josie gibblebucket Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 It seems that now when you are looking for a site, you have to specify caravan (twin wheel) or caravan, trailer tent, 5th wheel, motorhome or campervan. What is the difference re the last two - apart from size possibly? Some motorhomes ie autocruise vista are very short at 15ft, some campervans are very long at 6 metres! Oh and what if you have a folding camper - is that classed as a caravan? Surely the price of the pitch should be the same whatever your unit, as with the exception of jumbo pitches for family tents, all the pitches are the same size. 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulmold Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 As you say what is the difference as regards a pitch as you have to enter the length, width and height anyway. The entire new website is a disgrace. Whatever company re-designed it need sacking now. The old site remembered your units details, the 'oops there's a problem' message comes up far too often, it shows price per person instead of per pitch etc.etc. Just forget booking on-line and phone them and tell them that it's c**p. They will tell you they are aware but insist on talking to customer service department and tell them, they will get sick of complaints eventually and maybe someone there will have the guts to fire the website designers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger s Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Have to agree, considering the size of both the C&CC and the CC the websites leave much to be desired in terms of design and layout. One problem I have is when a membership number has been logged no one else can register against that number. ie: management registered, I cant unless I use her sign on. IMO not satisfactory. I also they they could make email communication easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Have to agree with the negative comments, being a life long member of the club, the web site was perfectly o.k. before, who ever thought this new web site up should as Mr Jeremy Clarkson once quoted should be took outside and shot. :D I suppose its a question of too many fingers in the pie, at club head quarters. I think if all members emailed them to register their disaproval of this abortion of a booking service, things (might ) eventualy change, but dont hold your breath. From a disgusted veteran member. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tugga Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I suppose they have to spend their vast profits somewhere so they have decided to screw up the website - typical! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 paulmold - 2012-01-17 7:20 AM it shows price per person instead of per pitch etc.etc. . Yes, it actually shows the average price per person for the total booking. Of course, with one member with an age concession and one without, the average price matches neither price indicated in the book, Doh!!! I had to go back throught the prices with a fine toothcombe to check how they got to their 'price' and that they had actually applied the age concession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josie gibblebucket Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 But getting back to my original question - how do you know whether they regard your unit as a campervan or a motorhome? How do you know which box to tick? If they are making a distinction between a caravan and a twin wheeled caravan, I'm surprised they are not making a distinction between a trailer tent and a folding camper, or is the latter regaded as a caravan?There are no FAQs to help either. The last thing you want is to arrive on site and be told you are not what they were expecting. There ought to be an american RV option to tick, as that would be far more likely to determine whether they had room for you. I'm nit picking I know ;-) but the whole process is ridiculous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 josie gibblebucket - 2012-01-17 10:19 AM But getting back to my original question - how do you know whether they regard your unit as a campervan or a motorhome? How do you know which box to tick? ....I'm nit picking I know ;-) but the whole process is ridiculous! ..Have you actually tried asking the CC&C and just seeing what they say?... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobalobs Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 The Club must be wasting so much money with this new computer system. As the email confirmation of a booking part of the system is not working at the moment (!) we have had one snail mail confirmation of a booking last November which had already taken place. And only yesterday, my wife recieved a manually generated email from the club confirming our late December booking - again already taken place! Booking a site is, as discussed above, a nightmare - you go through dozens of "clicks" only to get a message stating the site booking is not available. So you go back to square one, and have to double guess which days might be available - the old system showed clearly with green ticks and red crosses on the relevant days - so easy to adjust the booking on that page. Then, if you want to look back and double check a booking (which my wife tried to do for an Easter break) the booking history was not available online - and lo and behold, when requesting direct from the club, she got the December confirmation. Has anyone heard directly from the Club just what they are intending to do about it? The system is worse than useless and putting more pressure on the telephone operators, who poor souls, take the brunt of our frustration. The old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" could be applied here - please can we have the old system back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulmold Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I've just sent the club a message through their 'contact the club' form (if it works) telling them that they might like to follow this thread to see the frustration that members are finding with the new website. Don't suppose it will do any good, after all it's been like this for 2 months now and previous comments haven't made any difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mel wood Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 pepe63 - 2012-01-17 10:40 AM josie gibblebucket - 2012-01-17 10:19 AM But getting back to my original question - how do you know whether they regard your unit as a campervan or a motorhome? How do you know which box to tick? ....I'm nit picking I know ;-) but the whole process is ridiculous! ..Have you actually tried asking the CC&C and just seeing what they say?... ;-) If all who have posted their frustations and seemingly valid criticisms here have also informed CCC then perhaps (just perhaps) the Club will take some notice, especially if other members have also informed them of such problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HymerVan Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Slightly off topic but a similar issue arises when booking Caravan Club Sites online. You are prompted to enter "Motor Caravan" and then the number of axles (1 or 2) I always enter 2 as I have never seen a motor caravan with one axle although I have seen one with 3 ! I take this mean that the person designing the arrangements didn't understand motorhomes or perhaps was so binary that they could only count up to two ! I pointed this out to the CC a couple of years ago and subsequently but nothing has happened and I doubt if my point is even understood. When I joined the CC in 2003 I felt to was