New Booking System
Comments
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I don't generally 'do' Facebook but, as there was a link at the top of one of the Club pages, I thought I'd take a look....
what a disastrous PR machine that is for the club...hundreds of negative posts.
here's my take on the repeated format of the site, bearing in mind that most 'threads' are started as a promo by the club...
"visit our wonderful seaside campsites this year...."
"I tried but the booking system is dreadful so I gave up"..(me too, me too, me too....)
"I'm so sorry your experience was bad, rest assured we take all these comments on board and are working hard to put them right"
this scenario is repeated over and over again, the more PR posts being put out by the club, the more members are telling it that 'they'd love to' but can't use the system.
then we have the promos for CLs and the real fun starts....
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It appears that I've not visited the 'new' site to look for sites until yesterday. I'm not interested in booking club sites. Or indeed booking: I'm interested only in browsing CLs to find details/reviews/prices etc. before choosing and then calling selected ones as is intended. I no longer seem able to browse for the sites in a sensible way, and chunks of information that used to be available no longer is. And no price information. And no 'click through' to a specific page for the site. With reviews.
There are 244 pages (so far) on this thread. From my dipping in, the vast majority appear to relate to Club Sites and the booking thereof. To save me reading through 244 pages which will probably make me deeply depressed, can anyone advise whether I am right in my synopsis re. CLs? Or am I missing a trick re. the best way to browse for them and to access specific site information?
While I have a terrible suspicion I know the answer, it would be good to be properly informed.
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TheWanderer2. Your suspicions are right...
If looking for a browsing list eg sites near a town or in a county the new booking system will present you with a maximum list of 20 names. If it's a big county with a lot of CLs this could mean you'll see the first one starting with A and this might get as far B, you won't be able to browse any further and will need the map. All the other CLs will be missing from the list, not good for CL sites from C-Z etc. The map might produce more results but if you've got a small device like a smart phone it could all take some time.
So no, browsing is out, frustration is in.....
The alternative is to click on CLs in the find a UK campsite section and browse as before. As long as CAMC doesn't delete this section for the time being (which it intends to do) the old ways are the best!
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After having another try using the new system to search CL'S, I see that "closed CL'S " still show on the map/lists. Searching using the new booking system is still clunky and slow using my phone or tablet and as Brue says the CL list only gets to the b's if there are plenty of cls in an area, so frustrating!!
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Good point Brue but it can go one step further.
Let’s say, for example, that someone going to Wales wants to visit Powis Castle near Welshpool but doesn’t know a CL name.
All they need do is to use the method you described and type Welshpool in the search box. Bingo, job done. Lots of CLs to choose from.
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I was told on here, find the site you like, type the name in on your search engine and it will bring up the old system with prices, how long it will work for is another question
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You can do the same on the app BUT you must type 'Welshpool UK'. It doesn't recognise 'Welshpool' on its own.
the search returns the first 20 sites as mentioned earlier. What I can't see is what distance from Welshpool the app returns sites.
obviously, if it's 50 miles then there will always be more than 20 sites which means only those at the front of the alphabet.
the club needs to either check the included distance, to restrict those returned, or to allow scrolling on those that it does return...probably need a bit of both.
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Yes the majority of comments here are about club sites, at least in part because of deposits and payment options. However there are also quite a lot of posts about CLs - several of us have been banging on about the issues, especially as the changes wanted by the club were nothing to do with CLs. As someone points out down thread, the only way to find more detail about a CL you might want to visit is by putting the name in the search engine.
If your device works with the map then you can get outline info about some possible sites. I have the Club site open in two tabs, one with the map and the other where I search for individual sites that might be possible. Totally dire. And whilst the links to the full information is supposed to be one of the future fixes, there is no time scale for when it might happen.
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Does anyone really want a list of more than 20 CL’s ranged from A to Z.? True if you put in Powys UK you get a large map area and only a maximum of 20 in the list, none of which you have any idea of actual location.
Where as if you put in a specific location, such as Welshpool UK, you get a small map area with 4 CL’s, which you can see the locations of and they are listed in the side pane. If they don’t suit you can move the map pane about your desired location of Welshpool and others will appear and be listed in the side pane.Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t think let’s go to Somerset, which would return masses of results, but to say Cheddar which returns the CC site and 4 CL’s.
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At present Steve if I input Somerset (my county) as a location I get Somerset House Ice Rink in London as the first port of call, it has to be Somerset UK to get the ball rolling. I then get a list of CAMC main sites in the area and then a few CLs which start with A Alice St Farm near Frome as far as F Forton near Chard.
It's ludicrous to get all these other places if UK isn't added to the county search. Then main sites with CLs as an afterthought.
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Just want to say that many of us caravanners like to be spontaneous too . We're not all of the "steadies down for a week or so " persuasion.
You're correct though that it has become more difficult to hit the open road without a set plan, which is a pity.
