Am I being unreasonable?

Are you being unreasonable ------- Yes. 

As a small business , A CL owner has to ensure that he is using his business model wisely.  I see no reason to object to paying a deposit to back up your booking.  If you do turn up when you arranged,  then you will have much less to pay on arrival, only the balance.  If you decide not to go, then the CL owner can use the deposit to offset his loss of revenue.  It's good business practice.  

K 

I'm reading this thread with great interest.

We have (very reluctantly) introduced deposits in the last few weeks.  The reason is solely down to last minute cancellations.  We are a busy CL offering quality facilities (not just a space in a field ) and a last minute cancellation is not only depriving us of income but also, and more importantly in my book, it is depriving someone else of the pitch they wanted and, it turns out, could have had.

You may remember my posting on here last year about a gentleman who cancelled a stay of several weeks with us because he'd 'forgotten' about the booking, only reminded when he received my pre-arrival email two days before he was due here.  This was peak caravanning season and whilst we managed to re-let some of the nights we obviously couldn't re-let them all.

Previously we have only ever charged deposits for Bank Holidays and special events along with those occasions when 3 or more outfits book to come together (usually, if one cancels they all do).  However, between January and September this year our cancellation rate was 1 in 4.  One in every four bookings cancelled and frequently that was within a few days of arrival or even the day they were due to arrive.  Would that many people have cancelled if they'd paid a deposit?

I fully appreciate that folk often have genuine reasons but to get emails which simply say "sorry, we've had a change of plan so won't be coming to you tomorrow" is very difficult to stomach.

After long discussions with other deposit charging CL owners we decided to charge a deposit of two nights (£30) or 30%, whichever is the greater. (Obviously, if you're only staying a night you pay in full for the one night ) We set it at this rate after advice from other owners who said people don't worry too much about losing a deposit of one night, £15 in our case but two nights....

It was a tough decision as clearly it's much more admin for us.  Chasing deposits is time consuming as I've already learnt....one booking I texted 3 times and emailed twice over the course of a week with no response at all so I was forced to cancel their booking because I could only assume they weren't commited to turning up.

Another person phoned to book a couple of weeks ago....we had a lovely chat and they said they'd been trying to visit us for a while but we're always full.  However, when I mentioned about the deposit they basically said "oh no, I don't want to pay a deposit, I may have to go into work on the Friday and we've been having problems with our caravan....I don't want to lose £30".  Should I have taken the booking without a deposit?  Would you have done?

When we introduced the deposits we also devised a clear cancellation policy which visitors are encouraged to read prior to paying their deposit.  This is available on our website along with a clear explanation of the deposit required.

We run our CL as a business and losing a fifth of your income due to last minute cancellations is quite significant.

I hope this helps explain the point of view of a deposit charging CL owner .

Nicola
www.skybarnfarm.co.uk
Telephone: 01522 681218
Email: enquiries@skybarnfarm.co.uk
Site 965, page 402 of the 2017/2018 Sites Directory
Read our many wonderful reviews!

You made a reasonable choice M to exercise your right to choose terms more to your liking. If the site had good revues and looked OK on google I would probably have paid the asked deposit but would have been happier at £50.

There are a few CL owners who take the wee wee when it comes to deposits.  I think 20% max is sufficient.  Any that ask for more than that I just don’t book.  One of the most popular CLs here in Norfolk is booked up to 2 years in advance and no deposit taken.  If a gap does appear in their calendar the days are usually snapped up.  

Nicola, I have every sympathy with your position and have no quibble at all with your stance on deposits.

Do you set out the booking/cancellation terms in an email to your customers?

Well I think most would be happy to pay a 30% deposit Nicola. Maybe not over 50% though

Hi Tinwheeler

Yes.  Our T&Cs, cancellation policy and privacy policy (now required for GDPR ) are all tagged onto the end of our confirmation email which is the email requesting payment of the deposit.

Our website also sets out what deposit is required and advises people to read our cancellation policy which is also available on our website.

Oneputt, if I only charged 20% that would equate to £3 for one night and £6 for two nights....I don't believe that would discourage people cancelling last minute.  We've 'suffered' from one person who used to book a saturday night and on several occasions cancelled less than a week before....very annoying when our weekends are usually always full in the summer.

We're not here to rip folk off.....but I do sometimes feel like some people are ripping us CL owners off.

Nicola.

Thanks again everyone.

Just for the benefit of anyone who might not have read what I've said carefully enough, I've no objections to paying a deposit -:on this occasion it was the scale of the deposit which I found surprising. But I'll say again, it's entirely up to the CL owner to decide.  This CL has lost a 7 night booking from us - if they can make that up with other bookings good luck to them.  

Nicola, thanks for that. You seem to have it all covered. 👍🏻

I've seen several cases of CLs, and other privately owned sites, requesting a deposit without any mention of the terms and that really isn’t on.

The user and all related content has been Deleted User