Cancelling a CL booking at short notice.

Posted on 11/09/2017 13:25 by onepjg

I owe Nicola an apology, as I attributed a post re lost money / confusing turnover with bookings, to her, when it was actually from another poster, sorry.

Nellies quote above re representative of CC membership is, in my opinion, the most accurate post made on this thread.

A CL owner talked about a survey on this thread, which involved CL owners asking for money from non showers, and said that the response to the request was nil !! and yet overwhelmingly the posters on here have supported paying in full, after a no show / cancellation.

It seems something doesn't add up !!

Posted on 08/09/2017 17:56 by CholseyGrange

As a CL owner, it's extremely encouraging to read the majority of the responses on this thread.  

I'm delighted that most Members seem to appreciate the difficulties CL owners have when faced with a 'no show' or 'late cancellation' and that most members taking part in this discussion would offer to compensate an owner if they had to cancel.

I have some facts to share that may enlighten the debate.

Firstly though, I need to point out that the policy posted by the OP does NOT apply to the OP's own CL near Lincoln.  If you look it up,  the policy (in italics) comes from a popular & award-winning CL in Cumbria, which no doubt can afford to be fairly 'robust' in their approach.  It might not suit many members, but it seems to suit them..    The OP goes on to specifically asks "Do CT members feel this is an extreme policy or is it a fair one?"

Onto some useful information to assist this discussion.

The Club's Policy for cancellations (to my mind) doesn't make it clear that it specifically relates to Club Sites.  In my view the policy could be clarified so that Members don't assume the same rules apply to CL's.

A growing number of CL’s are investing in Booking Systems.  This helps Members looking to see availability and then book without waiting for a busy CL owner (who may be getting his harvest in) to reply.

However, even with a confirmed booking in writing and automated reminders, it still seems that some members forget they have booked, turn up at the wrong CL or simply change their plans at the last minute on a whim.

The effect of a late cancellation on a CL is threefold;

 

1. They likely lose 20% of their expected income - unless they can re-sell the pitch very quickly
2. They are involved in additional admin / marketing effort to un-book and then re-sell the pitch
3. They may have denied another Member the opportunity to book that CL.

In August the CL Owners Group conducted some research on this topic.  90 CL owners took part..  

 

• 65 CL’s reported that they had had cancellations or early departures where no compensation was forthcoming.  Of those 65, 44 CL’s reported in detail on 71 different booking cancellations.  Those  44 CL’s lost a total of £5,584 and in total 464 pitch nights.
• 43% of the 71 cancellations were attributed to Illness or bereavement, 13% due to mechanical breakdown, but 41% were because the Member had forgotten about the booking (see OP), or left early because they didn’t like the Pitch.  
• In most cases the Owners were left entirely out of pocket as the majority (67%) had not taken a deposit.  Some attempted to recover some ££ through politely asking the member concerned, but had nil response.  

The Club has been asked (July 2017) to assist CL’s to address this issue by recording the names of no shows (as it does with Club Sites), but citing both ‘resources’ and ‘data protection issues’ the Club has declined.

The Owners Group will be seeking assistance from the Club to address this issue in other ways, perhaps by drawing up some common-sense guidelines that we (Member and CL Owners) can all agree on that reflect much of what has been said in this thread.

The group will continue to monitor this issue. We are encouraged that Members realise we are small businesses, trying to cover our costs whilst delivering a valuable network across the UK where members can stay.

Posted on 11/09/2017 18:18 by Rocky 2 buckets

Still only chewing the fat Onep, nothing set in stone, we have no rights in what the CL owners do(nor would I expect it) we are all just adding to the discussion(chewing the fat) literally talking on a forum. We are a tiny amount of folk on CT who publish input-what we say means nothing in the big scheme of things.

Posted on 13/09/2017 12:53 by Tracy123

Hi Nicola,

If you click the following link you will be able to see the Clubs policies regarding cancellations.........Cancellation Policy.

I hope this helps.

Tracy

Posted on 13/09/2017 12:53 by Tracy123

Hi Nicola,

If you click the following link you will be able to see the Clubs policies regarding cancellations.........Cancellation Policy.

I hope this helps.

Tracy

Posted on 13/09/2017 14:14 by NicolaW

Thank you Tracy but the Club's cancellation policy has no bearing whatsoever on cancelling a CL at short notice, as has been discussed at great length in this thread. 

A CL owner is free to apply any cancellation policy they wish or indeed no cancellation policy at all if that's how they want to operate their site.

Nicola
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