What is our membership fee for?
There have been a number of threads running about the cost of Club sites and the fact that they seem to struggle to offer prices as low as commercial sites, particularly out of season.
I would have thought that, being a 'member' would confer some sort of discount.....but it appears not.
So what does our membership fee actually cover?
Given that there are about 400,000 memberships the fee must bring in close to £20 million!
If we don't see a reduction in site fees compared to other, similar sites, what do we actually get?
(Yes, I know we don't have to pay a non-member fee on sites, but that's just extra to a allready high price and is just there to push non-members into joining).
I assume (hope!) that when the CC sets up a department to sell insurance, european holidays etc that they are required to cover their own costs and show a profit and not be subsidised by members' fees?
Are we paying for a bloated Head office set up, perhaps?
Comments
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We recently bought some stuff from cotswold outdoor shop, using our cc card we got 15% discount which nearly recouped the fee.
You get access to the CC network, advice, other discounts, magazine, site network, travel service, insurance services, a body to lobby parliament on issues affecting our hobby.
Weather that is worth £48 a year I don't know and of course you may use none or all of the services offered but that's a choice you make but Ian if you are so against the club and everything it offers (or doesn't ) why join, if the grass is greener elsewhere
move on.I am not in any particular camp but can see the pros and cons of the club and choose to stay. We belong to the other club also and find their booking service and pricing for club sites atrocious, deposits cannot amend on line, hidden pricing but we choose
to stay for other things.0 -
I pay a sub. to the National Trust and they let me into their sites free. I pay a sub. to the Royal Horticutural Society and they let me into their gardens free. That's the difference.
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I am starting to wonder if it is worth being a member, not bothered about the mag and find I have difficulties getting on sites without planning well in advance when they are open to non members. Also many of the good comercial sites have free good quality
wi fi. I get my insurence through the club but they are unable to answer questions on it. So yes what am I paying for.0 -
There have been a number of threads running about the cost of Club sites and the fact that they seem to struggle to offer prices as low as commercial sites, particularly out of season.
I would have thought that, being a 'member' would confer some sort of discount.....but it appears not.
So what does our membership fee actually cover?
Given that there are about 400,000 memberships the fee must bring in close to £20 million!
If we don't see a reduction in site fees compared to other, similar sites, what do we actually get?
(Yes, I know we don't have to pay a non-member fee on sites, but that's just extra to a allready high price and is just there to push non-members into joining).
I assume (hope!) that when the CC sets up a department to sell insurance, european holidays etc that they are required to cover their own costs and show a profit and not be subsidised by members' fees?
Are we paying for a bloated Head office set up, perhaps?
Write your comments here...Being a CC member is your personal choice , no one forces membership on you & likewise you aren't pressured to renew said membership when it lapse .
The choice is but a simple & easy one , perhaps people could start their own club ! sounds OK then you could be the sole member , chairman , office staff & any other title you care to mention .
I for one , are 100% happy with the CC & would welcome people to leave if the CC wasn't for them .
Think of all that extra availability for the contented members
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Oh yes I see your point the club has changed so much over the years and now seems only intent on making large profits . In my view the magazine is now not worth the paper it is writen on it must pay for itself due to all the adds. i think the main problem
is the supply of toilet blocks these are supposed to be the. be and end all . I fail to understand WHY you would have a caravan with all mod cons and then walk in the rain to a toilet block . I would like to see the sites which have no facilities but have
wonderful views and short grass and neat tidy emptying points . The cost of maintaing this type of site would be far less than the current ones and you would be carravaning. BUT hey ho I'm old school and will have to put up with the Morden population or leave,
thank god for the cl0 -
Apart from staying on CL's I don't see any benefit in being a member. As Ian said, insurance and all other services should be stand alone profit centres, or at the very least cover their costs.
All the publicity states there are about 1 million members so closer to £48 million
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Refer to thread entitled A Big thanks to CC and P&O. Maybe that will explain the purpose of belonging to CC.
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A free magazine worth £40 a year
!!!Each copy is for sale at £1.50 so I make that £18 p.a.
