Caravan Club (Groundhog) Day.

[jonimac]

Today was the much heralded day for booking your sites for next year with the Caravan Club. Well, surprise surprise, the site crashed because they chose to introduce new technology so you can't book. Also you can't ring and book due to the same problem.

 

Any suggestions as to how they can introduce a better booking stampede would be welcome. I have a couple of ideas and will share them later.

 

John

[spospe]

Exactly the same as last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My suggestion to overcome this problem is simple, allow booking up to a year in advance.

 

The problem is caused by having a specific day to start booking, if the event is well-spread, then no problem.

[Guest Tracker]

My solution although no help to you good folk is to never book anywhere and to always holiday abroad where a fortnight in France will cost less in total than a fortnight on a UK club site!

 

Apologies - couldn't resist it!

[spospe]

Tracker

 

Curious financial world you inhabit, can I come and join you?

 

From my own experience, taking the return cost of travel from Stockport to Dover, the cost of a return ferry crossing and the cost of a fortnight on an equivalent standard French site (even one close to Calais), the total would be greater than staying on a CC site.

 

It is quite true that CC sites do cost much £££, but you do get decent facilities and the electricity supply is both safe and of 16 amp capacity.

[malc d]

spospe - 2008-12-03 11:07 AM

 

Exactly the same as last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My suggestion to overcome this problem is simple, allow booking up to a year in advance.

 

The problem is caused by having a specific day to start booking, if the event is well-spread, then no problem.

 

 

Or, install a software package that can cope.

:-(

 

 

[spospe]

malc d

 

Your suggestion would involve some expense, whereas my idea is simple and cost free.

 

Perhaps there is some reason for not allowing people to book a pitch when they know their dates, but if there is I do not know what it is. To my mind, if I can give specific dates, even up to a year ahead, I should be allowed to make the reservation.

 

If cancellations are a problem for the CC, then charge a booking fee, or like the ferry companies, charge the whole amount at the time of booking and only refund a percentage, depending on how close to the date the cancelation is made.

 

The problem for the CC is simply that they have a 'booking start day' and everyone tries to book on that day, spread the booking time out and the problem will disolve.

 

Michael

[malc d]

spospe - 2008-12-03 3:11 PM

 

malc d

 

Your suggestion would involve some expense, whereas my idea is simple and cost free.

 

Perhaps there is some reason for not allowing people to book a pitch when they know their dates, but if there is I do not know what it is. To my mind, if I can give specific dates, even up to a year ahead, I should be allowed to make the reservation.

 

If cancellations are a problem for the CC, then charge a booking fee, or like the ferry companies, charge the whole amount at the time of booking and only refund a percentage, depending on how close to the date the cancelation is made.

 

The problem for the CC is simply that they have a 'booking start day' and everyone tries to book on that day, spread the booking time out and the problem will disolve.

 

Michael

 

 

I wouldn't disagree with you Michael, but my point is that whenever booking starts they need to have software installed that can cope with the volume.

It sounds to me as if the testing of the software was not very thorough.

 

:-|

[Brian Kirby]

Strangely, I think the answer may be to open more sites.  Costly, I know, but the pressure on available spaces comes from two things.  First, that people feel the need to book because they know there is a risk that if they don't, they may not get onto their favourite site.  Second, is the sheer number who use sites mainly at weekends, leaving them free for much of the week, but useless for anyone wanting to stay for a week, or more.  The latter might be reduced by charging a substantial premium for weekend bookings, reduced if taken in conjunction with weekdays. 

However, I'm with Tracker, I hate all this booking frenzy, and barely travel in UK to be free from it.  I bought a motorhome to be free to wander, not to be tethered to pre-booked sites for a year in advance.  What nonsense it all is!

[malc d]

I'm with Brian and Tracker.

 

I have never booked any sites on the continent and only once or twice in the U.K.

...and the more I hear of these booking problems 'at home' the longer I will try to take my tours the other side of the channel.

 

Mind you, we've always 'toured ' only staying a few days at a time on any one site, I suppose if you want to stay somewhere for a couple of weeks booking may be unavoidable. :-( :-( :-(

 

 

[Guest Tracker]

spospe - 2008-12-03 12:54 PM

 

Tracker

 

Curious financial world you inhabit, can I come and join you?

 

From my own experience, taking the return cost of travel from Stockport to Dover, the cost of a return ferry crossing and the cost of a fortnight on an equivalent standard French site (even one close to Calais), the total would be greater than staying on a CC site.

 

It is quite true that CC sites do cost much £££, but you do get decent facilities and the electricity supply is both safe and of 16 amp capacity.

 

Now there's challenge Michael and with apologies for hijacking the thread I'll have a go at convincing you.

