New Site Booking System
Comments
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Obviously there will be a rider covering unforeseen events but please stop arguing about something you have no experience of.
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Yep, done that and rocked up at 11.30pm trying not to disturb folk. It’s a great system.
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Abslutely 100% agree, David.
Apart from the fact that many prefer to be able to guarantee the surface type before arriving, there is the issue of motorhomes and weight. Some motorhomes are quite large, and require a hardstanding - especially if it is wet and the motorhome is moved off and onto the pitch on a daily basis. This will contribute to churning up the grass and the possibility of leaving the pitch unusable over a period of time, maybe making it necessary to take a pitch, or pitches out of service with the possibility of the club having to cancel members bookings, last minute. It seems hardly practical (fair. ??!!) to offer motorhomers the facility to book a hardstanding, but not the caravanner - especially as there are also heavy caravans about too.
The desire for booking surface type before arrival has been discussed at Club Council (too my knowledge) for going on 10 years - partly after my own questions and contributions to discussions. A few years ago, the Club experienced a slight drop in summer bookings and a rise in 'out of season' bookings. I did point out that, personally, I would not even consider booking a standard pitch on CAMC site 'in season' as the Club could not guarantee me a hardstanding. I would happily use a private site or a C&CC site in season, where this is almost universally possible. I would book out of season pitches with the CAMC, after first checking that grass pitches were taken out of use. I did suggest that others may be doing similar, and that this was a possible reason for the 'levling out' of bookings between 'in' and 'out' of season.
Not sure of this.... can't remember, to be honest.... but if you book a surface type and wish to change when you arrive on site, I can't see any reason why this couldn't be done, providing there is a pitch available (I.e. not already booked) for the surface type you want to change to.
I'm guessing here, but I would envisage other changes in the future. Again, I'm guessing, but I wonder if we might see a further increase in full serviced pitches? With the necessity for caravanners to think carefully about how much stuff they carry (I.e. the weight of the caravan) and the desire of manufacturers to keep the weight down (possibly thinking that these leisure vehicles will ultimately need to be towed by 'electric' cars) - and especially after the circa 2016 Alko collapsed axles - leaving the aquaroll and wastemaster at home (and other things too) in order to save weight, could result in the increased demand serviced pitches. A serviced pitch is our pitch of choice now, for this very reason.
We've probably all got to be ready to accept (and make) further changes over the coming few years - not specifically within the CAMC, but with Caravanning, Motorhoming and Tenting generally. It will be interesting to see how everything pans out...
David
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I would have thought the pitch irrespective if grass or hardstanding with a view, space and sunlight would trump any hardstanding next to the toilet disposal, I've been on many sites that have this type of pitch and feel sorry for the folk that end up there, I certainly look for a pitch that appeals to me HS or grass if weather is fair.
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OH looked a while back at a CL where specific pitch booking was available, not that we would have much idea which pitch we would prefer.
Reading to the bottom it turned out that they also reserved the right to allocate you a different pitch in the interests of filling up the site...... fair enough ......but then also to ask you to move pitch during your stay, for the same reason........no chance!!
We booked elsewhere.
This year we used a CL up north where pitch booking was allowed, but they had more than 5 pitches available so no moving around needed. Only 5 pitches were in use on any one night.
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In the many years we have used clubs it's and in recent years with the growth of motor caravans. It is not very often that they move off site once pitched up ,so grass pitch damage is not it seems a problem? campervans(PVCs)some may go out for the day
The only problem as we noted at Top Lodge site was when a motor caravan thought they knew best when the warden told them to keep away from the bottom of the site as it was very soft, and they got stuck in that area and were most upset when they had to call the breakdown service to extricate them
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leaving the aquaroll and wastemaster at home (and other things too) in order to save weight, could result in the increased demand serviced pitches.
Not sure that can be true in many cases. An Aquaroll is still needed, with a plus in weight for a long hose and a float valve arrangement. While the Wastemaster could be discarded, there is again a need for a suitable waste hose which may need to be quite long. Overall probably minimal weight saved.
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But that would go for any LV that is not using an awning ,,and as I asked JK if they would have, as now , the option of taking it out of service,, to recover? but they do not now have what was called "off set" in the dash for cash by the later employed director? which gave them "wriggle room" to allow a couple of "spare" pitches in case of any on site problems when they are full
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Must have been really close to the CDP if it was a problem.
We selected a pitch at the end of a row in Barnard Castle, to be close to filling and emptying facilities. The CDP was at the end of the row, on the corner, but with a few shrubs and the usual low fence between it and our pitch, absolutely no problem.
What we would want to avoid is being opposite or beside the MH service area. Quite a few owners think it is fine to keep engine idling while using or waiting to use the service point.
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I agree it does apply to any LV not using an awning. We didn’t want to use such pitches when we had a caravan either. To me charging circa £30 for such a pitch in September, is taking the proverbial. Or any time of the year for that matter, just more of them in September.
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I don’t think that necessarily follows. It depends largely on arrival time but, arriving at the usual 1200/1300 frenzy time, you will have as much choice as you ever had. The bonus is that if you arrive later, you will still get the surface type of your choice.
You can please some of the people some of the time………. 😀
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At busy times there is not often much choice of pitches what ever time or day you arrive Mon matter what type you will in the future chose even now,
My OH is in need of the use of the disabled facilities which as the site staff will advise we will look at what we have available a couple of idays before you arrive and will cone of a pitch as close as we can, ,
On a site recently the grass pitches were not in use but are nearest to the facilities unless a serviced pitch is booked (most stupid place to put serviced pitches but drains were near
)We had a hardstand as near as possible which was about 250yds away ,
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I am not sure I would encourage the Club to go down the road of booking specific pitches. That might be all well and good on sites where people book in multiples of a week at a time but the club doesn't really work like that. OK there are a lot of members who do stay a week or maybe two or three but would they want to be dictated to that they must arrive on a set day the week as is the usual case for many sites offering this option? With people arriving for all sorts of lengths of stay it would be very difficult to neatly dovetail everyone in the make the maximum use of occupancy. The biggest problem for me is, unless I have been to the site before, how do I select a pitch from a site map and know when I actually get to the site that it will suit me?
David
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All I can say is that as both Brue and I found, it works well in Orkney where you can book any period on whatever pitch you fancy. The site plan and photos give a pretty good indication of what you’ll find.
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