New Booking System
Comments
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We have been members since 1996 and now note that not only are club sites as expensive and even more expensive than 'regular' sites but that the new booking system isn't fit for purpose. Surely the Club must be embarrassed by this situation. Because of a funeral that we wish to attend we wanted to amend our booking and stay at the same site but during the following week, however we were met with losing our deposit, having to pay a new deposit and pay a cancellation/amendment fee. It was cheaper to cancel and lose our £25 deposit. Can this be seen to be OK with the Club.
We could have cancelled more than 21 days before our visit but following the death of a friend or relative the funeral is never on that timescale and we do not have a crystal ball!
We have always used club sites - every year since 1996 but now will consider other sites that are of comparable standard and often cheaper.
Can the club tell us why we should continue being members?
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Terry, I am sorry you have lost a friend and that is worse than losing £25. Take it on the chin.
But I think you are going to continue to use some Club sites so it would be best to retain your membership.
Regsrds
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Terry
No contrition in the latest magazine!!!! Just a few updates on what they have done and what they are about to do plus pointing out that thousands of members have successfully booked something like 300,00 pitches since it went live.
On your other point about losing a deposit because you wanted to attend a funeral. There is some anecdotal evidence that some people, when contacting the club direct, that they have received a sympathetic hearing regarding illness and the like. I imagine there are no set rules and it will depend on the individual circumstances. I think many have been shocked by the quite severe penalties imposed when wanting to amend a booking by the odd day especially as the Club does not actually lose money if you swap one day for another. It might be worth your while contacting the Club to discuss it?
David
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Really sorry to hear of your very sad news and can understand how you feel with the club, but from what I have seen other comparable sites no matter what the cost have far worse T&C with paying up front more than three weeks in advance and losing all if you then cancel.
That is no consolation to the way you feel and nor is it meant to be but something to consider as only you can decide if memberships is worth continuing.
As said by DK someone did post to say they were initially refused a refund but when they contacted the club directly things changed.
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At the moment, ISTM that the best tactic is to book direct with the site on the day or the day before.
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CY, I agree with you - but it’s going to be hard for many Club members to break their advance booking habit of a lifetime and adopt that way of doing things. I’m afraid there will be many more angry complaints on here about lost deposits before it happens.
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You're missing the point that these advance booking habits of a lifetime as you call them (for the second time) are required if one wants to use certain sites and be certain of getting a certain date. They are not habits, they are forced on people as club sites are so popular.
You fly I believe (sorry if not and substitute something you do book for - ferries)? Did you just book on the day hoping there was a space?
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It probably will upset some in the year ahead if they haven't taken on board the new t&cs although CAMC is slightly better with a 21 day cut off, the opposition is 31 days.
I sympathise with life events and illness so it's always worth a call in some circumstances.
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Yes, they are not all selected for their inter personal skills, are they., I remember diving into Wincanton Racecourse ten years ago just few minutes before 8 pm. and saying Phew, just made it .
Now the staff training manual would give the warden a choice of replies - Please sit down and relax, sir. or Did you come far sir ? or What was the traffic like, sir, or even Nice to see you again, sir, Or I will show you a vacant pitch, sir.
What I got was, There’s a pitch down that end, now let’s see if you can park properly. And he carried on chatting to the groupies who were clustered round him.
Ten years ago, and it sticks in my mind.
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We or more I have decided that a look at the new (when received) directories of both clubs is to be our future method if going on a tour,to see what is in the next area of travel and a phone call to sites or cl/cs with disabled facilties for vacancies that day or day before in case we need to return home before moving on
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I think the main reason of booking early was because of the lack of choice if left untill later,with the latest booking system and as advised to me just today the majority of bookings that this club have apparently received have been done via the call centres as extra have had to be implemented to cater for the big rise in phone call bookings
And this next year as the finance director. said at the AGM "dark clouds are gathering" at IMHO it is not just the financial problems that members may find themselves in with the recetion we are in.
