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Post Info TOPIC: Never heard of this before


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Never heard of this before


I went to book a site at a Reflections CP the other day on the East coast of NSW. Have stayed there in the past so I knew what site I wanted , so I asked for that particular site and was told if I pick my own site it's an extra $5 . I was shocked , I didn't ask whether that was a night or one off. She said to me fortunately that site was booked so I will allocate you a site and you won't have to pay the $5. Is this happening at all parks now. Getting Greedy. Cheers Mick



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And then the C.Park probably would be first to complain if free campsites were in their area.

Jay&Dee



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I have to pay $15 to pick my prefered seat on an airoplane trip, what's the difference?



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Slice & divide, adding surcharges for more revenue! It happens in other industries. If you want to choose a particular seat you have to pay extra.

 

Next will be, if you want to shop at your time you will pay a surcharge, otherwise you will be allocated a time slot... probably at 3:30am!



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That's a generator time slot , maybe a sthill

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Cheers Craig



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gdayjr wrote:

I have to pay $15 to pick my prefered seat on an airoplane trip, what's the difference?


NO difference, but does'nt make it ethical/fair/moral either, in my opinion!

Greedy comes to mind but I guess it is their business and they can do what they like within "laws".

A lot like a tax or levy........HELLO!



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A friend was ill, and he booked into a park in Lakes Entrance Vic. I was free camping 5 kays out but decided to join him and stay closer. They had only powered sites,$35-00 they said. I said but the place is empty and I don't need power....

They had only powered sites $35-00, they said.

I said "Look I will take that spot near the road you will see I do not use a lead. I have full solar and every thing is gas. Only powered sites $35-00, they said.

I said no probs forget it.  It turned out we had to stayed for three days as my friend needed to rest up. The $105 dollars I saved bought us all a nice meal on a floating restaurant on the lake, plus plenty over.

Some times a little business acumen might be handy to parks management. Most parks deduct three to five dollars if power is not required. So for say nine dollars they lost around $90-00 smile

 



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Several years ago The Happy Wanderer CP at Hervey Bay wanted an extra $15 or $20 to book a specific site.

They too lost a booking and any chance of a future booking.

Park has since been purchased by IngeniaHoliday Parks

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Bill B


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While I have not struck the extra charge, and would also be annoyed by it, I can understand a reason. And some places don't allow site selection at all.

Let's say I am already there, due to leave today. You have booked the the same site from tonight. If I want to extend, I have to move. "Oh forget it" I may say costing them a booking.

Or, I am booked until Wednesday, but you don't want it until Friday. Knowing there is only one available night there makes it less sellable.

So I don't like it either, but it makes sense.



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I was booking this site 2 months ahead for 1 week . If they can't or won't look after repeat customers then I will go elsewhere. This is a Reflections rule at all of there parks and they wonder why people are annoyed with CP's.

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We have never YET been asked to pay extra to reserve a nominated site.

Over the years we have put together a folder of Caravan Park site Maps on which we mark our preferred sites (& those that we wouldn't accept if offered). 

When we are in an area that we might return to sometime in the future we call in to any park that takes our fancy, get a park map & the operators are usually happy to let us drive through. We mark up the map accordingly & if in the future we choose to stay there we can book ahead onto any of our preferred sites.  Rarely have an issue.

We have got to the stage where we are now on the 'Prebook list' at our favourite Caravan Park and on our preferred site.   Each year they now contact us about 12mths ahead & give us first choice of booking our selected site at our usual time, or perhaps moving the dates slightly.  Of course if we miss a year then we come off the prebook list.  Some regulars have been coming for decades & often stay for months.  No extra charge for this arrangement. 

PS. Our quiet & perfectly maintained double slab & big grassy surround site at this park has great direct water views and I can launch the kayaks straight onto their own private sandy beach.  Good company, fishing, restaurants etc too and less than 200km from home. The only negative is that they won't let me put up my detached Gazebo. Boo Hoo  LOL



-- Edited by Cupie on Thursday 24th of June 2021 10:58:52 PM

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I have friends that holiday as part of a family group and routinely pay a surcharge to guarantee three sites together. They've been doing it for years and only just stopped due to illness. They only holiday a few times a year, 2 weeks at Iluka and two weeks at Crescent or Hat Head (one of them, not sure but that's where they pay a surcharge).

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I think it's called supply and demand.
Booking fees are not unusual in today's environment and with a lot of parks spending big dollars improving their facilities some fees are to be expected.

The prices that are being paid for parks at the moment I struggle to work out how they manage to get an operational return on their investment at all. I guess many are relying on long term capital gain.