Fond memories of caravanning with my parents in the 1970s- 80s - NE Scotland to Yugoslavia, Spain etc. NOTHING pre booked apart from the ferry !
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I agree about having to put in, or select UK, that should be a given. However, my point was why would anyone want a list of perhaps 50 or more sites all over Somerset. Perhaps we are strange, but we normally have a specific destination in mind and would look for sites in that vicinity, where a list 20 long is adequate.
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I agree with both Steve and Brue....
firstly, there will be many coming to the new site for the first time, and who aren't CT members and who won't know about putting UK at the end of their search..these folk will surely pull their hair out and give up, especially if on a phone that can't or doesn't display the map.
secondly, Steve is probably right in that folk will generally know which town they are heading to and will get a small number of returns to sift through.
however, there will be folk who are planning a tour and might want to start their investigations with a wider search, this might be a struggle....
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Brue
It's probably because they are using Google Maps which no doubt takes you (unless specified differently) to the most searched for location for that name? I agree it's not very satisfactory and is something that should have never found its way into the new system. I assume having purchased the software there was no way out? It's a shame when thinking of buying new software they didn't investigate how easy it would be to incorporate the best of the old website into the new?
David
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How long will it be for CL owners to recognise the shortcomings of the system and change the name of their CL. Your search may then come up with 20 lots of "Aardvark Adventures, Aardvark Accommodation " etc.
Currently, if you type in 'Norfolk' and you'll probably get 'Virginia Beach, Great Neck Park, First Landing Beach' etc.
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David, that certainly is not the case on my iPad using the Googlemaps app, which I use all the time.
if you put in 'Somerset' it returns the county of Somerset, with Somerset House being the next on the list.
similarly, there is no issue with typing 'Welshpool' without the UK, it returns the town of Welshpool.
now, it may well be that google maps is pretty clever and uses the location of the user to determine that UK might be the area they are searching. We could only verify that if someone 'elsewhere' could do some testing.
perhaps all the club needs to do is make use of location services rather than building a filter?
I think it's a bit naughty to hide behind google maps as it clearly returns relevant search results when used in its naked form.
ps...CY if you type Norfolk into google maps you get....wait for it...Norfolk, the county👍 In the CAMC app you get 'Norfolk Island', followed by 'Norfolk, UK'.
there are two Norfolk Islands...one is in Penrith and one is in Australia...guess which one the CAMC app returns?😉
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David, I believe you booked your long stay in Spain well ahead to secure the pitch you wanted etc ( at least I think I recall this in your previous posts?). This is just the same approach for many here although such very long stays aren't possible and not always wanted and even in Europe they are now limited for UK citizens.
I'm sure you'd find it tiresome if your Spanish site introduced a new system that didn't work easily.
So I think it's reasonable to say that booking ahead is the norm for most and would be even better on a fully functioning system. It has improved over the weeks but there are a lot of fixes still .needed.
I would love to see a normal search engine, just CAMC sites and CLs, I don't want a London ice Rink or an East Grinstead Hockey club when looking for sites. I can't think why this passed muster.
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If they all changed to A the search list will still stick at 20. There's no functioning search beyond this number, a-z search doesn't work although it's in the filter box.
This is in the fix list, CL owners and users will have to wait a bit longer.
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I am sorry you get stuck at 20. I don’t.
I just typed “CL sites Cornwall” onto the spyglass search box. It gave me a list of 18 main towns in tne county, and by touching each in turn it gave me all the CLs close to that town. I lost count but there must have been well over a hundred across the county.
Perhaps it’s because I have an I pad. Or perhaps because I live here. But I find it all very, very simple.
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You're using the spyglass search box. Surely the point of a booking sub-heading is that you use that. What you are doing is a work-around which should not be necessary. That spyglass used to be for searching the entire website, now it's acting more like what is needed by clicking on 'book a site'.
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ET, I got this...is this what you mean...?
No listing of 18 towns, just a load of text based stuff from deep within the whole CAMC website.
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I would love to see a normal search engine, just CAMC sites and CLs, I don't want a London ice Rink or an East Grinstead Hockey club when looking for sites. I can't think why this passed muster.
I don’t get that brue. If I search for sites, I just get sites / CL’s, although unfortunately it still includes European ones.
It is when I search for a location I get things like the hockey club. I wouldn’t expect sites to be listed (other than in the pane) when searching location. Again it would be better if it excluded all but towns and villages, together with European place names.
As YT says if they used location services it might remove the European ones. However, given they are using Google it might be more difficult to remove train stations, hockey clubs etc, as they come up on a standard maps search. For me as long as they can get the place name at the top, as it does in a Google maps search, it is easy enough to ignore the stuff below, as I do with Google maps. Unless I want the hockey club of course.😀
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Don’t stop with that. Open the second item of the page you showed me.
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