Tincataylor
Free Member
- Jul 9, 2012
- 639
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- Funster No
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- MH
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- Never leave a campsite with your clothes line tied to a lamp post.
We are currently coming to the end of our third winter tour of Spain and Portugal and we have noticed some big changes regarding camp site capacity and their attitude to people travelling with an ACSI card. When we first came in 2015 we toured from Benicasim round the coast and ending up in Lagos in Portugal, and we never booked ahead because there was always spare capacity and we were made welcome at the reduced ACSI rate. It was the same in 2016 and in 2017 we decided to take a break for a year.
Now in 2018 we have had several instances where sites were either full or only had a handful of pitches available. When we have tried to book ahead on some sites we have been told that no advance bookings are available to ACSI card holders and that we have to turn up and take pot luck. In addition the amount of pitches available to ACSI card holders seems to have diminished to the less desirable ones with the better pitches not available. In 2015 we never came across this kind of discrimination and it was just a case of walking the site with a map and telling them which pitch we wanted.
Now I can fully understand from a business perspective that the site owner, given that there is a shortage of pitches, would rather sell a pitch at a premium as opposed to a discounted ACSI rate. However it does beg the question “has the ACSI card had its day”???
The Tincas
Now in 2018 we have had several instances where sites were either full or only had a handful of pitches available. When we have tried to book ahead on some sites we have been told that no advance bookings are available to ACSI card holders and that we have to turn up and take pot luck. In addition the amount of pitches available to ACSI card holders seems to have diminished to the less desirable ones with the better pitches not available. In 2015 we never came across this kind of discrimination and it was just a case of walking the site with a map and telling them which pitch we wanted.
Now I can fully understand from a business perspective that the site owner, given that there is a shortage of pitches, would rather sell a pitch at a premium as opposed to a discounted ACSI rate. However it does beg the question “has the ACSI card had its day”???
The Tincas