Owner obligations

[JohnM20]

A letter in the latest Caravan Club magazine got me thinking, but what are your thoughts.
The letter was about 'no shows' at CLs and the owners, quite rightly, complaining. The writer then went on to say that he had been to CLs where, although he had booked, the owner had not recorded his booking for a variety of reasons so when he arrived there was no pitch for him. This made me think, what are the rights, if any, of the caravanner in instances of this sort? Can we demand a pitch or for the CL owner to find us a pitch locally of a similar quality?
In most instances, bookings for CLs is over the phone with no confirmation being sent unless it is one of the few that demand a deposit. This means that we have no proof of the booking although, I for one, always keep a note in my diary of the date and time that I phoned and the name of the person that I spoke to. It may not be absolute proof but it would be hard to contest that a booking had in fact been made.
But what do we do if the circumstances arise. Picture the scenario. You arrive at a CL , let's say, at a Bank holiday, after a 200 mile drive only to be told, sorry, I forgot to put your booking in this years diary. Apart from wanting to let forth a string of expletives and resisting the urge to do something physical to the CL owner, what do we do? Is this an instance where the owner has to break the 5 caravan rule and allow the extra caravan to stay. By making a booking we have entered into a contract that the CL owner has broken so the remedy should be down to the owner.
What do others think?

 

[Surfer]

A letter in the latest Caravan Club magazine got me thinking, but what are your thoughts.
The letter was about 'no shows' at CLs and the owners, quite rightly, complaining. The writer then went on to say that he had been to CLs where, although he had booked, the owner had not recorded his booking for a variety of reasons so when he arrived there was no pitch for him. This made me think, what are the rights, if any, of the caravanner in instances of this sort? Can we demand a pitch or for the CL owner to find us a pitch locally of a similar quality?
In most instances, bookings for CLs is over the phone with no confirmation being sent unless it is one of the few that demand a deposit. This means that we have no proof of the booking although, I for one, always keep a note in my diary of the date and time that I phoned and the name of the person that I spoke to. It may not be absolute proof but it would be hard to contest that a booking had in fact been made.
But what do we do if the circumstances arise. Picture the scenario. You arrive at a CL , let's say, at a Bank holiday, after a 200 mile drive only to be told, sorry, I forgot to put your booking in this years diary. Apart from wanting to let forth a string of expletives and resisting the urge to do something physical to the CL owner, what do we do? Is this an instance where the owner has to break the 5 caravan rule and allow the extra caravan to stay. By making a booking we have entered into a contract that the CL owner has broken so the remedy should be down to the owner.
What do others think?

We had that happened witha CS. Problem was the CS owner had done the same with three other units! As per your question as no cash has been exchanged, the contract would incomplete and I doubt if you could pursue it further.

 

[ProfJohnL]

As per your question as no cash has been exchanged, the contract would incomplete and I doubt if you could pursue it further.

Rather by definition if the contract is "incomplete" then one or more parties are in breach of contract, and there is no doubt it can be pursued. Whether it is worth pursuing it is another matter. It could be both troublesome and time consuming.

As for remedy, you would have to show that you had suffered material loss or costs in managing the breach.

what options do you have if you find your self in this position, well as always prevention is better than cure. It would be worth at least contacting the site before setting off to obtain a booking confirmation.

 

[Parksy]

More often than not we stay on C&CC certified sites which are supposed to be licensed for 5 units.
I always pre book and just before setting off I give the site a call to let them know that we're on our way and to make sure that everything is ok for our booking.
We've never been double booked or forgotten about so far (touch wood), but surely a quick telephone call is better than a potentially long journey with no pitch at the end of it?
As for what to do, apart from finding an alternative site at short notice theres not much that you can do if there is no concrete proof that a booking was made.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Our experience is they are sometimes a bit slapdash. Last year, despite ringing a few days beforehand, we arrived on a CS farm site near Mansfield to find 5 vans already in residence, 2 of them belonging to workers. We then went to the farmhouse but no reply except from a massive Rottweiler so we rang the phone but no reply. We had their mobile # so rang that and the hubby answered but he was in Newark. He said she was probably feeding the horses so he rang her on her mobile and eventually she came. She did move a rope fence that kept the horses in so we could pitch against a hedge. Then she ran a long extension lead from the barn. Eventually we got sorted but we was on the verge of moving off the site and finding somewhere else until the lady turned up.
Can't say it was our favourite CL/CS especially as they had the Rottie and Jack Russell roaming loose and dumping all over the part of the field where the CS was. Nice friendly owners though.

 

[otherclive]

I always ring ahead two days before planned arrival and also if theb weather is poor we check with the CL just to make sure ground conditions are still okay for putting the van onto a pitch and getting it off again. I do this as one trip we were coming back from Scotland and planned to use a CL that we had used on the way up. However there had been much rain in Cumbria so I rang just to confirm that the site was still okay and was told it was fine. We arrived later that day to find a wettish site made very slippy by a recent (that day) grass cutting session with the grass laying flat over the surface. The Sorrie even with All-Terrain tyres had difficulty moving the van without damaging the CL surface. The mover just acted as a grass pick up device, so the owner pitched us up with his tractor. Getting off next day was easy as the downhill slope acted in our favour.
But this year we have booked a different overnight stop over as there are only so many preliminary telephone checks you can make!!