Pay as you book

I don't mind too much about deposits in principle but my recent experience with the C&CC made me glad the CC system is what it is. I booked and paid my deposit then needed to add a couple of nights. Firstly you can't amend a booking online so it took a phone call. Secondly they couldn't add an additional payment to the deposit - it had to be refunded then taken again. Enormous amount of unnecessary faffing and time wasting. 

Write your comments here...We had the same issue, have now cancelled my membership with C&CC.  No deposits for us thanks, all works perfectly well as it is now.

we use both the major club sites, as well as CL/CS, THS sites, commercials etc....each have their own rules for payment and deposit etc...

we also do plenty of package type hols and cuises, again they have their own rules for payments...

i cant get exited either way about deposits, except that (IMHO) the larger the (non refundable) deposit the more thought needs to go into the booking...

to exclude any of these companies/holidays because 'we dont do deposits' would be cutting our nose off to spite our face...

as we have an annual travel insurance policy, we would invoke this if we had to reclaim any reimbursment due to breaching any cancellation rules....

Even where large deposits are taken, they are not always forfeit. We had to cancel 11 nights with Morris Leisure, due to health issues, a couple of years ago. The deposit was £10 a night. As long as you cancel more than 48 hours before, the deposit is deferred for a year. We used it against a booking at another of their sites 9 months later.

That seems fair enough

This is an old chesnut. It is possible to block book weekends but you cannot cancel within 72 hours without action being taken. If you are seen to do this then your forward bookings will be cancelled.

Personally I think deposits woulkd help this situation if they were applied if you book more than five or so pitches. This would stop block booking but should not have any great effect otherwise.

From a commercial point of view though deposits do help with cash flow so they might benefit the club.

but you cannot cancel within 72 hours without action being taken. If you are seen to do this then your forward bookings will be cancelled.

Only after 3 cancellations I believe?

Restricting the amount of bookings any one person can make would be the easiest and (IMO) fairest way to prevent people booking every summer weekend on spec then cancelling them. For those who wanted more bookings - for example to form a tour- they could just ring direct and the club could override the system. 

but you cannot cancel within 72 hours without action being taken. If you are seen to do this then your forward bookings will be cancelled.

Only after 3 cancellations I believe?

Restricting the amount of bookings any one person can make would be the easiest and (IMO) fairest way to prevent people booking every summer weekend on spec then cancelling them. For those who wanted more bookings - for example to form a tour- they could just ring direct and the club could override the system. 

Why should we who adopt a 'touring' style be penalised by having to do this? Thankfully the present system works In my opinion. 

I also don't think a significant number of folk actually do serial book on spec and then cancel! Why should the few, and I reckon they are very few, bad uns dictate and spoil it for the rest!

Similar thoughts here Micky. About 15 years ago (and for at least 10 yeas prior) when I was working I often got around 12 weeks leave - time owed for overtime worked claimed back at single time rather than electing to be paid at 1.5 rate. 

At that time I would book a holiday a few weeks at a time and used a site 70 miles away at weekends were I stored the 'van and went fishing. Booking did not seem such a problem. Having caravanned 15 years or so I gave my caravan away as I had met OH and here work comitments meant that we had less time and she didn't fish.

3 years later Oh had joined me and with her retiring 12 months later we started to caravan again and bought a new outfit. This would be about 12 years ago. We found that booking a 4 or 5 week tour just a month before hand and maybe using 6 or 7 sites was proving difficult to get them where and when required. When OH had retired 11 years ago we found that going away for 4 weeks, and booking the next holiday on our return home with 4 weeks to sort out the garden etc was a nuiscance and so we book 3 touring routes and a Christmas Break in the december booking 'frenzy'. We find it much easier but does mean that we need to book around 20 to 22 sites (some commercial). This year 16 of these were club sites. 

Yet another reason to use CL's !   They are so much better now, and there is very little hassle finding somwhere to stay.

TF

Yet another reason to use CL's !   They are so much better now, and there is very little hassle finding somwhere to stay.

TF

Indeed there are some nice ones Tigerfish. I stick to CC sites and AS sites however as I do not wish to have to do much research.