Proportion of Serviced v Standard Pitches
On this forum the subject of whether there are not enough or too many serviced pitches has been discussed from time to time. We have recently stayed at the new Club site Cayton Village near Scarborough. Nice site and from a motorhome perspective it has good access to public transport. However what surprised me was the fact that the site only seemed about half full over the weekend and I wondered if this was a result of the site having a majority of serviced pitches, 190 out of about 270 pitches in total and people not being willing to pay the extra £3.90 a night? I suspect when the Club refurbish the the site the number of serviced pitches will be considerably reduced as in general the current ones don't meet the Clubs spacing requirements. The reason we had a serviced pitch was that we wanted a hardstanding and with only 29 standard hardstanding on the site we didn't want to risk it!
David
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I much prefer a serviced pitch but do think the £3.90 for the benefit of a tap on the pitch is pricey. I have a motorhome and its convenient to fill my tank from the on pitch tap. However I no longer use serviced pitches because of the cost, instead I bought a 40 litre aqua roll with which in 10 days touring I have recouped the money a SP costs. I do wish the club would have more serviced pitches but not at the current cost. That said I recently stayed on a commercial site in Anglesey where they charge an extra £6 per night for a SP & the warden said its the SP's that always go 1st.
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We did consider trying serviced pitches but, having thought about it, we didn't always like the location of the serviced pitches and also won't pay the extra charge. We're both fit and well and can well manage to empty a wastemaster and fill an aquaroll.
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Serviced Pitches certainly seem popular with both vans and MHs. We've only ever booked one once, some years ago at Exebridge Lakeside because a friend recommended the views from them. For us, it's not worth the extra cost - we don't use the shower in the van (except as a storeroom
). Odd thing is that at many CLs they come at no extra cost! 
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I guess there has to be some differential, what I mean is some pitches have to be non SP otherwise a blanket price increase of £27.30 a week (with no other choice) might seem a stretch too far, even for those used to site prices.
many ACSI sites (and their discount prices for much of the year) include full serviced pitches....
as I mentioned in another thread, with a fairly low water usage, paying any premium for water on the pitch isn't necessary (or worth it).
we don't stay long enough on any site (in this country) except, perhaps a THS, to get through a full tank of water, and I've not even seen the 'waste full' light come on in this van...so services adjacent just not required.
i agree with others that (despite not using them) the £3.90 fee is way too high, yet there seems to be enough demand to allow CC to keep the prices where they are.....over £4 next year?
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Had we known how much work needed doing at Cayton when we stayed there David, we'd have opted for a serviced pitch too as we had dodgy 10 amp electrics, very limited pitch choice (many are far from level) and no motorhome service point and paid quite a bit too!
Like you I'm also wondering if the site will continue with this extra service pitch option because when it's all upgraded I think it will be a very pricey site. We weren't impressed but no doubt it will appeal to some. It's a very large site and I would imagine refurbishments costs will be high. Someone will be paying for it, I'm afraid that will be all of us who use CAMC sites.
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On many of the sites the service pitches are beside the toilet block, probably to keep down the cost of laying drains. Does give people using them two easy options though.
However, that is not often the part of the site that we would choose to pitch on, so they might as well not exist.
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I suspect Clayton will be what it was previously. A family orientated site in a very popular East Coast location, where Club members will pay the price asked because it is Club Site. Unless the loos and showers are numerous, serviced pitches for a family of four or five, might be quite attractive given the water and waste requirements. Maybe, just maybe, a family who use their van for a long Summer stay in one spot, might just find the not inconsiderable charges worth paying. But a couple capable choosing to use onboard washroom, and having no issues with doing the daily water/waste routine might not find the price value for money. Only time will tell.
We have never used any of the East Coast Sites, not our cup of tea, but as a holiday destination, hugely popular.
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We have never used any of the East Coast Sites, not our cup of tea, but as a holiday destination, hugely popular.
What about Old Hartley?
