Caravan Club pitch availability with/without awnings

[otherclive]

I've just been looking at sites in Dorset for mid October and the CC recent announcements on awnings and spacing between units appears to be having a noticeable effect. On two sites in particular the bookings for non awning pitches were near or at 100 percent in October, whereas for awning pitches there was availability. In past years when we visited those sites in Mid October the reverse was the case ie getting an awning pitch was neigh on impossible.

 

[MikeWild]

There is also the possibility that the site does not have any specific non awning pitches so they block off all that section of the booking form to avoid any confusion but may have caused more confusion by doing so!!!. That gives everyone the choice of putting up an awning or not

 

[otherclive]

Thats a good point but as you say it may cause further confusion. My first reaction was to think that the sites would be crowded, and the availabilty of only awning pitches would limit the choice on arrival to pitches that were perhaps not in good positions. Funny how these things can grab you. So I have booked a CS instead which had a description that told me all that I required to know without needing to surmise.

 

[Raywood]

Non awning pitches only show up on the internet where they exist although on some sites with no awning pitches you may find awning ones shown but fully booked until they update the system. The take up of non awning pitches reflects the reason for them on the site. On some sites like Beechwood Grange they are just as good as the awning pitches and book up quickly, on others like Meathrop Fell where they are mostly inferior they book up last. If you have not visited a site before and the non awning pitches are not booked up but the awning ones are, this is usually the problem, although some sites now have a very few awning pitches so this year it is difficult to be sure.

 

[carper2]

I have phoned a site before to book a non awning pitch and they said that I could have an awning pitch as thay had plenty spare. The price is the same for both pitches. I can't see them turning people away if they wanted a non awning pitch but only had awning pitches or the other way round.

Les

 

[otherclive]

Thanks for the feedback. It's disappointing if the CC reduces the number of awning pitches as for a week away our awning is as essential as my garden shed! Must say that over the past 2-3 years we have increasingly used the C&CC and both clubs 5 van sites. Nice thing about this approach is that the sites we now use have more grass areas between units and are more picturesque as well as having a wider range of nightly prices.

 

[Raywood]

I think some CC sites will have the pitches reorganised this winter to get more awning pitches but this is almost certain to reduce the number of pitches so there is no right answer. We have a porch awning but very rarely use it, and have found once you have got used to its absence you hardly miss it, although this may depend on the size of your caravan and the number of people in it.

 

[Suzac]

We stayed at the CC Brecon Beacons site during August and were only able to book a "non awning" pitch. When the looked at the pitches we were offered they were clearly large enough to take a caravan,awning and car. When I queried this with the wardens I was told that new fire regulations had been introduced extending the distance between caravans and the pitches we were offered are due to be resized in the close season. Presumably this is a new ruling.

 

[otherclive]

No it is not a new ruling, just one that the CC have now tightened up on as cars, vans and awnings were getting wider. We booked an awning pitch at Hawes and although it was booked in Feb 13 we were not told until July that we had been moved to a non-awning pitch based on a first booked approach. As we wre keen to have an awning we cancelled our booking and went onto a nice private site which was excellent and a bit cheaper. Since then we have not booked another CC site staying on C&CC,CS or CLs.

 

[Raywood]

We have been on CC sites this year where the awning and non awning pitches are identical. What you find is the marker posts are in different positions on the pitch, as because the hard standings are now too close to get the separation with them all in the same place, they have to move the post furtther accross the pitch to get the separation until you reach a point that it will no longer work. You then get a non awning pitch to correct the separation and then back to an awning one. It seems to me that this would be expensive to correct but we will see what happens over winter.