Survey - should our CL convert to Adult-only?
We are CL owners, caravanners and parents of a 10 year old boy. We regard our CL as being child-friendly, but the reality is that we probably get only about a dozen families with children in the course of a year (these are often grand-parents child-minding toddlers so that parents can work). If we were to attempt to describe our typical holiday visitors, we would say, slightly tongue-in-cheek, 'a semi-retired couple with a rescue-dog, and perhaps bicycles, here to relax and walk in the countryside'. Being realistic, Ellesmere does not have enough noise or 'bright lights' to attract teenagers. This is an area for rural canals, lakes, bird-watching and visits to National Trust and similar properties.
I had always thought that CLs became ‘adult-only’ so that the CL Owners would have a quieter life, but other correspondence on this Forum seems to indicate that customer-demand might prove a business case for our site becoming adult-only. We use CLs as caravanners and parents ourselves, so this goes a little against the grain, but if we are trying to get a return on the effort we put into our CL, it is certainly worth a bit of research.
Most of the small commercial sites near us are adult-only – many charge twice as much per night as we do and cram 20-30 caravans into a similar space that we offer for 5 vans. We don't think that we run a bad site - having been voted 'Best Small Site' in the UK for the past 3 years running, yet these adult-only commercial sites seem to be full and we still have plenty of vacancies.
With only about a dozen families with children coming to us each year, and most of our repeat-business coming from adult-only guests, we don’t stand much to lose by becoming adult-only and might gain more guests from those who want to get away from children. As most of our guests are 'empty-nesters', we would like to know if we are likely to do better business if we exclude children.
Please have a go at the survey on our website - www.birchhill.co.uk/survey.htm (be brave - it is anonymous and only 9 questions)
Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Caravan@BirchHill.co.uk
www.BirchHill.co.uk
Birch Hill Farm - an award-winning caravan site in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire - exclusively for members of the Caravan Club.
CL Number 1402 in the Club Directory