departure time on sites

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

Hi everyone

I have just returned from a weekend at a commercial site and yet again the time for leaving your pitch on the Sunday is 10am!! This is a sore subject with me and when the guy knocked on my door advising me that we shouldnt be there after 10am I told him I would be leaving when I am ready! The pitch is not available to the next guests until 2.30pm so why such an early departure time?? 12pm yes but 10am is ridiculous. They charge extra if you want to stay the full day and its yet another way of extracting yet more money out of us? Whats everyones opinion on this matter?

 

[RogerL]

You're a paying guest on someone else's property - just like a cottage it's reasonable to have a considerable gap between morning departures and afternoon arrivals.

The departure time should have been in the Terms & Conditions - if it was (whether you read then or not), stop complaining, you chose to book that site.

 

[Zafiral]

a lot of these sites have statics or lodges as well which get cleaned (so they say) between visits. They just have the sames times for ease.

 

[RogerP]

I think you've answered your own question there

"I'll leave when I'm ready"

What if you're not 'ready' till 3pm to leave then the people alloted your pitch from 2:30pm would be pretty unhappy to find you still having a cuppa and refusing to leave.

The site may consider that this period of time is not practical to booking in new arrivals due to how they are managing the maintenance of the site as a whole. They may well need 4 1/2 to do all the tasks like cleaning , rubbish removal , general maintenance etc etc and having those leavers off site by 10am helps them.

I dont whole heartedly agree that 10am is right but its their site if you didn't agree with their terms of booking , then you had the choice to go elsewhere.

Cant complain for not reading Ts & Cs in advance.

 

[SteveW77]

Why do some people think that rules don't apply to them, only to everybody else. If you don't want to leave at ten o clock, pay for an extra day and leave when you are ready, or don't book sites that have a fixed leaving time.

Steve W

 

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

I fully accept that sites have a leaving time, my complaint was the fact that they are asking you to leave at an un reasonable time, yet, will let you stay at an extra charge so the cleaning and preparing of the pitch etc doesnt come into it if they are willing to let you extend your stay longer! I didnt read the t&c and next time I will, I would never dream of staying on when the next people are due to arrive, I just feel that some sites are getting greedy and trying to squeeze every last penny out us, I would have thought 11 or 12 would have been a more reasonable time to vacate the pitch not 10am.

 

[parker1158]

RogerL wrote

'You're a paying guest on someone else's property - just like a cottage it's reasonable to have a considerable gap between morning departures and afternoon arrivals.

The departure time should have been in the Terms & Conditions - if it was (whether you read then or not), stop complaining, you chose to book that site.'

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Guest]

If the sites term clearly said leave by 10 am I can't see anything wrong with that.

If it's a quiet time at the site you could ask the night before if they could give you a little more time rather than be confrontational.

We can de rig awning and stow our gear and be off a site in an hour. That's plenty of time to get up shower breakfast and easily be away by 10 if that's what they require.

Check sites terms, if you think they are unreasonable or do not suit you go somewhere else or get up earlier ;-)

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Cheryl

Rules are rules. The CC sites mostly ask people to leave at 12.00pm, sometimes earlier.

We do use commercial sites and they are , in my opinion quite entitled to make up their own rules for us tuggers to comply with. As said by others earlier, leave at 10.00am or pay the extra day's rent.

If you don't like that stay somewhere else, but please be sure you know the rules before chastising the poor old owner who is trying to make an honest crust in these hard times.

Cheers

Alan

 

[rich the stag]

I fully accept that sites have a leaving time, my complaint was the fact that they are asking you to leave at an un reasonable time, yet, will let you stay at an extra charge so the cleaning and preparing of the pitch etc doesnt come into it if they are willing to let you extend your stay longer! I didnt read the t&c and next time I will, I would never dream of staying on when the next people are due to arrive, I just feel that some sites are getting greedy and trying to squeeze every last penny out us, I would have thought 11 or 12 would have been a more reasonable time to vacate the pitch not 10am.

I agree 100% cheryl.These sites are getting more and more greedy every year.

The reason i bought a tourer was for the value for money factor but that is slowly ebbing away.

Regards

Richard

 

[rich the stag]

Bang on Cheryl.

It doesnt take four and a half hours to tidy a pitch up.

Regards

Richard

 

[Colin_374329018]

My wife and I run an independent site and it goes likes this: some people want to arrive as early as possible, the same people want to leave as late as possible - you do the maths. We allow guests to arrive as early as they wish however they understand their pitch may not be available until the previous guest has gone - hence a 10am departure time.

 

[RogerL]

It may not take 4-5 hours to prepare a single pitch but the warden/owner may well have other pitches to prepare as well as other site tasks.

 

[David.O]

cheryl

Why not try a CL we have no problems re arriving or departures.

Yes with a summer like this we like to cut the grass between visitors but would ask new arrivals not to set up were others have been to give the grass chance to recover.

David from Suffolk

 

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

Can I just say that this site was an Haven site with over 250 pitches, I have stayed on several Haven sites before and never been asked to leave by 10am, I paid for 2 nights which cost us

 

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

My wife and I run an independent site and it goes likes this: some people want to arrive as early as possible, the same people want to leave as late as possible - you do the maths. We allow guests to arrive as early as they wish however they understand their pitch may not be available until the previous guest has gone - hence a 10am departure time.