I think Ian raises a very valid point worthy of discussion and comment from the Club after all you can get insurance and travel services without paying a fee from many other organisations. In fact it pays to shop around. I don't think I get my money's worth these days but I probably did in the early years of membership. If there was a really good Motorhome Club offering dedicated facilities for motorhomes (not just rallies) then I would leave the Club quicker than you can type "off"
peedee
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I don't know the answer to your question, Ian. I suspect a large portion is accounted for by HO and, as with any big organisation, there are probably savings to be made there. A lot of it may go in paying for the expertise that ensures this forum runs so
smoothly!
The real mystery to me, though, is why so many folk who are apparently unhappy with things and don't use club sites still stump up the fee each year. After all, no-one is forced to join and as you state on another thread, people could easily vote with their
wallets and simply walk away.
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Whereas I am critical of the present club structure I am still a member, basically for the Cl network. With more commercial sites entering the market with better facilities and keener prices, the likelyhood of the CL network attracting the attention of others
(NFU for instance) I can see within the next say 5 years the relevance if the CC being such that I wont see the need to join and pay the fee. Is there any chance of the dinasaur modernising or is it just keep the status quo and provide a lucrative income for
the HO contingent?0 -
We remain members almost exclusively for access to the CL network, and the £48 we have to pay is easily recouped via using the Great Days out vouchers and the marvellous discount at some shopping outlets, so at present we are satisfied. Someone in marketing
at HQ has negotiated these deals for us, so that is worth paying for at the moment. Having said this though, some of the aspects of what the Club is doing, and decisions being made regarding loss of leases on sites, dubious planning implications, and let's
call it less than positive image projection recently do give pause for thought. If someone created a network of small, basic sites at basic prices we would have a rethink, but we use UKcampsites to good effect.0 -
Like many on here I see the main benefit as access to the excellent network of CL's.
We also use CC insurance and CC breakdown services but only because we are already customers.
Rightly or wrongly I am of the opinion that with most amateur run organisations, the CC is perhaps not efficient in their Head Office where I'm sure savings could be made.
IMO for true efficiency Have the CC run by a team of professional managers in Head Office , Do away with the well meaning amateur committees and councils and let the professionals get on with the job of running the CC without interference. The company is too big for amateurs and volunteers sticking their noses into matters they know little of.
Make the CC efficient and well run - This can only be done by professionals who know what they are doing.
K
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You make some valid points there, K. I think CC is trying to be all things to all people and inevitably failing. It is trying to be a club and a business - it can't be both. I've heard it said that it should split the two and run them separately. I'm not
sure how they would achieve it but the professionals could then get on with running the business and leave the well intentioned amateurs to deal with club issues and events. (Not THAT event again, please.)0 -
I pay a sub. to the National Trust and they let me into their sites free. I pay a sub. to the Royal Horticutural Society and they let me into their gardens free. That's the difference.
..Unless the national trust have other than standard entry fees
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There have been a number of threads running about the cost of Club sites and the fact that they seem to struggle to offer prices as low as commercial sites, particularly out of season.
I would have thought that, being a 'member' would confer some sort of discount.....but it appears not.
So what does our membership fee actually cover?
Given that there are about 400,000 memberships the fee must bring in close to £20 million!
If we don't see a reduction in site fees compared to other, similar sites, what do we actually get?
(Yes, I know we don't have to pay a non-member fee on sites, but that's just extra to a allready high price and is just there to push non-members into joining).
I assume (hope!) that when the CC sets up a department to sell insurance, european holidays etc that they are required to cover their own costs and show a profit and not be subsidised by members' fees?
Are we paying for a bloated Head office set up, perhaps?
Write your comments here...Being a CC member is your personal choice , no one forces membership on you & likewise you aren't pressured to renew said membership when it lapse .
The choice is but a simple & easy one , perhaps people could start their own club ! sounds OK then you could be the sole member , chairman , office staff & any other title you care to mention .
I for one , are 100% happy with the CC & would welcome people to leave if the CC wasn't for them .