dominated by Caravanners and did not adequately understand or take account of the needs and wishes of Motorhomers. Nine years on I see little evidence of any change but a club official has advised me:- 1. That motorhome members are now in the majority and 2. That there are various initiatives to improve things and to meet the needs of HM. I will wait and see with an open mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klyne Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 This might be of interest http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpandadvice/online-booking-system David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Blimey!..looking through that link Dave,judging by the type and amount of queries they're addressing,(.. "why doesn't it do this?".." why can't I do that anymore".. " where's the so'n'so gone" etc),it looks as if they've made a bit of a mess of it.... :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brians dad Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Agreed - the new C&CC booking system is just awful. You have to make various guesses right from the home page to try to get on the booking system - it is not obvious at all - and then fill in various bits of information. If you dont get it right or the site cannot take you, it is very frustrating to have to start again. I did hear a rumour that the people who designed and ran the old booking website wanted a huge hike in fees for keeping it up, so the C&CC had to go at short notice to someone else, who obviously has cobbled together something very quickly, so that the club now has to spend a lot of time and effort in fixing some of the worst problems. Can anyone confirm this? Perhaps the better idea may have been for the C&CC to swallow its pride, and buy into the Caravan Clubs excellent booking system. Meanwhile, thanks to Klyne for highlighting what passes for 'sorry, we boobed' in corporate speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobalobs Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 And why this year is there no indication in the site book as to who the site manager is to be? The rumour is that before being appointed they have to pass a five module exam on the new booking system which is causing them just as much grief as the members. How can you pass an exam on a system that has so many time consuming "teething problems"? It is said that some prospective managers for this year have decided to retire because of the current situation. Has anyone heard anything to the contrary? Or will the club be covering this aspect in their FAQ section?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I have to say that I think the Caravan Club booking site is very easy to use. I agree that the 1 or 2 axle bit is daft but it makes no difference if you leave it as 1. You can see month by month the availability on a site and then enter the dates you want. I don't see that it can be much easier. I can't comment on the CCC site. It seemed a bit complicated a couple of years ago but as you can very rarely book single nights and never at weekends, bank holidays or peak periods I have stopped using them anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 What are these "Club Sites" everyone has trouble with? Is it something to do with golf? Or open sandwiches? Or chocolate biscuits? I've been a CCC member for a few years now, and love their CSs, which are excellent value and have everything I need as a motorhomer, with no computerised booking system. Don't see the point of those other places at all, not having money to burn. :D :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogerGW Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Perhaps the better idea may have been for the C&CC to swallow its pride, and buy into the Caravan Clubs excellent booking system. I can't see the CC being willing to let the C&CC license its system, which anyway would probably need so much tailoring at the back end as to end up virtually a new system. Neither side's auditors would be happy at the system's being shared, if that's what you had in mind. I mentioned the new C&CC site twice in my business blog (see http://tinyurl.com/czo68k8 and http://tinyurl.com/7zqshum ), with a couple of other examples of inadequate customer dealing. After the second, I emailed the club's PR manager, Jon Dale, for comment. There was no reply, to my lack of surprise. If anybody else fancies a go at getting a response, his email address is jon.dale@thefriendlyclub.co.uk . Roger PS The "excellent" CC system has recently been offering me sites to choose from that turn out to be closed, despite my having given firm dates. Perhaps they've been imitating the C&CC. 8=) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josie gibblebucket Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 Klyne - 2012-01-17 4:40 PM This might be of interest http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpandadvice/online-booking-system David Thanks for the link Klyne, I hadn't spotted the question and answer bit! :$ :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klyne Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 RogerGW - 2012-01-17 10:21 PM Neither side's auditors would be happy at the system's being shared, if that's what you had in mind. Roger Unless they joined forces! Now there is a thought!!!! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Tony Jones - 2012-01-17 9:55 PM I've been a CCC member for a few years now, and love their CSs, which are excellent value and have everything I need as a motorhomer, with no computerised booking system. Don't see the point of those other places at all, not having money to burn. :D :D I too am a fan of CSs but the Club sites are not always the expensive option - particularly in low & mid season when the over 55s often get a price lower than a CS - even as a couple, often much lower for singles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuevoboy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I spent hours t'other evening on C&CC (and CC) sites, trying to find and book a couple of sites towards the end of this month. I put as much detail in as possible, including dates required but the search engines couldn't seem to select any of the limited number of sites open as this time of year. They just gave me a complete list of all geographically-close sites and I had had to trawl through them all, discovering that over 95% were still shut. Is it possible somehow to find a list of their sites that are simply open during the winter and select from the few? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mel wood Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 nuevoboy - 2012-01-18 4:34 PM Is it possible somehow to find a list of their sites that are simply open during the winter and select from the few? This information is in the sites books provided by the clubs to their members. The CC even produces a special booklet with information about sites open all year and others open outside of "the main season". I look in those books prior to making any booking on-line or by phone. Eg: I was easily able to access info on CC website about availablity at Castleton and Sheepcote Valley sites for this month. Even in this on-line age I find the Site books most useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 nuevoboy - 2012-01-18 4:34 PM . Is it possible somehow to find a list of their sites that are simply open during the winter and select from the few? The sites index in the back of the CCC sites book tells you which sites are open all year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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