New Booking System
Comments
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Feeling a bit shocked and this might be the last year of our club membership (we have been members since late 1990's) :-
1. Neither of us remember the announcement that the booking system was changing. We have only just discovered it.
2.We are computer literate and trying to find site availability is a nightmare. Please bring back the facility to be able to see which sites had availability. As the search facility is less than good. In fact please bring back the old system.
3. The club has previously trialled pitch choosing and I seem to remember it being abandoned as like others, one of the things we liked about the club is choosing our pitch when we got there so it suited our needs (not whether it was grass or hard standing)
4. We will not be booking while you ask for full date of birth and haven't got a clue how long our car is and why either is relevant? Feels like a massive data grab by someone.
5. One of the advantages of the club was the flexibility to move bookings or change, which over the years has been really helpful to us when my mother in-law suddenly went to end of life (we were able to book another site closer) or when our car broke down or our daughter on holiday fell and had an accident.
6. Late availability with people cancelling was actually a benefit to some of us that are now not able to plan a long way in advance as we could pick up cancelled pitches.
7. If you have to cancel for good reason within 21 days eg illness or car break down will deposits be refunded? and what happens if it's a multi stay trip which ours tend to be?
8. Its not surprising with covid there are a lot of late cancelations and given how full sites are when you stay on them why is this now a problem?
As a club of members, I think the club should be asking for a refund for this terrible and what seems untested, glitchy, difficult to navigate booking system, we have spotted so many errors in it including Northumberland being incorrectly spelt.
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Hello
I said at the begging when this new booking system was first muted by the club why try to fix something when its not broken. Some people said it was broken it was changed simply because some selfish members was booking and not turning up.
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If I have understood correctly that you have amended your booking by date rather than length of stay? It seems that any changes made within 21 days of arriving are going to cost the member, even if the Club doesn't actually lose money! The Club don't seem to have been very up front with this aspect of the booking system prior to its introduction. Given the raison d'être of the new system was to stop speculative bookings and therefore providing more availability the reality seems to have gone way beyond that?
Clearly many people used the CMC because the booking system was generous compared to most of the equivalent competition like the C&CC and the majority of commercial sites. I do just wonder if you wanted to move a stay by one day at these non CMC sites whether you would pay extra for an amendment assuming they had space to accommodate the change?
David
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Thank you Stuart & Patricia. That gives a good steer. The new system is too inflexible and punitive to our style of touring then, where we would sometimes amend pre-booked sites a few days ahead as we progressed.
I suspect the answer to your question, then, is yes you'd have been penalised a fourteenth of your deposit, but that deposit would have been a very much larger figure (which, as I understand it, is 20% of the total, with a £25 minimum).
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It seems that any changes made within 21 days of arriving are going to cost the member, even if the Club doesn't actually lose money!
Well said, sir! Exactly the point I've been trying to make too. To those of us whose touring plans are flexible, the choice is now to throw away bucketloads of money as our plans evolve, or not make any bookings ahead and risk finding sites already filled.
This looks like sheer commercialism, not a club there for its members.
For us, the CAMC has lost its unique selling point and is now no more attractive than the competition that we also belong to. We always favoured CAMC's flexibility, so we used them far more than CCC. That will now change.
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I think one or two folks did say that the whole exercise appeared to be much more than sorting out the number of late cancellations, when it was first mooted earlier this year. The Club have got it’s cash extraction claws very firmly in view now, and even some of those who shouted loud for deposits are perhaps thinking this goes way beyond expectations. There’s no doubt it will ease the late cancellation issue. You change or cancel anything within three weeks of arrival at peril to your purse now! It’s a Club for the fit, healthy, no caring commitments at all and wealthy now!
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The club will 100% loose site bookings due to the introduction of financial penalties due to changes that sometimes have to be made for a variety of personal reasons at short notice, I can see a U turn in the future but the damage done to club membership relationships will be permanent .
As far as the new booking system navigation is concerned I guess in time we will get used to the changes but one wonders why the changes have been so comprehensive and were they necessary ?
There is no doubt we will use alternative providers more in the future, prior to these changes our first choice was CMC.
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Hi, just tried to amend a booking for next April by arriving one day later, the whole stay is now more expensive than the original booking despite being one day shorter?
the reason £10.24 admin fee and a £51.84 cancellation fee?Apparently can only be resolved via a phone call. Teething problems but does appear overly complicated🤗
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I am sorry you are finding things difficult. Personally I have no idea about the wayward app, or refunds, or changes of mind ,or switching from one site to another….but making an initial booking on the Club website seems to me very quick, very easy.,and very straightforward.
