New Booking System
Comments
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Our wiper motor packed up out of the blue, with rain predicted for the forthcoming period, so we were stuck on a CAMC site in Cornwall for an extra week awaiting a new unit from FIAT.
This meant we were unable to take up our CCC booking at our next site. I phoned to explain, but they were adamant that we'd lose our deposit.
I later wrote to appeal. They finally relented and held over our deposit for 12 months or until we went next. It was quite a battle, though, and it left a sour taste.
Compared to CAMC, they didn't feel like the 'friendly club' to us, although the roles have now reversed, sadly.
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It does not avoid the penalty.
A case was reported a few pages back where somebody had to postpone their three day break by one day (because a sudden hospital appointment came up, if I recall properly).
They lost one third of the deposit paid.
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Whilst on holiday I came across a couple of CLs that took my fancy, looking up on the OLD club app I found out the information I wanted easily. The map and search was so much more smoother, accurate and easier to use than the new system and I could also mark them as favourites.
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Mikenbike, try touring without locking yourself into fixed bookings. Just phone ahead on the previous evening when you are ready to move. That way you don’t pay deposits or risk losing them. Caravanners may be reluctant to break their long established booking habit but motorhomers have freedom. Enjoy your travels.
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Trying to use the booking system is like going back to the days of dial up internet, so slow and glitchy, given up trying to book sites for next year, let’s hope they get an update and sort it before there’s no members left to use it. It wasn’t broke, worked brilliantly and quickly so why change it?
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Mmmm, not so impressed. Happy to pay a deposit, not a problem, but then having to pay an additional £25 to amend the same booking from one night to another (from Friday to Thursday, a single night on site) is ridiculous when the one night cost £28 in the first place!
I do feel that the club is going to loose out in the long term in buying in a system that was originally designed for something completely different, and not investing in a bespoke system that better serves your members and site staff. And when site wardens are struggling with it in the first place doesn't that tell you something? I wouldn't mind betting that you will loose more staff, especially as it seems that you are already struggling to employ the right people for the role anyway.
Rant over, I'll just have to risk booking at the last minute as my work dictates that sometimes I need to amend bookings slightly.
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The solution to all this is just phone up for a pitch on the day. Saves any potential loss.
Previously curtailing a stay resulted in the loss of one night's fees regardless of how many nights cancelled. How does the new system deal with this?
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The solution to all this is just phone up for a pitch on the day. Saves any potential loss.
That depends on how the club use dynamic pricing. If booking late does result in an increased price, you would end up paying more. For instance, £2 / 3 a night on our recent tour where 30 of our 45 nights were on CAMC sites, would have cost £60 / 90 more. That’s a few deposits.
There will always be risks which ever route you choose.
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Not all members are looking for one night stands. I would usually want six or more consecutive nights because I want to be at that location for a while, so very unlightly to drop that lucky at one day's notice!
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Thats exactly what the club would like the members to think, they want members to book early to fill up the coffers with the deposits I suspect the forward bookings are well down on previous years this must worry them as not all forward bookers would cancel.
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Nearly all cc sites we have phoned are usually an answerphone message to return our call which has always been done
But can you book on the day at a site now as I understand payments cannot be taken at sites over the phone , it would be taken on arrival?
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Of course none of us know what form the dynamic pricing will take. However, the club could easily increase the number of early bookers by making a statement securing prices. At the moment they seem free to increase then if they like, as they did with the bookings I had for this year. The C&CC on the other hand didn’t increase any of the bookings I made with them, although they were made at the same time as those with this club. Personally that would make me far more likely to favour them, even without the age related discount
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IMHO this booking system after several dates of introduction passed, that it was pressure from above that caused it to be introduced when it was not ,and still is not ,ready for introduction for use by the majority of membership
As was intimated to me when I had to contact one of this clubs call centres to amend a booking that I had found far to complicated for me to see how to do it, (it took 17mins to get through)
Ps my booking that I needed to amend did not show our mobile number and even had a registration number that was not for our pvc
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I have spent half a day trying to find a CL, I have given up now, so at least 2 CLs have lost money through no fault of themselves, I've now booked a private site , I have also joined the C&CC today and will be using them in favour to the once Caravan CLUB, when it was run as a CLUB, It's not fair on CL owners to be loosing booking because the CLUB???? only seem to be interested in making money for the business.