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Major problem is the overseas based "booking agents" - nowdays entertainment venues, restaurants, motels, family parks, etc have no choice but to pay exorbitant fees to these agents. All search engines direct enquiries through these "ägents", so unless the venue signs agreements with them, all phone and e-net bookings are fed to different suppliers. Additionally these agents get the fees up front and will not refund in the event of cancellations (even COVID restrictions).
We recently booked a week at a rural motel (Dubbo NSW) - we searched the Net for a Motel that we already had stayed at previously, as we needed phone number to book, in actual fact the booking was taken by WOTIF (overseas based agent), money was paid up front, unfortunately we had to cancel prior, owing to Government restrictions on travel. The agent not only kept booking fee but all of the accommodation costs as well. It is piracy of the worst kind.

I firmly believe these "Booking Agents" should be banned, from them operating within Australia.

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Possum3 wrote:

Major problem is the overseas based "booking agents" - nowdays entertainment venues, restaurants, motels, family parks, etc have no choice but to pay exorbitant fees to these agents. All search engines direct enquiries through these "ägents", so unless the venue signs agreements with them, all phone and e-net bookings are fed to different suppliers. Additionally these agents get the fees up front and will not refund in the event of cancellations (even COVID restrictions).
We recently booked a week at a rural motel (Dubbo NSW) - we searched the Net for a Motel that we already had stayed at previously, as we needed phone number to book, in actual fact the booking was taken by WOTIF (overseas based agent), money was paid up front, unfortunately we had to cancel prior, owing to Government restrictions on travel. The agent not only kept booking fee but all of the accommodation costs as well. It is piracy of the worst kind.

I firmly believe these "Booking Agents" should be banned, from them operating within Australia.


 I couldn't agree more.

When I am searching the net for a particular park, I find that most links offered are in fact those booking agents, but buried away amongst them is usually the CP's own web site.  That's the one that I always use.



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Agree, going through booking agents doesn't do any favours to the park managers. We always book direct if possible, cut out the middleman



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A booking agent won't guarantee a specific site at a CP (or motel/resort). Back in the day, my employment and consulting demands meant we often took a short stay in a motel or resort just to get away. When they first became popular, most booking agents specialized in last minute stays and accommodation venues literally fell over themselves to use this type of service. Some still rely on them to boost occupancy rates in otherwise empty rooms/sites. They might complain about the service cost but they're still filling an empty room (Possum - even when a cancellation is involved, the venue still get the room rate once the dollars are paid online). As far as I'm concerned, the real shame is Australians sold out (for $) to multinationals and there aren't Australian owned booking agents anymore. There's no reason to ban them in Australia because they perform a service that accommodation providers and travellers both need and want.

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RE ".... When I am searching the net for a particular park, I find that most links offered are in fact those booking agents, but buried away amongst them is usually the CP's own web site. That's the one that I always use...."

Could use advanced google search operators to ignore any matches on undesired booking site

Exanple

google for

VanParkName -site:UndesiredBookingSite.com -site:UndesiredBookingSite2.com

etc

 

Give me an example Caravan PAark Name that is cluttered with Booking sites and I will try to supply a demo query to make it easier to get the direct website .....

 



-- Edited by PeterX on Friday 25th of June 2021 07:04:14 PM

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I find far more clutter from traveller websites, grey nomad websites, personal blog sites and regional tourism websites than booking websites when I'm doing a lazy search. Mostly when I'm looking in an area for paid accommodation, I'll start with Wikicamps, find the correct business or place name (and maybe website) then do a specific search. The days of a *simple* web search yieldng useful results that are free of paid clutter are long gone whether it's a new TV or accommodation.

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VanParkName -site:UndesiredBookingSite.com -site:UndesiredBookingSite2.com

What a great idea PeterX. I often use the minus sign to filter out unwanted results but I had never thought of using it to filter out specific sites.

Where we can avoid such sites it is helping to keep money in Australia, but more importantly to help a the local business. The more we use booking sites, the stronger they will become.  They usually have rules that a business must not undercut them.

I do use them for searching, but will always try to find a way to book directly if possible.

 



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Bit of sympathy for the caravan park, I like playing tetris and similar fill the gap games. Many dont. Giving you your preferences site may have involved shuffling 10 other sites for 10 other customers over 4 weeks. Not 60 seconds work.

Just saying. What appears simple may involve stuff we don't know about, you want special, you can have special but someone needs to pay for the time involved.


Sarge.... just saying.....

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ponder this one ......friends got told without a covid test they couldnt book in to the caravan park .......first i heard about this as well ......we van allover SA and have not been asked yet if we had a test ......the folk in question are in our caravan group and have had both jabs .......there from Ballarat and into SA for the christmas in july rally in a river murray town ........

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