I’ve been trying to book the caravan club for July Next year but for some reason its not allowing me, So I phoned the club, turns out they are just getting ready to roll out a new system that makes you pay a deposit at the time of the booking.
I think if you’re only going for a weekend you will have to pay all at the time of the booking, some people will say its about time, for me that was one of the best features I could book all my holidays the year before and just pay on arrival, now this put the club in the same boat as all the other campsites with are often cheaper
They’re doing that because too many people were booking multiple sites for the same time period & cancelling the ones they didn’t want at the very last minute, meaning empty pitches.
A few spoiling it for the majority.
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 22/7/2022
They’re doing that because too many people were booking multiple sites for the same time period & cancelling the ones they didn’t want at the very last minute, meaning empty pitches.
A few spoiling it for the majority.
That's what everyone thinks, it's actually a myth as it's not possible to book multiple sites for the same date Fiona.
I liked the CAMC no-deposit system too, but have fallen foul of the abusers of the system who booked up many months in advance then cancelled just shy of the 72 hour deadline. I wanted to book a site in Cumbria last year for Nov, but it was showing fully booked something like 5 months in advance (early Nov in Cumbria fully booked so far in advance seemed unlikely, so I checked with site, and they confirmed!), come a day of two before my desired dates it's bookings were practically empty, and when I actually got there it was very sparsely occupied. Wanted the same dates for this year so thought I'd get in early and tried booking in Feb for Nov, and again found limited availability, booked a non-awning pitch as all that available for my dates, kept checking vacancies and obviously timed it well and managed to coincide with a cancellation, so swapped my pitch to an awning pitch which I always wanted.
Not the only time I've had problems making far away bookings out of high season only to find they become available at short notice. The CAMC did start addressing the abuse of bookings some time ago by banning members making multiple different site bookings for the same period (which was possible at one time bessie500), the deposit system was inevitable with such widespread abuse of a system that relied on goodwill to only make bookings that would be honoured. Only seems to have been last 2-3 years that the system was so abused, can only assume the influx of new 'Covid Campers' are heavily responsible, but then found them changing the old established values of camping in many ways.
The CAMC have been rumbling about changing to a deposit booking system from early this year in various news updates, promising it was coming in 'soon', obviously taken them a lot longer than their original announcements implied. As someone who doesn't make speculative bookings, I suppose it's not a great hardship, and hopefully will make longer distance planning easier.
Quote: Originally posted by Monty15 on 22/7/2022
I liked the CAMC no-deposit system too, but have fallen foul of the abusers of the system who booked up many months in advance then cancelled just shy of the 72 hour deadline. I wanted to book a site in Cumbria last year for Nov, but it was showing fully booked something like 5 months in advance (early Nov in Cumbria fully booked so far in advance seemed unlikely, so I checked with site, and they confirmed!), come a day of two before my desired dates it's bookings were practically empty, and when I actually got there it was very sparsely occupied. Wanted the same dates for this year so thought I'd get in early and tried booking in Feb for Nov, and again found limited availability, booked a non-awning pitch as all that available for my dates, kept checking vacancies and obviously timed it well and managed to coincide with a cancellation, so swapped my pitch to an awning pitch which I always wanted.
Not the only time I've had problems making far away bookings out of high season only to find they become available at short notice. The CAMC did start addressing the abuse of bookings some time ago by banning members making multiple different site bookings for the same period (which was possible at one time bessie500), the deposit system was inevitable with such widespread abuse of a system that relied on goodwill to only make bookings that would be honoured. Only seems to have been last 2-3 years that the system was so abused, can only assume the influx of new 'Covid Campers' are heavily responsible, but then found them changing the old established values of camping in many ways.
The CAMC have been rumbling about changing to a deposit booking system from early this year in various news updates, promising it was coming in 'soon', obviously taken them a lot longer than their original announcements implied. As someone who doesn't make speculative bookings, I suppose it's not a great hardship, and hopefully will make longer distance planning easier.
Monty in the 18 years i've been a member, you couldn't book the same dates more than once in all fairness when i 1st joined i'm sure all bookings were made via the campsite or head office booking line.
I agree its hard to get some sites, i've been trying for months to get Chatsworth in November when the christmas markets are on, I have a Friday 1 week and a saturday the week after, As soon as i get the complete weekend i'll cancel the other one.
In all fairness i bet if you cancel before the 72 hr threshold you'll get your money back anyway
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/22
Monty in the 18 years i've been a member, you couldn't book the same dates more than once in all fairness when i 1st joined i'm sure all bookings were made via the campsite or head office booking line.
