2016 Site Fees and Site Renovations
Comments
-
My post was not an opinion, it was a statement of fact.
My pension will go up by less than 1%, by what percentage are CC site fees going up?
For Malcolm to say to someone that they should not worry about the increase as the minimum wage is going up is irrelevant, he doesn't even know whether that person is employed or retired.
As PD and BB said, what has us looking at £50k motorhomes a while back got to do with the increase in site fees?
Write your comments here...Yes but the Caravan Club has to pay all its staff more because of the rise in minimum wage and they also have to pay more for cost of maintenance of club sites. How would they fund this without increasing site fees?
I suppose, although the increases are far from palletable, at least in the short term they can be offset against lower fuel and food prices. Just did some broad brush figures and our tour in May of Scotland, based on a 5% site cost rise will cost £40 more.
However, if fuel costs stay the same, as seems likely, I will save £45 on the cost of this time last year. On top of that are savings in the cost of food, so overall the tour might work out slightly cheaper than a year earlier.0 -
My post was not an opinion, it was a statement of fact.
My pension will go up by less than 1%, by what percentage are CC site fees going up?
For Malcolm to say to someone that they should not worry about the increase as the minimum wage is going up is irrelevant, he doesn't even know whether that person is employed or retired.
As PD and BB said, what has us looking at £50k motorhomes a while back got to do with the increase in site fees?
Write your comments here...Yes but the Caravan Club has to pay all its staff more because of the rise in minimum wage and they also have to pay more for cost of maintenance of club sites. How would they fund this without increasing site fees?
I suppose, although the increases are far from palletable, at least in the short term they can be offset against lower fuel and food prices. Just did some broad brush figures and our tour in May of Scotland, based on a 5% site cost rise will cost £40 more.
However, if fuel costs stay the same, as seems likely, I will save £45 on the cost of this time last year. On top of that are savings in the cost of food, so overall the tour might work out slightly cheaper than a year earlier.Write your comments here...Well said, Steve! An excellent post!
0 -
Malcolm
I am sure you have your own reasons for living the lifestyle you do but irespective of the price and I can assure you its much cheaper to live abroad I cant think of any circumstance where I would live on those sites and be made to move on every 21 days at any time of the year let alone January.
Agreed, David - last time we were in France you could get a decent bottle of wine for about 6 euros, a meal out for 2 for 20 euros and vists to museums and buildings were much cheaper than NT rates over here. So I can only conclude that the cheaper site fees we often here about in Europe are just in line with other aspects of the leisure industry, which makes the constant criticism of CC prices (admittedly high) rather more difficult to understand!
0 -
Our meal out for two including a pint of real ale at Wetherspoons in Brighton Marina cost £17.99. We have visited many National Trust properties free of charge because of being members. I pay just over £8 per month by direct debit for membership for the two of us. So is it really that much more expensive here than in France where you have the cost of the ferry crossing on top of all these other costs? Also as SteveL says, fuel and food costs have come down here in UK.
0 -
Malc - the point I was making was that we often hear criticism of CC sites and costs and comparisons with sites overseas being better and cheaper. But it's just all part of a lower cost leisure industry on the continent. You' re right that it's possible
to find good deals over here. When we go to Norfolk and Suffolk in April we're staying at 2 CC sites, one C&CC site and one CS - the average cost will be about £15 per night, a good deal, I'd say!0 -
Malc - the point I was making was that we often hear criticism of CC sites and costs and comparisons with sites overseas being better and cheaper. But it's just all part of a lower cost leisure industry on the continent. You' re right that it's possible to find good deals over here. When we go to Norfolk and Suffolk in April we're staying at 2 CC sites, one C&CC site and one CS - the average cost will be about £15 per night, a good deal, I'd say!
Write your comments here...The other huge advantage I find here, Chris, is that everyone speaks English so that there is no communication difficulty. Road signs and traffic systems are all easier to understand here because we are familiar with them.
0 -
In my opinion the prices are reasonable, includes your electricity, you don't pay for awnings or dogs.
Some places still charge for electricity, I remember the days of going in chalets, used to cost a fortune in the end what with feeding the meter and paying for the dog. Once looked at a Hoseasons week in a caravan, going back some years, they wanted £45
for the dog then.0 -
.
Write your comments here...Yes but I noticed that Rowena commented that the club is still pricing competitively by offering mid week discounts etc. So the pricing may not be quite as bad as you think.
