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Comments
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when reversing on to the pitch the peg will provide a backstop...
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have to agree with WTG, a bit of a mess.
David, with original booking details and prices seemingly not available to members, as the system show the latest prices being applied, how is a warden supposed to see this same (original booking) info? it can't be conjured from thin air. it's there or it isn't.
if it's really available (and this is what the warden will use to adjust bookings) then make it available to those who own those bookings.
however, if it's not available (almost certainly the situation) then the wardens will need to check historic prices for their site and then do a bit of maths based on the changes in adult/child/pitch prices for the number of days applicable. an unnecessary pain for all concerned at check in time.
i wish I had your unswerving faith.
the only other possibility I can think of is that HQ have gone through all the bookings taken prior to the 5th and have done (or are doing) the donkey work for the wardens and sending updated booking totals to the relevant sites so just a question of applying a discount.
this would certainly make life easier at check in time.
however, somebody, somewhere has to do the legwork.
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Hi
You're right there BB, if the date info is available to us it'll take a couple of minutes extra to adjust when booking in. If it's not then proof of booking date would be the only guarantee of price adjustment. An interesting start to the season to be had then? Hmmmmm, glad I don't start back until May, won't need the club issue tin hat!!
, Who'd be a warden eh?
JK
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I repeat again, the Club have said:-
While you will see that the booking total has increased when you view your bookings on-line (this applies to bookings made pre 5 Dec), the site staff will be notified on their system at point of arrival that the booking needs to be manually discounted.
As I understand it sites get a daily print out of arrivals and obviously from the above this will also contain the correct price. Members can cross check this against their confirmation email which has the booking price listed on it. I have never failed to get a confirmation email for any Club site I have booked in all the years since they started sending such confirmations. It is really up to the individual member to manage their communications from the Club. Without that email confirmation how does anyone know how much they should be charged?
David
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Agree with BB and JK their comments. Perhaps the members who made bookings before 5th and have found that their bookings have now increased in price ours included should contact head office and complain to get it sorted as soon as possible and they may realise what a mess they have made. Hopefully JK by the time you get on site it should all be sorted!!!
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I would hope in the event of further price rises that the club would put the information on the web site rather than rely on e mails which obviously some, including myself didn't get. I don't know how many times people on CT have pointed up errors and omissions in the site details and pricing sections but it is disappointing to see this happening. A clear list of prices for 2019 could have been published, I think we have to wait till January 2019 to see the general price list, in the meantime we have to check via each site to see if there are discrepancies if we retained or printed previous e mails. Most of us weren't expecting to see "my bookings" altered.
The fact that there may be delays in reception when booking won't spoil my holidays but I'll be wondering how each booking in will work out when their are several of us waiting etc.
So good luck to the wardens and the participants.
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David, yes there is an arrivals list on the counter each day when we all arrive....but where do you think this comes from?
its printed at each site from the cc system, and the price presented against each booking will the same one we can all see on our bookings....the current price, which for some is the wrong price.
unless the system is keeping the 'booked' price somewhere, it can't retrieve it for the morning list...
and if it was doing this, why isn't it being presented in My Bookings?
its not in My bookings because no one thought to retain it....it's never been necessary to do so prior to rolling bookings. this is the whole nub of the issue.
wardens may well get a list of incorrect bookings, with appropriate refund amounts, sent (electronically) to them, but it will have been created at HQ especially to resolve this issue.
'im sure it'll be alright'....but it will need a bit of background work to resolve it...
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For any company with a decent IT system, this would be a non event.
The amount to be paid by each and every previously- booked customer upon arrival at the campsite would be calculated by the system using the data within the database. The daily arrivals sheet would be printed out at site first thing in the morning with the details of customers and the rate at which they will each will be paying. ----- It's not rocket science, it's a relative simple IT procedure.
That's provided the IT system is up to the job and the IT dept knows what they are doing. ------- I'll let current customers be the judge of that.
K
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I find all this speculation about what the system holds, or doesn’t hold, rather strange as it is just that: speculation.
None of us ‘ordinary’ folk know what information site staff have access to on the system and it would be naive to assume what we see is all there is.