I agree its hard to get some sites, i've been trying for months to get Chatsworth in November when the christmas markets are on, I have a Friday 1 week and a saturday the week after, As soon as i get the complete weekend i'll cancel the other one. In all fairness i bet if you cancel before the 72 hr threshold you'll get your money back anyway
Bessie
The threshold for cancellation won't be 72 hours once the deposit system starts; it will be 21 days: Deposits are fully refundable if the booking is cancelled more than 21 days before arrival. This will give other members enough time to make a new booking and take advantage of the available pitch.
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/22
Monty in the 18 years i've been a member, you couldn't book the same dates more than once in all fairness when i 1st joined i'm sure all bookings were made via the campsite or head office booking line.
I agree its hard to get some sites, i've been trying for months to get Chatsworth in November when the christmas markets are on, I have a Friday 1 week and a saturday the week after, As soon as i get the complete weekend i'll cancel the other one. In all fairness i bet if you cancel before the 72 hr threshold you'll get your money back anyway
Bessie
The threshold for cancellation won't be 72 hours once the deposit system starts; it will be 21 days: Deposits are fully refundable if the booking is cancelled more than 21 days before arrival. This will give other members enough time to make a new booking and take advantage of the available pitch.
It would appear that the club will take full payment the day before your holiday unless you opt out of this, they say its to speed up checking in but you still have to check in anyway ,
Lets see if it makes any difference, i suspect if people have to pay a deposit of 20% they might just go to an independent site
On the plus side you can actually pay your holiday in instalments from the moment you book your site, this i think will help families that are struggling
I've never quite understood why people want to book so far ahead. I rarely know what I'm going to do next month, let alone next year. We usually go away at the beginning of September, and may well do so again this year, but I won't even think of booking up anywhere much before the end of August. Since returning to caravanning in 2013 I have only ever had a problem booking at the last minute twice. Once was in 2019 when my first choice was fully booked, but I got in at my second choice with no problem. Actually, my second choice turned out to be better than my first, and cheaper too. The second time was this year when I went to book a CS in Norfolk. I couldn't book it because the site had decided to close down. Once again I got in easily at my second choice, the C&CC site in Sandringham which is actually a lovely site. Do people book so far ahead because they want to start on a Friday or Saturday? If so maybe that's why they feel the need to book so early. We always start our holidays on a Monday, which may be why we don't usually have any problem.
Colin your fortunate that you can go when you like, I get 30 days & bank holidays a year so always book well in advance often using the bank holidays to get more nights away, I used 4 days holidays at Easter to get 11 nights away.
To book bank holidays and school holidays you need to get your booking in early, now I always honour my bookings as it’s not just the cc club that I book but also work,
I can also afford the deposits, in the past I used to always book the club sites as you didn’t have to pay anything so was just convenient.
If i have to pay a deposit I might as well look in the area that I want at what other options are available,
I was quite surprised in June that the Hendra caravan site was about £10 per night cheaper than the caravan club site in Newquay
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/2022
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 22/7/2022
They’re doing that because too many people were booking multiple sites for the same time period & cancelling the ones they didn’t want at the very last minute, meaning empty pitches.
A few spoiling it for the majority.
That's what everyone thinks, it's actually a myth as it's not possible to book multiple sites for the same date Fiona.
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/2022
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 22/7/2022
They’re doing that because too many people were booking multiple sites for the same time period & cancelling the ones they didn’t want at the very last minute, meaning empty pitches.
A few spoiling it for the majority.
That's what everyone thinks, it's actually a myth as it's not possible to book multiple sites for the same date Fiona.
Bessie
Only saying what CAMC itself says.
It definitely isn't possible to book more than 1 site for the same date(s), so I don't know where CAMC says that that is possible. Can you provide a link, as I would be very interested to read that. I certainly haven't seen that anywhere and I've been a member for over 30 years. Perhaps in "the old days" before online bookings, it may have been possible, but that is an awful long time ago now. If you have a booking for a specific date, you most definitely can't make another booking for that same date.
On a couple of occasions I have changed the bookings I had made, and inadvertently tried to book a different site before cancelling the original site, and it told me I already had a booking for those dates.
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/2022
Colin your fortunate that you can go when you like, I get 30 days & bank holidays a year so always book well in advance often using the bank holidays to get more nights away, I used 4 days holidays at Easter to get 11 nights away.
To book bank holidays and school holidays you need to get your booking in early, now I always honour my bookings as it’s not just the cc club that I book but also work,
I can also afford the deposits, in the past I used to always book the club sites as you didn’t have to pay anything so was just convenient.
