New Site Booking System
Comments
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I think it one of the factors, it might even be the driver. They have stated either in the mag or the 2020 AGM minutes that there are thousands of cancellations. Couple that with my own experience of the booking system, in my eyes, it has to be a factor.
peedee
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While I'm not saying you're wrong, PD, I think that idea has to be supposition at this stage because, as far as I can see, nowhere does the club say cancellations are a reason for the change. Furthermore, everything I've ever read from the club has always said the number of cancelled bookings is a tiny proportion of the whole and there's been no indication of it being a concern.
My opinion is that this is commerce driven as it makes good business sense to have money rolling in by way of deposits. It's what the rest of the industry does.
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If a Member is serious about their bookings, deposits should not be a probably
If the members bookings are speculative bookings ,hoping they might go , then deposits is a problem, and will be resistedAs a member of both clubs , i do not find a deposit a issue when i use the other club
The difference between both clubs is stark
With the club if we want to go somewhere, If the booking system says it is not available , just check every morning ,and as yet never failed to get the dates i want
With the other club that is a pretty futile tactic, and rarely works1 -
Is it 'excess cancellations' the club is specifically looking to prevent or to find a way for 'any' cancellations to be retaken by a wider audience rather than those who, currently, can snap them up at short notice (a smaller section of the membership).
as mentioned, we don't know what part, if any, of the deposit will be refunded as a matter of course following a cancellation within a certain period... more detail will help.
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Posted on 26/11/2021 11:09 by Thehappycaravanners
Disagree with this idea of being able to book a pitch type, many a time we don't know what pitch we want till on site, it all depends on space, surroundings, light, views, weather, convenience etc, should leave it at first come first served
...but, even now we DO commit to a pitch type...we have to choose Awning or Non Awning or Service Pitch....on arrival we can only choose from those types.
a nice appealing non awning pitch is no good if you've booked an Awning pitch.
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...but isn't the clicking of 'confirm' on the current system just that, too.....but without money changing hands?
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compass362 wrote...
"To be completely honest when ever we've booked our stays on CMC sites in the past I tended to book a 2 week block , then adjust which week we actually go depending on circumstances, with the new booking system coming next year obviously that'll stop that."
...and this is no different to the example I quoted where I had booked two weeks and ended up taking one...perfectly allowable, the T/C allow for this flexibility..
in the new system, the flexibility could remain by just changing the 'decision' period to 21 days rather than 72 hours.......unwanted stock goes back into the system 18 days sooner thus giving a wider audience a realistic chance of making use of it.
only with a tougher stance on 'refundable' deposits and the period these may/will be allowed, will anything be changed from my example....
other than a massive/expensive system change to collect and then hand back deposits to folk who book miles in advance and then 'tweak' their dates closer to the time...
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I think the difference will probably be in the difficulty. I think it unlikely there will be anymore just picking up the pad and amending dates, either taking them off as in compasses case, or adding them on, as we occasionally do. I suspect it will be a phone call with multiple recorded announcements and button presses before you get put in a 10 minute or more queue.☹️
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Steve, you may be right...but the club has invested in a pretty good app that allows us to simply make our bookings, I doubt we will all be directed to a new website or a new app.
it's likely the app will be tweaked to choke any naughtiness but will surely be there to make bookings as we do now..
whenever anyone in CT mentions some change where additional folk are involved the cry is extra cost...dearer pitches..
surely the club won't be ramping up the call centre to take calls from folk who have been able to do the same thing on their iPad..?
the industry is moving away from folk ' ringing up' where possible...as long as the rules are understood vis a vis cancellations, why not let us do it ourselves..
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If not paying a deposit and making it easy for people to cancel has caused so many issues resulting in unused pitches I have not seen any evidence of this, everywhere we've been these last few years it seems as soon as a pitch comes free it is taken the same day, I really don't believe the deposit will result in more pitches being available, the club has investigated this in the past and concluded the cost of administration outweighs the benifit, the clubs flexibility is what makes it so attractive to the majority, why haven't we had a vote it is supposed to be a members club.
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Spot on, Arch!
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My opinion is that this is commerce driven as it makes good business sense to have money rolling in by way of deposits. It's what the rest of the industry does.
TW, It also has to be a factor, no business is going to undertake a task which is going to be detreimental to them. If the C&CC bottom line is anything to go by the C&MC is heading towards increased profitability.
