Allocating pitches by site manager!

nelliethehooker
nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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edited September 2022 in UK Campsites & Touring #1

We arrived at Bromyard Downs this lunchtime and on booking in was told I was on a certain pitch. We had booked an awning pitch a while ago and expected to be on a H/S, but one of our choosing. We now have a relatively short caravan, 6.6 m length, so all those empty should have been suitable for our unit. I was able to change from the last level to the upper one but still only onto another allocated pitch. The warden said that this had always been the way here, but I know full well that it hadn't as we have here in the past. Is this going to be another retrograde change following the introduction of the new system?

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  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,385
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    edited September 2022 #2

    Having a motorhome of 8 meters, I have always been allocated a pitch when staying there Nellie. Perhaps the Manager was just trying to obtain the best fit for the arrivals due?

    peedee

     
  • JollyKernow
    JollyKernow Forum Participant Posts: 2,629
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    edited September 2022 #3

    Afternoon

    Our brief for a good few years has been to make sure every outfit with a booking has a suitable pitch for it's size, allocation of a pitch if necessary. Pitch management is even more important now that a surface type can be booked.

    While I'm on, the £2 charge for extra cars is just that, extra cars. As in more than one on a pitch.

    Question:_ What does "unpredictable seasonals" mean in another thread please?

     

    JK

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,040 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #4

    Like you, we have used Bromyard Downs lots of times, and have never ever been allocated a pitch. If fact, our favourite is that little pitch at the back of the Site, lower level, right under the Quarry. It was coned off once when we stayed, not quite sure why, but I asked and staff happily let us use it.  

    I would be amazed if Bromyard Downs ever had a flurry of huge vans and MHs, it’s the kind of place that seldom gets full. I thought the new system was merely a choice between a HS or a grass pitch? Obviously if there is a very large outfit expected, that might need allocating, as they do at Exeter with the big slide outs.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,596 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #5

    This is the second post I have read this last week that mentioned a pitch being allocated. The other mentioned wasn't Bromyard but I can't remember where. 'Twas on one of the threads about the new system.

    We weren't allocated a pitch the last time we used Bromyard a couple of years ago so the warden is incorrect.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #6

    There’s a new review of Bromyard citing being allocated a pitch for the first time ever.

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,040 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #7

    Give me twenty minutes to get into Club Site reviews Tinny, and I will read it!🤣

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #8

    It’s much quicker via LA…..😀

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,040 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #9

    Yes, I usually go that way to be honest. I hope the pitch allocation thing is only temporary while the change over from booking pre update, and post update are dealt with. Some of the pitches on some Club Sites are not nice. 

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited September 2022 #10

    On the two sites we have and are now on members have been asked if they would move as it seems like most what has been happening in this club recently an email to sites was received after members had already chosen their pitch as usually done but was not the alercated type?

    The member next to us was so asked after he was set up 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited September 2022 #11

     I can understand that, but the site is well over half empty, with a number of the larger pitches empty, and more units leaving than arriving. Over the top reaction I fear.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #12

    Ah well, it won’t be long before wardens are lining vans up nose to tail dead in line and inspecting regularly to make sure nobody's an inch out of place🙄. I remember the bad old days😖

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited September 2022 #13

    It's nearly like that here now, as each pitch is marked, in white paint, at the four corners of the area one is "required" to pitch , never mind pitching to a post or even between two!yell

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #14

    It used to be like a military parade ground. Seems the club is going backwards at a rate of knots 🙁

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,596 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #15

    I was going to post "Quite unbelievable" but as it's Nellie I can quite believe it, but nevertheless........ I left school a long time ago and this is taking the proverbial.

  • HelenandTrevor
    HelenandTrevor Forum Participant Posts: 3,221
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    edited September 2022 #16

    Nellie, We have been using Bromyard Downs for a few years too, and have always been able to choose a pitch.  In October last year when we arrived we were allocated a pitch for the first time and after checking in, I was asked if we had a motor mover, when I said yes the site manger said we must use it and not reverse onto the pitch.

    The male site manager was waiting by our allocated pitch on the top  part of the site, and although the easiest way to access pitch was to nose car onto the empty pitch opposite and reverse straight back, he insisted we unhitched and used the mover!  Trevor who can quite happily reverse the caravan onto a pitch was not amused. 😬😬The same white markers were sprayed onto the hardstanding too, we were checked to make sure we were pitched within them too.  Must be the same site managers?  😄

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited September 2022 #17

    Could well be, H&T, although it was the relief wardens here when we arrived, and they said that they had been told to do it by the full time site managers. If those wardens are here next year there Could well be no units for them to site the way it is going, with at least 1 empty seasonal pitch and a total of 10 occupied pitches tonight. It could be part of the club's plan to eliminate all the non-facility sites, the way it is going.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,596 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #18

    Who the heck are these people at Bromyard Downs?

