Cost of pitches
Comments
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If Club site prices were £10 per night less, we might well use them more, though not at peak periods.
The CL we were on near Ashbourne had a steady turnover of occupants, most nights there were 4 vans, one night 3, another night 5.
Where we are now, in north Wales, arrived yesterday, the CL is full, as it usually is at weekends. We are here till Wednesday, will see how full it is on weekdays.
Price is £20 per night, serviced HS, also a toilet and shower available. This is nearer to where we want to be, visiting a friend, but before we discovered it we always used the nearest Club site, which is at Chirk. Right now a serviced pitch there is £46, and they are full for tonight, so plenty of people with enough money. Even more expensive over the BH weekend.
LMP is of course of a much higher standard than where we are, the Club have spent a lot on it in recent years, but it is now more “luxurious” than we need, so even at £36 it would not be value for money as far as we are concerned. For us a site is just a place to park the van.
If we were a family with a couple of children it would be different as then the facilities would be of more importance.
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the first aire was actually in Northumberland on our way up. Situated between A697 and A1. On the edge of a small lake. Hard standing. Fresh and grey water, toilet dump. No ehu £10 The second in a car park to a leisure centre, marked bays, no services, on the side of a bay and beach on Firth of Forth. No services. £5 a night. The CL was about a mile from Culross which is a popular tourist place on the fifth of fourth. Grass. Fresh water, grey into edge of field, toilet dump. No ehu £10
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@Hja please share those Aires, of interest to us👍😁
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@DavidKlyne your post is interesting, around prices. It’s not usually the price that deters us in some instances, but how great the value is. If all we want is to arrive at 7-8pm, have a bit of supper and go to bed, up next morning and off site by 9.30am, then £35-50 per night is very expensive to us. We might not need to hook up, we might not need to take in water, dump waste and CDP, we can be showered in our MH in 10 minutes each, no queuing, or closed for cleaning, so we aren’t in essence using a great deal for that night’s fee, so we simply don’t consider Club Sites as part of a tour, unless we have an offer, or we can use a no facility one, at a cheaper price. There are thousands of small MH/Camper van users like us out there, with a similar value for money touring ethos. The Club does look after long stayers, want/need all facility users very well, if users can afford it. Plenty do want to stay a week, hook up, have everything in the facility blocks, and luckily for the Club, even many who have changed to MHs still tour like they did with a caravan, so users numbers don’t seem to have been impacted hugely. We mix sites up, some travel stops, then maybe 2-3 nights on a site so we can go off site cycling, and we don’t mind paying more for the longer stops, as we get the value from knowing our outfit is safe, the dog is safe, we will spend a lot more time on the site, use the showers, recharge batteries, fill up and dump. It’s a very different way of touring to a long stay on one or two Club sites, spending lots of time actually on the site. It’s also why we don’t use expensive CLs, thankfully there are enough more basic CL/CS sites for us to not have to think about anything over £25 per night still, at the moment.
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@Hja what was your opinion of the site near Culross, as we will be heading down that way in early June, and it is an area we like?
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A little bit mixed. Owner was great. Fresh water tap labelled drinking water didn’t have a hose lock type fitting but we have one of those with a jubilee clip which fitted round the tap. There was another tap the other side of the gate with hose lock attachment but not labelled drinking water so wouldn’t want to use without asking. Grey water into the edge of the field. Elsan point interesting but ok! Biggest downside, field definitely has a slope although we managed to get pretty level. There are no marked pitches which helps find a levellish bit to start from. And the track from the road to the site is quite rough. Needs to be taken very slowly. When we left we sneaked the other way through the estate to the road into Culross which wasn’t AS bad! It suited us for where we wanted to be and a non electric site.
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Thanks @Hja just the sort of info I was after. Definitely worth considering, if we decide to stop that side of the Firth. We usually stop at the Beecraigs site above Linlithgow, taking advantage of their midweek discount, but we are always looking for alternative sites to those that we have used before.
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On the subject of occupancy of sites, we were in Filey, yesterday. Some may know it - there is a site, owned by Scarborough Council near the cliff tops close to the Brigg. Although it's not a site we would want to stay on, it's always incredibly busy - but yesterday, despite this mini heatwave, it was nearly empty. It also looked as if the cafe had closed down.
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I think that for most folk, club member and non, with an outfit or not, a heatwave won't have much effect for sites everywhere as it's midweek, people work, it was announced only last week, people may have plans already, and it's more or less after one BH week and just before another.
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TThis subject will always be high on the agenda. Club sites, and most commercial sites have increased dramatically in the last 5 years mainly due to the high demand since the covid pandemic. I am a member of both the major clubs and find the prices expensive however if you want to use them you have no choice but pay the price. My gripe is this club advertises that members save at least £ 18 per night. Whilst this is a great saving that also means that the true price the club is charging is on average over £ 50 per night quite extortionate for a NON profit Making club .
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I really don't think that there are many who stay on a club site without joining. It must be a very small number indeed in relation to all that use club sites? Perhaps as a one off stay but for more a few nights I can't think of anyone who won't join?
Is (£50) the true price or just some marketing hype? For me the true price is the price I pay when I stay on sites as a member. Also I've never actually paid the membership fee with the offers for members down the years and of course I've had three free nights on site this past year or so which covered more than twice the membership fee.
