Caravan Club breaks records on busiest booking day of the year
The Club has over a million members in the UK
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Wednesday, 07, Dec 2011 04:22
by Chris Jefferies
The Caravan Club has announced record-breaking numbers on their annual bookings day, which has attracted more than 30,000 reservations in the first hour alone.
As we reported last week, the 2012 booking system was opened at 9am this morning (7th December) and despite this sudden surge in popularity, the improved Caravan Club online booking system experienced no technical difficulties.
By 4pm, the Club had taken more than 58,000 bookings, meaning they are on course to easily break last year's record of 60,000 in a single day.
The deposit-free booking system has attracted much controversy over the years, with some members complaining that it encourages speculative reservations that can be easily dropped at the last minute.
With this in mind, the Caravan Club has introduced a new system for 2012 whereby anyone who fails to turn up three times without giving 72 hours notice of their cancellation will forfeit their ability to book for the next 14 days and lose all their forward bookings as well.
What's more, anyone leaving early will incur a charge of one night's extra stay, unless they have given 72 hours notice.
However, this doesn't seem to have deterred the annual booking frenzy, which is further proof of the burgeoning popularity of caravanning.
Lawrence Bate, the Club's director of marketing, says "A series of improvements have been made throughout the year to ensure members are able to make their bookings in a timely and user-friendly manner. The signs are showing that 2012 really will be the year of caravanning!"