Or do the National Trust need to start looking after their members during the 'Rona

[MaconVillagesisgoodchardonnay]

I know we're in "unprecedented times" before anyone starts with that one.

I pay a family membership for NT and in a normal week I will use it at least twice a week with the children, either alone, with husband or to meet up with friends.

I haven't been since March when they opened it up to everyone, caused chaos and subsequently shut.

Since reopening and operating a booking system, the venues close to me you need to book almost a week in advance which is utterly bonkers. They haven't prioritised their members, or in fact communicated with us at all regarding this, in fact I've had no post from them since Jan renewal.

I've emailed them to see whether I can have either a partial refund or an extension on our membership - AIBU? I haven't had a response yet. I'd rather now have an annual pass to a private estate locally and know I can be guaranteed somewhere to go. When the schools do break up for summer the chances of booking a NT day out become even slimmer.

I'm a bit ratty after the baby kept me up all night but AIBU to be a bit fucked off at them?

It does sound like the properties using Eventbrite may be the issue.

It’s a worthy cause even if you get nothing from it to suppprt National Trust. Without them, much of British/Northern Ireland countryside and coast would have been developed. Big manor houses knocked down and replaced with council estates.
So, I’d encourage you to think of the annual membership as simply the charity donation it is and not look at it like a service you are buying.

This!

I got flamed the other day, for thinking that is about time the NT opens their houses. I know it's not their fault they can't prioritise members, but it's still annoying to be paying for something we can't use!

I'm going on holiday next week and my entire itinerary was planned round NT houses that still aren't open. But many private ones are.

I read an article in my local paper that said that the NT are looking to make 4000 people redundant. 4000 people!

*Big manor houses knocked down and replaced with council estates.
*
Oh behave. As someone who works in estate management, this is just the biggest load of bollocks, I'm sick of people pedalling stuff like this. I'm an agent for the NT, they are still a business, they still make bank, believe me.

Yes they care for the estates in their custodianship but so so many private estate owners who usually come in for a hammering on here for whatever reason. You can't actually bulldoze grade I listed mansion houses and listed parkland and stick a load of affordable housing on it. It's difficult enough to get planning on any agricultural land at the moment, let alone capability brown's handiwork.

We've kept our subscription going as I feel their work is so important for future generations, and we more than get our monies worth for our subscription as we visit our closest one regularly for dog walks in the parkland and our grandkids love it there. And it's fab on holidays to go somewhere different, we found a complete gem in Devon earlier this year and went there twice in the week we were down there.

However I've tried now about 15 times to book at our local and haven't been able to get a slot........ I'm not overly impressed tbh. It's hundreds of acres of parkland (the actual house is still being restored and is a bit meh), we've been in summer holidays and still managed to walk without feeling it was busy. So why they are timing entrances and restricting numbers is beyond me.

I think NT Scotland are in bother financially so I can't see any reduction from them. I don't think it's value for money up here anyway. Pretty much the only child friendly property near us (still over an hour away) is Culzean so we'd have to go very often for it to be worth the money.

Because they call it a membership. If they want it viewed as a large donation then they name it appropriately. It's not unreasonable that someone who paid for something called a membership thinks they may now be a member of some sort of club or entity.

This.
As with so many things in life, so much of this is to do with communication. Of course people who pay £X a year to be able to go to NT sites expect to be able to go to them once they are open. If the NT needs the money - and, different posters seem to have different understandings about this - then explain that to people. Encourage them to come by extending this membership by 4 months or whatever (people spend once they are there).

I've got an annual membership for a stately home (not NT). They prioritised members when opening and gave 3 months extra free for the renewed annual pass. It also has charitable status.
The NT has done nothing to compensate members during closure.

I have visited NT sites at least weekly since they re-opened. No problem booking; they have expanded the slots available x5 since the first week. A few houses are already open on a pilot scheme. It's not that easy to plan one-way routes around historic houses with quirky staircases and surfaces that can't be wiped down every time someone touches them.
Presumably, you all joined the NT because you support the work they do? The sites I've visited have done a brilliant job with a skeleton staff - and no, furloughed staff can't answer your e-mails from home! And if the gardens aren't quite as manicured as usual that's because 65,000 volunteers are waiting to be brought back.

Can we just not say the ‘Rona please

I'd ask for an extension. We have a membership for the children's museum near us (USA) and they've said that they'll extend all memberships for the equivalent of the time they're shut. So I'd go for it!

We got life membership for Christmas from my parents! Not great timing.
We have visited Beningbrough and Wallington recently plus a couple of NT/EH joint sites - Mount Grace and Dunstanburgh.
Toilets open and the gardens looked beautiful.
I hope they open play areas soon.
The booking is a pain but insomnia helps!

YANBU. We got family memberships for Christmas and have been able to use them once. I think the memberships should be extended.

We went to a local place last week, no problem booking (via event brite) and very well organised when there. Other than the parent letting their child pull the one way signs out and then putting them back wrong

The lack of priority booking was frustrating but as we are in a position for it to not financially be an issue for us and we want them to be there long term then I’m happy to just add it to the list of annoyances at this point!

Membership should definitely be extended. I volunteer for the NT as well as paying membership - I don’t think paying a membership fee should be interpreted as a ‘free gift’ for the NT! They are not good at showing their appreciation of members - time to start now!

They are not good at showing their appreciation of members - time to start now!

They won’t because they don’t have to. They can see there are queues of people flocking to visit so they can just sit back as they always have. It’s always irked me that there’s no discount in the tearooms and shops for members. The London museums can manage it

The Evenbrite website that manages the bookings seems to close bookings the day before so really you need to know 2 days before if you want to go somewhere. You can't ring the national Trust Place to see if there are spaces and the NT bookings phone number is on the same system as Evenbright. You can't cancel, or I couldn't. Surely there is a less clunky way of finding out if there are spaces, like some train and bus lines. lets hope it changes after July 19, it doesn't seem user friendly.

Our local one you can drive up and use the grounds without pre booking parking and enjoy the cafe etc. Just scan membership for parking House and gardens pre booked but always slots. Can walk freely around the grounds not sure about the house

Why has a year old thread been reactivated?!

Why not? It's still relevant but hopefully won't be after 19th July. I have been to a National Trust property a few weeks ago and it was easy to book, I suppose the rush last year dissipated. Actually it was very pleasant (although the car park was packed so I wonder what they do in normal times).

Those saying sixth formers and students wouldn't want to volunteer, what about all those studying history-related degrees? Or even architecture?

ZOMBIE ALERT 🚨

We went to one at the weekend and virtually none of the building as open, I think it was two rooms and then you were outside again. The cheerful woman on the gate said they had hardly any volunteers because of Wimbledon!! The rest of the visit wasn't very pleasurable, everything was massively officious and the queue for the refreshments was enormous- one person at a time in - with a cast of hundreds of paid staff in the kitchens hanging about doing nothing. At least the gardens were nice but otherwise a wasted visit.

Realise it's a sort of Zombie thread. NT property near us had 700 bookings one day last week. Fewer than half turned up.
The property where I volunteer has walk ins. However, loads of volunteers won't return due to age and infirmity and the lossof paid staff has an impact.