How do you feel about paying a deposit on CL site

I would think it is likely that the CL's that take deposits have a much higher turnover.There seems to be much clearer communication when deposits are taken between the owners and the visitors.

I love the positivity of this thread! Thank you all for supporting paying deposits to CLs and understanding why they are sometimes necessary.

I currently only take deposits for Bank Holidays and special events as, up to now, no shows haven't been too big a problem plus we have only been open since July 2013.  However as we get busier, which we are doing, I can see a time (maybe next year) when I will have to start taking them for all bookings.  I'm lucky in that we have online booking and the system records the payment and whether it was cheque or bank transfer etc. which makes things so much easier.

However, GrandmaMoley is correct when saying credit/debit cards are not cost effective. We do also accept payments via Paym but not many people know what that is it seems, as well as bank transfer and good old cheques.

As Cholsey Grange has said thank you for your understanding.

Nicola
www.skybarnfarm.co.uk
Telephone: 01522 681218
Email: enquiries@skybarnfarm.co.uk
Site 1026, page 400 of the 2015/2016 Sites Directory

We don't take deposits and have very few "no shows" which are frustrating when you have turned others away, but we do take all your details at the time of booking and will report every "no show" to the Club.     This is more of a hobby for us and we don't want the hassle of a trip to Dundee or Perth to pay a cheque in, or having to do the calculation when booking someone in on arrival and remembering how much deposit to deduct.  Just want to keep it simple and not stressful.

David    www.perthshirecl.co.uk

Lets not complicate things. Never have I let a Cl owner down. However we are last minute travellers and often just turn up.We may in fact be taking the cancelled spots. Swings & Roundabouts.

Iwas looking to book a cl last week and i noticed that they requested a deposit of £5 per night which i thought was quite a lot if staying for 10 days or so i dont object to paying £10  or £15 but i thought £50 was a bit high [i know it is deducted off the final payment ]even so.

A large deposit may reduce the number of cancellations but it may also put some people off booking in the first instance. Especially if their circumstances (such as work committments) make cancellation more likely. I think all CL owners need to look at their own circumstances and decide whether to ask for a deposit and how large it should be. Clearly there is no issue from the perspective of the willingness of members to pay them and cancellations are not as big a problem as some would make out. In 36 years of caravanning I have only ever cancelled one booking (due to the car breaking down) and I suspect that I am not that unusual in that respect.

Years ago the Caravan Club used to charge a deposit for all sites whether a Center rally, a CL or main site.  There was never an issue of no shows, nor of multi booking then cancelling just before departure.  The system worked very well!   

I think that CL's are the jewel in the CC's crown and we do need to do everything in our power to keep them happy.

For most of them the season will be very short and their ability to make a reasonable income from their investment in time and money very limited,  For that reason to lose just one out of the five permitted is an immediate reduction of 20% of income. Not good!

For that reason alone I would support the request for a deposit system.

The maximum of 5 rule is very limiting for site owners, and as I understand it, it is based on the law rather than an arbitary club ruling. If that is correct, then the law would have been formulated many years ago, - long before the surge in Caravanning and the annual seasonal pressure on sites.

 Perhaps now is the time to pressurise for a change in the law to allow perhaps up to 8-10 vans instead of 5.

TF

I suspect for most members who choose to use CLs, the limit of 5 pitches/5 visitors maximum is one of the prime elements that makes them so special. I am guessing that most CLs are not provided to be big money earners, but have been a good method of either diversification (farms) or extra income where generous people are happy to open up their homes to visitors. Some have built on their success by having a second CL/CS area adjacent or close by, while others have sought planning permission to have a small private site with over 5 pitches. For some CL owners, going down the route of opening a CL gives them a taste of what is involved in running a site before taking the full plunge and growing the site into something that might be a full on business venture.

We are happy to pay a deposit on a CL we have visited before, and that gives us all that we expect. If visiting somewhere new, we will either just ring prior to setting off, and take pot luck that a pitch is free, and pay on arrival, staying longer if it suits. As we tour all year round, we do appreciate considerate CL owners who are flexible if ground conditions are poor, or weather so bad it is dangerous. To be honest, we have never had any problems, and have never not turned up to a CL we have booked.

You have a good point, there re the special nature of CL's and the fact that their small size was one of the factors that makes them so  special. I totally agree. But my suggestion of 8 -10 would still keep them small and most sites would stay at 5.   But having spoken to a number of site owners they explained the problems to me.

They say that more and more of us are demanding EHU's and a better standard of site in general. ( Just grass cutting and appearance, although some expect toilet facilities!! ) All of that involves significant expense on their behalf. - Yet for most,  the  busy season of full occupation is very short.  It is then that  they occasionally have to turn people away because they are up to their 5.  That hurts when the return on their investment is very low anyway.

I totally agree that very few indeed are in the CL business to make money. All I was saying was that for a significant minority the ability to have a  slightly larger number of vans in high season might make all the difference when the question of "is it worth bothering?" comes up.

Like you I love the CL system it provides much greater flexibility to us.  I just want to make sure that it thrives.

TF