This may prove to be one of the clubs less well thought out plans or it may work seamlessly but it seems to me to be best to either take Ro’s word for it and wait and see or address specific questions direct to someone in the know.
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Without wishing to prolong this further, IT systems are only as good as those inputting data. The IT system may well be up to the job but only if the actual input and procedure is correct. Communications and planning have to be adequate first.
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I think that is part of the issue really. On making a booking, you do in fact get two communications from the Club, one an email, the other details in your MY Bookings. What is causing issues is that in some instances, these are now showing two different totals.
For first time ever, I have failed to save an email for a booking in September, my fault. But I didn’t worry, because it is there, albeit with a new price total in My Bookings. All that’s required now is faith in the Club to let Wardens know I made this booking pre 5/12, and wait in reception while they check it, and all will be well..................fingers crossed. But unless folks are reading this, have received the email, a lot may be wondering what the heck is going on. It’s a tiny amount of money in my example, but for others it could amount to quite an additional sum.
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K, elements of what you say are correct. However, the root cause of the issue is “whoever” miscalculated the running costs and potential income for next year. IT staff can only sort out how to put information in, not what and when it is put in! Perhaps no one asked them?
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I booked a table at a restaurant - looked at the prices on line first, but when I got there the prices had gone up. Seems some of you might be finding that with your caravan site bookings.
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...and that is how any retail system works, where customers check the price at the time they wished to purchase....if they left it a couple of days, it might have risen.....or fallen, if a sale is due.
but we are looking here at the typical 'holiday company' scenario, where the date (and the qualifying price) you reserve the product at is important, because that's the one you want to pay...
but in order for this to happen, 'your' relationship to the product (specific customer, date, site, price) has to be filed away somewhere in the system so that its this that gets printed at the till when you check in.
the logical place for this would be in the order (booking) record....it might also hold things like your membership number, site number/name, from date, to date, number of adults, number of children, pitch type etc.
by adding the price when this order record is created you now have everything you need (including 'your booked price') to see this in My Bookings and at the till, irrespective of what today's price is.
it may well be that the guy behind you in the queue is taking exactly the same holiday at the same site, but might pay a different total as they booked after the prices went up.
if 'your price' isn't retained, the poor old till can only spew out details with today's price....not what's required.
i spent my whole working life in the IT business, the first 20 odd designing, specifying, coding, developing and maintaining Order Processing systems, exactly what we have here, and the remaining 15 managing IT delivery suppliers following the outsourcing of our total business systems.
the hardware, software and other technical elements will have changed a lot in that time, but the fact remains....if a system isn't told to retain a piece of (historical) information it can't be conjured up retrospectively out of thin air...(without help)....which is what we appear to be told will happen.
yes, recovery workarounds can be created by running some sort of match up program for all affected customers against a historic price file but this would be a one off process.
chop the report up by site and send it to every warden and the donkey work is done, but as TW say, this is all speculation as CC haven't conceded there's really anything to worry about.
but it makes a change from pitch markers and arrival times.
i have no bookings in the system (other than a one way ferry booking outta here
) so have no specific interest from that perspective, but my background gives rise to an interest in such 'problems'.sad, I know......
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Hi
Just been speaking to a colleague who's still working and I can verify what JV says above, no need to panic, book in should takes 6 minutes instead of 5!
Now what about a Sunday departures thread!!!
JK
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There have been times when I wished I’d never started this one.
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Judging by Rowena's post this morning in the Booking Release Dates sticky, there is still much going on in the pricing department. As a consequence we won’t be able to book Jan and Feb 2020 until March 2019.
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interesting.
notwithstanding the delayed release for Jan/Feb 20 (setting forward prices) the pitches for December 19 haven't been released yet (I checked two year round sites and couldn't see them) and this is the month (the 5th) where prices changed and the issues arose...
i suspect it would be wise for the club not to release the Dec pitches if they don't know the prices for January....otherwise, how can they set prices for post 5th December?
holding off this release also gives them more time to fix the current pricing issue which is being dealt with by a workaround at the till.
if it's fixed before the December 19 release (next price change) then we will only need the workaround for another year......
