Taking Deposits - OK for CLs?

I guess it's because the Club doesn't have the facility to monitor the details of every CL where each individual CL has it's own system for booking and paying.  If you book a main CAMC site, it is all on the same booking system, therefore you can do things like not allowing members to book different sites on the same date.  They can also monitor things like no shows and cancellations (where the same rules apply across the network).  The system is then able to send out automated letters if people fall foul of the booking system, and presumably flags up members who are taking advantage of the no deposit system.

Each CL is like an small individual commercial site with its own rules and restrictions.

David

It’s completely understandable, I think.

CLs are, by their very nature, small 5 van sites and a late cancellation or no show will leave a large hole in their takings, percentage wise.

The club, on the other hand, is a large business with many, many pitches and, while late cancellations and no shows are not good, they are unlikely to result in financial hardship. In fact, from what we hear, people are queuing up to grab late cancellation slots on some sites.

In short, CLs can suffer greatly from late cancellations and no shows but the club is not similarly affected due to the larger scale of operations so has no need to apply similar rules.

The one & only time I've cancelled a booking after leaving a deposit I lost money even though I cancelled months in advance. I'd no way of knowing if he/she re-let the pitches or not. I'm more careful now

We've got bookings at 2 CLs over the next month or so. One has taken a small deposit and one has not. Can't say that a small deposit has ever put me off but that statement (italicised in the OP) would certainly make me think twice.

On the only occasion we've ever had to cancel a CL at short notice I felt so guilty I sent the full payment anyway! 

While I don’t object to paying deposits and can understand and the reasoning behind them as per my earlier post, I like to check the terms and to be perfectly honest the sentence ".....if we manage to re – let the pitches we may offer refunds as a gesture of good will" puts me right off. Will they or won’t they? That is not clear and the operator should make his terms absolutely transparent.

I don't doubt the OP's post as written by him but how do we know that the CL owner is telling the whole truth to him? Not just using the club 'advice' as an excuse? It could have been 'well you could try this' sort of thing.

It's fascinating that the Club can provide this advice to a CL to limit the number of 'No-Shows' that they are experiencing, whilst refusing the use the same system for its own sites

well two things here spring to mind, firstly the club has a powerful backup if you are a no show which a single private CL cannot match, the club can (and has) suspend your membership, cancel all your bookings. The club has your details it knows where you live. What could a single CL do with it's limited resources?

Secondly the does not have a problem with no shows, it has stated this number is very small in the first instance and when it adotpd the current system no shows actually went down significantly. Why should it change a system that works very well for itself?

 

+1

That CL would (if I used CLs) certainly not get my custom with it's non refundable system. Four weeks is too long. But then I don't run a CL or need the money if I were to run one.

Cl's are small businesses and can not afford to lose money by no-shows. Access to Cl's are the only reason that many people pay the 51 quid to the CMC. (But that's a different subject. ). IMHO payment in full at the time of booking,  which we have done on many occasions, is the way to go, to maintain that excellent CL network. 

K

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The main reason the club can show late availabilty on it's own sites is that it has an on line booking system, how many CL have this? quite a few but many do not? Of the ones that do they would then have to link somehow their system into the clubs, and what about the ones that do not? How will the club get this information? The club could give access to the CL's to it's own system, is that what you are suggesting?

Of course if CL's pay a fee for which they are not getting a return on, at the risk of sounding bullying, they do not have to pay?

Anyway why would they want to be part of such a dishonest and decieftul organsiation?  (Ok i'll stop doing that)