Site Deposits

[Michael_374349176]

I have recently booked our Summer holiday through the CC using their 2010 Continental Caravanning brochure. One of the sites that I was considering was C--------- near Perpignan in Southern France. The CC operator said that if I booked this site I would be required to give them a "deposit" of 120 euros (yes one hundred and twenty)to cover the barrier key and to remedy any damage to the pitch. In all the years of using continental sites I have never been asked for an amount as much as this. I have given returnable sums of ten to twenty euros as a deposit for a barrier key, and this I can understand, especially if it is an electronic gizmo, but damage to a pitch!

What damage can a caravan, awning and a parked car do?

Needless to say I told the operator that I would now definately not be using this particular site, and I suggested that the CC consider whether or not that they continued to promote it in their brochure. Instead I booked into M- P------.

Am I alone in thinking that this is out of order? If this idea takes off, will we all be held to ransom if some "jobsworth" decides that we have infringed "his" regulations by putting our caravans on his grass and should therefore be fined? Deducting the money from the "deposit" already paid?

Michael - Derbyshire

 

[DavidKlyne]

Michael

I don't think I would pay that up front either. However I expect the CC are between a rock and a hard place as I expect that not that many sites in that area are willing to allow them to include their sites in the ABS. Most of the sites I have been to in the South of France are not in the CC brochure.

David

 

[ValA.]

Pitches can be quite badly damaged if caravans are slewed around, or cars driven on and off without due care, especially if the pitch is very waterlogged. At one site in the Dordogne we watched a guy with a huge twin axle trying to get his caravan into just the right position, and in the end he gave up, after ruining the pitch surface - when he drove off site, never to be seen again.

Some of the pitches at Chateau du Gandspette have been taken out of action because of very obvious ruts and chewed up surfaces, and I noted last time that they've now laid 'car park type matting' which grass can grow through on some of the worst affected. However, we've never been asked to provide an up-front deposit to 'insure' against this.

I think you've probably chosen a better site, anyway, regardless of the deposit issue!

 

[DianneT]

I have booked 2 sites for our holiday in Europe in 2010 and have not had to pay a deposit on either. In fact in 7 years of touring abroad have never been asked for a deposit and if I was would not pay such a high one.

 

[Woody3]

When I have stayed on a site in the UK which has controlled access I have been asked for a deposit, but on French/German/Belgian/Dutch/Italian sites all I have had to do is leave my Camping Card to be collected on departure.