Secure you summer holiday for just £5 deposit
Comments
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This trail of 5% deposits is the club trying to encourage members to stay more nights. Deposits will stay and the club is trying to get the percentage right for the club and right for the members.
Its £5 not 5% and maybe you are right but we had a similar deposit years ago and that didn't work. The reports were that members just didn't cancel and if you recall it resulted in warning emails being introduced with repeat offenders being penalised. Its odd that this level should yet again be chosen but if members do behave sensible there should be no reason why it shouldn't.
I assume you have seen the DG's email, to quote from it;
"The trial will run from July to the 30 September 2024, so members can book any UK Club campsite for any time this year, and up to August 2025. The deposit is fully refundable – if you cancel more than 21 days before the arrival date you get your deposit back in full.
Optimistically, we would like to extend the £5 deposit beyond the trial date, but we first must make sure that the cancellation rate doesn’t return to the high levels it was 2 years ago.
We therefore will review the performance of the trial, let you know what difference it has made, and whether we are able to continue with the £5 deposit to the end of the year and beyond."
I am a little perplexed by the last paragraph on how it can be apparently judged so quickly as to be extended to the end of this year. Surely you would have to wait until August 2025 for the results?
peedee
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I am a little perplexed by the last paragraph on how it can be apparently judged so quickly as to be extended to the end of this year. Surely you would have to wait until August 2025 for the results?
No just the opposite for a few reasons.
When we introduced trails of something new we monitored it from day 1 and continuously there after, if things were going bad we could make changes quickly. For the club to leave it till 12 months plus is wholly irresponsible in my view, a whole year of increased cancellations? Would you be happy with that if you were using club sites regularly?
The following few months will be the busiest and so I think it's reasonable to look at bookings made till say October under this new trail and assess then. If the cancellations are what they are now then it's a good omen, if worse then obviously it's not a good idea and stop it then. It could also be inconclusive which would require extra. Also I assume the club will look at the increase, or not, of bookings and if this trail is bringing in more business.
A far more careful and balanced approach than waiting till August 2025.
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+1. yes I said something similar upthread, I think it's more to do with getting more people to book and hopefully come to club sites rather than booking elsewhere where the deposit is often far higher and non refundable and worse T&Cs. Also of course it might just drive up membership if people see it's worth booking with club rather than going elsewhere.
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And hence the need for close monitoring before it gets to the longer term PD.
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PD that's the same thing as a trial isn't it. We're trying something different and we may change is what your saying? Yes a trial.
Also Haven't there been many posts about the club not being fully open and transparent about it's rules and procedures? At least this way it's clear what is going to happen.
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I'm actually just going to book TB in the lakes for last week in August for 10 days going into September. It's going to be £46.20 per night for a SP and down to £42.50 in September. I alway look at the Quiet site just a few miles way as it was our first caravan holiday when we hired one back in 1999, we were put off by it when the rains came and it became very muddy and had a look at TB in all it's hardstanding wonder and quickly joined and booked and never looked back.
Anyway the price there for a SP for the same dates are £48 per night for ten days, but that's for 10Kwh of electricity per day at 10 amps then it's 30 pence per Kwh. (A dog is extra as is children over 16, we don't have any but just for comparison) while at the club, well I'm sure you know.
And refunds if you cancel? Well before 14 days you will be charged £10 per night 'admin fee' then you'll get the rest back. Cancel within 14 days and nothing, leave early nothing again. Deposits? well I couldn't find any mention so it appears to be all upfront?
Now if someone, perhaps not a member was looking at those two sites, which one would they choose?
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Glad we agree, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
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Companies only tend to do offers when they need to. Ergo, something is amiss. I have lost count of the number of different offers this year. Price freezes, percentages off, tinkering with the deposit amount required, there might be others I have missed. Good for those who are happy with the Club, and good for whose circumstances allow/fit the options.
Clues to some of the barriers of pitch take up are all on CT, and I’m sure will be being monitored. It’s a bit of a trade off between having enough folks happy with the current situation, all the elements, and those who have had to look for different options even if they do like Club Sites, or have tried other options and liked them. How to win them back again, and then hope there are enough free pitches to accommodate and keep them.
I think there are lots of other elements of course affecting take up generally, and many have hung up their touring shoes altogether these last few years.
