New Booking System

We are currently onsite at Berwick Seaview and last night tried to make some bookings to break our journey home to Lincolnshire. My wife enjoys browsing the club website, making suggestions for sites to visit and booking them for us but last night she gave up on it as she found it too confusing, too complicated and full of irrelevant input requests.
I have seen that the new system is not fully working yet but WOW is it difficult and clunky to use. I spent over an hour trying to make some bookings myself but never managed to get anywhere and to do this I had to turn the brightness on my mobile up to full to see the faint characters used on the calendar. A very poor user interface, not a patch on the old one.

The old search system was so easy to use via region, county etc. but in the new system Search And Book options include places that aren't even caravan sites such as the North York Moors Railway and for some reason I had to enter my towcar length. Why do you need this, it has never been required before. Totally irrelevant.
After having an attempt refused due to lack of availability I used the CLEAR button then started again only to find the dates re-populated with exactly the same refused days. Even closing the link to the site and and starting again from scratch gave me these unavailable days with a red banner telling me that I could not have them.

This morning I saw that people who had persevered and managed to make a booking were complaining of not receiving confirmation emails and not being able to view their current bookings. More alarming, some had deposits taken more than once and one member is apparently £750 out of pocket.

No way am I going to risk using the online system at present so I tried to make my booking by calling the site directly. I was presented with a message informing me that calls were not being taken and to use the online booking or the main club number so I tried the main number. Again I was presented with a message saying that phone bookings had been suspended due to ongoing problems.
So, for us the choice will be to either make the 210 mile tow home in one go or try for some non club sites.

I understand that the changes and deposits are to prevent block bookings so everyon gets a fair crack but why not simply add deposits and the twenty one day cancellation rule to the old system which had proved itself so well over time.

CMHC, if you took a backup of the old system please reboot it now. If you didn't, well, the future looks pretty bleak for us and we may have to consider alternate options.
We are very disappointed with the way this change has be implemented.

Shocking isn’t it Bartonians? Don’t let it spoil your break though. Here’s a suggestion for you, used by us and a few other Members……..

Try Cliff Farm at Sinnington, which is not far from Pickering. It was long ago a CL, but has now gone private, and grown into a very lovely 30 pitch private site. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

https://www.clifffarmholidays.com/caravan-park

Hope it helps having something recommended. Also hope you get a pitch if you do decide to go, it’s lovely. Great facilities, lovely owners.👍

I have looked at booking Treamble Valley for 14 nights the first 2 weeks of July 2023 the club wants 20% deposit that is £78.00. I did not book as we go away every month from February to November. This would mean that i will have paid out approx 1K in deposits. No way am i going to pay deposits.

But you will have less  to pay on arrival and where else will you go! Many non Club sites also charge deposits and have far more onerous terms than the Club's

peedee

Bartonians,  Also lots of overnight stops listed for you on UKCampsite.co.uk. No need to feel you have to do the whole journey home in one go. There’s a family owned site with 20 pitches near Bedale which caught my eye. Is that halfway?

That has nothing to do with what i said. 1K out of pocket now.

With all these reports of Members being unable to book you can probably turn up unannounced at any Club site now and find it half empty.

We've been through all this before. It's too late now to say you don't want deposits. They are a fact. 

What's the problem? If you cancel outside of the due time, you get your money back. If you don't cancel, you pay less on arrival as PD said. Tbh, if £78 is make or break for your holiday, it might be time to give up.

PS. How is paying deposits out of pocket 'now'? The deposit is buying you the right to have that holiday. You are getting something for your money so are not out of pocket. Anyway, have you anything to say about the booking system?

Question for Rowena (helpful if someone could report this to raise attention after I have posted)

I sort of understand why at the moment Sites cannot take phone calls, but once things settle down, is it going to be possible to phone a Site directly? I ask because I am a Carer, and when I go away I let my co carer know where we are, contact numbers for a landline just in case the mobile signal isn’t very good (Clumber Park for example). This is quite important for me, thankfully never had to phone a site yet, but I am sure there will be others in this situation. I am normally in daily contact via other methods, but Clumber was a challenge. 

I think Members will want to know they can contact a Club Site if there’s an emergency, journey problems, sudden family illness etc….. To me, it’s part of the Club’s commitment to its Members who are using Sites. It’s also good manners on the part of Members like us who do want to do the right thing and inform a Site if we cannot turn up. Only had to do it once in the past, had to turn back home mid journey, but it was easy to phone the Site. 

Hope you can respond and give Members a better idea of if we can contact a Site direct again at some point.

We are banking on this for some mid week stays😁