 

Take a CC site at, I don't know 'cos I don't use 'em, but say about £15 a night for 15 nights is £225 plus all your diesel at about a fiver a gallon.

 

Pay about, I don't know 'cos I don't use 'em, say £10 a night in France for a site plus about £4 a gallon for probably more than half of your diesel and it don't take much to cancel out the ferry cost of say £40 to £80 depending when you go.

 

Add on the cheap booze you can bring back and the total cost gets mighty close to a UK holiday and you are more likely to get half decent weather too.

It works for us!

[Mel B]

I hate having to book months and months in advance, how the heck do you know exactly what you will be doing when your holiday comes around? Yes, I know some like to be able to do this and get it all planned, but I like a less rigid holiday.

 

It is only when you have dogs (or other pets) that you take on holiday with you that the costs start to add up more when going abroad. Take us, 3 dogs so 3 pet passports, cost for the injections, blood tests, passport document etc, etc, about £150 per dog. You basically have to write off this cost as you'll never recover it (unless of course you were one of those people who put your pets in kennels the you soon recoup the outlay by taking them with you instead).

 

So for each of our trips abroad it costs us £30 per dog per trip, plus another £30 or so per dog for the return vet check, before we even get on the ferry/chunnel, there's £180 gone.

 

For our 3 week (23 days) trip abroad in June/July next year we anticipate it will cost us:

 

£142 for the return Chunnel crossing (already paid for)

£90 for the dogs 'tickets' (already paid for)

£90 for the return vet check (estimate)

£30 estimated expenditure on minimal number of sites etc.

------

£352

====

 

In contrast, a 23 days holiday in the UK on a variety of sites - mix of main club sites and CLs - probably averaging about £15 a night, makes a cost of £345. So all in all, there's not much in it. But take off the cost of the dogs and that brings the cost down to £172.00 - no contest!

 

Now, assuming the UK has the same 'lovely' weather it had this year in the summer I know where I'd rather be! And this is before I even consider the pleasure of trying to converse in a foreign language (yes it really can be fun!) , experiencing new places and cultures, not to mention the lovely tasty food ... and most importantly being able to PARK without too much aggro!

 

If you don't stay on campsites and use the foreign aires completely it gets even cheaper and you meet a lot of nice people in the process. :-D On our last holiday to France we spent 1 night out of 16 on a campsite (and that was only because we wanted to harrass Carol & Charles! :D ) so in total, including a couple of aires we had to pay for, plus paying for some water, we only spent £20 on our night stops.

 

But, and this is a big but, the main reason we go abroad is that we can just go as we please, we don't have to book sites or be given that 'look' by the warden when you roll up without a booking as if to say "You are the lowest of the low and we will only let you stay here out of sufferance!"

 

There is a lot more freedom travelling abroad and THAT is what we like ... freedome to do as we please ... surely this is the benefit of owning a motorhome? :-S

[BGD]

Apologies for my complete ignorance, until on this CCC phenomenon.

We're Johhny Foreigners now, as only started this Motorhome lark last year (here in Spain).

 

I nearly feel off my chair when I learned that there's this "start of the booking for next year" frenzy in the UK.

I'd never heard of this before.

 

We've never, ever pre-booked, anywhere in Spain or Portugal. Even in July and August.

Granted, we're not big on staying on camping sites; we proabably wild camp in the countryside, in forests, on beaches, by rivers etc 4 or 5 nights for every 1 night that we stay on a "proper" site.

 

I have no idea what the answer is to the situation over there in Blighty, but from over here that situation sounds quite mad and terribly prescriptive for all you guys and gals.

 

Whatever happened to the beauty and freedom of just starting your van, heading away from home and just roaming/exploring, on a whim? :'(

[malc d]

BGD - 2008-12-03 9:17 PM

 

Apologies for my complete ignorance, until on this CCC phenomenon.

We're Johhny Foreigners now, as only started this Motorhome lark last year (here in Spain).

 

I nearly feel off my chair when I learned that there's this "start of the booking for next year" frenzy in the UK.

I'd never heard of this before.

 

We've never, ever pre-booked, anywhere in Spain or Portugal. Even in July and August.

Granted, we're not big on staying on camping sites; we proabably wild camp in the countryside, in forests, on beaches, by rivers etc 4 or 5 nights for every 1 night that we stay on a "proper" site.

 

I have no idea what the answer is to the situation over there in Blighty, but from over here that situation sounds quite mad and terribly prescriptive for all you guys and gals.

 

Whatever happened to the beauty and freedom of just starting your van, heading away from home and just roaming/exploring, on a whim? :'(

 

 

 

 

 

The answer to the situation in Blighty is to spend any touring holidays on YOUR side of the channel !

 

I agree with you - whatever happened to just wandering around in the U.K. ?