Think of all that extra availability for the contented members
Write your comments here...+1
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Refer to thread entitled A Big thanks to CC and P&O. Maybe that will explain the purpose of belonging to CC.
With Red Pennant that is the service you get, nothing to do with your membership fee
Write your comments here...
Refer to thread entitled A Big thanks to CC and P&O. Maybe that will explain the purpose of belonging to CC.
With Red Pennant that is the service you get, nothing to do with your membership
...But no membership no red pennant
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As all the Caravan Club's individual services are charged to members as and when they use them they are likely to be self financing over time, and each contribute proportionally to the Head Office costs. Some sites are bound to be loss making and if the
business is run properly this is recouped through the profitable ones. The cost of administering "membership" is obviously far less than the fee charged, so what are we buying with the rest of our money?An obvious service the Club provides is running the CL network. And here I need some help with the figures, as I need to know how many CL exist and how often they are visited by a paid officer of the club, and what is involved in adding and removing a CL
from the network in terms of paid officer time. If someone can supply that information I think we will find that is where the ballance of the membership fee is spent.The magazine is something of a red herring as most of the cover price of any magazine in the high street is distributer costs and profit, so a plastic sleeve and a printed address is almost insignificant - leaving only the editorial and printing costs to
be recouped.0 -
True JVB, but if you had membership but no red pennant would you still get the same level of service?
...And no membership no double journey with Mayday(green flag)
we also have insurance with cc and when awning damaged in storm got replacement by courier following day
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To answer a few of the points raised:
To those who ask why we are still members, I can say that there are plenty of organisations that we stay with but that doesn't stop us questioning the price. Not questioning it will invariably mean that the price will continue to go up beyond inflation. And frankly, having a team of well paid 'executives' in HO does nothing to enhance our caravanning experience.
Buying cars - a lot of dealers (like Volvo) offer big discounts from time to time. Organisation latch on to these and offer them to their members (my own professional organisation offer similar discounts) but you would be able to do at least as good a deal yourself - we saved well over £5,000 when we bought our Volvo.
Running the CL network - I can see that this is a popular reason for staying with the CC. But we also join the ACSI scheme which list far more sites and charge about a quarter of CC membership. And the sites are cheaper. And they provide a handbook with prices.
I raised this as a genuine question, because it seems to me that in many cases, we are simply paying a fee to be able to buy something from the CC, at a profit to them. Would you pay a fee to join the 'Tesco Club' to enable you to buy your groceries there?
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Refer to thread entitled A Big thanks to CC and P&O. Maybe that will explain the purpose of belonging to CC.
With Red Pennant that is the service you get, nothing to do with your membership fee
and for which you pay handsomely. RP, like CC site fees, are generally higher than other avaiulable services. I too am a member for the CL network.
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Red Pennant is run by a commercial insurance company - just look where any claim has to be sent.
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Red Pennant is run by a commercial insurance company - just look where any claim has to be sent.
...Most insurances are run by other companies than the company that advertises them, but its what has been negotiated for the insured that you get,its the same with mayday
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Refer to thread entitled A Big thanks to CC and P&O. Maybe that will explain the purpose of belonging to CC.
If you move your account to Nationwide and take up the Flexplus cover which costs £10 a month, you get the same cover as Red Pennant included and breakdown is included. That is about the third of the price that RP charge and it cvoers you for the UK also!
Mayday costs us £109 annually for premium cover and then over and above you have the cost of RP breakdown cover for continent touring.So in fact no necessity to be a CC member for better options or discounts however as we prefer CLs we remain members even though we do not really see any other benefits. BTW any one can open a CL, they do not have to belong to a club like the CC or C &
CC!0 -
True Surfer, both CC and CandCC, along with local authorities offer opportunities for small site set up. Hoops and conditions to jump through with each one, no doubt, and talking to some small site owners all three have both pro's and con's. I doubt very
much that a vast percentage of this Club's income is dedicated to the CL network. Two, three inspectors (now there's a retirement job!), one maybe two staff at HQ, contributing to administration, marketing, IT updates (!), etc....Vast majority of input and expenditure for a CL is down to owners.
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