    I can well understand a polite request to use the motor mover to avoid damaging wet grass anywhere on a site but a request it should be.

    I've never heard of that happening Helen and I'm not surprised Trevor was not amused. I'm not sure I would have done it to be honest. Would he have refused to allow you to reverse on with the car if you didn't have a motor mover? Gives wardens a bad name and if this is the route they are taking then I can see a lot of very unhappy customers and some very angry exchanges happening. How to keep the customer happy eh?

    I don't think I'll be staying there anytime in the future if the wardens remain the same.

  • HelenandTrevor
    HelenandTrevor Forum Participant Posts: 3,221
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    edited September 2022 #19

    Wherenext,  I have a feeling we'd have been asked to push the caravan on to the pitch if we hadn't got a mover 🤣

    Nellie,  the site was very quiet last year too, but I put it down to it only being a week before they closed for the season. 🤔 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited September 2022 #20

    H&T, I bet the site manager wouldn't have given you a hand to do that either!!😁

  • JollyKernow
    JollyKernow Forum Participant Posts: 2,629
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    edited September 2022 #21

    Woohoo, not had a warden bashing thread for a good while, quite entertainingcool

    JK

  • eurortraveller
    eurortraveller Club Member Posts: 6,829 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #22

    It wasn’t wardens who turned me off Club sites many years ago and I never criticised them - after all I had no more interaction with them than with the lady at the petrol station pay desk today. In both cases I just went inside to pay and came straight out again. It was the sheer number of rules, regimentation, regulations and restrictions on Club sites. And it seems to be what others are describing here. So I gave it up.

  • Whittakerr
    Whittakerr Club Member Posts: 3,472 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #23

    if the reports are accurate it’s quite disgusting behaviour by the wardens.

     

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited September 2022 #24

    Please tell me what I have said that you consider as being inaccurate. This is only the second club site in over 40 yrs of using them where I have a had concerns with the wardens' attitude. On previous visits here we have only had very good dealings with the wardens, who have been both helpful and friendly.

  • JollyKernow
    JollyKernow Forum Participant Posts: 2,629
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    edited September 2022 #25

    I trust those "reporters" went through the proper channels to complain about the service they received and the "disgusting behaviour" of the site staff site at the time? Or maybe as usual prefer to take to social media to highlight their plight?

    As I said, quite entertaining.

    JK

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #26

    Can you not throw some light on this, JK? Too many people have commented of experiencing the same issue for it not to have a basis in truth. I don’t think it can be lightly dismissed.

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,040 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2022 #27

    Well, given we were thinking of Wales Nellie, BD could have been our transition stop, but I’m blowed if we are going to have someone like you are describing parking us up inch bloody perfect.😡

    JK, you know that many of us have nothing but time of day and a lot of respect for Site staff, and fully understand that they have to deal with some awkward customers and a total load of sphericals from HQ, but this is taking the mickey. This isn’t staff bashing, far from it. It’s about having some respect for those visiting, and using some common sense. It’s supposed to be a holiday, not a ruddy boot camp for semi delinquents.

    Agree with Tinny, is this sort of carry on going to be the norm at every site, under all circumstances, or is it trying to manage this transitional booking period? Surely on a half empty Site it’s a bit OTT, unless it’s another blanket rule without due regard to individual sites? 

  • ish05
    ish05 Forum Participant Posts: 22
    edited September 2022 #28

    We were there in August. We asked for a grass pitch but were refused. He told us he was going close the grass pitches and cancel 8 bookings due to them being wet, which we thought doubtful, being at the end of a drought. We disliked our allocated plot so left early. In our opinion the pitch was too small to be classed as an awning pitch, the white lines were necessary to fit the caravan and awning on, the car had to go across the front almost in the roadway.
    The caravan on the next plot was put on by the warden with his tractor because it didn’t have a mover. 
    The wardens were very pleasant and helpful apart from the rigid pitch allocation.

     

  • HelenandTrevor
    HelenandTrevor Forum Participant Posts: 3,221
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    edited September 2022 #29

    JK

    I certainly wasn't " warden bashing" I was just posting what we were asked to do by the wardens. They were polite but firm and we complied. Both wardens were in fact very pleasant during our stay . It was just the fact it was unusual to be asked to unhitch and use our mover, and to be watched to make sure we did, that's all. 

     

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited September 2022 #30

    On the two club sites we have been on have both been pulling their hair out after the pitch allocation was advised to them when some members had already chosen their pitch and set up

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited September 2022 #31

     It is it seem like a club site we were on last year ,we asked if we could leave a bit later as the journey to the next site was about 40mins 

    But it was refused as the pitch we were on had to be inspected? before it could be used again,  we were on a hardstand ?

    When I said we would not get away by 1200 as my OH was not having good day I was advised I would be reported to EGH if we were not off by 1200undecided