years ago in the year before the CC lost Braithwaite Fold to C&CC. A very popular site and in February I saw that there was 5 nights together available in September. We usually tour all of September but had not planned at the time and would not have done until later. As we had not been in that area for a number of years it seemed likely that we would. before July we had booked for a tour that included that site.
So what is a speculative booking as defined by yourself? If I book a site 6 months ahead is that speculative as I may be ill, dead or have no tow car available?
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I would define shorter lead time on bookings as being less speculative. Every booking is speculative, none of us know what might happen in the interval between taking up a booking that is why if there is a high risk you insure if there are large up front payments to make. Short lead times are just less speculative and the shorter they are the less the risk. Trouble is, with the CMC there is no risk at all.
peedee
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So what is a speculative booking as defined by yourself? If I book a site 6 months ahead is that speculative as I may be ill, dead or have no tow car available?
Alan I don't know what specifically defines speculative, but being fed up of seeing sites fully booked once I got round to sorting out my diary (it's a volatile thing, with van trips, long and short, filling the gaps, not the other way round) I decided this year to take advantage of the club's new rolling dates and booked myself a hatful of 'possibles'.....
great, I got them all by booking early.
as it happens, things change and I've only taken up 'some' of the bookings, cancelling within the club's rule without penalty..perhaps DK. got one of mine, who knows....
i found this (recommended by many) approach a revelation...no feeling guilty, just hit that cancel button....
now this has got me in the mood for a bit more booking.....
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My neighbour runs a Bed and Breakfast in a pretty spot here on the river bank. I asked her if she would be happy with the idea of people booking without commitment, cancelling at short notice, and then taking her chance of pickiing up bookings for odd days at a later stage. She wasn't impressed with the plan.
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There is no doubt that in this day and age the Club operates a somewhat unique book up front, no deposit, short cancellation without penalty system. Even some restaurants are demanding full payment up front to counter act no shows.
However, clearly the current system works for Club bookings or they wouldn't stick to it. We have suddenly become a household that doesn't know what health emergencies may crop up, so for us it is a real plus. What I have stopped doing is booking a CL months in advance in case I let them down. But we know the Club will fill the only long term reservations we currently have at York RP, so I am not worrying if I do have to cancel before 72 hours of arriving.
Its different for private cottages etc.... the owners may not fill that lost booking.
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A strange comment, I would expect that running a B&B and a camping site are totally different things? So I'm sure she wasn't looking at it from her point of view, but maybe if her B&B was as popular as club sites with people complaining they couldn't get in to her B&B and those room would get filled and she made a profit she would be?
tell her to work harder at making her B&B as popular as club sites
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+1
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i thought you recently likened a club site to a hotel?
perhaps small sites could be likened to B&Bs?
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I tried to convince my neighbour, BB, but she said that when she was full on a Saturday she never got Friday and Sunday bookings from people who just hoped that Saturday might later become vacant. She said that people who wanted three nights simply booked three nights elsewhere.
DK who posted on this subject is to be praised for his perseverance, but the Club must lose a lot of bookings from people who don't have his patience but just go elsewhere.
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