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!

Yeah, I hate it. And where are all these tips that used to have massive queues? Ours didn't. But they have kept the Covid booking system.

But everywhere seems busier these days, with or without booking, so it can be hard to be spontaneous regardless. To go for a walk in the hills we have to get up early or there's no space in the car park. When we're away on holiday we have to plan on getting to the popular sights first thing, or there are enormous queues. The same for booking hotels or apartments - if you leave it till the last minute you're left with expensive ones or ones with reviews that describe disgusting bathrooms and tell you even rats wouldn't stay there. I look back with longing at the days of turning up at a town, spotting a hotel, asking to see a room, and taking it. I'd never risk that now.

It’s the booking fee that annoys me the most 😡

Yes.

"Do our work for us. And now pay us for doing so".

Fuck off.

I'm always months ahead with my booking plans. I've booked up all of halloween days out and Christmas.....come January ill have booked up things fir Easter ajd rhe summer. It works out financially much better.

As in it doesn't cost you money??!

@Orturo your post is spot on! 🤣 I get booking anxiety now due to all the sodding options / add on's which end up costing as much as the entrance fee itself, do I do t bother booking them stress out I've not booked anything 😂 it's shit

I agree. So many times my partner and I have tried to be somewhat spontaneous and have a family day out, always look online and almost everywhere you want to go is full. End up spending ages looking for somewhere!

I think it’s an extension of people not being able to manage anxiety about uncertainty. I rarely book stuff in advance but we go out on lots of day trips with a bit of an idea and then we just do stuff as we go. We might stop for some strawberries en route or find a place that we like the look of and bumble off there. I guess we’re all different but I like the freedom and space of just sort of seeing what we fancy when we get there. I feel hemmed in enough in life already.. jobs, just always having to do everything by the book etc - without hemming myself in! I also feel like there’s just no leeway in general these days. Like you can’t go and have a nice chat with the people at the LEB and get a bit of money off your bill, or go and have a chat with someone at the council about an unfair parking fine. I mean I don’t want to commit a major crime, I just want maybe a bit of a favour sometimes snd I want to do people favours, not big ones, Im not a job where I can do that, to be fair. I think i’m just too old or something. Everything just seems so buttoned up, belts and braces, sort of disclaimer thing here, storing your emails there. Like when you could pay by cheques for stuff it was great as they took three working days to clear so say you were getting paid Monday / Tuesday you could do your shopping on Friday with no money whatsoever in your account safe in the knowledge that you would have by the time the cheque was cashed. Sometimes I worry that young people don’t know what they’re missing. They should bring cheques back. They were like the o.g payday loan without the interest. 😀

I agree, and as a result don't visit the same places anymore. Have gone feral!

Missing those travelling days when you could just go somewhere and find a hotel/ backpackers. This was pre smart phone and now no longer possible as everyone books in advance! Pre booking now is for every single thing and just turning up now means likely it will be fully booked and a wasted journey. Young people now who have grown up with access to the internet in their pockets will never know the joys of spontaneity!

Agree.

Apart from Christmas which is a bit annoying I love booking in advance. I'd be happier if I could book Christmas in November.

Most things you can book just a few days in advance so can factor in the weather. I'm much happier early booking then rocking up with no tickets.

I agree - and I'm one of those pre planning nightmare people who never likes to risk not getting a spot & enjoys certainty.

I mean, it's Spring holidays end of next week here, and I've just had to pre book some activities in the first week because they're already booking out.

For our holiday, to get a decent beach unit that's actually affordable I had to book 6 months in advance. Even then, the best value places are already taken by people who book a year out. I'm now booking activities on holiday because otherwise we'll miss out. I just want to get up & decide what to do & not be on a schedule!

I am with you! I am in a mum’s group and they started talking about booking things for Christmas from the first week of August!!!! I was this is crazy! Then I went online to check the Christmas lights trail in Kew Gardens and the best days and times were already booked out!! So I fell into the trap and booked from week 2 of August all shows and Christmas activities we want to do with the kiddos!

Oh no I love booking!
Nothing worse than arriving somewhere to find it's full or queuing for hours. I appreciate some people like to see how they feel on the day but for me, I'd much rather know I'm not wasting my journey.

Also on the Xmas stuff, December is expensive. I'm glad to be able plan and pay for Xmas activities months in advance 😂

Dh & I did a fly drive around California years ago. We didn't book anything in advance including motels & popular attractions like Alcatraz- we just turned up! We did a similar trip this year and had to book everything which I found very stressful as it was hard to know exactly what we would want to do each day. The trip was quite last minute and Alcatraz was booked up more than 2 weeks ahead. We ended up squeezing in a visit the day before flying home which wasn't ideal. Annoyingly, we did notice they were also selling tickets on the gate but, even if I'd known, the stress of it being full up would've been too much!

