why is it every time I try to book a caravan club site it is never available I've only managed to book one site thie year it is now getting quite sickening
Maybe because its popular, maybe because there is only one pitch for ever 37 CC members, and maybe because others are more organised and book where they want to go earlier than you?
2. If you book late you need to be flexible about where you want to go.
3. If you leave it nearer the date there are usually cancellations. If you ring up the site directly you can be more successful.
4. The Caravan Club is NOT the only place through which you can book sites, it just has the easiest on-line booking system with no deposit required, hence the popularity (plus the great facilties etc etc..).
5. Try the search facility on this site too, plus the Camping and Caravan Club, plus there are many commercial sites and organisations such as Alan Rogers, plus both clubs have CL's and CS's that have only basic facilities which can usually be booked easily. Most of these will require some form of deposit though !
Keep trying, online the booking status changes all the time, we managed to book for Whit on the South coast at a v. popular site just a week or so before, just by checking several times a day for availability.
According to the latest CC mag, some members have been warned over their abuse of the system, which involved repeatedly booking and then cancelling at short notice, or simply not turning up at all. However, the club insists it's not a big problem, and it's simply a case of too many members wanting to visit sites at peak periods.
Despite that message, I'd still like to see a limit brought in on the number of bookings any member can hold at any one time via the website. How many? Well, three seems a reasonable number. Anyone genuinely needing more than that - for long-distance touring visiting several sites, for instance - could still do it but would need to do it via phone.
------------- * You never know where you're going 'til you get there...
Its very annoying that you can't book sites nearer to the dateyou want. People's plans change or as OP has said, can't book very early. The problem i've found is that you can book for midweek but not the weekend, so if you want to book a WHOLE week you can't because the weekends have all been booked! Very frustrating. Hence i've started planning NEXT years sites already. Fortunately hubby can book his holidays quite early, so not a problem for us.
Just keep trying you may have luck
What I fine annoying is you see some cancel they say are going some where else to another caravan site and then. List six more CC sites they are going to.
Don't always rely on the website for booking information. Last week we went to Freshwater East CC. We booked a couple of weeks before. The website was showing full but I decided to ring the site 'just to check'. They 'managed to fit us in'. There were a few spaces for he whole time we were there, possibly because of no shows. I would always ring.
Unfortunately it is not only the CC sites that get booked up quickly these days. With the 'better' sites, it is also quite difficult to get bookings.
Ive managed two CC club site bookings this year for the first time, each for a week away in school holidays, although we do use CLs for weekends away. We are very limited as to when we can take holidays, between school hols, OHs work and my work! My employers have a policy of "one week only" during long summer hols, which is limiting, and very frustrating!
Have to say, I booked New England Bay for Whit week. When I booked (some months ago) I could only book Sun to Sat, as the first Sat night was fully booked, Nearer the time, I kept phoning to see if there had been a cancellation. Then the weekend before, I got a call from the site warden to say someone had just cancelled the Saturday night and did I want it! Cant thank them enough for that. Had a brilliant week there too!
As an interested bystander only it seems to me that the CC system of no deposit booking is open to widespread abuse by booking sites people probably won't need.
With this oppportunity it is human nature that many selfish people will abuse the system.
We tend to book up front with the CC for the season due to needing to arrange cover for family reponsibilites at home and care of elderly parents, and find that the no penalty scheme of being able to cancel if something goes wrong which is totally out of our control healthwise (I am also disabled myself) a big help.
Yes it is annoying when within a couple of days of the years site pitches going on sale the most popular ones are block booked for weekends for the majority of summer dates, making a week or fortnights booking at a particular site impossible to book up front.
Having said that, some CLs can be just as bad, last September we were forced to site hop from 3 different sites all within a mile of eachother inorder to get a 10day holiday on the Norfolk Broads, having not bought our van until June and therefore left it rather late to use the online system to book a CC site in the area. one of the Cls we visited was due to a last min cancellation, and is now taking bookings for 2012, being fully booked throughout the summer months for 2010/2011 seasons already.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Quote: Originally posted by millermicm on 09/6/2010
As an interested bystander only it seems to me that the CC system of no deposit booking is open to widespread abuse by booking sites people probably won't need.
With this oppportunity it is human nature that many selfish people will abuse the system.
It is open to abuse, but I don't think the problem is too great. The majority of people are sympathetic, but there is a minority. The recently, I think the club have warned offenders. One of the problems i have found is that the availability of vacancies on the website is not always a true reflection of what the situation is 'on the ground', and not just because of cancellations either.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: caravan club bookings
