Tags
bowness on windermere, Camping & Caravanning Club, Caravan, Caravans, Touring, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
We were due to set off for 3 days at the Camping & Caravan Club’s Braithwaite Fold site at Bowness on Windermere this weekend, to meet up with some friends who would have been travelling across from North Yorkshire. However, the forecast is not too good. There is snow forecast, and winds possibly gusting 50+ MPH. Travelling from Manchester up to the Lake District towing a large caravan is not a good idea.
I rang the Camping & Caravan Club to cancel the booking, and was told that our only option was to move our booking to another date at Braithwaite Fold to save loosing the deposit. However, the only two weekends that we have free in the next three months, Braithwaite Fold was fully booked. So as a consequence we have lost our £25 deposit.
I would have thought that as the weather is causing chaos up and down the country at the moment, the powers at be in the Camping & Caravan Club would have opted to allow the deposit to be used on a booking at any site to hopefully ensure that people booked alternatives. For us, it has effectively increased the cost of 12 months membership by £25, and as Sue has just said to me, there is no point in booking sites that need a deposit when the weather is so unpredictable. I do have to agree with her.
We use the caravan all year round and up to now have never had to cancel a booking.
Ho Hum
S
Caravan Chronicles 
Pingback: An end to our Camping and Caravan Club membership… | Caravan Chronicles
Simon & all,
I’m a member of both major clubs, and find them pretty equal on most points … but the one big difference is that there is no deposit to lose when you book a clubsite with the Caravan Club.
John
(Thinking about it, there is one other advantage … you can choose your own pitch)
Hi John
We are the same… i.e members of both clubs. We have just booked in a few days at the CC’s Warwick Racecourse site- no deposit required. As we try to use the van all year round, I will certainly think about which club I book with out of season just in case there are weather issues.
Looking at the weather today between Manchester and Cumbria it was definitely the right decision to cancel the trip. I’d have been a bit peeved if we had cancelled and the weather turned out OK. In aviation there is a saying… “better to be down here wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were down here”. I guess there must be a similar one for caravanning!
At least today we booked in at a few sites ready for our next trips. Every cloud….etc etc.
S
. . . . . . there’s also another saying in aviation ‘If you walk away its a landing’!
Simon, based on the last few summers it’s not “out of season” you have to worry about, as all those who lost their deposits due to flooding will know.
Hello C and Simon,
Simon is correct here, and I admit I should have used the word generic.
But I have, in the past, telephoned site owners I have found on the internet with no mention of clubs only to find they are either C&CC or CC affiliated.
However, since the owner reserved a pitch for me, I am not going to refuse it because I am not a member of any club.
As well as this, why do the CC allow me to buy the sites book for £12 odd when I am not a member? Maybe the CC themselves making a mockery of the whole system.
Pete
Hello Simon,
The above begs the question of whether or not to belong to ANY club when there are CL sites that will readily accept a booking without a deposit and no requirement for you to be a member of any club.
Thats the way to ‘do it’ for us anyway.
Lets hope that you do get that refund
Regards
Pete
Hi Pete
I am wondering what’s the point in being a member of two clubs. I can appreciate the “no refund” deal at 24 hours notice… but not to offer to transfer it to ANY club site is the bit that get’s me.
S
CLs are exclusively for the use of Caravan Club members. CSs are exclusively for the use of Camping and Caravanning Club members.
If you use them without being a member of the relevant club, you are making a mockery of those of us that pay our annual dues for the privilege.
Also if the Club finds out that the CL or CS is admitting none members, it will lose it’s licence to be one – bad for everyone!
Hi Chris
I think Pete might have been using “CS & CL” as a generic term for small independent sites.
However it does beg the question – Why do so many of the CS and CL sites allow non members of the respective clubs they are associated with to stay and in quite a few cases openly advertise?
I’ve never understood that.
S
Hello Simon
I am really surprised that the Camping and Caravan Club has not allowed you a refund. I had to cancel a stay at the CCC Leek site last September a day before we were due to travel owing to flooding in Morpeth where we live, and a brief ‘phone call to the CCC and my Mastercard was credited with the full amount. I suggest you appeal to a ‘higher authority’ (well, not the Pope or higher still!) but certainly to your local DA representative and point out he/she’s due for re-election in a few weeks time!
Whilst writing, can I say a big Thank You for the blog about France and reverse polarity. We are going in May for 2 months, and followed your instructions to make our own reverse polarity lead – the most precise, simple, easy-to-understand instructions anywhere on the net!
Best wishes
Nigel Shuttleworth
Hi Nigel
Following your comment, I have just sent off an email to the Camping & Caravanning Club – so I’ll see what their reply is.
Just to be able to transfer the booking to another site that has availability on the dates we have would suit us. I guess families that have children and are limited to school holidays would find it difficult to rebook as well due to the demand for places in half term breaks.
S