CL Booking problem

We are regular CL users and T&Cs vary from place to place. There is no one size fits all.

Angelsey is expensive as CLs generally go. However we recently stayed for a week on one on full service pitch and the owner didn't even want a deposit.

I've booked 6 CLs for an autumn tour and only 1 wanted a deposit of £10 but another did want full payment 3 weeks prior to going. The T&Cs were clearly explained to me and I particularly wanted that CL so I have agreed to the terms.

It all comes down to how confident and happy you are with those terms. If you are worried about them or regularly have to cancel due to whatever reason then make your choice based on what you want. No-one else knows how losing that full payment may affect you, only you do.

Like KjelNN we paid a £10 addition to a cottage booking as we are taking my 90 year old MiL and I have been known to have the odd wobbly. 

Personally I wouldn't concern an insurer for £100 or thereabouts. Excess and hassle and future penalties for claiming would put me off.

Talking to CL owners I get the overall impression that they are experiencing not just more short advised cancellations but no-shows, which is just plain rude so I can fully understand their taking a deposit and maybe full price dependent on time of year.

No-shows should be reported to the club and some form of sanction threatened for future transgressions IMO. The club grant the licence so should help the CLs out in at least this admin part.

In 54 years caravanning I can only recall 3 or 4 occasions when we booked and paid out money several  weeks ahead . Are there really so few others who operate spontaneously and phone a site a day in advance ?  I wonder why that is. 

We have 3 nights booked at a CL near Lincoln at £20 per night/ £10 per night deposit & 15 nights on a CS in Dorset at £22 per night and pay on arrival. If it had been the other way round I would be looking elsewhere, or negotiating. 

We usually pay on arrival EuroT. The only time we might book a CL in advance is if it’s somewhere we really want to stay, and if we know it’s likely to be busy. When there are only 5 pitches, you do need to think ahead a little to get exactly what you want. We are out next week, winging it for a couple of nights, One is a pub stop with only 3 pitches, so I shall phone night before, and they will reserve a pitch for us. No deposit required….it’s free😁

 Do CL regular users arrange insurance?

WtG, the thought has never crossed my mind, and we use, and have used, CLs all year round for well over 30 yrs. We have just yesterday booked 3 CLs and 1 CS and not one has asked for a deposit, although it is mentioned at one on the web site. I think that at the moment there are many fewer units out and about and CL owners are just happy that members are choosing their CLs as opposed to others or club sites.

ET, it is much easier for the likes of yourself and other M/H owners/hirers to visit sites without advance booking, not so easy for those like ourselves with a caravan.

Millie8,

From a CL owner point of view, what you are describing (we do not wish to pay so far in advance, just in case of illness etc) is the very reason CL owners are asking for hefty deposits or full payment on booking.  Your comment implies you might want to cancel last minute, you don't want to lose any money but you consider it acceptable for the CL owner to be out of pocket.  Hmm.

Why do members think the CL owner should be the one to lose out financially if the person booked onto their site cancels last minute?  I fully appreciate things like illness, car breakdown etc. happen and have every sympathy but why, oh why, is it considered the responsibility of the CL owner?  That is what travel insurance is for.  It is also not the fault or responsibility of the CL owner if the cost of said travel insurance is too high (age etc.) or unavailable.

As you've said the total cost is £230, I imagine you've possibly booked for at least a week, maybe 10 days depending on the nightly cost.  That would be a huge hole in their bookings were you to cancel last minute, for whatever reason and 5 weeks from now is the beginning of September(?) you've booked for - still peak season for caravan sites, especially somewhere like Anglesey.

This is an increasing problem for CLs and why more and more are tightening up their T&Cs to protect themselves.  As mentioned in another comment, only having 5 pitches means one cancellation is a big hit for a CL owner.

I do agree, and fully support, the fact that T&Cs should be fully transparent prior to anyone making a booking with a CL and I do get frustrated when I hear CL owners complaining about cancellations when their terms are not clearly displayed.  But you also have a responsibility to ask for all the information you require prior to making your booking if it's not available online. Ours are on our website and we ask (multiple times) during our online booking process that members read said terms and cancellation policy before they book/pay their deposit.  We have a clear cancellation policy (as all CLs should have but many don't), and will refund if we manage to re-let the pitch but, every CL will decide their own policy.

We didn't used to take deposits (except for BHs) and accepted payment on arrival but our current system (deposit with balance 14 days prior to arrival) was born out of one year when one in every four bookings was cancelled last minute or even on the day of arrival.  It's simply not acceptable for members to do that even if their booking/payment has been made on a 'trust' basis.  Not only is the CL owner out of pocket but it also deprives another member of a pitch they might have wanted to book or stay on for longer.

If you don't want to pay anything up front to secure your pitch then seek out those CLs who still do everything on trust but, if you cancel last minute, please, at the very least, offer to pay for the pitch if it doesn't get re-let.

Good luck in getting the £10 back but you did make a booking and then cancel.  Maybe their terms are no refund of deposit.  They still had admin to carry out which involved their time (something folk seem to forget with CLs) booking you in and then cancelling your booking and they could possibly have lost other bookings in the meantime.

Skybarn Farm CL, Lincoln

Stayed three nights at a CL recently at £15 a night. Deposit on booking of £30 (can’t remember whether this was an amount or related to number of nights). We were only booking the week before so I paid the total in one go. If the worst had happened and we couldn’t go, we are fortunate that whilst a loss of £45 would be annoying, we can afford it. Talking to the owner whilst there about their deposit taking and electricity metering she said she didn’t want to charge deposits but felt it necessary now. In her view those who complained about them were the ones that were most likely not to turn up. On electricity metering she was telling us about people using splinters etc . Unfortunately the trust that many of us have benefited from over so many years on CLs wears thin when too many abuse the system.

We have stayed at around 10 different sites so far this year.  A few CLs and privately owned larger sites.  Most of them required a deposit, including some of the CLs.  I think the largest deposit was around £45 on a 10 night stay and we paid the balance  between 1-2/3 weeks before.  We have been lucky and never yet had to cancel in the 13 or so years we have been caravanning, apart from Covid times of course.  It took 2 weeks for her to at last confirm my dates, she took days to answer emails and a phone call.  Perhaps I should have smelt a rat then, but I really fancied the site.  I just wonder what her terms are if you book months in advance and have to pay the full amount or she will not book you in.  Bit of a money making scheme going on there if you ask me!  Oh well, we got our second choice of site and don't expect the £10 deposit back.

Yes, I understand all this.  Just to let you know, I did not make a booking, I was not allowed to until they received the full amount and my husband would not do this. I sent the £10 quoted deposit to show I definately wanted to book but did not pay the full amount of £230 so could not book.

I'm a bit confused here. Did you send £10 when you already knew they wanted full payment? Surely the £10 was at that point considered a deposit on a booking 🤷🏻‍♂️