Hi Colin

The site in question didnt allow any arrivals until after 2.30pm so my initial gripe was the unreasonable departure time, yet, offering us to extend our stay on our pitch until 6pm for yet more money! I have stayed on small sites and CLs before and never been asked to leave so early. The site wasnt full and I feel it is their way of making more money. I accept that its hard for sites with arrivals and departures but I still feel that this was an unreasonable request, however, I sould have read the departure time and i didnt, if I had read it I wouldnt have stayed on that site, especially when I paid

 

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

I agree 100% cheryl.These sites are getting more and more greedy every year.

The reason i bought a tourer was for the value for money factor but that is slowly ebbing away.

Regards

Richard

It looks like were in the minority here but I still think 10am is much too early to leave, especially having two small children aged 3 & 4, its hard enough packing up for 12 let alone 10am! It makes me not want to go away for weekends because I feel it isnt worth it. You work Friday so cant leave until later on, you only have Saturday then have to leave so early Sunday! The site wasnt a small concern it was a huge site with 100s of pitches and wasnt even full! Thanks for your reply and I agree it is taking the attraction out of our hobby as I feel more and more sites are charging much higher fees, and thats the reason why I am a member of the CC as we do use CLs and go on rallies over the year, thats what I will try and stick to in the future.

 

[cheryl.mark@yahoo.co.uk]

cheryl

Why not try a CL we have no problems re arriving or departures.

Yes with a summer like this we like to cut the grass between visitors but would ask new arrivals not to set up were others have been to give the grass chance to recover.

David from Suffolk

Hi David

We do use CLs and CC sites/Rallies and we have never been asked to leave so early, I fully accept that pitch work has to be done, however, I objected to the fact that they would allow me to stay on my pitch until 6pm but wanted more money off me! This site was huge and had 250 pitches, I wont be using them again, thats the attraction of CLs and CC sites, we couldnt get on any in the area due to the peak season illuminations weekend or we would have stayed on one of those and it wouldnt have cost us

 

[farmerdave21]

Hello Cheryl,

I agree with you the only time i agree with 10am departure is during busy summer hols when people are booked on your pitch for their hols. But most other times in the year & more now sites are not fully booked & can easily accomodate new arrivals on pitches to let others enjoy there stay.

I get realy annoyed about this especially when they want to charge extra for a 4pm stay. They do not reduce your Friday night rate if you arrive at around 8pm as we do most weekend aways.

Alot of sites we return to dont have such strict rules & let you stay till mid afternoon on the sunday

 

[ThePlotter]

I had a simlilar situation recently and had to be off by noon,in 33 years of caravanning I have always after asking been allowed to stay later.In this instance it was due to the recent weather where new arrivals wanted hardstanding and about a third of the pitches were grass.I emailed the owner the following day suggesting if had the room to put aside an area where you could park the van (off pitch) and go out for the day and pick the van upo later.He thought that it was a good idea and has implemented it.

 

[Thorpedo]

Cheryl, I agree that 10:00 is too early especially in quiet parts of the season when pitches are plentiful for arrivals. After all you are on holiday from what is probably a hectic working week so it is nice to clear up in a relaxed manor rather than rush about like idiots just before a long journey home.

In busy periods though I would expect to be off at the required time as the site owner will need to cut grass and of course they don't employ an army of people who are ready to deal with all pitches at the same time.

I often stay later but always with the agreement of the site office and I can't see a problem with that, good old fashioned customer service will probably pay dividends in the long run with return bookings and recommendations.

I like the approach of the Caravan Club wardens who have always been accommodating with us and as long as you ask in advance they try to be flexible at no extra charge and of course the departure time of 12:00 is very civilised.

One issue to bear in mind is that if the site has narrow access through lanes it is in everyone's interest to get the departures out of the way well before the arrivals are due to avoid traffic blockages.

Back in the early July as I left a CC site at 11:30 there was a Q of 6 caravans waiting to get in. The drivers were all well into retirement age. I suspect you will find the schools of thought split between retired people who are able to arrive earlier and are probably more experienced in packing up quickly and families some of whom may be sleeping in the awning meaning they have more to do on departure day especially if the kids re playing up.

A bit of give and take on all sides would be good.

 

[MartinJ]

Totally with Cheryl on this one, 10:00am is unreasonable.

Its always amazes me how sites need this period of time to prepare the pitch for the new arrival, yet as if by miracle the problem dissapears after you have stumped up another tenner to stay a bit longer.

 

[John_374354584]

I completely agree 10.00hrs is far to early to leave .

I like to caravan at the weekend and I leave work and rarely get to site befor 20:00hrs So I actualy only get Saturday on site but pay for 2 days.

By the By why are uk sites so much more expensive than equivelant French site, when their season is shorter tahan ours?

Rip off Britain again.

 

[Meister]

As long as the departure time was in the terms and conditions the site staff were acting quite reasonably.

But there is a problem in that you (and others) do not like that particular departure time ....... simple answer ...... stay somewhere that has a departure time that you DO agree with.

 

[swpostie]

Stop moaning Cheryl!