FYI do not try work this out after a bottle of wine or more I'm well confused now
Thought I'd start this thread as I'm trying to fathom the "gender balancing" discounts system, and hoping someone can explain the details.
As I understand it, the gender balancing works like this:
- You pay full price at time of booking, but indicate then that you'd like a discount
- The option is only available for balanced apartments with equal numbers of male and female places
- To get a cashback discount, everyone in the apartment has to turn up to register/collect wristbands at the same time on the Friday afternoon (or later - as long as you arrive together)
What I'm not clear about is when and how you have to list the names of all people in a group. For past Ceroc weekenders the only name taken was the lead name, and other names were taken at the point of arriving on Friday.
It looks like the gender balancing discount doesn't work this way - the website says:From which I understand that there is name checking at the point of wristbands being given out on the Friday. I assume the reason is to stop one person collecting two wristbands, and taking the hit of having paid for two places but keeping the 33% discount.Q: Can I ask another person who is not an occupant of our apartment to substitute another occupant.
A: NO. We will check the identity of ALL persons of your group.
But do the names get taken at the point of booking and fixed forever?
I can understand that there's a need to check names at point of registration, but for example if I book today it seems reasonable that people might want to change names up to, say, a week before the weekend itself - is this possible?
Love dance, will travel
FYI do not try work this out after a bottle of wine or more I'm well confused now
I was confused trying to work it out - perhaps I'm spreading my confusion.
Here's the link to the terms and conditions on the Gender Balanced Discount.
Love dance, will travel
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I'm trying to get people together for this one, but it's hard enough getting girls together who want to share, let alone getting the guys to agree (especially as they know they'll be able to book as and when they can be bothered as it's usually female spaces that get booked first).
Don't think we've ever managed to get an even booking (apart from Eclipse which we had no choice due to when we booked) - we've always had more women than men, plus it's always nicer to get our usual girls appt together.
However, even with a gender balanced apartment we'd still not manage to get everyone to arrive at the same time as there's always someone who has to work on the Friday, and as everyone travels from different places we end up in different cars. It just wouldn't be feasible for the people I tend to book with. A shame, cos it could be a good idea
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
I don't really get the reason behind everyone having to check in at the same time! Surely the names can be checked off as each person arrives and then once all the group members are there the discount can be issued. If they are worried about people collecting more than one wrist band etc, why not just ask to see drivers license or some other form of photo id to make sure the person is who they say they are!
Reception and check in on a weekender is a massive logistical nightmare with IRO of anything up to 1,000 people checking in on the Friday afternoon/evening. This is initially handled by crew until around 8pm and then as it gets later it moves to the main reception.
Usually this results in just one interaction with staff and as such mistakes, problems etc. are kept to a minimum. On this basis I'm sure you can understand that the more times the envelopes are re-opened and the more times they are handled by different crew members (they work on shifts with anything up to 30 people being involved over the course of an 8 hour period) the more we increase the probability of error. If you add to that the payment of the rebate and who actually receives and signs for it then again you should understand that having everyone involved present at the same time results in less hassle for everyone.
I also don't really understand the issue here: if you book now you have 5 months to work out the logistics of getting people together. In this modern age of email and mobile phones is that really that difficult when you are being offered a third off the cost of your w/e??
Actually, yes, it is particularly difficult, especially if you are sharing with friends from different parts of the country, or even just different parts of London. Whether you have 5 months or 5 years to plan it, you cannot control events on the day. My friend and I left from North London at 17.30 and took 3 hours to get to Southport last week. Our other friends, with whom we were sharing, left one hour later from Central London and took 6 hours to get there. If that happens in October, are we supposed to miss out on the evening's entertainment until they arrive? I really can't see why it is so difficult to simply tick people off as they register. They're all in the same chalet, so it's unlikely that information will get mixed up between envelopes. I appreciate the sentiment of the discount, but I really have to question whether it's worth all the hassle. It sounds to me like Ceroc are covering up for administrative inadequacies by making it difficult for the paying customer. I'm not convinced this has been very well thought through...
At the very least, individuals should be given a temporary wristband, valid only for the Friday evening, and a chalet key when they arrive. Once the whole group is together, these could be exchanged for permanent wristbands and the discount applied. To keep things simple, the discount should only be collecetd by the named, group leader.
Last edited by Filthy Monkey; 9th-June-2009 at 10:26 AM.
Or even give the discount later in the weekender, rather than on check in. Have everyone check in, whenever they like, then all turn up together on Saturday morning say (even give a time slot for it if that helps the admin) to confirm that everyone in that chalet is all present and correct.
There are too many variables in terms of where people live, when they leave, vehicles breaking down and unforeseen road conditions (cows on the M6 anyone?!) to guarantee that everyone will arrive at once. So whilst it seems a generous incentive, I'll be it'll cause lots of hassle and stress on the day for both punters and organisers.
Whether I have 5 months or more, the best mobile phone in existence and the fastest internet connection I am never going to be able to get a friday off work (I'm a school teacher) unlike my friends who can if they wish take the friday off! So the answer is yes, it is that difficult! I think the need to check in the whole party at the same time is going to make this offer difficult for a large number of people to take up!
I think what the organisers are quite clearly (and fairly IMO) saying is, " its completely up to you to organise and present yourselves as a complete group at the time of checking in and 'if and only if, you can fulfil all these criteria, we'll reward you by giving you 'cashback' "
So, IMO its best to book assuming your going to be paying the full price and 'if' everything happens to come together on the day, you 'could' end up with a nice little bonus but make sure you DON'T rely on it
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"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
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