To feel frustrated so much has to be booked in advance these days?

[Teentrauma]

I'm talking mainly attractions and days out. I've found that increasingly over the last few years and certainly since Covid many places require booking online in advance taking away spontanaety as they're often full up on the day. For example, tickets for a kids Father Christmas experience locally sold out within hours of tickets going on sale the other week - in August! We also booked to go up the Snowden railway - had to do in advance as wouldn't have got on otherwise. On the day, the weather was appalling and we wouldn't have gone if we didn't have tickets. We saw nothing and it was a total waste of money!

I get it's more efficient for the businesses and also takes away the need to queue. I'm probably a dinosaur but I hanker for the days when you could just decide to do things spur of the moment!

Yes, this touches upon what I don't like about it, sharing personal data with loads of different companies. I had to get an APP in Whistable on a visit there (I don't live there) to park as there wasn't a machine that worked and I am still getting emails from them, I'm sure i asked them to remove me from their mailing list. I still get ones from the council gym that DS did belong to but gave up on as he could never get a slot and being 15 at the time, had no inclination to book in advance!

Yes, definitely, why is everywhere rammed these days.

My eldest is 16 but at Christmas time you could definitely still book Father Christmas in December so about 10 years ago. With my DD who is 12 I did start to notice the creep backwards in to November, October and it regularly being sold out.

I had to book weeks and weeks in advance to go up Snowdon in 2019, so it isn't all down to the pandemic. The previous year we'd tried to book a week in advance and it was sold out.

I hate it too. dh has chronic fatigue - we never know how much energy is he going to have on any particular day so we really don't want to waste money on booking something and then find he is too tired to go.

Best guess, a mixture of two things. Lots of venues have closed in the last few years as it's been pretty brutal for various reasons, and a dash of post lockdown FOMO.

I don’t mind booking a few days/even 2-3 weeks in advance but having to plan in June and July for Christmas is just a bit much.

I thought all this technology was meant to make life easier & less stressful. In reality, it makes it much harder! However, I'm sure it does make it easier for the businesses concerned....

I think the reason places are busier is because people are still “catching up” post Covid. I have friends still using vouchers that were postponed, and my father still has a delayed holiday

For me it's the trying to figure out timings of when to book that I find frustrating as you invariably get it wrong and end up trying to waste/fill time somehow or rushing and only just making it! Just back from a UK holiday. Had a rough plan of go to beach, get some lunch, do activity in the afternoon. But what time?! Is 3 too late? Or too early?! Depends where we get lunch. Where will we get lunch? I don't know because lots of places already booked!

I don't mind events and attractions but things like swimming really gets my goat. We never had to book pre-covid.

Also restaurants, I just want to rock up and have a meal but constantly get met with "have you booked" and a sharp intake of breath; even when the place is half empty.

I absolutely hate it

The hangover from covid is organisations and businesses limiting service, accessibility, costs have increased, can never speak to anyone about anything and the booking in advance, online, can never clarify anything or make changes. People dont live lives like this, circumstances change, things come up, but no, now you've booked a ticket and cant get hold of anyone to change it or ask for flexibility or whatever

Plus this even applies to the dump!!!

I used to love taking stock of anything I needed that weekend and just running down there briefly, literally took minutes, now it needs to be booked in advance with slots. So inconvenient.

I agree OP. I am not spontaneous and like to be a bit planned like a day or two and absolutely hate planning weeks or months in advance.

The booking format is the worst. Lately I have taken to phoning places so I don't have to put up with logins and passwords etc. Most places still take bookings over the phone. And no way I am using QR codes, get me a menu or tell me what's on, I pretend I don't understand what it means. Like you @MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel My phone is old and doesn't scan them.

A general rule of thumb I have is if the booking requires me to download an app or subscribe to something then I'm out, I'll phone and if no one answers I take my business elsewhere. In fairness most restaurants have very good online booking systems, I don't mind those.

Plus they want the table back at x time even though they take an age to get your orders in and deliver the food.