(until all the wrongly priced 'booked early' holidays for 2019 are taken and naturally leave the system, which may be right upto early Dec 19).....but if it's not fixed by the imminent Dec 19 release (when the price will change again after folk have already booked pitches in advance) we will be in the same position moving into the following year...
anyone booking a pitch for (say) 10th Dec 19 when next month's release is available will be taking that break after the next price rise 5th Dec 2019 and will, therefore be booked at the pre increase price, so the My Bookings price will rise (wrongly) on the 5th, meaning a continuation of till alterations...
and for every month it's not properly resolved, we will need another month of manual adjustment (a further year down the line) at the till and the longer members will see their My Bookings at the wrong prices.
i don't have any bookings in the system, anyone seen any correction for their booked early prices? this is the true indicator as to the pricing issue being properly fixed.
the new rolling year system is great for forward planning but the price change implication had been completely overlooked and won't go away on its own.
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I booked Sandringham on 6th of November for 5 nights at start of May. The booking price was £152.50 'my bookings' shows £155.80
No surprise there....
The rolling booking is no better for my usage with regard to forward planning
No surprise there, Alan, either
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No surprise there, Alan, either
Indeed as I don't sit down until after our Autumn trip and it is usually in November. The only difference it made was that when I booked around 6th November for the Wharfdale site from mid April for 5 nights their were less than 5 pitches available.
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Alan, Didn't have you down as a creature of habit...
however, the issue reamains (as youve verified, thanks) that the My Bookings page still shows the most recent price (rather than the booked price) and it will continue to do so (into ongoing seasons) unless a change is made to capure the price ruling at the time of the booking.
cruise companies are selling nearly two years in advance but have no trouble ensuring the customer understands (and can see) that they have booked at the price when they hit the key.
this is because the price gets recorded in that booking record at that time....the cruise could be years away but it wouldn't make a difference to the price.
i know I keep banging on about this (and I've not even been affected by this so far) but I just don't think the answer is 'it'll be alright at the till' .....
even if it will be, this can't be the way to present the customer facing side of the club.
these not much that focusses customers minds more than pricing, and constantly seeing wrong prices on some (or all) of your bookings isn't good.
...and there's the thing, going forward, a customer won't know which of their bookings are correctly priced or not, without remembering/noting the booking date....
not a good situation, IMV.
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Not in most things BB. I have preferred to set out a touring in advance for the last 30 years even if not all bookings were made prior to setting off so that is I suppose a habit
I aim for about 2 hour tows or around 60 to 100 miles between destinations. It is only about the last 7 years when I have planned so far ahead and this has been for two reasons.
In both 2010 and 2011 I had to rethink my plans as sites that I wanted were booked up. A definite irritation if planning on using CC sites when suitably located and maybe travelling a clockwise route instead of an anticlockwise one. One of those holidays involved 10 stops and it was only when trying to book the 8th one that we had the problem.
The other reason is that there is often heavy booking around April and so it makes sense for us to get April/May bookings in early there is then often only 3 weeks until our next trip after our return.
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cruise companies are selling nearly two years in advance but have no trouble ensuring the customer understands (and can see) that they have booked at the price when they hit the key.
Not strictly true BB, from Thomas Cook's T&C:
2. PRICE CHANGES AFTER BOOKING
After you’ve made a confirmed booking for a Holiday, there are limited circumstances in which the price of that Holiday can increase.However, the price of Single Components may increase if the component supplier (e.g. hotelier, airline, etc.) changes their prices. In the case of Holidays: there will be no change to the price within 20 days of your scheduled UK departure date, but we can increase the price of your Holiday at any time up to 20 days before the departure date if we need to do so because there’s been a change in the cost of providing your Holiday that’s
outside of our control,0 -
I don't go with Thomas Cook
...but 'generally' you get it at the price you booked...
the point is, the mechanism to provide this is easy and industry wide.
the change to rolling holidays was a big change for the club, but there are obviously other important aspects of this process (the implication of price changes) that weren't fully understood.
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