New Site Booking System

No, I see no difference being made by the booking of pitches by surface type. The end result will be the same.

We are all free to book as few or as many nights as we want - subject to the 21 day rule. Your proposal would penalise a different group of members and I don’t believe in penalising anyone by inflicting draconian rules as we are all equal in this club. 

It's academic in any case as JK has said minimum nights bookings are not going to happen.

No, I don't think things will be much different to now.  To refuse to allow anyone to move pitch would, IMO, be unreasonable and unlikely.

If you book a HS, in case of bad weather, but really prefer grass, and then find that when you arrive the grass pitches are fine, if one is free for the duration of your stay, you could ask to amend to a grass pitch.

Likewise, if the only pitch left of the type you have booked is not to your satisfaction, you could move to a different one when one becomes free.

At present a member on arrival has the choice of ANY empty pitch (allowing for reservation for disabled, staff, etc).  Under the new system a member has the choice of any pitch only of the PRE-SELECTED TYPE, which is probably reducing choice to about half the pitches on site, or less if serviced pitches are considered.

Swaping to a different type of pitch may well be impossible if that type is fully booked at some point in the future (e.g. weekend). 

I do not see this as improving my customer experience at all!

Just read an e-mail from the Club about deposits etc and thought I’d come on here to see if there was more detail. Spotted this thread, but seeing the length of it, couldn’t be bothered to read it all.

So, a couple of observations and a question.

The reason given by the Club for now applying deposits, is to prevent no-shows and thereby ensure more availability of pitches. 

The Club are also now saying that deposits will deter people from making speculative bookings - multiple weekends that they have no intention of using. 

But didn’t the Club say repeatedly over the years, that when they previously had deposits, there were a lot more no-shows? The reason, they said, was that people felt no compunction to cancel, because they’d somehow ‘paid’ for it by forfeiting a deposit.

And didn’t the Club also repeatedly say that, according to their booking statistics, members did not make multiple, speculative bookings?

Neither of these earlier assertions from the Club ever made sense to me. Indeed, I repeatedly asked for numbers of late cancellations (just outside the 72 hour cut off) but was told that the information wasn’t available. It now appears that the figures were in fact available and that they demonstrated the opposite of what the Club were saying.

Of course, a certain group on here slavishly agreed with the Club’s earlier comments, despite the lack of logic or any actual facts to support their statements.

However, that said, I’m glad that the Club are finally admitting that they were wrong and are doing something about the lack of available pitches.

Too late for me as I rarely use Club sites now. But it’s nice to have been proven right at last.

My question - what happens about existing bookings, made before deposits came in? Will all the earlier speculative bookings require a retrospective deposit to be paid and will that lead to a flood of cancellations?

Re your question Ian (which is in fact three questions). It’s all in the links in this thread, no, and finally no. 😁

But didn’t the Club say repeatedly over the years, that when they previously had deposits, there were a lot more no-shows? The reason, they said, was that people felt no compunction to cancel, because they’d somehow ‘paid’ for it by forfeiting a deposit.

And didn’t the Club also repeatedly say that, according to their booking statistics, members did not make multiple, speculative bookings?

Neither of these earlier assertions from the Club ever made sense to me. Indeed, I repeatedly asked for numbers of late cancellations (just outside the 72 hour cut off) but was told that the information wasn’t available. It now appears that the figures were in fact available and that they demonstrated the opposite of what the Club were saying.

I did point that out earlier in this post, Ian, but not responses wer forthcoming. The statement by Ro seems to me to contain much of the usual Fake News that the club puts out on a fairly regular basis.

 Having just made a speculative booking for 2022 I can confirm that the T&C's state that no deposit is required and full payment can only be made at arrival at the site. Stand by for a huge increase in speculative bookings for 2022 which will be subsequently cancelled and then referenced by the Club as proof of need to change ... 

Which when the trial of hardstand pitches was being used  was just what some members were being "confused" about

 Still not going to happen. Minimum stay will always be ONE night.

JK

The reason given by the Club for now applying deposits, is to prevent no-shows and thereby ensure more availability of pitchesI

No Ian - if you read the Q&A deposits it states that deposits are being introduced to reduce speculative booking not no-shows.

This has been made a few times, there is a difference between speculative bookings and no-shows. Speculative booking are booking with no (real) intention of taking them up and cancelling before the three days, often perhaps very near the cut off point. No-shows are bookings that are not cancelled at any time and hence not showing up and/or not giving anyone else the chance to take up that pitch on that night . And yes speculative bookings can lead to no shows but they are different things in my view.

So it is possible that no-shows went down when deposits were removed no shows went down due to either the 'honour system' or the three strikes and lose all bookings.

Anyway good to know you're still a member of the club even though you rarely use club sites.