CL Deposits

 ...... and how far in advance of cancelling a booking at a CL, for which a deposit has been made, would you expect your deposit to be refunded? Joe Public has no way of knowing if that cancelled booking had been re-booked.

 I now phone days before I want to use a particular CL ..... if it's full, there'll be another close by

We have paid deposits for CLs for a very long time, in one case happily paying the full sum for a four week stay in advance, glad to know that our pitch was secured for the Summer. In twelve years of using that particular CL, sometimes four or five times per year, we only had to change our dates once, and cancelled once due to my father almost dying. It was short notice, so we let the CL know we wouldnt be there, and once the panic had subsided, I rang and was more than pleased to know that the CL had managed to let some of our dates, and they were happy to refund for those dates. It would have been a huge loss for the CL had we had all our money back, but they were very fair. We could have course have taken out insurance, as we do for cottages and overseas breaks. We still use the CL. 

It's all about "trust". The CL owners trust that the customers will do their utmost to turn up, honour their booking. If a late cancellation happens, then the member has to trust the CL owner to honour any refund system they may have in place.

Sadly, trust is one of those commodities that gets rarer each year. If I ran a popular CL, that gets more requests than pitches available, then I would charge a deposit. Some folks lack commitment when making a booking, and others suffer as a consequence, either the CL owner, or those more committed who are turned away. We have taken late cancellations at many sites due to other folks crying off at bad weather or changing their minds. Emergencies can and do happen, but some folks tend to have more than others!

One of the CLs we use is fully booked from mid March to mid October and they never ask for a deposit.  It is really good value with full facilities including free Wifi at £14/night.  If someone does cancel at short notice then the owner will phone a few regular visitors to see if they are available to take up the vacant slot which I think is a brilliant idea.  

Agree OP, we have benefitted from a phone call as well. We like doing repeat CL usage, have our favourites we use at least once a year. If they know it is us, they don't always ask for a deposit, because they know we will honour the booking. For our big holiday, I always liked to have it all paid up front, then we just got on enjoying things. Sadly we haven't been able to go away for long periods, so we do tend to leave it while last minute to book nowadays, and take pot luck. There is always somewhere nice!

We once had to cancel a 1 week stay at a CL due to an urgent hospital appt. I sent a cheque for the full amount to the owner as it wasn't his fault and to lose 20% of your potential fee because of a no show is hard to swallow. Owner sent the cheque back saying he had a last minute taker. 

Do CL owners keep a note of persistent no show/cancellation membership numbers and refuse to take future bookings r maybe charge them a big deposit, non refundable of course?