If i have to pay a deposit I might as well look in the area that I want at what other options are available,
I was quite surprised in June that the Hendra caravan site was about £10 per night cheaper than the caravan club site in Newquay
Bessie
Yes a lot of truth in that Bessie. When you are working things are very different I know. We used to go abroad quite often when I worked and then I too had to book months in advance to get the best prices, and I hated it. For one thing the holiday always seemed such a long way off when I booked it, and for another it meant spending out on something so far ahead when I really didn't know what the circumstances would be at the time. My holidays on the railway were allocated, and I didn't get any choice unless I could find someone to swap with. Even then I always tried to avoid bank holidays. I could opt to work them, so I did. It meant getting a greatly enhanced rate for the day, and it was often quite an easy day, then getting a day in lieu which I could take whenever I chose to.
I didn't return to caravanning until after I retired, and one of the biggest things that attracted me was the spontaneity of being able to book just a few days before. I often have a rough idea in mind as to timing and location, but nothing that specific.
We are members of the C&CC but even with our seniors discount they are not always the cheapest. The first choice that we found fully booked in July 2019 was a C&CC site not far from Weston-Super-Mare, where we wanted to go, and where we ended up was a commercial site a similar distance away and that was a lovely site and considerably cheaper. Particularly so as it had metered electricity which cost us just £2.80 for the entire two weeks electricity. Rather different to the £4 a night or so that we would have paid at the C&CC site had we got in.
I wasn't intending to criticise anyone booking so far in advance, I was just curious to know why anyone would want to. I can certainly understand it if people are having to book in peak times like school holidays, bank holiday etc, but some people still seem to want to do it well outside the main holiday season. Each to their own I suppose, I just like to book last minute. One of the reasons for that is that we often choose where to go based on the weather forecast. It can be cool and wet in one area but dry and warm in another. That's Britain for you.
The nature of my work and other commitments means that I can never be sure of being able to get away until the very last minute with the exception of my main holidays each year. I love the current caravan club situation as there are always last minute cancellations which, if I find myself free, I can snap up. In all the years I have been using the CC I have never not been able to get onto the site I want to go to by booking 24 hours in advance as there have always been cancellations that I have been able to take advantage of. I am concerned that the new system will mean these last minute cancellations won’t happen and therefore I won’t be able to get any last minute breaks. The caravan club will become just like any other site where if you haven’t got a booking months in advance, which I am not able to do, you won’t get on.
Quote: Originally posted by Pixie_Hez on 23/7/2022
The nature of my work and other commitments means that I can never be sure of being able to get away until the very last minute with the exception of my main holidays each year. I love the current caravan club situation as there are always last minute cancellations which, if I find myself free, I can snap up. In all the years I have been using the CC I have never not been able to get onto the site I want to go to by booking 24 hours in advance as there have always been cancellations that I have been able to take advantage of. I am concerned that the new system will mean these last minute cancellations won’t happen and therefore I won’t be able to get any last minute breaks. The caravan club will become just like any other site where if you haven’t got a booking months in advance, which I am not able to do, you won’t get on.
I doubt it will make much difference Pixie. We never use C&MHC sites as we aren't members, so what they do doesn't affect us. We rarely book more than a few days ahead, a couple of weeks at the most, and we rarely have any problems. We do tend to avoid peak times though and never book Friday or Saturday starts which helps I find, as the weekenders are usually going home as (or before) we arrive. There will always be last minute cancellations whatever the C&MHC do. Peoples' circumstances change, illness and accidents will still happen, and all sorts of other things happen that make people have to change their plans at the last minute. I wouldn't worry too much about it as I'm sure you will still be able to book last minute as we do.
One of the reasons we hate booking a long way ahead is that we know how disappointing it would be having to cancel at the last minute a holiday we had been looking forward to for months. You only have to look at the recent Covid situation where so many people had to cancel the holidays they had booked the previous year.
Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 22/7/2022
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 22/7/2022
They’re doing that because too many people were booking multiple sites for the same time period & cancelling the ones they didn’t want at the very last minute, meaning empty pitches.
A few spoiling it for the majority.
That's what everyone thinks, it's actually a myth as it's not possible to book multiple sites for the same date Fiona.
Bessie
Apparently there is a work around to booking two sites. You book one site for Friday night and another site for a Saturday. Most people want a two night stay. I am so glad that we no longer use CAMC sites so not an issue for us.
I've been a motorcaravanner for around 40 years, and even when we were working and the children were at school, we rarely booked in advance.
The idea of booking a year in advance simply doesn't compute with us.
I've always been of the view that the beauty of caravanning (in all its forms) is the ability to come and go as you please. If you can't get your first choice of site, go somewhere else.
I admit that being retired does give a lot more flexibility, but none of us know what's just round the corner.
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Topic: caravan club 2023 bookings
via mobile 22/7/2022 at 2:58pm
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