I'm now looking at next year's holiday. I wouldn't normally book this far ahead as I'm never 100% sure of our plans this far out but I'm feeling the pressure after this year's experience!

Lastly there's a Christmas lights experience locally that I've fancied doing for a couple of years running but always missed the boat. I was determined to book this year (tickets went on sale August) but a lot of our December plans are not finalised so couldn't risk it (it's expensive) so have missed out again!

Totally agree, it has killed off spontaneity. Also I resent all these organisations forcing us to book and pay upfront that then get to keep the money even if people don't turn up. They are then running at below capacity with spaces available that cannot be used by anyone else, but they don't care because they have got their money already. It's great for business owners, but not for the rest of us.

There are just too many people all trying to go to the same events, attractions etc, it's so depressing. I miss being able to go to places on the spur of the moment depending on the weather or how you felt. It's like our lives are being fully planned and automated by robots and AI.

Too many people and too many with disposable income. Coupled with the social media affect where parents love to parade every day out and experience to their friends/followers to show how amazing their life is. Demand is always on the up for family days out etc. so now it’s a competition to actually get tickets, accommodation etc for many places.

I have just looked at the Snowden railway. I am gobsmacked at just how restricted it is now.
You dont have to pre book weeks in advance but it's highly recommended. They do sell tickets on the day, which are released online from 8.30 am and sell out quickly.
You have to go up and down on the same train giving you half an hour at the top. If you want to walk to the summit, be prepared to walk the whole way down too as you'll miss your train down.

Luckily it says on the website, this is a once in a lifetime trip and I did it in my 20s. And I walked to the summit and I bought a ticket on the day, and I took my dogs (not allowed now)
I've wanted to do the trip again sometime, but I think it's very restrictive.

Oh and no refunds. And you have to be at the station 30mins before your train leaves to pick up your tickets.

swimming pools. How did they cope with the crowds of swimmers before covid? I’m guessing if it got too busy they would just tell you new arrivals that. Booking will put people off and my cynicism makes me think this will end up being a reason for councils to close them due to lack of interest but really just cost cutting

I'm really surprised at the number of pools which still make you pre-book. I swim regularly and have used two different pools since Covid and haven't had to book since May 2021. (thank goodness, I hated having to book in advance, and as others said sometimes a session would appear 'full' but half the people wouldn't turn up)

Re what they did to limit numbers before booking was a thing (usually in school holidays) they put up a sign with maximum number of swimmers. They didn't turn you away if the pool was full, they asked you to wait until someone got out, so you'd sit in reception for a short while. It was fairly easy to anticipate the busy times, the pool was never maximum capacity when I was there.

Someone mentioned swimming pools, and, as a child I had 6, in walking distance (15 - 30 minutes in London - now only one left and the cost is ridiculous, even if you can actually find a time that fits to swim in!) to choose from (including a Lido) and could go at any time and for any length of time. No clubs / classes booking the pools, so that made a huge difference to being spontaneous and the costs were affordable by most. We had some great parks with free courts to play on, even estates had their own netted cage courts, so you could find stuff to do during holidays at home and even when elsewhere in the UK, as not all activities cost! Big attractions were spontaneous, not necessarily a part of a holiday due to cost, which probably kept down the numbers, and I agree that booking is just not something that works in many instances, other than for the business. Sometime life should just be capturing the moment.

Peak time swimming before online booking?

Wristband system. If pool got too busy, then they'd tell everyone with (eg) green wristband (ie those who had entered the pool in the earliest slot) that it was time to go. Everyone got at least an hour, and you could well get more. But no-one had to wait for long either.

There has also become a bit of a competitive element which I find sad. There seems to be an anxiety that if you share info, you won't get what you want.
"What are you doing with the kids this Xmas?" ..."oh, not decided yet"... then you find later that they must have booked half a dozen things last month.

Popular Christmas events have always booked up early in the year around here, nothing to do with Covid.
Personally I quite like having things booked in advance, I like to have a clear calendar of days out and to know what's coming every weekend. But the weather does make it a pain to book in advance. Generally I'm pretty good about booking events like theatre tickets - I don't parade it on social media but there's a competitive bit in me that feels satisfied in reaching the end of a virtual booking queue!

i don't mind pre-booking big events! i love having things to look forward too.

But there are the weekends where you just wake up and want to go somewhere, and can't, because it's fully booked.

You can't just walk in to most restaurants these days either.
Apparently we're in a cost of living crisis, but you try finding a table on a Friday or Saturday night at one of the many restaurants in Cardiff Bay 😂Rammed. Absolutely rammed.