As much as I enjoy staying at the RAF Club, not having had a bad experience in over a decade, I must qualify that statement with the fact that I have only stayed at the Club on a handful of occassions in the past 12 years having been unable to get a room there on almost all recent attempts to book. So much so, that when I recently spent the weekend in London with friends, we automatically discounted the Club on the grounds that as we rarely manage to get in as individuals, there was likely to be no chance for 4 of us collectively, so we went to The Cumberland instead and got exactly what we wanted, when we wanted.
And although the price is quite good for Central London, I really think that the days of single rooms with facilities down the corridor are a little old fashioned in the 21st century and will almost certainly put off people used to at least having a reasonable sized bed and basic facilities on hand. This isn't basic training, and I think to remain competitive, then a baseline standard of rooms really has to be considered rather than simply titivating old tired rooms.
Finally, whilst I notice that the Club has introduced an online booking system which allows you to check availability, I still can't help but feel that something must be done to mitigate the perceptions of many younger serving members that the Club is dominated by retired senior and air officers who have the luxury of being able to book months in advance. It really would be a huge step forward if a proportion of the rooms were set aside for current serving personnel who don't necessarily know whether or not they will in the country next week, let alone be able to arrange their diaries months in advance. That would be an acknowledgement of the operational climate and tempo of operations that current serving members are enduring, and would be a nod towards addressing their specific needs. Failure to at least look at the issue of retired vs serving availability will only further alienate those serving members who are already frustrated, with the likely effect of continued declining membership. In many cases, I suspect inertia is the only thing keeping many serving members on the Club's books.