Clubsite bookings 2021
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They sound nice locations. We drove past Chepstow Racecourse a couple of years ago, need to see if it still allows camping👍
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I see that both the racecourse sites at Fakenham and Market Rasen have left the network, according to the latest issue of the club's magazine.
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There was a thread about 18 months ago specifically about Canalside sites. Somebody wanted them as he used them for cycling along. Got quite a few recommendations. You'll have to have a dig through the back numbers to find it though.
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Oh, that is a blow☹️ I will have a look and see if they are still offering pitches. Long time since we stayed at Market Rasen, but Fakenham we used numerous times, and I used to camp there with my Sister. I hope Exeter doesn’t go, that really is one of our favourites.
It might be that Racecourses are looking to get some alternative income in other ways. The set up at Hexham, with some nice statics going in is very attractive.
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Warwick Racecourse is excellent for cycling canals Metheven, we rode for miles down some good paths one stay. Straight from Site as well.👍
The Minnows Site, no longer Club, down near Tiverton is good as well, beautiful canal based Country Park, teeming with wildlife. We used to use a very basic CL right on the path, but it’s gone now sadly☹️
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Some of them were hard enough to get on this year, so could well be much harder in the future.
That's another club site less in East Anglia, after the loss of Mildenhall last year.
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Fakenham runs its own independent site, so that’s why it might have parted company with the Club. It was always first choice for us over IF and Cromer, we prefer to be more in that area. Never been to Sandringham Site, although I have been to House.
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Oh yes😁 It’s an area we are very familiar with. Our bolt hole is a CS near Binham. Just us, a field and usually a dozen hares👍 Went past South Creake in October, very nice looking small Sites, should we need more.
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Yes the ways around are in our own hands, its easy.
You book every weekend on the day they are released. This totally suits the minority of members that do this.
They claim to be the organized ones, just book everything and you get what you want, its the way the club is structured.
You can then take your time and pick and choose or cancel as you wish. This is being organised, some may say selfish but its within the rules.
If you dont do this then you can have whats cancelled, the ones they dont want.
I would suggest:
3 advanced bookings per member, 6 month rolling.
Max 2 cancellations per year and then you pay the full cost.
2 visits to any one site per year.
These people are soooooo organized this should not be a problem, they get three planned trips per year and then take their chances for a cancellation as they they keep recommending this to others so it must work.
They are totally organized so the cancellation cost clause should not be a problem.
PS not a cat in hells chance of this happening. The club will not change until it is too late, and then it will be too late. The commercials platforms are growing exponentially, the CLs are diminishing, the affiliates will align with the commercial platforms and many will do what I do which is use them. Booking anything more than a midweek is virtually impossible to a lot of the membership.
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3 advanced bookings per member, 6 month rolling.
For last September we booked in advance / stayed at 8 CAMC sites in just under 4 weeks. This is fairly typical now we have a MH. For next May / June we have 16 sites booked (transferred from this year) 10 of those are CAMC. If what you suggest was introduced, there would be little point in us remaining members. The club would therefore loose bookings which in a normal year total well over a thousand pounds, to the advantage of others.
At the times we tour the sites are very rarely full, so that loss would be largely actual, as the spaces would not necessarily be filled by others.
Sounds a bit like Turkeys voting for Christmas.🤔
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I'd be surprised if the CAMC system could cope with the complexity of Phishing's suggestion. SteveL has highlighted the problem for those who would plan a fairly complex tour in advance. I would still submit that if there really is a problem with "all" sites being fully booked well in advance, then my suggestion at the beginning of the thread would "level the playing field" (Now where have I heard that phrase
)."..a relatively high deposit(50% for 6 days+bookings, 100% for 5days-bookings) be required for bookings for more than say three months in advance with it being non-refundable if less than one months notice being given. That would enable long-term planners to secure their chosen holiday whilst discouraging speculative "weekend squatters".
Could CAMC booking system cope with this. I have my suspicions and this may be the real reason why nothing happens.