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Sorry to hear that a CL will have missed out on a booking, feel very sorry for the CLs. We made sure we did use three CLs on our last tour, to show our personal support. It’s been posted and reposted a few times about the easiest method of accessing the CL network, it’s a tad more laborious than it was, but fairly easy if you know what area you want to visit. Just ask if you cannot find how to do it👍
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Search for Cumbria in the uk tab and get somewhere in New Mexico showing up, i ain’t towing my caravan there, the only time the search will be sorted is if I opt for uk booking and go to location search and NO foreign place name appears. Until then it isn’t fixed.
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Currently getting 78mbs. Never had a problem with the old system it was flawless. New system is just so glitchy, can’t even zoom out the map without at least a 30 second wait for something to happen.
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I get 225.5 mbs (is that good?)
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Well, taking deposits has stuffed us for booking anything in the future. People like us on low incomes, especially in the current climate, simply don't have the deposit needed to book a holiday, that's one of the main reasons we caravan and don't go abroad. I may as well rent a house on mainland Europe and save all the hassle and expense of owning a caravan and dragging it around England. This is our last year of caravanning that's for sure. Two pegs on a pitch, deposits, the new booking system that is absolutely hopeless and needs more info than it needs and is not what I feel comfortable inputting into, prices are too expensive, etc. I'm done with caravanning. So thank you Caravan club. You went way too far with the unwanted and unneeded changes for no reason, which was evident on our last trip to a site that has always been full. This year it was virtually empty.
Why does the booking system need our birth dates and length of my car and caravan? Sorry, but that is more information than you need and I am willing to give you. I've tried and tried to book a site for Christmas but I gave up and I am certainly not paying a deposit, even if I did have it in the first place, which I don't, nor will you have the birth dates of my children.
You knew deposits weren't wanted yet you went against members and did it anyway. My guess is you want the deposits so you earn the interest on it. Not really fair is it, earning money stealthily from your members. You work US remember. Another club that got so big they believe we work for them.
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Re the incorrect vehicle registration, I had the same experience, as have others.
I complained that the Club is not protecting our data properly, in accordance with the law, and is instead allowing leakage between members' records.
The response was that they take data security seriously and the system has simply been 'overloaded'.
Having spent an entire 40 year career in IT, in a heavily data-sensitive environment, I know full well this is complete garbage. An overloaded system simply grinds to a halt. It does NOT start moving data randomly between different records.
The new system is riddled with bugs and there's a fair chance it's now operating illegally by contravening the Data Protection Act 2018.
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we have made a couple of bookings, but I won't be making any more till things vastly improve, in the meantime we have been looking at some commercial sites at least we can see pictures of the sites plus the reviews. We did not go to the at NEC this month, but we will be attending the show there in February so a visit to club stand to ask some questions is in order as we can't see things getting any better any time soon, we have already made our feelings clear in the way we voted at the AGM I hope others did the same
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I have no IT experience but the above post from Mikenbike concern me.
Clicking on “ Subscribe to the latest topic activity in this room ' shows things rather than taking me to where it says it will.
Hope the booking system is fixed soon.
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The new system is far from where it needs to be. But you can absolutely look at pictures and reviews but you need to be logged in. Choose site, then the search button and the site and map will appear. click the review stars on the small picture on the map and the reviews will appear. Pictures of site can be scrolled through on the left.
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It's very disappointing to see on the new system booking confirmation the arrival time listed as 12pm rather the actual 1pm arrival on a site we've recently booked. Does anyone actually check the programming details? Why are these errors continuing?
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