Anyone else miss just turning up?

[sunhasgotthis]

These days it feels like you've got to download an app to book in a fart! I really miss just turning up somewhere, paying, without everything shoehorned into tight slots.

What annoys me even more than having to book a time slot is the apps which charge an additional booking fee for each person. If there’s no possible way of paying the advertised ticket price, then be honest and include the booking fee in the ticket price.

Must depend where you live because I don't have to book for most things, certainly not the tip, most local restaurants are ok as long as there's not 6+ at 7pm on a Saturday night, pub doesn't do bookings etc. was a shock going to London to find out my favourite wine bar from years ago you now book, and there was a queue to get in even so, we went to a normal pub instead!

I didn't book for the museum i visited either, not sure if I was meant to, they let me in

If you turn up to a museum or other attraction and they refuse to sell you a ticket and demand that you use their app to make a booking, ask to speak to the manager.

When the manager arrives, tell them that their policy is directly discriminating against the disabled, people with learning difficulties, the elderly & frail, and those on very low incomes, many of whom don't have a smartphone, couldn't use one if they did, or couldn't afford to have one in the first place.

Ask them what they are going to do about improving accessibility to their booking / ticketing service.

I had to book our Santa visit in March! He’s VERY good so if you don’t book when the slots open you don’t get in.

I miss spontaneity too. I love going on holiday to cities that are smaller (than London) where you can just show up at places. I have so many bookings apps on my phone, many used once 🙄

Yep I hate it. I hate also having to pay via an app when using a car park, I spend ages downloading the specific app adding all the details and then I get charged extra for being forced to use the app. On a separate but similar note I also hate having to have a store card to get cheaper prices…I was in Superdrug recently and the prices were so confusing, I then had to download the app to get the cheaper prices. Gone are the days of just running in grabbing what I need then leaving, instead I’m having to double check I’m not being ripped off. Everything just takes twice as long.

Hate, hate, hate having to book everything in advance. I'm willing to do it for a concert/theatre or a major tourist attraction in a city that I want to go to on the few days I'm there (and also avoid the queues - as they're something else I hate), but for eating in restaurants/pubs we just use the tactic of going early and hoping they'll give us a table that's reserved for someone much later on in the evening. Anything else, we either avoid peak times or don't go.

I agree to a certain extent. especially with things that rely on the weather. you get an unexpected nice day and decide to go somehwre only to find its booked up. one local restaurant to me pissed me off last year. rang and asked for a table for 2 on a weekday 6pm time. told booked up husband was looking at app and there was loads of tables ? booked online went down and no one was there. it has since closed not surprised another restaurant near us refused to take booking less than 6 people even though people complained. so you would turn up put your name on a list wait in the bar and they would call you when table was free would be waiting hours some nights dunno how they thought that was a great idea. booking came in during covid and thankfully it has stayed there is another place up the road from me I wished they would allow bookings. its out of town can't walk and so annoying when you drive up and the q is a mile long again waiting an hour for table some times

God yes, I hate it. Bring back spontaneity!

A panto my kids go to almost annually is similar. Seats need to be booked by boxing day the previous year to get a chance to go at any time.

I hate the app system. My smart phone is 6 years old and I am forced to replace it. Not because it has stopped working, but because it cannot cope with the app demand (which also increases with every enforced update) and most of the apps cannot be installed on an external SD card, so my phone is forced into obsolescence. But everything wants an app now, even my workplace is connected to my phone via an app to enable me to access the system from home via an authenticator app.

I cannot get a discount card as a job perk because it is app only. My customer card for my weekly shop is now app only.

And because smartphones with reasonable space aren't exactly cheap, some people will be priced out of everyday activities, not because of the activities themselves, but because of the need for a new smartphone.

Yes, the days of doing things on the spur of the moment are long gone. As a result we seem to end up doing a lot less.

You what?
Some NT like being organised, others prefer to be spontaneous and yet others are happy with either depending the venue/time/environment.
Same with ND people. Not everyone wants to be extra organised all the time.

fwiw I think it’s a pain when you are on hols.
Went to Amsterdam and museums were booked up 2, sometimes 4 weeks ahead.
Paris is the same (Eiffel tower for example).
When you are away in hols, in a town you dint know, how can you make plans do far ahead??
(and yes that with two ND people in the trip)

@Ponderingwindow its interesting as I've heard others say the same thing. Its funny how different things affect people differently. When I hear 'you'll need to download an app' I immediately get panicky and stressed. I wonder if I'm doing it right and if people will laugh at me if I get it wrong, as i so often do. I'm in my 40s so young enough for people to presume I understand. I suspect that is how you felt in your life many times using the 'old system'. Ideally we'd have a balance, a full tech approach discriminates too in other ways.

I can see some benefits but my issue is that all the money seems to go into the booking end of things, the tech which makes handsome sites, fancy apps, and quite rigid systems.

When you arrive at your "experience" the place it is often poorly supplied with staff, loos, cleanliness, everything!

The complexity of pricing annoys me too. Different prices for different days. "Skip the line" tickets for attractions (I don't think anyone should be able to skip the line by paying extra - you should all be in the same queue). Attraction A + Attraction B is one price, if you add Attraction C there's a third price and you have two days to visit them all. Does my head in trying to pick the best option. Even got a discount recently for arriving by public tranport - DH spotted this one on a web site. I was looking at a different page on the same website for "book online in advance", which gave a discount, but the discount for using public transport was bigger.

Arrgh, just let me turn up and pay a fixed price, which won't change depending on the phase of the moon.

The downloading of apps could be greatly reduced if it was a condition of any public funding (or things like lottery funding) that it was not obligatory.

@DuesToTheDirt I feel that all of that upselling and discounts etc are to mask and confuse and hide the fact that the tickets are excessively priced.

I like it on the whole, but I am fortunate enough to have a newish phone with plenty of storage and data and I get that this isn't possible for many people. Getting around on public transport is SO much easier with apps, they are my first choice for parking because I don't like planning ahead sufficiently to know I need two hours and like being able to extend my ticket by phone. Booking the tip takes a moment and can be done the same day and when you get there - no queue. I went on Bank Hol Mon this week and in the old days would have waited about an hour, now straight in. I also like booking attractions, tables etc because it gives me certainty we'll get in, usually it's still only booked same day or day before.

I love not having to queue for ages, as I can't stand for long periods of time.
Quite happy to join a short queue for e.g. 11.00 timed admission.

Complete bastard for the ND/disabled who like being able to do things on the spur of the moment or when they're feeling good and struggle with organising themselves to download apps, register accounts, remember logins, make the trip and still have charge on their phones/remember to link their disabled railcard with their travel/ticketing account (or have to make a special journey to a main train station that's staffed to add it on themselves) and the booking app discount, though.

I don't think so. Our local tip has small horrible parking and the queue to even get in can go right down a narrowish road and round a roundabout. Booking was brought in during covid and it was the tip users who wanted to keep it because it makes going there so much easier and safer

@NeverDropYourMooncup yep.
Im disabled and can’t tell you how well I’ll be until the morning.
Booking ahead means I often dont go because I’m not going to book something when I have no idea if I’ll be able to get there.

Exactly! This is a festive light show and gets booked months in advance…as I found out last year 😂🤣

I especially like booking for the local sports centre by app, swimming is great, you can see how many lanes there are for each speed, see how many are booked in, know it will be limited numbers and never over crowded. It's rarely fully booked so I book as I leave the house. Booking classes is so much easier than the old system where you had to ring up and book 8 days in advance because if you tried booking for next week at the time of your class it was too late.