Pitch availability

I am at a bit of a loss. The prices are too expensive, we get nothing for our membership fee, except a magazine filled with adverts! etc etc. Or at least that is what some would have you believe. Yet when the CC do something a bit different than the other operators, no deposit, penalty free cancelation, they are criticised for it.

Steve, you wont please all of the people all of the time, i agree..

however, this particular 'difference' doesnt really do anything for working families who cant change holiday dates as easily as some (you and I) can....

having to cancel at 3 days notice for you and I because of (say) a family change of plan, is just water off a ducks back, we change plans all the time, so this 'difference' is great for us and the rest of the predominant CC demographic.

however, when i was working (despite being able to, within reason, choose my own dates) agreed dates were expected to be honoured for the sake of the rest of the team.

so holidays were booked earlier....and deposits paid...

so, the answer some give is that ALL members have the same chance to book sites in December....yet, here again, the bias is skewed towards those who have the time to be at a PC when booking opens....not those who are at work at 8:00....

...and then there is the age old Sunday Departure issue where those who can only 'weekend' have to be away on Sunday at midday (WD not withstanding.....

so, thereare three examples where the club could easily be far more family focussed just by tweaking those three 'rules'...

one.....make the cancellation period 7 days

two....move the booking opening day to a weekend at (say) 9 am

three...allow departures on a Sunday to be 16:00 by default.

now, i dont want another SD thread, ive just given examples where tiny tweaks could easily change the 'perceived' bias towards families without incurring cost, nor impacting on any other 'groups' within the club.

the club is trying hard to get over its 'family credentials' yet there are small procedural changes that could be made which would show they mean business.....and thats before they get stuck into any large cost incurring projects.

Heaven forbid resurrecting SD after the unequivical and definative statement we have had. Some good points though  BB, but just to point out mind that point three does operate now, where circumstances allow. It has to be managed like this or move arrival/departures times forward for Sunday's making it no departures after16:00 and arrivals only after 16:00. Must say it seems to work as it currently is In my opinion!

Agree with you Steve, also according to some posters club sites are empty, the club has trouble getting people to actually go to the sites as they are so expensive, yet now we have a thread saying that there were three empty pitches and others that they have trouble actually booking a pitch in the first place? Which is it?

Unfortunately the answer is that it is both.

Sites, in most cases,  are full in the school holidays, popular sites are pretty full at the weekends, but mid week in off peak periods they are fairly empty as many of those that can go at that time  are finding them too expensive.

Micky, youre right, it'll have to be WD for now and no more SD chat.....

Jay has a point with the booking day bunfight....a tweak would help but perhaps a rolling diary might help more?

.....but again, the release of the 'next batch' of dates (especially those encompassing the main summer dates) must not be released on a weekday at 9:00.....

"Computer say......."

Some say that the wardens know their site better than anyone........apparantly not, in this case at least.

Write your comments here...perhaps three people didnt turn up or cancelled at last minute or perhaps we should all be narrow minded and believe the wardens did it on a purpose i dont think so do you

Is there any kind of reserve list system operated by wardens either individually at some  sites or acoss all sites ? Would this help both the member wanting to make a late booking and the  club filling vacant pitches ? 

Agree with you Steve, also according to some posters club sites are empty, the club has trouble getting people to actually go to the sites as they are so expensive, yet now we have a thread saying that there were three empty pitches and others that they have trouble actually booking a pitch in the first place? Which is it?

Unfortunately the answer is that it is both.

Sites, in most cases,  are full in the school holidays, popular sites are pretty full at the weekends, but mid week in off peak periods they are fairly empty as many of those that can go at that time  are finding them too expensive.

We were away from mid Jube to Mid July ad the sites tha twe used were pretty much full at weekends and not many spaces in the week

Is there any kind of reserve list system operated by wardens either individually at some  sites or acoss all sites ? Would this help both the member wanting to make a late booking and the  club filling vacant pitches ? 

Write your comments here...yes there is ........ it's called late availability , find it on the home page

The site is situatd near the end of one of Englands busiest airports runways! My son in law had tried to book a week orso beforehand but the computor system was down!We sat together outside my van at 2pm on the saturday and he used his mobile phone to contact the site office concerning pitch availability for saturday night.He was told that there would have been a pitch available but the occupant had had a stroke and the warden was unable to move the unit off site!As previously stated we were aware of several vacant pitches but assumed,in light of the telephone conversation,that they would be filled before the end of the day!THEY WERE NOT!!!!!!!!!.I have no intention of using this site again but as previously mentioned it is used by relatives for storage.....I am unwilling,therfor to "upset the apple cart!"

So, a couple of gems about the vacant pitches on a full site conundrum.

Firstly, if some seasonal pitches are unused they stay unused and vacant, even if all other pitches are taken and there are people trying to book for a few nights.

Secondly, touring pitches are used for storage if the storage space is full. These also have to be left unoccupied as the stored outfit could return at any time.

Seems barmey to me and possible a few others.

If I were a warden, and I could see that there were empty pitches out there, despite the computer telling me that the site was fully booked, I think I would deduce from this that some people hadn't turned up!

The computer would probably even concur with that blindingly obvious deduction.

I would therefore go out of my way to take late bookings in order to fill those empty pitches and to increase income to the Club.

Is it just me, or isn't that how anyone with even a tiny bit of business acumen and willingness to do the best job possible (for both my employer and other Club members) would behave??

A nice idea but you do not know if people are no shows until the morning. You could then sell the remaining days though although I do not know if these go back on the web site.

If the computer shows space wardens do take people just turning up but beyond that I cannot see what more they can do unless they have a vacancies sign.