New Booking System
Comments
-
Mention of holiday insurance is in Club’s new T&Cs as well DD. I fear there are going to be a lot of folks who get caught out this next year or so. Will happily tick that box without reading, then get stung badly if anything does happen.
There’s some seriously cute selling going on at the Club now, all looking to fully maximise whatever income they can. Book early, and you risk money making any changes, or having to cancel. Book later and you will likely pay extra. Not communicated clearly either☹️
3 -
I am sure that will have an impact on some members, particularly those who see their discretionary spending power being reduced and not helped by the seemingly constant moving of support goalposts by the Government. How that impacts on the Club, particularly with the new booking system, we have yet to see. I think it was Peedee who mentioned that 2023 will likely be the first "normal" year since 2019 in terms of people getting back to regular holiday patterns with probably a reduction in staycations. Its difficult to predict anything at the moment but you could see a situation where it creates a perfect storm for the Club. People returning to previous forms of holiday, it won't be all but there will be a percentage. People unwilling to book sites so far in advance as they will be unwilling to invest in large deposits. Made worse because of uncertainty over energy and other prices as we go into next year. People generally cutting back because of all the financial uncertainty. Now that is not the fault of the new booking system per se but the Club could find that it puts a brake on people booking in advance. I suppose dynamic pricing works both ways and if the Club do see bookings reduce to any degree they have the option to lower prices as well as increase them?
David
3 -
The large holiday company sites such as Parkdean or Haven, which rent static vans do tend to lower their prices the nearer it gets to the dates that their vans are rented and the price of their vans if very reasonable, out of season, compared with the prices of the CMHC rented accommodation.
1 -
Insurance was our major cause of disagreement with the Club as well. More smoke and mirrors at the time, unclear T&Cs. We happily walked away, got a better deal.
Re holiday booking websites, most we use (cottages, hotels, niche B&Bs, etc…..) discount properties, rooms etc…… the closer the cut off date gets. It’s a well known marketing tactic, and will tempt in those who don’t like to over plan, or don’t fixate on a small platform of offers.
Having no shame, and the bargaining skills of a Souk Arab, I will happily walk into a nice residential pub around 6pm and see what price I can have a room for. If it’s too expensive, I will politely leave, but go back an hour later and ask again. Got two nights for £70 in a gorgeous Fowey hotel a few years ago, they should have been £150 each. We did eat in restaurant, only polite to do so with a bargain like that. Even got the pooch fee waived🤣 An empty room, cottage, pitch brings in no income at all. Given the profit margins on such commodities, soaking up the odd discounted room, cottage, pitch can cover costs, better than nothing at all🤷♀️Perhaps the Club might consider using Trivago, AirBnB……that would be fun😉
The Club won’t commit to much in the way of discounts because it knows it has a loyal, largely unquestioning, well off, need to be booked well in advance, core of Members, who hardly ruffle a feather at every single price increase, large or small, that the Club imposes. They cannot lose in a situation as comfy as this. Hence why it’s so quiet from the loftiest perches in HQ.
2 -
CAMC is a not for profit organisation and as such any profits get ploughed back into the organisation. Profit margins are probably tight so trying to "work the system" probably won't bring a lot of success. The club has said that discounts will be on offer so we'll see at some point what appears as I'm sure they bring in revenue especially the mid-week discounts.
0 -
I suspect there is a large proportion of the membership who still have no idea that there is a new booking system / deposits. When we were working we weren’t able to book anything for the following year until January at the earliest. Although it was going then, I had no interest in CT and paid scant attention to the magazine. There are going to be a lot of surprised folk.😂
4 -
I so agree last time we were away it was very obvious when in conversation with,other members, it seems with the T&Cs that are difficult to understand, quite a few members are going to be out of pocket ,with the draconian it seems deposits , and this clubs yet to be unveiled full and honest information about what is in the pipeline? , as to what is the direction with reference to any "discounts?"to replace mid week discounts and whether they are going to introduce an insurance policy to cover cancellations
That has been stated in several answers to questions
0 -
If that was going to be allowed , as the sites are now in charge of Manager? we could then be in the situation with motor caravans especially of a late rush for pitches , even more so if it was a site that may have been upgraded with metered EHU
0 -
Has the same person from the other club who set up there website working for this club now I.e. a ten year old !!!