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The commercials platforms are growing exponentially,
Really any proof of this? As Hannah Fry would say, over what time frame and what fraction?
As TDA said somewhere the aim of any organisation is to sell it's products as many times as possible. In this case it's pitches. The club, or any anyone selling, doesn't care who it is or how many times a person buys it.
I would easily use up your suggested 3 bookings in one two weeks away, two stay overs - going and coming and one main holiday so how could I get three planned trips per year? I don't think you have thought this out?
Sorry you get going on about the club failing (for a long time) but the reality is that people can't get pitches. Hardly failing?
I think as been said people just want to change the club to get what they cannot get hat they want.
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My sort of touring....I set off in a morning without a booking but with a firm plan in mind, but I get tired or get lost so I stop somewhere else.
Next day the sun is out, so I decide to stay where I am and go for lunch. By the third day I get to the site I was aiming for, but for one reason or another find I don't like it very much, so instead of staying for a week I move on after a couple of days.
I wish you all the best of luck in persuading the Club to change its booking system to suit your needs , but I never could see them accommodating my sort of touring, so I bowed out of Club sites altogether.
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If you complicate the system so much not only is the system unlikely to cope but nor will members!!! The beauty of the current system, as flawed in the minds of some as it might be, is that it is simple to use and simple to understand. You can of course tweak it by extending the 72 hour rule or even imposing deposits but above all it has to be simple.
David
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Nothing will be “too late”. A member somewhere will fill whatever gap arises. That’s the bottom line for the Club, tourers on pitches, as many as possible, as long as the Site is open. If you want two, three weekends as part of a long holiday, it’s simple. You get off your 🤫 and book it. There are possibly only a tiny few Sites that folks are desperate to stay on at a particular time in peak season, all available a year in advance. It’s how we had to book our holidays when working, and as we stayed on a very popular CL, with just the five pitches, we got damned organised or we compromised.
I doubt many Members will find having all sorts of booking limits imposed on them popular, in essence to suit those who don’t sort their holidays out. If you know there is a finite limit to a product you need, you try your best to sort yourself out. 🤷♀️
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But as you have again failed to post with your over there posts is the same as can be achieved on this island, travel out the the peak holiday periods, albeit that is now getting less viable with the growing "staycations" with the retired population
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AD, trust me, it is possible to tour spontaneously in UK, even in a pandemic year. Not via exclusively Club Sites, but with the kind of open mind you use overseas regarding a variety of Sites. We did a 5 Site tour last September (case rates were good, everyone hit the road) I booked our second site a couple of nights in front, knowing it would be very busy, then we winged it the rest of the tour, including our first night stop over. Even got a pitch on a real Northumberland plum everyone raves about. Nothing to do with bad weather cancellations either, it was glorious. 😁
I have just checked out availability on four Summer holiday type Sites, two in Cornwall, one in Devon, one on East Coast. Every single one has every single weekend with pitch availability. What are going fast are the finite number of serviced pitches, but by no means all booked. 🤷♀️
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I would be very supprised that any site on the club network did not have a pitch/es available for an odd night or two at least stopover, i am not saying it ,would be guaranteed? but a call to a site on the way has in all the years we have been members ,been normally in the positives
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I'm not sure Phishings limit of only two visits at any site per year would make much difference, in respect of folk being able to book full weeks, as the OP requires.
At the less popular sites it is not really an issue, as long as you are moderately organised and don't leave it until the month before.
Whilst the honeypots are just so popular the weekends will still go months before. They will just be spread over more members and booking a week will be as difficult as ever.
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I think the difference is JVB when there we just roll up and 9 times out of 10 a pitch is available. The sites generally have pools and other facilities if that's what one wants. I'm not sure how viable that sort of touring would be here, at those sorts of sites, in May, June and September.
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And unless things have changed a lot since we did "over there" the sites with pools etc are also much bigger than over here,so i would expect some space available
Hillhead club site would have pitches available out of the main school holiday periods
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