FYI in trying to find where I read about thousands of cancellations (not so far sucessful) at least three of the past four monthly magazines have mentioned cancellations as a factor under consideration.
peedee
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The club state:
The Club regularly evaluate payment terms and conditions to ensure they remain beneficial to both the Club and it's members. In recent months, we've seen bookings for our campsites increase significantly and that has resulted in some frustrations from members when searching for an available pitch. Introducing a deposit system will reduce speculative bookings, freeing up availability for all members as a whole, as well as giving you all more choice.
From that the primary driver would seem to be to make the booking system fairer for all, rather than reducing the number of unused pitches. I would agree, except perhaps on a very bad weather weekend, it won’t be an issue as they get rebooked.
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Or it could be that as the club says bookings have increased significantly that is causing the frustration of pitches not available, from our experience the last 2 years sites have been extremely busy resulting in any spare space seemingly turned into a pitch.
I think the club needs to put more effort into providing more spacious fit for purpose sites and pitches at a reasonable cost, it's becoming more and more like a commercial business, its supposed to be a not for profit for the members club.
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Another nine vacancies/jobs advertised for HQ at the moment, most in the marketing sphere. The “Club” is definitely ramping up its earning potential. A number of these are support for more senior positions allied to making the most of potential and selling. Cant be far off some twenty new/vacant posts advertised in last three months. Big changes are definitely ongoing. I think the Club has seen its new market during the last 18 months, and is going all out to get its share. Some Members will embrace the new, others will ride but kicking and spluttering in protest........🎢
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I know lots of Turkeys that vote for Christmas😁🤪
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"seemingly turned into a pitch" Electric bollards don't grow out of the ground!!! Planning permission has to be sought for any changes to a site.
So, I've visited 6 sites on my rest days this summer, 3 of those sites have reduced their pitch numbers. On my site the pitch capacity has been reduced by 13 in the last 5 years.
As a member you will know that any profits are ploughed back into the network. Would you prefer no profits and the club stand still and probably expire?
JK
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Peedee said:- FYI in trying to find where I read about thousands of cancellations (not so far sucessful) at least three of the past four monthly magazines have mentioned cancellations as a factor under consideration.
Having read the magazine article today the main reason given for the change in booking procedure, as far as deposits are concerned, is to discourage speculative bookings. Now surely if a stay on site is booked, even a year ahead, and that booking is taken up it is not a speculative booking? However if a site stay is booked and then cancelled (other than perhaps for an emergency) they must be categorising that as a speculative booking so the change seems to be all about cancellations even if you don't mention the word specifically?
David
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Whatever way we look at this, the story coming from the club of it being about giving us what we want is misleading and far from the whole story.
Whether it be about cancellations or purely financially motivated, the club does us a disservice by not being open and honest. Why fudge the issue?
I'm not bothered about the changes but I don’t like being treated like a mushroom.
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A vote - why? We have an elected council to represent the membership so there is no need to ask each and every one of us.
What you suggest is akin to our Councils or Govt holding referendums each time there is a proposal for change. The elected Councillors and MPs make decisions on our behalf.
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With a 'generous', 'flexible' and 'no penalty' system like the current one, CC must surely expect many cancellations...even if some of those are not as a result of a speculative booking.
as the club has no way of understanding/measuring why bookings get cancelled it can only be, as stated, about the numbers..
they have tied this thought to the many complaints about 'not getting a pitch' and tied the two together, a fait à complis...
what we will get is a not so generous, less flexible, possibly some penalty system that many will undoubtedly hate.
the bottom line, as stated many, many times is that we have too many folk chasing too few pitches.
simply by extending the valid cancellation period out to 21 days, some of those (perhaps vocal ones...) who find it hard to take them up at short notice might have got a better deal on grabbing those missing days.
certainly something that could have been tried before going to the vast expense of 'all change'...
the new system is, we are told, based on the European booking system which has been running successfully for a while...however, the nature of booking a ferry crossing and/or a few weeks in the sun doesn't depend on grabbing an extra day or so from someone else's cancellations.
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I honestly hadn't thought about the current 72 hour cancellation period still being used in the new booking system to come, there as been some speculation that could well change to a longer period perhaps 21 days.
Indeed if it were to still be within the new system T&C we would continue to do as before, but with either a refunded deposit or a deposit transfer to another booking.
It all depends on CMC T&C's, I won't hold my breath till they are printed in black and white.
We are ccc members too, where we find their bookings deposits transfer if you cancel or amend dates really easy to do, until we see which way the CMC jump regards deposits refund/transfers they probably won't get any of our bookings next year.
We'll stick with cls/cs's & independent sites we can trust to be responsible & honest on deposits we pay upfront.
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