Membership Fee Increase
Comments
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just 2 replies above sort of prove my point CAMHC is a business offering a variety of services, e.g. many people pay a subscription to CAMHC not to use their sites but to take advantage of things like insurance of various types when spending elongated times abroad, or for reduced ferry prices/pitch prices whilst abroad. I rest my case
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I doubt that as a business CC are very bothered which services we pick and choose from as long as something attracts us to be members.....
I find that the discount on the M6 Toll virtually pays my annual membership fee........
And sites (or at least the ones I have stayed on this year) are heaving, virtually or actually full to capacity.
As with any business, when demand is close to outstripping supply, one thing must happen, and it is......!
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ET, do you have evidence that they have?, maybe usage has gone down, and maybe if we have a great summer next year and people dont use their halagon heaters so much it may go down again, but i will bet my bottom dollar that pitch fees will still increase, as cyberyacht says
As pitch fees include Electric usage I am confident that the CC is fully aware of Electricity usage.
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Just paid my membership for the C&CC.............£22
with membership of 2 sections (BCC & MAS) total £33. Over 65 and 49 years membership, for veteran membership it is over 65 and 25 years membership, I joined when I was a lad with a ridge tent.2 -
As a pensioner on a fixed income which has increased at less than 1% per annum in the last several years, these Club site and membership increases are straining our finances. And we seem to be lucky to have an almost 1% increase, those still working may well have less or no increase.
We have our caravan insurance with the Club, and use RP when we go abroad, all these require us to be members, so not easy to just leave.
Home insurance for us was not competitive, we have that with the other club.
All things considered, we have little option but to remain members, but we will be using far fewer Club sites this year, the other club has better offers.
We tour low season, and can state that other than at weekends, sites are more than half empty, much lower occupancy than we had thought would be the case.
The Club need to consider this and offer better mid week discounts. Wardens still need to be paid Monday to Thursday, so better to have campers on site even at a lower fee than sites being empty.
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Yes, UK pension, but only a partial one as I have not been here long enough. Only the basic pension has the triple lock, so only about half my state pension has the index linked increase.
A small Norwegian pension which makes up the missing UK pension, but poor increases recently.
Then a company pension which is not index linked at all.
Low Interest rates on savings do not help either!
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Me too but, tbh, I wouldn’t bother to renew C&CC if it wasn't at half price veteran's rate.
You and I are fortunate, CR, but many are not.
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I think the Club is between the devil and the deep blue sea. It dare not put pitch prices up too much, there would be a huge outcry from members and they are close to being uncompetive with many commercial sites. Sites might be attractive out of peak season but many don't sell well in the peak season. Growth is stagnent so the only way to help cover cost with any degree of certainty is to put up subscriptions.
peeedee
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It (CC) dare not put pitch prices up too much, there would be a huge outcry from members and they are close to being uncompetive with many commercial sites.
If CC is 'close to being uncompetive' then surely that means that it is competitive?
Sites might be attractive out of peak season but many don't sell well in the peak season.
I obviously do not use CC sites in peak times then. I see many sites pretty full in June weekends for example. Depends where they are.
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Tintent115 – Sorry, I should have written in my post on page 1 - “I won't be renewing my C&MC Membership whatever the cost.”
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If CC is 'close to being uncompetive' then surely that means that it is competitive?
In some cases it is uncompetitive. There are many factors to consider, e.g. like for like, charges for dogs and awnings and not least the cost of children. If you do find a commercial site to your liking and don't have a dog or wish to put up an awning then the chances of finding a good commercial site cheaper are better. I regularly stay at a good commercial site cheaper than any of the Club sites around the area. The more the Club puts up its prices the more chance there is of finding cheaper sites just as good and sometimes better. Competitiveness is not just about prices either, it is also about facilities and sometimes I will pay a little more for these rather than stay at a Club site.
ET, You may well notice Club sites full at weekends in peak times but that does not maximise income for the Club if they half empty for the rest of the week.
peedee
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Ah, right it is clearer now....
But from reading your post you spent only very few nights on a full fat club site (one site?).
On that basis, if the other membership benefits are of no value to you, then membership was no use to you whether it was £49 or £51..?
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ET, You may well notice Club sites full at weekends in peak times but that does not maximise income for the Club if they half empty for the rest of the week.
That will always be the case PD unless the CC take action to discriminate against weekend only bookings in some way.
I don't do weekends only, nor do I tend to do full weeks. I do require to use some weekend days as part of most of my bookings however and if weekends are generally booked up that prevents my booking a site. Of course usually won't affect me as I book early.
If commercial sites do not suffer in the same way it is generally down to their use of minimum booking periods during peak times. 3, 4, 5 day minimum bookings are fairly common with some having 7 day minimum bookings. 7 day minimum bookings mean that I am unlikely to use a site unless I am prepared to book and pay 7 nights and only stay for 5.
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Club sites apart from the couple of "honey pots"although they show full can normally, we have found,be "accessed"by a phone call to the site concerned if we need a longer period which encompases the said full w/end, but as some wardens have said, they are aware that some will try the tactic to get the w/end,then amend the booking shorter,and some are noting the booking number to check nearer the time,
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ET, You may well notice Club sites full at weekends in peak times but that does not maximise income for the Club if they half empty for the rest of the week
That will always be the case PD unless the CC take action to discriminate against weekend only bookings in some way.
