I hope you are well and enjoying getting ready for the new season. We are very happy with our Web site and are achieving a small degree of success with the bookings it is generating. Unfortunately our happiness is not shared by everybody; I've just had a phone call from the site office at Devon Cliffs, asking to have the word Haven and any references to Haven or Bourne leisure removed from our Web Page
Message from webmaster----BOURNE LEISURE, HAVEN
Hi Dave,
I very much like the sound of your website. We at Devon Cliffs have our problems. No less than four of the managers have actually resigned this week - totally disillusioned with Bourne. As an owner/agent, I personally feel that the only way we will ever change Bourne's point of view is to act collectively. I also that the best form of cohesion/communication between owners is via the internet. That is not to say I do not also believe in a printed magazine.
I am booking agent for eight caravans. All my owners have v.similar views to my own. I own two of the eight, and don't really want to get much bigger. Here are a couple of 'gripes' re Bourne Leisures money-grabbing policies:
Last year I thought I would investigate the possibility of selling up. I was offered £9,600.00 for a one year old BERMUDA, and £6,500 for my 1999 CAPRI. If I sold to a third party then that third party would have to pay Bourne 15% of sale fee, plus very expensive site fees on the sites I currently enjoy. (I pay £2,500.00, the new owner would have to pay £4,000.00 p.a.).
This year one of my owners decided he would trade in his 1996 CARLTON against a 2003 BERMUDA. I rather liked his CARLTON, its a lovely clean van and as it was situated directly behind my CAPRI it suits rather well for double bookings. I was told that it is now Bourne Leisure's policy not to sell anything older than a 1998 van.
"Fine, what can you sell me instead of that?"
"We can offer you a 1999 CAPRI identical to the one you have for £20,500.00."
As £20,500.00 was close to what I actually paid for the CAPRI when it was new at the end of the 1998 Season, I told the salesperson that I didn't want to go ahead.
Most people who own wooden verandas are upset by BOURNE's wooden veranda policy. I have been told by one of the disgruntled managers, who is one of four to resign this week, that if we simply refuse to remove these verandas in 2005/2006, there is not a lot BOURNE can do about it. In fact if they do remove without the owners consent, BOURNE could find themselves in very hot water indeed provided the veranda's were in a good state of repair originally. Copmmon sense dictates that this is probably true, and that they are actually acting illegally on this one. I do intend making discreet enquiries in the not too distant. If all owners who wished to retain their wooden verandas were to act collectively, we could probably beat BOURNE on this one.
Yes I will swap links. Yes I will actively participate, but not for a day or three. My wife and I are trying to get our caravans up and running for the Season. Which for us a Devon Cliffs does not start until 28th April (funny old thing, no talk of compensation from Bourne) but I needed a day at home to help keep the lid on the email/mail side of things. Hence my reply to you today. This afternoon its back to Devon Cliffs, under sealing, fixing the inevitable leaks, preparing the caravans in general and trying to answer the thousand and one questions that my owners seem unable to find answers for themselves. I'll come back to you in a day or three. In the meantime, please feel free to download the Oval pic on the front of my website, insert 'Devon Caravan Holidays' underneath it, insert hyperlink to my website and I will happily reciprocate in a few days.
Kind regards,
I've also drawn the attention of several owners at Devon Cliffs to the existence of your site. Each and everyone of them has some sort of complaint about B.L., mostly regarding wooden verandahs and the removal of same prior to the 2006 Season. Is there anything/anybody you know who can advise on legality of this please? One couple I know had a verandah built to Haven specs just three years ago, it cost her something in the region of £3,000.00, and now she is being told she has to remove it.
I’d like to contact the lady/gent who are currently letting Atlas Mirage through B.L. at Devon Cliffs. I currently act as a Booking Agent for seven vans, five of which have experience of B.L’s letting scheme.
During the 2004 Season, I can boast of pointing at least one owner, and probably more, towards a more profitable years end. I cannot promise to show anyone the road to a pile of gold, but I can at least show anyone willing to put a bit of time and effort into their letting, how to make a very small pile of gold and still have enjoy their caravans.
I’m not out to make anything from this owner (unless he/she wants me to act as her agent, in which case I charge 12.5% after Club Membership fees have been deducted). I simply want to save people losing their vans when there is no need….
Well done on the OFT consultation doc, it makes interesting reading….
