Pre-arrival texts

I have not stayed on a Club site since late June and not due on another until September so no experience of that yet. The text option seems sensible providing of course the Club have your mobile number rather than a landline one! It's certainly clear, from what I read in the reviews and on Facebook that a lot of people are up in arms at the way they have been treated when they arrive early. OK some will chance their arm whatever but others will just slightly miscalculate their arrival at a site by 10/15 minutes. Personally I don't think the booking confirmation emails are clear, unless they have changed very recently, because they mention an ETA of between 13.00 and 15.00pm. When people see estimated time of arrival they will immediately think there might be some flexibility? Far better to just have in bold " No Arrivals before 1.00pm" Early arrivals will be turned away. It would be nice for the Club to explain the rational for this change to members by sending out a round robin email regardless of set preferences. Those of us on this forum tend to be a bit ahead of the game as far as what the Club is up to but many rely of social media and the message is still not getting through everywhere, well it might soon if you get a text

David

The club certainly needs to do something to get the message accross so texts must be a good move. The site reviews clearly demonstrate that some people see no problem with rolling up hours early in some cases. It’s never their fault though🤨

Not received any texts yet but the email received a week before makes it clear enough. Although they could try not being so polite and add, if you do arrive early you will be asked to leave and come back at 13:00.


Arrive after 13:00 and before 20:00
Please note: the time noted above is the earliest campsite arrival time. Please ensure you arrive at or after this time, in order to allow our site teams to prepare the site for new guests arriving, and also keep things as safe as possible for our departing guests.

We recently had phone call reminders the day before going to Steamer Quay (a small 40+ site so not an arduous task for the site manager ) HOWEVER!! Unbelievable to our ears when arriving at 1pm the frustrated manager told us he had turned away three sets of early arrivals who had received the call too. I'm  sorry to say all the " good guys" got pitched first as the early ones had to park up and pay nearby and then turn around. What a frustrating and thankless task for the managers and no doubt leaving them open to verbal abuse etc.

The road leading to Steamer Quay isn't suitable for queuing and is on a blind bend. For some sites there is a bit of leeway for parking and waiting but surely if you've had a text or phone call you could at least comply with a polite request?!

Hmm, I wonder if everyone gets an email, we've never had one but after my recent communication preferences complaint maybe we will?!

We have never received any email before arrivals or indeed any emails except when I book. Amend or cancel a booking

We get an email about 3-4 weeks prior to arrival for every site we have booked. Not had any texts though.....

As for people arriving early, they will only stop doing so if the club stops letting them on early.

We have noticed sites becoming more determined to not start booking people in before 1pm, but people who do arrive before 1pm and then clog up the entrance still get on first at 1pm. Until the club has the courage to introduce some sort of sanction for early arrivals parked in the gateway there will be people who do it. Easy to say I appreciate, a lot harder to implement........

Let's face it. The Club is terrible at Communication. It, unfortunately, is an oft repeated phrase that I use and have been doing so for quite a number of years now. 

I agree with both Brue that everyone in the club should receive this by email and also agree with RandomC. 3 strikes and you are out, no more bookings for 12 months. You can make a slight misjudgment once or claim ignorance once but some people make a habit of it.

I knew of a few wardens in the past (before on.  line booking)who kept little black books of those who did not turn up or turned up early with all sorts of feeble excuses  who when they phoned the site again as most did then would find no pitches available for the dates requested

I don’t need to be sent a text , as I know not to arrive before 1pm and plan my journey accordingly.