Cancelling a CL booking at short notice.

Personally I think the point of this thread is being missed. It's not about whether or not cancelling is fair. It's a CL owner trying to find out how much her trade would be affected if she started charging a deposit.

It doesn't matter if people think it is fair or not to cancel a booking.

Do people think her trade would be affected, and if so, significantly or slightly ?

These things can happen and do, but must be rare within the 7 days period asked for by the OP which makes me think a lot of cancellations are by weather watchers. Caravan stolen or someone having a fall would not have me thinking about the loss of a deposit.

CL owners being limited to 5 vans cannot survive without booking commitments, and its only fair if cancelled at short notice and have small chance of filling that pitch they have recompense.

In summary I agree with the OP but the statement needs toning down.

sorry, meant to say  cancellation charge, not deposit

By the few-yes.

by the many-no. 

I accept there are some that want the World to give them cast iron guarantees & never let them down but shy away from doing the same themselves. 'Tis life

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.

But Rocky, the last line of this suggests that actually people will not pay, if requested to do so by the CL. 

Cancelling at short notice isn't fair. Either on a Club Site, but especially not on a CL. Ok, I appreciate that unforeseen circumstances and serious emergencies can and do happen, we have had one as I stated earlier. But cancelling for weather? Oops, I forgot we had booked? Smacks of a total lack of commitment on the members part, so why should CL owners take a big hit on their income? 

Having met Nicola and stayed on her lovely CL twice, and having read of the number of times cancellations for two, three weeks have occurred at short notice, I can fully sympathise with how the group of CL owners are trying to cushion themselves from the unthinking behaviour of some members. 

As I said earlier, popular CLs get booked quickly. On the whole, if someone books well in advance, for a long holiday, most will tend to turn up without any fuss. Putting in place a deposit scheme, maybe even a pay up front scheme, will weed out the small number of offenders. For anyone else who doesn't like such a set up, there are hundreds more CLs to choose from, or holiday insurance to consider.

Will it affect bookings? Possibly for a short while, but those who love the individual CLs will still visit. We do.

Cancelling at short notice  is fair, if it is allowed under their T&C's. They don't have to allow it, as we have seen with certain other CL's, but untill they change their policy it is perfectly fair. 

If they don't like it, they should start taking a deposit, but one must presume they are worried about that having an affect on their bookings.

In fact you could argue that using the CC to build your business, and then altering a significant part of their policy to suit you, is unfair.

But that's  business, and unless the CAMC decide to get involved, entirely the owners choice.

Best get money up front or a decent deposit to negate financial losses then

There is  a difference between a booking of 25 days without deposit or payment and the usual 2/3 day booking, which is cancelled for a proper reason, or the site is not as expected by the booking person or description. Businesses do accept some possible loss of perceived income as part and parcel of being in business. As a regular Cl user  I like the status quo. Book, turn up and pay, or just turn up and hope there is space (this could be bonus income). Never let a Cl down in all my years and find it difficult to recollect ever not finding a pitch just by turning up.

CLs operate under the CC umbrella, they organise their rules, policies and payments independently, not as the CC sites do. Hence the diversity in booking and payment methods. Members switching from using (expensive) Club Sites to CLs need to understand this, and realise that the 72 hour cancellation policy doesn't apply to CLs. On the plus side, I know of no CL that operates the crazy Club booking type frenzy in December. We have happily committed to booking a CL pitch a full year in advance, and paying in full for 28 days,  knowing we have a pitch on a fantastic site. This won't suit other CL users, and we don't do it for all CLs, most we ring up night before we set off!