I think we may well be as it was when we first joined a touring club being pitches available when and where members want even at weekends at short notice
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Do you know when there will be an improvement in the booking system? I'm not complaining about the fact we pay deposits (although I'm not keen) but more the user experience with booking. I don't mind needing to put in details of party etc but please can I only do it once somewhere in my profile etc so that i don't have to keep putting in children, dates of birth, car length etc etc. Its really annoying.
Also it doesn't seem to let you choose an area eg peak district when trying to find a site like I used to.
you have to name a site or you get the whole map that is a bit clunky to zoom in etc and it retains earlier year dates so is trying to check availabilty at the same time.
Finding it really frustrating.
Starting to wonder if membership is worth it as I found the old booking system great. now it feels like hard work to book
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Sent 3 weeks ago an email with all the details Ferry Crossing and campsites we wanted to stop with all info re dates etc.
Finally got a reply with details of two crossings, and told to contact if I needed more help etc.
Cannot use auto booking on line as we have a credit (due to covid) to use.
Telephone club and had to wait 27mins for someone to answer. Asked to speak to the person who sent me the email re crossings. The person I spoke to said he would send an email asking the lady to contact me urgently as she works from home.It's now 9days and no call.
At this time of year lots of members will be booking to go abroad and we need more bums on seats at Office and not at home. Service Please. First time I have complained re club.
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Made me smile yesterday, I tried out the location search, it has improved slightly but a long way to go. I experimented and put in East Grinstead (where CAMC is based) and the first one up was the East Grinstead Hockey Club. Anyone who's been on the receiving end of a hockey stick bearing down on them will know the effect that has...maybe more oomph is also needed in the IT dept ?!!
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The hockey club only comes up if you continue and type East Grinstead in full, as it’s then looking for places in EG. As soon as I had typed East, East Grinstead UK was top of the list. More annoying is that the second one down is East Side Gallery in Berlin.
The above quirks apart it now works well. Search on East Grinstead UK and it comes up with a map and list covering about a 15 mile radius around EG with Alderstead Heath and 11 CL’s.
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Thought I'd make another contribution on the suitability of the new booking system.
I originally expected the worse when I heard there was to be a new booking system and made a lot of forward bookings, I'm so pleased I did!
I have now started looking for CL sites to tour in 2023 and I have to say that after 30mins I have decided to give up (I have a short attention span).
I set a few parameters in the filters, Hard standing, Toilets, Village/Town nearby. The list of locations offered, (bearing in mind I had selected Wales) was as follows;
1.Wales. 2.Lancashire. 3.Yorkshire. 4.Staffordshire. 5.Lancashire. 6.Wales. 7.Leicester. 8.Lancashire. 9.Yorkshire. 10 Staffordshire. 11.Cheshire. 12.Lincolnshire !
Frankly there is no point in using the web site if this is the quality of the search engine, I'll stick to using the book.
So I thought I'd check Trust pilot to see what the general view of the members is on the new web site, knowing it wouldn't be too good. Not wanting to teach you guys how to suck eggs but when using Trust Pilot you must remember to search for the organic reviews. These are true unsolicited reviews. The club 'invites' reviews which invariably are very good reviews and they completely distort the overall score given by Trust Pilot.
I have tried to attach a screenshot of the Organic reviews dated today, but not sure if it will be attached. The image shows that 11% of contributors give the club a 5 star rating, however 71% of contributors give the club a 1 star rating! We can't assume they are all members but they probably are if they are using the booking system.
Taking the 'invited' reviews into consideration the club claim 52% of members rate the club 5 star and only 8% rate the club 1 star, therefore achieving an overall score of 3.6 out of 5.
Just goes to show how you can adjust a truly bad rating by adding invited reviews to make the club seem its performing adequately.
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Martym, We went to India. We decided where in the country we wanted to go. We booked somewhere to stay as we moved around. Can’t you do that for your visit to Wales.? Travel is simple..
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Comparing India to Wales for caravan touring - that’s a new twist on things🤣🤣🤣
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Yes like (over there) cubed
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