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The new booking system doesn't work!
At All! I have spent hours trying to book one site next January/February and even got as far as the 'Basket' button which then wouldn't respond. Revenue is being lost by this system being implemented. Far more damaging than the Pandemic!
Everything that has already been said here and on other websites is true. I am seriously thinking of never booking again!
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Did you go through to the payment page and complete the booking, Euro, or just try another dummy run?
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With the new system, is anyone else finding the website and App very slow, especially when you choose to "explore map?" It takes a really long time for it to load. I really liked the old app where you could select the maximum distance from a particular location, I found it a really useful filter. If I'm missing something/have done something wrong, please advise me!
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Sadly the broken system for even partial cancellations fails for bookings MORE than 21 days ahead !
See my post 13/10/2022 14:36, with screenshots of the shambles occurring.
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Yes, sadly the broken system for even partial cancellations fails for bookings MORE than 21 days ahead !
For me like you.
See my post 13/10/2022 14:36, with screenshots of the shambles occurring.
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It is working badly, with a bad 'experience' !
The broken system for even partial cancellations fails for bookings MORE than 21 days ahead !
See my post 13/10/2022 14:36, with screenshots of the shambles occurring.
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Having read your comment I decided to also read the T&C's. For the most part they are badly written and confusing, not just the cancellation clause. Most first year law students could do better whilst asleep. It would appear that not only does CAMC need to rectify its booking system it also needs to employ a competent commercial lawyer to write reasonable, workable and understandable terms.
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Given the raison d'être of the new system was to stop speculative bookings and therefore providing more availability the reality seems to have gone way beyond that?
David it is now obvious to many that the change to the new booking system is all about getting as much cash as possible from members, rather than, as you suggest, to stop speculative booking. That may well be what they at HO want people to believe but as tda says it goes way much further than that and it really a thirst for gold.
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If only there was someone we could send letters of No Confidence to🤔
Talking of money grabbing did anyone else see the reason given on TrustPilot for asking for Dates of Birth of children? The company reply was that if a birthday should occur during the stay which moved the child into a higher rate then they would charge extra for it!
That should tell you who is now running the club. It's the equivalent of No.11 in the alternative land of chaos.
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Yes I saw it WN.🤔 It struck me as a complete lack of trust in the Membership, very sad. The moral of the story seems to be don’t celebrate a child’s birthday on Site, or staff might be sent knocking on your door.☹️
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Problem: Late/ no shows - Penalty - slapped hand unless serial offender.
Solution: Extend original paltry 72 hour period to 14/21 days - Penalty - All members card details held on file - Fixed/variable fee levied as required to achieve compliance.
Advantages: No deposits required. No website redesign required.
Analysis: Insufficient thought given to addressing the underlying issue previously identified and implementation of a cost-effective solution.
Conclusion: IT Department and CAMC senior executive not fit for purpose.
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All members card details held on file -
- until they are stolen by crooks.
It will not have escaped the notice of criminals how bad the software in use actually is, and they will be looking for loopholes that can be exploited to their advantage.
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Thank goodness for CLs - the vast majority are run by people with hearts and souls - and can operate as normal human beings with all the variations in character that means some we love but some are 'micro' CAMC's. - But at least we have a choice!
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Yes, we (you and I) discussed it, particularly in respect of C&CC who already operate dynamic pricing. It remains to be seen if CAMC follow suit.
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Booking a site this year took me back 15 years,no problem at all, plenty of availability. The honeymoon is over. I will book a site as and when I need to and if there is no availability in the area I want,then I will look to private sites instead.
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That’s one way of using the dynamic element. However, it only works if there is a huge, and I mean huge, demand for pitches. So it might work in the peak months, (families with children bearing the brunt) but after that, it would need to discount in the non busy periods to fill the pitches.
They aren’t filling the Experience Freedom Glamping Pods at non busy times, as I keep getting special offers emailed through. It’s almost as cheap to stay in a GP on offer as it is to book a pitch at times.
Its all a huge financial win win for the Club. Financially secure, healthy Members won’t be that bothered, everyone else can just find their own solution.
The new Booking System with all its hitches and glitches pales into insignificance compared with the shake up to the T&Cs.
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