It seems you can still do it, as long as you always go home at weekends.

 

I think the answer would be municipal sites and / or aires, but I can't see that ever happening over here given the authourities ( and general public ) perception of the 'camping' life.

 

 

 

:-(

[Hopesy]

If the repeated glitch is down to numbers trying to book I wonder if the "no deposit" isn't helping. Although the CC say that they haven't had many "no shows" does that include those that book then cancel the week before arrival date. I'm sure the no deposit is being abused with people booking large numbers of weekends.

[colin]

BGD - 2008-12-03 9:17 PM

 

Apologies for my complete ignorance, until on this CCC phenomenon.

We're Johhny Foreigners now, as only started this Motorhome lark last year (here in Spain).

 

I nearly feel off my chair when I learned that there's this "start of the booking for next year" frenzy in the UK.

I'd never heard of this before.

 

We've never, ever pre-booked, anywhere in Spain or Portugal. Even in July and August.

Granted, we're not big on staying on camping sites; we proabably wild camp in the countryside, in forests, on beaches, by rivers etc 4 or 5 nights for every 1 night that we stay on a "proper" site.

 

I have no idea what the answer is to the situation over there in Blighty, but from over here that situation sounds quite mad and terribly prescriptive for all you guys and gals.

 

Whatever happened to the beauty and freedom of just starting your van, heading away from home and just roaming/exploring, on a whim? :'(

I've never stayed on a CC site so cannot comment on that, but we are perfectly happy touring around UK without booking for most of the year, we have booked ahead a few times at small CL's where we specificaly want to be there and/or out of respect? for owner, but this is usualy just a quick phone call in the preceding week. Peak holiday times and sites that are full are not realy my sort of thing, the exception to this would be Glastonbury to see Guy Falkes parade, then we might book a few weeks in advance.

[RupertGS]

Brian Kirby - 2008-12-03 3:40 PM

However, I'm with Tracker, I hate all this booking frenzy, and barely travel in UK to be free from it.  I bought a motorhome to be free to wander, not to be tethered to pre-booked sites for a year in advance.  What nonsense it all is!

I really do object to the arrogance of people like this who assume that only their method of motorhoming is sensible. To say 'What nonsense it is' really does sum up their attitude.

I too go to Europe for about five or six weeks in summer and, by avoiding August, never book anywhere using a mixture of aires, wild camping and sites when necessary.

I say 'when necessary' because there are occasions when nothing beats a site. This year we'd two such examples. In late August we wanted to explore the Norfolk Broads, so to be sure we booked a superb CC site near Wroxham. I booked it well in advance as it gets full.

We spent five days walking and cycling everywhere and our 'van never left the site. It was secure and safe and we'd no worries about leaving it. If you really want to explore a region this beats driving around and trying to find parking and scuttling around every night for an hour trying to find a safe place to 'wild' camp.

We did the same in Salzburg in summer. Five days on a site (which we didn't book) and spent the whole time exploring the city and the area using the brilliant bus service, bikes and shank's pony. Again, the 'van never left the site but we were happy that it was safe and secure.

Please accept that there are good reasons for wanting to book a site in advance, particularly if you wish to explore a smallish area properly and be sure of getting a place at a busy time of year.

[michele]

Take a chill Pill Brians entitled to say what he likes ,he never said you have to do what he say's .

[malc d]

My interpretation of what Brian said was that he thought the " booking frenzy " was a nonsense, not that 'booking 'was a nonsense.

 

:-(

[chatterdog]

I am a member of both clubs and i also think this prebooking thing needs to be better looked at. I can appreaciate that people want to be /go to certain sites, but i think if the CC charged a small deposit on prebookings there would not be this booking frenzy and later in the year there would not be the amount of no shows at the sites if the weather is bad. As it stands you can book all you want but you have no incentive to turn up no matter what the weather. It may be better to bring in a ruling that you can only book maybe 4/ 6 weeks in advance of your break for the desired site.That way people who dont know when they can get away so early in the year, stand a chance of booking as well.I have no objection to paying a deposit for a booking - we would have to do it to go anywhere else.

[Tony Jones]

Tracker - 2008-12-03 4:41 PM

 

Take a CC site at, I don't know 'cos I don't use 'em, but say about £15 a night for 15 nights is £225 plus all your diesel at about a fiver a gallon.

 

Pay about, I don't know 'cos I don't use 'em, say £10 a night in France for a site plus about £4 a gallon for probably more than half of your diesel and it don't take much to cancel out the ferry cost of say £40 to £80 depending when you go.

 

Add on the cheap booze you can bring back and the total cost gets mighty close to a UK holiday and you are more likely to get half decent weather too.

It works for us!