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Brue
As I understand it the previous owners seem to concentrate on seasonal users which might explain the high number of serviced pitches. I can imagine the Club will make a good job of the refurbishment but what puzzles me is what they intend to do with the Laurels section of 110 all serviced pitches. Unlike the main section there will be no need to change the pitches as they are all pretty generous and well spaced. I am sure we will see some "Pods" installed. We liked the location because of the ease of getting around by public transport. In terms of extra cost I do agree that charging nearly £4 a night for a tap and a drain is pretty outrageous!
David
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We always use serviced pitches, partly due to the convenience but also because you are guaranteed a hard standing pitch. We really don't like grass pitches.
I think that it is a bit of a stretch to blame the number of service pitches for low occupancy. From the above comments it seems that the site has many deficiencies that need to be addressed before it becomes popular, or well know, with club members
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Odd thing is that at many CLs they come at no extra cost!
Not sure that's entirely correct, M. The basic price may well have been incorporated in the cost of installing said SP. We recently stayed on a full SP CL site and the price was more than other non SP sites locally. We didn't actually use the SP aspect at all apart from the Elsan that was provided for every pitch. We stayed there because it was Adult only over Easter and slap bang in the right place that we wanted to be. The alternatives were not to my liking so we coughed up. Interestingly out of the 5 pitches 3 were being used as SPs, the other 2 weren't.
However as a general rule I won't use or pay extra for them on club sites. If they are already on the CL then fine but I don't need them.
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Old Hartley! Yes - another good reason for using the facilities in the caravan as it is a stiff climb from the cliff-edge pitches up to the ablutions block.
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Sorry😁, I should have put Yorkshire East Coast Sites. We have had a couple of nights at OH, and very nice it is as well. Outside peak season costs of course, but handy for when I was commuting. Didn’t notice any serviced pitches, but who knows, it’s a Site unlike most Club Sites.
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We've used service pitches on occasions, last year a service pitch was the only one available on a site we wanted so we coughed up the extra fee and we quite enjoyed topping up and emptying without much effort. But as a general rule we don't bother.
The large Cayton site is quite different and we were surrounded by unused service pitches, there must be a limit to supply and demand somewhere. I expect more will be used in the main holidays this summer due to lack of availability on the standard pitches.
As David commented I can see Wooden Pods and SPods appearing at Cayton at some point as there is so much space and it's an area which attracts static caravan users in large numbers.
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Agree Brue. And you don’t have to be a member to use the Pods. A different market.
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Could Cayton be the first site on the network where we see the sign "No tents - No tourers" . . . ?
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Yes, that's probably true - I should have said they come at an inclusive price. I dare say the costs have been factored in somewhere along the line. Having said that, at the two most recent CLs we've used with SPs at £16 and £14 a night respectively it would have been a bit churlish to ask for a reduction for not using the facility!
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I should have put Yorkshire East Coast Sites
Have you not stayed on the North Yorks Moors Site, or is the too far from the coast to be included, tda?
I appreciate it does not have Serviced Pitches so really a bit off topic I suppose.
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There are even a few that charge less than that, Woody Kiln at Milford Haven (CL of the year 2016) is one of them, at £13 pn this year.
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why not look them up if you're concerned....?
we used two ACSI sites with SPs on our spring trip....and has AD it seems....
ACSI is a Europe wide organisation....but of course, we can't compare good European value with that of the U.K. can we? is that your issue?
Btw, don't stay too long under that shower, you'll look like a prune
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Until you come to emptying the results
David
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The non serviced pitches were reasonably full during our stay, it was the serviced pitches that had the far lower occupancy. That was the point I was making overall that there must be a point where there are too many serviced pitches on a site.
David
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Yes, stayed there a few times, although not lately. Nice site, nice location. More Moors than Coast to us. Definitely our kind of site. We enjoy basic.
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I'm with you entirely Simon.
We started by booking Serviced pitches because we like hardstandings, and, after a while, we found we actally quite liked serviced pitches. So much so, I have booked all serviced pitches for our 5 weeks during the summer. We're not taking the aquaroll or wastemaster. Instead of the aquaroll, I have bought a little bucket device that works with the same ball cock type system that fits into the aquaroll. (We got it from a company called Colapz). We bought their waste pipe connections too. I'm all for making life easier.
David
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