Also @peatsie of course the club makes a profit but as there are no 'shareholders' that goes straight back in to the club's accounts for the benefit of all of us.
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@peatsie I think that is only a theoretical saving and I have never really taken it that seriously. As CS mentions I doubt many non members stay on Club sites outside of the regular tourist areas of London/York/Edinburgh and I suspect many of those non-members are from overseas and probably have some arrangements with organisations in their own countries that give them the member price anyway? Whilst the Club can claim it as a saving it would make their sites outrageously expensive if the extra was paid.
David
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Well that's good to hear @Fileylady - but we were there just after 12 noon and whilst the campsite was virtually empty, the car parks above the Brigg and the one opposite the cafe were busy.
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I have never regarded this as a saving. The extra charge is so high it seems more of a way of keeping non members out. Frankly at the price it costs non members I doubt any stay.
I did however have to queue behind a non member at one site and the warden suggested he join there as the cheaper option and gave him a hard sell on the benefits of joining. Possibly they want more members.
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I've just come back from a lovely week in West Somerset, was going to stay at Minehead cc site but decided to stay at Burrowhayes farm, Porlock, 25.00 per night for 2 adults at least 13 per night cheaper than Minehead and with better views.
Can't compare the toilet blocks because I use the facilities in the caravan, oten used the no toilet block club site at ilfracombe which has now been binned
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@cody Burrowhayes is a lovely site, some great walks around there. 👍That’s still a good price, it’s been a while since we visited. Facilities were very good I do recall.
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hi cornerstead just to answer your query re my evidence I have visited since march west ayton (Scarborough), Castleton, Chatsworth, Hebden bridge, Castleton again and Norfolk broads and as I said they were very short on numbers until Friday/saturday but still not full as there were according to site wardens some no shows sorry if you miss interpreted my empty description which reflected my view on the numbers on site compared to total pitches at the site.
Regards
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@clarinetman Thanks for that
But I can't see how to interpret 'the scale of the empty sites' in any others way than a number (scale) of sites being empty and as you've just proved they are not and clarified what you meant to say.
Sites have never been full midweek outside of peak times like the summer. There have always been, nd always will be, no shows but we are told this has gone down significantly with deposits.
I looked up LA yesterday and it was a very positive picture once again for this BH weekend. I'm writing this away from home and therefore memory but five large regions were completely full, and many others were a combination of full or lows. Still plenty of room in Scotland and Devon and Cornwall but that's mainly always the case.
You appear to be posting that prices are too high, yet as you've just posted you keep on using them?
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To me that says people are happy to pay those amounts so suggests CAMC may not have got it wrong🤷🏻♂️
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@peedee I think you're being somewhat selective with those prices and making it sound as if those are the norm across the network which is far from the truth of course.
Firstly that £50 that was discussed is for peak periods only, the BH Friday and Saturday nights, normally the prices are around £40 per night, quite a difference.
I've just looked at five sites, Melrose, Teasdale, Bridlington, Norfolk Broads, Troutbeck Head, all of them what I would call standard club sites and they are now around £40 from now on till June, in August one peaks at £45, but the rest stay around £42 in August, hardley the prices you quote all the time.
Yes I've found York RP at that price you quoted so yes you are correct in saying I see we now have pitches costing £69.90 a night. but only at one site in absolute peak. Indeed that price is only at that price on one night only as well, as for the rest, if you can get a pitch that is, most of them appear to be in the high £50 or just about £60. I would suspect the three in the high £60s are due to DP.
Of course we don't know what the prices were when people booked them?
And further the 'average price in June appears to be around £55, an July around £58. I think the best time to go would be September when it all appears to be around £50 and all under £50 in October?
York PR is a special place right in the heart of York and well worth the money in my view and as you say very popular indeed, as it should be.
I don't think it's unbelievable to stay in the heart of York for those prices.
There may be more expensive sites, for example Seacroft is £40 pounds now but rises to £50 - £60 in July and August but Seacroft has a swimming pool and restaurant. Have you found others to be this high as at YRP?
So again apart from those sites that have extra facilities or appeal like York, the 'average' cost is about £40.
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Had a raise a smile. I received an email from the club last month, congratulating me on saving my annual membership fee due to having stayed for 4+ nights on club sites. They meant not having to pay the non members fee. As if I would pay the non members fee (x2 adults) to stay on a club site. A rather stupid email I thought as I binned it and a rather patronising tone to it as well.
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Whether you find pitch prices expensive might depend on how often you use your unit? I wonder if a lot of families are relatively low users in terms of nights spent away each year so perhaps the nightly cost is not an off putting feature for their style of touring? On the other hand some one who is retired and able to use their unit more, price could be more critical?
David
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I am glad you said the CAmC may have got it wrong. In my view it is madness to pay that kind of price when there are sites like >this< available for £20 per night less and that is for an adult only fully serviced metered pitch. It would be a real hardship to catch the half hourly bus service outside the gate using my free bus pass! Go alittle further out and you can find sites like >this< under £30
peedee
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I said CAMC may not have got it wrong….
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Just as I doubt that your quoted price of £70 per night is a general across the board price. 🤷🏻♂️
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