C&CC vs Caravan Club

We've been members of the C&CC for some years but a combination of factors has recently prompted us to jump ship and join the Caravan Club instead.  Despite the high cost of their club sites we took the decision to treat ourselves to 3 nights on one of the C&CC club sites near London for part of the Easter weekend and beyond.  We tried to make a last-minute reservation and found the booking system very unresponsive.  We've always found the C&CC's IT a bit clunky and slow, whether using their website or a tablet app but on Good Friday morning it simply refused to play.  I rang the club site we were interested in and got no reply, not even a voicemail option.  Then I rang the central booking line, only to find it was closed for the bank holiday.  

Given that the C&CC is in the leisure sector I found their decision not to staff the booking line throughout the holiday weekend unforgivable.   That, and the pricing policy for their club sites, which we no longer consider value for money, persuaded us to look at the Caravan Club.  We were lucky enough to get a pitch at their Crystal Palace site and joined up there and then.  Their website looks slicker so far, and their pricing for club sites more competitive.  Time will tell whether we made the right decision but we couldn't fault the Crystal Palace site for location, facilities and price.

To be honest I think for the size of both clubs their websites leave a lot to be desired and could be improved on.

We have been in the CC for over 30 years and the C&CC for 25 years and both should have managed a decent online "reliable" booking system now.

I am not a fan of messing around with pricing that the C&CC have done over the last couple of years and we tend in the last  2 years only to use CS,s Temp Hol Sites and Ralies despite having vouchers to use up

Swings and roundabouts with both clubs really IMHO. I couldn't get hold of anyone in the CC one weekend. Totally agree that weekends should be covered. A friend had a Spain ferry booking via C&CC and because their office wasn't manned he didn't get the message that the ferry was leaving a day earlier until the morning of the sailing as the message had been sent out by the ferry Co via the C&CC on  Saturday. Very poor.

We have never (unless under exceptional circumstances) and don't want to anyway (have a full facility MH and caravan) use large sites, we only use CL's and CS's and as Roli rallies and THS's.

Both clubs have benefits for us C&CC for winter sun hols etc and RAC  cover for the heavier MH and CC for MH and house insurance.

We cherry pick the best of both and the membership costs of both is worth it to us.