My recent stay at Gatwick Club site cost £14.50 a night for the two of us and that's a full facility site with toilet blocks, laundry facilities etc. That's only 50 pence a night more than you're willing to pay for a site in France, KjellNN and you would
save money on the ferry crossing by using club sites here.Also, it's quite likely that the French sites will increase their fees in 2016 in line with inflation.
Malcolm.........
With respect to Rowena, who does an excellent job on here, as do all the other staff, as she works for the CC she is naturally going to promote their sites and point out any discounts.
Mid-week discounts are not widespread, and the dates they are available are limited, so we would not let them influence where we want to go. Our considerations are location, interesting things to see and do, and decent weather.
The sites we will use abroad (not just France) are mainly part of the ACSI card scheme, so none will cost more than 19 euros (around £14), many may well cost less.
The ferry is costing £134, so adds about £2 per night to the trip, which will be more than covered by the savings we make on diesel, LPG, food etc.
Having kept a record of the cost of all our trips, this includes everything other than buying gifts or souvenirs, we have found that we spend significantly less per day abroad than in UK.
Like Brue, you would have to pay us to stay at Gatwick! Where we stay is very quiet, we like our sites to be quiet too.
We usually holiday April/May/June, and September/October, so you do need to compare our "under £14 " price with prices at that time here, not the prices in January.
At the moment, having caravanned for some 44 years off and on, we are concentrating on Europe, but we do spend 6-8 weeks away in UK too.
Realising that leisure costs in UK are often higher than in many parts of Europe, we are, reluctantly, willing to pay up to £20 per night for a full facility site in the seasons we caravan, but otherwise will use CLs or other alternatives, unless there
is a particular reason to use that site.0 -
Keep getting that Error message......again!
Write your comments here...Yes I keep getting error messages too with planned maintenance messages.
0 -
Malc - the point I was making was that we often hear criticism of CC sites and costs and comparisons with sites overseas being better and cheaper. But it's just all part of a lower cost leisure industry on the continent. You' re right that it's possible
to find good deals over here. When we go to Norfolk and Suffolk in April we're staying at 2 CC sites, one C&CC site and one CS - the average cost will be about £15 per night, a good deal, I'd say!I know this subject has been done to death and there is a constituency here who would not go abroad if paid to but I do think the comparison is valid when considering value for money, in my opinion club sites are in terms of facilities, about on par with
French municipals and while usually much better maintained its at about twice the price, continental sites simply could not get away with charging even £15 a night for what is on offer. I don't go abroad for cheap sites and would still go at twice
the price but high costs in all aspects of life in the UK are a fact of life and cant be deniedExactly David, which is why I was agreeing with your previous post about it being cheaper to live over in Europe than here. Site prices merely reflect that fact.
0 -
It may be cheaper than here but are incomes less there too and is the economy there as good as here?
When we were staying on Littlehampton Club site we met a couple who sold their property in France to return and buy a motorhome to live in here in UK. It's all very well to think the grass is greener on the other side. When you actually try making a life
over there, it's a different story! Many people try life abroad full of hope and eventually come back disillusioned.0 -
It may be cheaper than here but are incomes less there too and is the economy there as good as here?
When we were staying on Littlehampton Club site we met a couple who sold their property in France to return and buy a motorhome to live in here in UK. It's all very well to think the grass is greener on the other side. When you actually try making a life
over there, it's a different story! Many people try life abroad full of hope and eventually come back disillusioned.Very true, Malcolm. We love visiting Europe for holidays. but wouldn't want to live anywhere than in this country!
0 -
It may be cheaper than here but are incomes less there too and is the economy there as good as here?
When we were staying on Littlehampton Club site we met a couple who sold their property in France to return and buy a motorhome to live in here in UK. It's all very well to think the grass is greener on the other side. When you actually try making a life
over there, it's a different story! Many people try life abroad full of hope and eventually come back disillusioned.I think this may have to do with lots of things other than prices and wages.......
Missing your family
Deteriorating health with age
Inability to learn a foreign language
Inability therefor to make friends anf become part of the community
Why did this particular couple return?
0 -
The exchange rates have made a big difference recently, unfortunately it's expensive for visitors coming here so all site increases have a knock on effect. I expect we have a lot less sites that than many European countries, we have a captive market and not enough competition.