0 -
Not a cat in hell’s chance😁 Not saying staff wouldn’t like to, more aren’t allowed to do anything like this. That’s why having conversations with independent owners can be more rewarding.
Few years ago, OH was forced to tour alone for part of time, with me commuting to various locations to meet up, we were surprised how nice some of the small private sites were in terms of offering a small reduction for a small MH with only one person. Unasked as well.0 -
Even if it is pretty meaningless.
0 -
But it is bringing the star rating down, although intresting, comments on here are ignored and cause little grief for those responsible for the changes, I would encourage everyone to air their grievance on here, trust pilot, facebook and any other review platforms.
1 -
It’s the reviews bringing the star rating down, not the meaningless responses.
I think quite a lot has been done in airing grievances across various forums and review sites, including that cracker of a review now featuring on CAMC's own membership page.
1 -
Having a look at the ratings on Trustpilot and assuming that most of the complaints will be in two and one star sections there are only about 600 posts which is a relative small number compared to the 3000 in the five star section. At what point the dissatisfied will peak out we don't know. There are nearly 1300 posts in this thread although many members have made multiple posts. Even if the likes of Jess, from the Club, wanted a change of scenery and come on here I am not sure we would be any the wiser. The only people that can answer specific questions are the senior management and I think, having shown no interest in coming onto this forum we will probably have to wait until the AGM to get answers. To that end people will have to ask questions which can't be brushed off in the same way as they are Trustpilot?
David
1 -
How long will it take to see the improvements on the location search which is on the "fix" list? I typed in Warwickshire today, first thing up was the name and full address of Warwickshire Agricultural College where one of my family works. Followed by another local College and then a hospital. It's incomprehensible that this was passed and signed off as a suitable search engine.
Or is it a sign that correct addresses and places are not high on the list of CAMC IT and shows a lack of knowledge about geography?
6 -
Brue
I suspect it's because they seem to be using Google as the base for the search facility. Whilst they are going to filter out the USA, but not Europe, according to one comment by the Club I wonder that is the extent of the possible filtering? Not very satisfactory I appreciate.
David
0 -
Given the length of time it takes to find out the cost per night to stay on a club site, I wonder how many will just visit a commercial website where the information is available in a couple of clicks. Life is too short to waste time trying to find out how much a stay on a CAMC site is.
6 -
Any system which has been lifted up and then bolted clumsily onto a global search facility, when the vast majority of stays booked are in the UK, is pretty much doomed to failure, UNLESS careful steps have been taken to filter by country right at the start of one's search.
It goes without saying that such a filter should feature prominently and should actually work.
2 -
I was going by a reply to one of the reviews on Trustpilot, which said:-
Reply from Caravan and Motorhome Club (previously The Caravan Club)
2 days ago
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I am sorry you have found the new system to be disappointing. In the background some updates have been made on which Google service we use which have already made improvements over the last few days on the accuracy of search, and the final stage is to remove results coming back from the US and Canada.This final fix should be done by the end of this week, in the meantime please be assured that results coming back for the USA is a temporary issue and it will be Europe only. We do appreciate your patience during this time, we do understand that some of the obstacles have been frustrating~JamieIt looks as if you are still going to get European place names crop up in the search so I imagine the selection of either UK Sites or European Sites by tab might not solve the problem? This is such a basic problem it should have been sorted well before any member tried to use it?
0 -
It’s actually fairly quick CY.
Type in site you are interested in.
Press Search
Press check availability.
Indicate how many are staying and pitch type
The total price per night is shown on the calendar and can be quickly scrolled forward. Or you can put in dates.
Just checked took all of 30seconds.
2
