Club Site Arrival Times
We have been touring for the past 4 weeks, and have visited 5 Club sites.
Each of these sites have an 'Earliest Arrival Time' of 1pm, and we have done our level best to comply by hanging around motorway service areas and lay bys, or by delaying our departure from the previous site to later in the morning.
And yet when we have arrived to every one of these sites, we have been greeted by a line of caravans and motorhomes waiting to book in. In one case, there were 15!
At or last port of call, I decided to monitor arrivals when able to, and saw people arrive as early as 11.30. In one case, a 12 noon arrival went up to the closed office, angrily rattled the door handle and then stomped of to find a warden.
I have a simple enquiry. Are arrival times advisory only now?. If so, can I arrive at 9am? If not, why are members being so selfish, and why isn't the club doing something to enfore this ruling?
The wardens cannot be blamed, as the number of arrivals quickly become a traffic jam if they deny entry, especially at sites with narrow entrances. Its down to members to stop being so selfish, and to have more respect for site staff and other club members.
Comments
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We've covered that. They would just leave and go elsewhere without paying a bean.
Next?
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Hi Timboc, Here are two other ideas for starters...arrive later after the queue has dispersed...go out in the morning rather than staying on site to “monitor arrivals”....
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You could check other threads, Tim, and see other suggestions but I can almost guarantee we'll end up hearing how well things work overseas🙄
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That was one advantage of the sites up in NW Scotland. There was very little in the way of a rush. Not until late on when the MH’s doing the NC 500 in a week or so descended.😀
We always stick to the rules. What others do is up to them. It’s for the club to worry about / sort, not me.
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Timboc, you are absolutely right but there seems to be no easy way of enforcing arrival times. I think the only effective way might be to apply membership penalties such as the club cancelling a person's future bookings but that is arguable.
Here is just one other thread where the subject has been thrashed out with no obvious conclusion.
I fear you won’t be reaching out to the culprits via this forum due to the tiny proportion of the membership that uses it and the remedy, whatever it might be, is in the club's hands.
Btw, I think the club could help by standardising arrival times and by making it well known when something occurs to alter the times. It's no wonder some people presently get confused.
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Thanks Tinwheeler,
I agree with what you say. I'm just really venting off a bit of steam in the hope that someone with authority reads it.
Its the wardens that I really feel for. Arrival times are clearly stated on the website, membership book, app and on the boking confirmation. 10 minutes is understanable, but an hour and a half?
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Fixed arrival times will invariably create a queue, the later the arrival time the larger the queue. Does it make it sense to create this artificial queue if it was possible to allow units to arrive earlier?
I can accept that narrow roads approaching some sites can be a valid reason to forbid earlier arrivals but it should not be a blanket ban throughout the country. Yes, I know there are a few sites than allow early arrivals but I believe it could be many more. In my opinion the work load of the Managers is not a good enough reason because if they are "managers" they should be able and willing to adopt a system to allow it.
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I think that's a vain hope, tbh. Who better than the site staff to make head office aware of the issue and I am certain they will already be doing so.
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I tend to take the view that I am responsible for my own behavior and other members are responsible for theirs. The thought occurs to me that if it was a real problem for the Club they would be doing something about it? Perhaps there is a case for a standardised arrival time but my fear with that is that it would probably be 1.00pm rather than midday which could be an inconvenience if you are only travelling a short distance to a site.
David
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Good point about 1pm arrivals, David.
I had never seen such long queues at C&CC sites prior to their switch to 1pm.
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There has to be a fixed time when arrivals begin, be it 12noon or 1pm, just as there has to be a fixed time when you should leave by. If there wasnt, it would be utter chaos.I have read a post on another thread where early arrivers have asked pitched units if they are leaving!
Regarding workload for wardens, there has to be a clear time when they can do the essential work that is expected of them, such as cleaning and disinfecting public areas and emptying waste bins. There is also the need to tidy up pitches and cut the surrounding grass areas, which can only be done when pitches are vacant. If they are popping off to the office every 5 minutes to book someone in, this work would suffer. This is especially so at sites with just 2 wardens. Lets not forget that they are on minimum wage, and are contracted for a standard 40 hour week. In my experience, they work much longer hours than this, and out of neccesity, not because they are bad time managers.
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Yes agree, and for us we always book a SP so it doesn't really matter.
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As we never arrive at a site much before mid afternoon usually it’s not a problem we have faced.
However, accepting that some will always “push it” it still means that if people plan to arrive at a set time there will potentially be more than one and often several units that will turn into a queue.
We arrived at Wood Farm last Monday 10 minutes after the stated time, something of a record for us, and it took 20 minutes to get into the site with only one van in front of us so would imagine if the same routine prevails, you are escorted to your pitch, it could be chaos when it gets busy.
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As to Staff hours most site managers are 48 hours a week but there are different hours for some sites and assistant managers are usually 2 hours less a week to the site managers and yes they sometimes do more.
As to the rules for arrivals some folk do not think the rules apply to them.
We have friends who run a b&b and they have departures by 10am and arrivals not before 4pm as only two of them to deep clean 4 rooms do all the laundry chores and get evening meals ready as well as doing chores for themselves they still get folk turning up at 12 noon onwards even though they let them know a few days before they arrive it is 4pm, they say they do need some of their own time before folk arrive and if folk go and sit in the garden they then ask could they have drinks etc.
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I feel the same, there's not much we can do about other people! We arrived on a site today at 1pm, apparently everyone had arrived before us and the manager had let them in due to road blocking, she apologised because there weren't many pitch choices left.
I really don't know what the club can do about early arrivals, worsened no doubt with more demand this year.
Anyway here we are, all sharing the same rain!! 🙂
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We rarely arrive at opening time on a site, however the one we are on just now we did arrive 25 mins early. Its a 13.00 arrival time.
We travelled across the top of Scotland from Durness on mostly single track roads, the consensus was we should allow 4 hours as we are towing. However the roads were very quiet and weather good so we made good time.
We did stop for a good break and a coffee, yet still arrived early. I couldn't remember what the arrival time was for this site and with no mobile signal I couldn't check so plumbed for 12.30 ish.
We had a 15 minute wait as the warden opened up a bit earlier. Apologised for the early arrival which was accepted and understood.
Would definitely agree a standardised time would help.
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Perhaps HO are fully aware of the problem but cannot themselves come up with a way to solve it.
How about cancelling the membership of all those that arrive early on any site, even by only a few minutes. Word would soon get round, by publishing reasons and numbers on all the club's various means of communication, and so perhaps focus members minds.
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Cynic😁
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But caravaners & motorhomers bring their own room with them ....
While wardens steadfastly keep the gates shut till the absolute stroke of 12 or 1, there will be queues at opening times. If the site has spaces available why not not allow units on site?
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Just to add a funny occurrence to this discussion.
Last week at Maragowan, 1pm arrival, i noticed a van pull onto the booking in area at 11.40am, 1hour 20 mins earlier. The wardens were strict with opening the gate so this member sat there all that time twiddling his thumbs. 1pm barrier was lifted and he got on site after waiting all that time and drove around site three times looking for a pitch. Doh!
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I always arrive early but use that time to look around, I don't turn up at the site before the arrival time. We all need to remember, people leaving the site need time to pack up, not all of us like to get up at the crack of dawn to breakfast, shower etc, pack the van up and leave.
Arrival & leaving times are shown when you view the site details.
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