So you are agreeing that in peak season Club sites are not being used to their full potential?
peedee
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I don't suppose that The Caravan Club is at all bothered who makes up their "membership" as long as there are more of them than last year.
It could be made up entirely of new people who join in January and February 2018 and the ship would still sail majestically on.
My answer to the problem of the honeypot sites (and perhaps weekends) is to require the person booking to have been a member for five or so years to qualify.
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So you are agreeing that in peak season Club sites are not being used to their full potential?
Was not agreeing as far as I know. I was stating that on some sites and at some times of the year that there was a possibility of weekend bookings preventing longer bookings.
I am not saying that the problem should be addressed however. But then I am not unduly concerned although there are 'complaints' from some that they cannot get longer stays (either as part of an ongoing tour or a longer stay on a single site or two) because weekends are taken.
The C&CC have, as I mentioned earlier, tried to address this on their more popular sites with minimum booking periods. I have no idea how successful that is.
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We used Club sites for three nights this year - a lot more than several previous years. Tunnel crossing - saves £10 but we book direct as easier to change. Never book overseas sites, Motorhome insurance totally uncompetitive, ditto other insurances.
Having said that, we still support the Club by maintaining our membership and we did get a free 30 years membership sticker this year!
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Not sure if we will bother to renew our membership when its due as we rarely use sites or cl's in the UK.
Been thinking for awhile of joining the other club and looks more likely now.
If we do join the other club we can book ferries through them and might even change our home insurance to them to get the 180 day cover.
We stopped taking out RP a few years ago for various reasons but we could if so wished take out other clubs version of overseas breakdown.
At the moment we get free of charge both full european and uk breakdown cover and holiday insurance through our Nationwide account.
Ferries can be booked through various other agencies, to be honest we don't often get a better with the club since we changed to a mh, sometimes its just the convenience that I use it but is that worth £51
we would have to spend 5 nights on club sites to recoup the membership.2 -
Are we the only ones who take advantage of all the two for one, 50% off this, that, and the other entrance fees into popular places to visit? We always get our membership fee back by trying somewhere new, or buying a bit of gear at Mountain Warehouse etc.....
Couple of years ago we visited Eden Camp twice (lots to see!) at BOGOF, that was around £24 saved, then another £15 off NYM railway tickets, and that was just a long weekend! I probably saved the rest easily with one shop at MW! It really is easy to get fees back. Unless all you do is sit on site all holiday of course, but no one does that, surely?
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As OH is ex forces we get most of these discounts and many others, so being a member for us isn't about the discounts or benefits as these can be got elsewhere..
We don't often go away in the UK as we prefer to go somewhere where the weather is more guaranteed
as we have been thinking about membership to the other club we could try it for a year to see how we get on and drop the C&MC membership, it would give us different areas to visit and the opportunity to try some of the THS that we hear so much about on CT. Not sure that we would need to keep both memberships considering the small amount of time spent in the UK.1 -
Sorry TG, we posted at same time, I wasn't thinking about those who holiday overseas, would think you get your discounts on other products. We used to be members of both clubs, but not at the moment. Found CLs better than CS's on the whole.
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Because we prefer CAMC for ease of booking and for not having restrictions such as minimum stays. I think, on the whole, CAMC sites are better, although C&CC are perfectly adequate.
We rarely use C&CC so it would probably not be worth paying full rate membership for the very few nights a year they fill the gaps in our tours.
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no apology needed TTDA. Nice to hear that someone does get their membership fee back in rewards
Maybe now our youngest son has moved back to Yorkshire we will be 'visiting' more often. We did use the member discount at Crick tram museum a couple of years ago and at the caves in Derbyshire but locally there isn't much for us to take advantage of
I must admit I do like the C&MC booking system, most of the time
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Interesting replies throughout. Whilst the increase in membership fee is of little consequence to us financially we will be looking at renewal next May, we like CL, and have used day out vouchers in the past but not for last couple of years. House insurance wasn't as good on consecutive days of absence t&c or price as the other club so we rejoined the other club. The price of club sites are now rather high 😉 and our feeling is that of very regimented pitching, not that the other club and commercial sites aren't. We pick sites for their location in relation to our touring plans. We have never used the club for ferries or channel. Our Nationwide account gives us breakdown cover here and Europe I think, as well as worldwide travel insurance which we only have to pay for extra days but once paid that' it for the year.
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We have that as well Bakers, and have had occasion to use it. Excellent service, only glitch was rescue services won't transport dogs, but few do. We got picked up by a relative.
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This is a difficult one, especially the price difference between the two clubs. Tonight I've just booked a holiday in the Lakes in May with the other club, I've paid a £30 deposit, I've got the type of pitch we wanted, all done and dusted, no panic that I might miss out due to a mad booking day rush. I would like to know why this big price differential appears between the two clubs, I can't quite work out why CAMC doesn't offer further incentives and I've been looking at the member benefits on offer with both clubs which are slightly different but quite a good selection. It's a puzzle why one club can offer membership at a better rate. It's very difficult to find actual membership numbers for either club, even on Wiki.
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