Booking Fairness... Time for a Rethink??
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As the Club does not publish statistics we can only judge for ourselves JK. By the very fact some members rely on cancellations to obtain pitches iindicates there is nearly always some. I have no idea what the industry average is for cancellations or what the difference might be between deposit and non deposit systems. What I do know is I never seem to have a problem obtaining pitches on sites charging deposits providing I do not expect a pitch at the last minute. The availability of pitches at sites charging deposits is the exact opposite to that of the Clubs.
I have mixed feelings about the Club's system but these days I am more inclined to play the system than ever I used to be.
peedee
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What I do know is I never seem to have a problem obtaining pitches on sites charging deposits providing I do not expect a pitch at the last minute. The availability of pitches at sites charging deposits is the exact opposite to that of the Clubs.
And nothing at all to do the quality of the two then at all, you know, however fanciful the notion that people might want to use club sites as they see them as offering a better product all round?
Additionally of course we have no idea about the non club sites you describe in terms of facilities, grass, prices... and of course your favourite - metering of electricity which you are fond of, so perhaps all these affect the availability of pitches rather than just having a deposit system?
But it is all down to personal preference and if you like the idea of paying a (sometimes non refundable) deposit that is fine but glad to see you still like trying for club sites first?.
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This year is quite a difference with the virus ,I understand from some conversations had recently , that on some sites although showing "full" there will be some empty pitches ,, for some to complain about as the club ,as all businesses , try to workout how to manage social distancing? ie picthes near to service points could be not in use ,it as all things at the moment a case of lets see what works ,there is plenty on the news about it
PS ,after an Email from the club advising us to amend some bookings (because of non opening of a couple of sites we had booked) i did not have any difficulty last week adjusting some site bookings in August to cover the now closed sites
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It's really no surprise that in June you find sites nearly fully booked for July and Aug, J2. £30 in peak season is no shock either.
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Allight wrote: " But maybe changing the cancelation period to longer than 72 hours would help stop those last minute cancelations and mean more pitches wouldn't go unused? Just an idea..."
A proposal I have suggested when this perennial issue has been aired in the past. A five day cancellation period would cover all but the most urgent of circumstances and provide a more realistic chance of late availability pitches being taken up.
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more realistic chance of late availability pitches being taken up.
as someone who says they do not use club sites often, if at all, and assuming you don't have access to the actual late availability pitches taken up, just one question?
How do you know that a extra few days would provide a more realistic chance?
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I feel the same way about ' choose your own pitch from the empty ones available' system that CMC operates, it is FAIR, and not prone to favouritism.I have tried the C&CC twice over the last 40 years, it was always the 'we choose your pitch for you' that settled me when ending membership. The same applies for the booking system it doesnt favour any group of Members over any other, it is FAIR to all.
That's why I kept my membership of CMC but ceased (again) my C&CC dues. Silly to pay for something you do not use.
My experiences are mine not suggesting others do similar.
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If the Club introduced none refundable deposits I personally think it would lose a lot of members. It would mean having to take out holiday insurance for many, something that isn’t required at the moment. Some folks quibble at losing a couple of pounds!
This year is going to be exceptional. Thousands more folks who usually go overseas are going to be in the mix trying to get Club Site pitches. There are fewer Sites open, as Club is not opening some of the smaller Sites such as Nunnykirk and Bromyard Downs, and others.
Folks will either have to be exceptionally well organised if only a Club Site in a particular location will do, or open to mixing it up with CLs and other providers in the mix, or flying free and getting what they can at the last minute.
All the Club has to do is fill pitches. It won’t care who, what or where, just so long as as many pitches as possible are sold.
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CY when I did my snap shot of available pitches/cancellations 2 or 3 years ago perhaps longer which was for a fine weekend in April, the peak of cancellations occured 5 days before take up. I estimated from the exercise that something just less than 2 percen of bookings were cancelled but nearly all were snapped up come the weekend. If it had been a wet weekend forecasted it may well have been different.
peedee
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How on earth could you know a) they were cancellations and b) when they occurred. There are many other possible scenarios for what you think you discovered. Your 'findings' are exactly what you described - estimations.
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You can easily see day to day fluctuations in availability for a weekend by looking and making daily recordings of the late availablity figures. If these increase for a particular site, it is a fair bet it is due to cancellations. How would you know they were not cancellations TW?
peedee
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PD, I no more know that they were not cancellations than you can know that they were. Some possibly were but you must surely appreciate there are all sorts of other reasons why pitches could become available.
We've been through all this many, many times so I’m not going to list reasons again.
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On most sites in the network the wardens have input as to how many pitches are available ,for numerous reasons from damaged to work being carried out ,so to try to guess it is late cancelations is way off what the real reasons could well be, would it be prudent to let all the pitches if they have, as could be four pitches with no electricity because of a faulty EHU bollard untill repaired?
Or as we had at FM earlier this year a whole area,of the site was without power and unable to be advised of the repair ,from flood damage
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I think late availability might be well worth watching if weather turns nasty week commencing 4th July.......
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PD, I no more know that they were not cancellations than you can know that they were. Some possibly were but you must surely appreciate there are all sorts of other reasons why pitches could become available.
But the odds favour they were cancellations.
peedee
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Really?
Again I say you cannot know.
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If you had done the exercise TW and looked at the figures over a two week period running up to the weekend in question, you would know TW.
I stand by what I recorded and would be very surprised if the exercise was repeated that you would not see something similar.
peedee
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Just to throw a spanner of a different kind into the works. We often look at late availability, which will indicate full. But a phone call direct to site often gets us that day we need😁
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odds favour, could you explain the maths behind that?
and anyway is a three year old 'research' data still valid?
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You may think you know numbers, PD, but nothing more, ie reasons. You believe what you will of them. I prefer to keep an open mind about subjects where I cannot ascertain the facts.
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We will never know for sure unless the Club decide to share information with us. All I can say is anecdotally when I have been trying to book a site where I can't get the full range of days I need I am often successful in finding those days become available some way (at least several days) before the 72 hour deadline. That is only a snapshot of the sites I book that way and perhaps not enough to base policy on. It does make me think that quite a few members that cancel bookings probably do so sooner rather than later. So would extending the current 72 hour rule to five or seven days really make a major difference except of course to those people that have to cancel due to an emergency in the week running up to their booked stay.
David
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Some possible reasons, that pitches under repair become available, or grass pitches that were flooded have dried out over the week, or how about people leaving early?
That's three reasons PD, in maths that's called proof by counter example so you hypothesis seems weak.
btw any explanation of the maths behind the odds favour?
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Motorhome life
Why can you not book a year ahead, schools have holiday lists and usually publish them more than a year in advance. I drive special needs children to school and have had the holiday list for the 2021/2022 school year since before Christmas 2019
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I give up. If you don't want to open your eyes, so be it.
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Which is probably( as we do the same) the warden hedging his bets that the out of use pitches will be available by the time you arrive, but as all sites normally ,will not let all his pitches in case there is a member with a problem , so release pitches at short notice for the weekend only
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