New Site Booking System

So what is the problem with paying a deposit, if you are genuinely intending to go ?
There in no certainty in anything, if it is a minute away or months away ,that excuse is irrelevant ,if you are genuinely intending to go
We have  booked 4 weeks down south in June,  and though we wanted to go with the club ,we have been forced to go with two commercial sites ,as two of the club sites we wanted to go to are already booked ,and as the club has admitted   probaly at least 25% of those bookings, are speculative 
You say the  the majority of the cancellations are rebooked, your evidance to back that claim?
Even if that is the case, that is no excuse for making speculative bookings ,as in our case that mentality has lost the club turnover. 

Whilst I prefer the current system, I don’t have any problem with paying a deposit, I already do for our C&CC bookings. The point I was making was that your advance bookings are as speculative as anyone else, as you don’t know you are going to be able to go. You seem to equate anyone who prefers the current system with someone who abuses it, which is far from the case.
As the club is going to continue letting us book 1 / 2 nights as well as longer periods, where  as a lot of commercials have minimum booking periods. I don’t think deposits will make it that much easier to get full weeks, the weekends will still go first, especially at popular weekend sites. As to evidence of cancellations being rebooked, I refer you to CS’s post above.

Has anyone on this thread knowingly been unable to book a site because of speculative booking, there are many reasons to cancel or amend bookings at the last minute such as illness, bereavement, family crisis etc I thought the club contacted habitual cancelers it would be intresting to know how many letters they send out, 

There is a two page spread on the new system in the February mag, nothing new though.

peedee

If you failed to secure a booking due to the site being full, I'm not sure you'd know why those places had been taken, nor if some were later released due to someone cancelling a 'speculative' booking.

we pretty much take all our bookings, but we don't book club sites far in advance, as 3/4 of our touring is overseas.

But, of the other 7 weeks or so we are touring the UK, it's really only our New Year break that we book or for another specific reason....for example, we are going to a concert later in the year and booked the local site to correspond.

however, we did want to visit one specific 'honeypot' a few years ago and our lackadaisical organisation (touring on a whim...) didn't cut the mustard, so I booked really early and selected two dates, without a clue as to which one we would take...

it would certainly be weather dependant...the site has a pool and we required sunshine...and to fit with our ever changing diary..

so, I guess you could say that one of those bookings was speculative, so you can blame it all on me😉

Has anyone on this thread knowingly been unable to book a site because of speculative booking,

If you consider all bookingw speculative then the answer is yes. I have had reason to complain on previous threads and last year three of my bookings fell foul to the current system. Attempts at bookings were made at least three months in advance only to find all the dates I wanted were not available. On two occasion they did become available closer to the time but the third only became partially available. On all of the occasions I went elsewhere. The Club lost 10 days bookings from me.

peedee

It contacts those who cancel late (I think) and/or don't show, ie after the 72 hour chop off time with an automated letter. Three of those and you could lose all future bookings. As far as I recall no details of the numbers have ever been disclosed.

I wonder what will happen in the new system if one cancels after the 21 days or do not show up? Lose you deposit and a letter?

But on the other side to that they probably resold them and didn't lose any or much income, they just didn't get yours.

Also if deposits are refundable before 21 days, or even transferable within 21 days I think nothing will change apart from now availability will become available at day 22 rather than 4?

Certainly nothing will change for weekends in my view.

It is not a matter of preferring, for obvious reasons,  i prefer the present system .
It is a matter of being fit for purpose, and members that have abused the system  have proven that the clubs  present booking system ,is not fit for purpose 
I also have to disagree with you, speculative bookings are not the same as genuinely intended bookings,
There is a chasm of difference between booking sites you intend to go to, unless an act of god intervenes, and a speculative booking , especially weekends, where you hope you might be able to go ,or let say the weather forecast is not to great , and you know  you can easily cancel , with no meaningful consequences ,and if there  is a financial loss. it is not the member that has to stand it, but the club ,and other members by the club passing on that loss to other genuine members , 

Yes