Ugh, I remember staying up til midnight trying to book National Trust tickets during covid, despite being members. On the plus side, tickets to the Natural History museum kept numbers lower but attractions these days are rammed despite ticketing.

Yep. I’m not a forward planner. We booked our summer holiday abroad a month before we went. But part of the holiday we had to reschedule as we were planning to visit a particular historical attraction and doing they were sold out for the whole summer. So we have ended up booking an extra few days to that place at the end of next month - as long as I remember to go online and book the tickets when they come out next week.

Omg!!! I have never heard a truer word spoken!! I am absolutely exhausted with this ridiculously high speed pace of life! Being expected to know months in advance how your kids will be about going to X Y & Z events!!! The Halloween experience the Santa experience!!! It's non sense. You make your own family experiences!!! It's a money making racket and things are expensive enough! It needs to stop! COVID absolutely worked on the favour of all this advanced booking non sense!!!

Some places were always like that though. They would say "ok I'll just check" and you could see they only had about 3 bookings in their book in a place with 10 tables.

I am a planner but I do see the issue. I also won't engage if I have to download an app* or use a QR code. A website is fine.

*I do have an app to book my outdoor fitness classes, but that is a long term commitment, not just a one off meal or event.

I used to love taking stock of anything I needed that weekend and just running down there briefly, literally took minutes, now it needs to be booked in advance with slots. So inconvenient

We have to book where I live but you can book 24 hours before or even on the same day sometimes and it's much better than the interminable queues that used to be there. You turn up, dump your stuff and leave. I actually think that's a plus of covid!

Totally agree, I still haven't booked my holiday and we have time booked off in 2 months, I hate advanced planning.

We tend to just wing it on days out but have the advantage of kids being adults

I agree! It actually gives me mild anxiety going places like even taking the children to the barber without prebooking as I’ve seen people get turned away! Same with cinema or meals out, I feel stressed if I don’t precook encase there’s no seats or any tables left!

But it's not just here, you go on holiday and you have to book meals at the hotel restaurants on an app before you even arrive ... how do you know what time you want to eat? I don't eat at the same time every day especially on holiday

I completely agree. Pre booking that came in during Covid hasn't gone away in a lot of circumstances and it's so annoying.

Like my local pool used to have general swimming weekdays between 11-4 so you could turn up anytime during those hours. Now you have to prebook a 45 mins session. So you get less time and have to plan it all in advance and if you get held up in traffic etc then you lose time for your swim.

You even have to prebook the rubbish tip where I live! So I have to pre-plan a trip to the dump as part of my weekend plans.

Same with all the kids stuff. No walking along the seafront and thinking "oh let's do crazy golf" as you still have to prebook it!

It is very British. All this booking, planning, setting up play dates with kids who are 6-7 yo weeks in advance. The top of it is center park, I saw families logging in from other holidays to book activities for holidays months after, as they were releasing the slots. In Europe and also US people are more relaxed, play dates get decided within the week or even the same day, families are not overbooked for the weekends and much more spontaneous. We went to Florida, bought tickets for Disney world 4 days in advance, nothing needed to be booked, the app would tell you the queues of the different attractions.
maybe British people like it, it makes them feel very busy and popular I guess, I find it very sad.

It really is not just British orgs.

We went to Italy this summer - my god, the amount of pre booking for attractions is fucking insane. Not helped that EVERYWHERE, every little tiny point of interest, sells their tickets on to third party sellers if you don't jump on and book the minute that the 20 or so non touted tickets tickets are released, and as soon as that happens the price goes up and up, with dizzying amounts of variations - Villa Borghese tour with a guide, villa Borghese tour with boat hire, villa Borghese skip the line, villa Borghese timed entry, villa Borghese in German, villa Borghese with a carnation up your arse, villa Borghese with a hotline to the Pope and on and on ... the entire country is a scammer's paradise now that everything is "bookable". I was honestly ready to hoy my laptop out the window and declare the trip cancelled, months before we got there.

I agree. I’ve noticed it with swimming pools on holiday (UK) which is really annoying because then you need to base the whole rest of the day round when you go swimming.