 

Me too - only more so. Try the sums like this:

 

14 nights on commercial UK sites @ £20 (more likely than £15!) = £280

 

OR

 

CC membership £35, plus 14 nights on CLs @ £10? = £133

 

OR

 

£80 ferry, plus 14 nights on Aires (half free, half up to €6/£5) = £115.

 

And that's without the cheaper diesel over there. I'd never put down anyone else's choices of holiday - certainly not in the name of "freedom!" - but you can see where I'm coming from ... AND where I'm going to!

 

Tony

[RupertGS]

michele - 2008-12-04 12:05 AM Take a chill Pill Brians entitled to say what he likes ,he never said you have to do what he say's .

This is a curious statement. Brian is allowed to say what he likes, which he is, but apparently I'm not? Is that your position, because if it is it's an odd one?

It's true that he never said that I have to do what he says and I don't think that he ever would, but what he did say, and this is certainly how I read it, is that people like me and many others, who book a site a long time in advance in order to make sure of getting a place exactly where we want to be, are conducting our motorhoming in a nonsensical way.

That is what I objected to and tried to explain why we occasionally wish to book a site well in advance.

I'm sorry that you were unable to see this.

[michele]

My dear its nearly Christmas . I never said you couldnt say what you liked either . Just take a chill pill thats all, no need to start WW3.

 

If you wanna book early fine no probs And if you can't get booked because of the stupid system which, I think is what Brian is trying to say) No probs either .

 

Either way I don't care, just think it would be much politer if people wanting to disagree with people actually just said By the way old chap I do disagree with you and the reasons why they disagree .

 

Perhaps a chill pill is really the order of the day before it gets out of hand .

 

PS Rupert don't feel sorry for me I'm fine really its all the others that aint.

I actually feel sorry that you, could not see between the lines .

 

 

 

:D :D :D

[John H]

I know someone who booked lots of sites last December and I know for a fact that he cancelled at least 60% of the ones he had booked. He just cancelled them online a couple of days before his booked date. I have told him that he is spoiling it for everone else but all he says is " well at least I cancelled them instead of just not turning up".

 

I think the CC needs to take a non refundable deposit and there wouldn't be this problem. The date they set to allow people to book is unfair as well because it's always mid week and some of their members are at work(like me), they haven't got a chance to book a popular site. >:-)

[maggyd]

It makes me sick this crazy stampede to book up for a complete seasons camping >:-( we pay our club fees standing order and last year we used one site for 4 night and another overnight before going over to France.

I dont care what the excuses are but to me it is pure GREED people book willy nilly not knowing if they can make it or not and as one site told us "ring thursday morning that is when we get lots of cancellations" O.K. let them book BUT let them PAY a non refunderble deposit as well!

 

If people have to book that are working and must take a certain time then YES let them book and pay a deposit they will turn up but some are just greedy and I make no apology for saying it! if they arent enough pitches per member then someone quite a lot in fact are paying fees for nothing. We will be paying again this year but it might be our last we will have to wait and see! if non members can book and find a site Why Pay membership fees?

 

[maggyd]

RupertGS - 2008-12-03 10:56 PM

Brian Kirby - 2008-12-03 3:40 PM

However, I'm with Tracker, I hate all this booking frenzy, and barely travel in UK to be free from it.  I bought a motorhome to be free to wander, not to be tethered to pre-booked sites for a year in advance.  What nonsense it all is!

I really do object to the arrogance of people like this who assume that only their method of motorhoming is sensible. To say 'What nonsense it is' really does sum up their attitude.

I too go to Europe for about five or six weeks in summer and, by avoiding August, never book anywhere using a mixture of aires, wild camping and sites when necessary.

I say 'when necessary' because there are occasions when nothing beats a site. This year we'd two such examples. In late August we wanted to explore the Norfolk Broads, so to be sure we booked a superb CC site near Wroxham. I booked it well in advance as it gets full.

We spent five days walking and cycling everywhere and our 'van never left the site. It was secure and safe and we'd no worries about leaving it. If you really want to explore a region this beats driving around and trying to find parking and scuttling around every night for an hour trying to find a safe place to 'wild' camp.

We did the same in Salzburg in summer. Five days on a site (which we didn't book) and spent the whole time exploring the city and the area using the brilliant bus service, bikes and shank's pony. Again, the 'van never left the site but we were happy that it was safe and secure.

Please accept that there are good reasons for wanting to book a site in advance, particularly if you wish to explore a smallish area properly and be sure of getting a place at a busy time of year.

Yes but I notice you say A Site some people are booking dozens of sites with no idia if they are going to be able to go or not! That is what we are members of a Club because they are secure and safe and very clean! but they are people that are taking advantage of the fact that they Can so they Do and that is why we have gridlock.