0 -
Judging by the numbers we saw living on sites for 6mths of the year (winter) it is the compromise of owning abroad, many that we spoke to said they prefer sites as there is more going on than living in an apartment on your own. Many leave their vans there
in storage and drive out for the winter, we even saw some with motorhomes and caravans, so the best of both worlds
having live for 20 years in
Germany we would like to have a place abroad again but at the moment its just not possible.0 -
Malcolm, sites are cheaper, you don't HAVE to keep moving if you don't want to. Eating out is cheaper, many attractions are free or very good value for money, fuel is cheaper, just about everywhere speaks English, roads are quieter, and last but not least
the weather is soooooooooooo much better
0 -
I know this subject has been done to death and there is a constituency here who would not go abroad if paid to but I do think the comparison is valid when considering value for money, in my opinion club sites are in terms of facilities, about on par with
French municipals and while usually much better maintained its at about twice the price, continental sites simply could not get away with charging even £15 a night for what is on offer. I don't go abroad for cheap sites and would still go at twice
the price but high costs in all aspects of life in the UK are a fact of life and cant be deniedApart from the 16 amps, standard of security, hot showers without push buttons, very hot water in the dish washing sinks and as you say much better maintained. Oh by the way I am not anti continental sites, when we go to France the municipals are our top
choice, as they offer a nice uncomplicated site at a good price. But to directly compare them to the CC, no way.0 -
It may be cheaper than here but are incomes less there too and is the economy there as good as here?
When we were staying on Littlehampton Club site we met a couple who sold their property in France to return and buy a motorhome to live in here in UK. It's all very well to think the grass is greener on the other side. When you actually try making a life
over there, it's a different story! Many people try life abroad full of hope and eventually come back disillusioned.I think this may have to do with lots of things other than prices and wages.......
Missing your family
Deteriorating health with age
Inability to learn a foreign language
Inability therefor to make friends anf become part of the community
Why did this particular couple return?
Write your comments here...That's very true, KjellNN. It's a combination of things that start to eventually weigh heavily and sometimes little things like missing English tv etc.
0 -
When general comparisons are being made here in "UK Sites & Touring" between UK Sites and those abroad - can I ask if folks are remembering the added cost of things like cost of travel to the ferry/Eurotunnel, cost of travel to site abroad, travel insurance,
extras needed when driving abroad, extra recovery costs etc etc?Just a thought!
Bugs
0 -
I know this subject has been done to death and there is a constituency here who would not go abroad if paid to but I do think the comparison is valid when considering value for money, in my opinion club sites are in terms of facilities, about on par with French municipals and while usually much better maintained its at about twice the price, continental sites simply could not get away with charging even £15 a night for what is on offer. I don't go abroad for cheap sites and would still go at twice the price but high costs in all aspects of life in the UK are a fact of life and cant be denied
Apart from the 16 amps, standard of security, hot showers without push buttons, very hot water in the dish washing sinks and as you say much better maintained. Oh by the way I am not anti continental sites, when we go to France the municipals are our top choice, as they offer a nice uncomplicated site at a good price. But to directly compare them to the CC, no way.
I think the comparison stands up, there may not be 16amp not that we need it and the water temperature can be variable but then OH had a cold shower at Morn Hill last year too although I will concede that's unusual. In terms of what else is provided there is little difference and since quite large numbers of CC members claim to use their own facilities what are they paying for?
It is clear we are going to have to agree to disagree on the quality aspects. However to directly compare them on price is not realistic. Apart from, as has been said site costs are in general lower on the continent, they are being managed differently. The CC is in business to make money from running its sites, to pay staff and reinvest in new developments. The municipals are run by the community. Yes they probably have to break even, but there primary roll is bringing people into the area, where they can spend money with local businesses and thus aid the local economy.
0 -
Well, if that floats your boat - good luck to you folks.
Personally - I've done my travelling abroad - motorbike with tent on the back, car with tent in the back, flights to sunny Europe etc
Done all of that!
But with our caravan - we just love exploring our own country. It's so diverse and fascinating!
And if it costs a bit more - meh!
Each to their own
Bugs
0 -
It's interesting to compare prices but basically this is about UK price creep and what families who stay in the UK have to pay. Many have fixed holidays with time limits. No doubt if you are retired you can do what you like, choose when to go and stay for as long as you like.
0