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I do think that it is the cost per night that is putting most members off ,the depost amount was quite reasonable as it was reducing it to a fiver will not stop no shows ,as £5 Is less than a pint of beer ,I seem to recall that back in the 80s it was about £3 .per booking, which would a lot more than the £20 in operation just now
we joined the Club in 1977 so have long memories of caravaning we are on our third van now and it we be our last one I think
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One of the main reasons (given by the Club) for the introduction of the deposit system was to improve availability which seems to have been quite successful. I just wonder if a £5 deposit will put that at risk?
David
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Goldie
I suggested something similar in one of my posts so I agree with you but for that to be effective I think the system would have to be changed so that all site payments were automatically taken on the morning of arrival with no choice of paying when you get to a site. It seems to work quite well for the C&CC?
David
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I’m not sure we can currently make that assumption. There has been lots more happened since the introduction of deposits which may have had a greater effect on availability. So many new variables have come into play. Certainly those at the sharp end of marketing will have the data from which decisions are being made but the primary driving force behind the introduction will be profitability I’m sure.
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Until we are told it is of course assumptions. However those assumptions are based on what has happened in the past, and what has been said in the past, and I don't think it unreasonable to imagine that history might repeat itself? Even with a £5 deposit there will be many members, perhaps the majority, who are conscientious in telling the Club they can't make it. How many will cancel before the 21 day deadline we don't know. We don't know what is driving this change. Has there been a major change in the willingness of members to book so far in advance regardless of the deposit system, is the deposit system putting people off booking in advance. One imagines it is, otherwise the Club would not be changing it. Under the old system and despite the high number of late cancellations the Club had a good idea, going forward, what their likely revenue would be. We also know that under the old system the late cancellations actually worked in the favour of those looking for a last minute break or making a shorter break longer, I did that many times. OK we have got to give the change an opportunity to work and wait and see what the review shows us. However I can't help thinking unless the £5 deposit is tied to some sanction for late cancellation we may as well go back to the old system and save all those transaction charges on the £5?
David
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I agree, and as I posted a possible scenario is that numbers have remained the same the income is not covering costs and either put prices up or get more on site.
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Goldie it says standard T&C apply to this £5 deposit.
7. No Shows, late arrivals and Early Departures
No Shows
If you fail to arrive on your arrival day and fail to notify us during the arrival day (by 8pm), this will be treated as a ‘no-show’ cancellation of your entire stay by you, and you will not be entitled to be refunded any element which has been paid, including the full deposit, any interim payments and / or the automatic balancing payment taken before arrival (if applicable).
So it looks like you would lose your £5 and if you opt to pay befor arrival you'd lose that too, unless you informed them by 8pm.
As others have posted £5 isn't really that much to lose (we look at things as how many large coffees would that buy at Costa).
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Agreed. If not paid in advance, they couldn’t force you to pay any money to cover the balance unless they took debt recovery measures which would include court action. I can’t see that happening!
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Personally I think the £5 deposit is more likely to work if linked to compulsory automatic payments and I find it difficult to understand why they didn’t use this opportunity to bring it in. All 10 of our recent stays had the balance paid at 2 /3am the morning before and it speeded up arrival considerably. This was particularly the case at Lady Margaret’s Park, where they have ANPR. This worked brilliantly, we were admitted straight onto the site a screen telling us our pitch type and to respond to a text with our pitch number once selected. What I found surprising was the number queuing in the other lane because they had not paid in advance.
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This may have been covered, but I cannot track it down.
My query is that if you pay the £5 deposit for a site next year and opt to pay on arrival, do you pay the cost as it is then on arrival, or the cost it was when you secured the booking with your £5 deposit? It can obviously go any way with dynamic pricing, but does that deposit means you enter a contract on the price?
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Usually it is the cost when you booked and paid the deposit. I say usually as there was one tine when all prices when up (two/three years ago due to increased energy costs?) and people were advised of this in advance and were given the option to cancel and there was one time when the late change of the May bank holiday when some prices went up and some went down. But aside from that it's the booked price.
I certainly have always paid the booked price even if it has gone up to dynamic pricing. I don't check but I think others has posted (was you SteveL?) to say the on the day price was higher.
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Yes have always paid the booked price and it has almost always been higher on the day when there have been spaces free. This was also the case for the one time I didn’t tick pay in advance because I had a free site night voucher code. If they didn’t fix the prices they couldn’t operate the limited time offers, our four night stay with the granddaughter is £24 less than if we booked now.
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