CL Pricing - just a conspiracy theory
There have been numerous comments on this forum suggesting that the CAMC is encouraging CLs to increase their prices. In our 16 years' experience as CL Owners, we have never been given pricing guidance by the Club.
The reality is that the Club has relatively little contact with CLs:
- The CL Department at CAMC Head Office has very few staff. It issues a newsletter to CLs a couple of times each year - this does not include pricing guidance, but typically includes reminders to submit electricity safety certificates, insurance details and occupancy figures.
- Every two years, we are sent an extract of our previous entry in the Sites Directory and are asked to confirm or update those details. This does not contain any pricing guidance either.
- We have an annual inspection by an unpaid volunteer Club member who is appointed as our 'CL Adviser'. The reality is that this is an unannounced 'surprise visit' - in recent years, this has been on a Sunday morning whilst we have been away at church. Rather than getting any meaningful 'advice' from our from CL Adviser, we tend to have a card in the letterbox to say that he has been and gone.
- CL Owners who happen to be a Club members (not always the case), receive the annual Sites Directory and Handbook, plus the monthly Club magazine - just like other Club members.
That's all the contact we get from the Club in the course of a year, unless we win a prize, or someone puts in a complaint.
That then begs the question of 'How do CL Owners set their prices?'.
- In our case, we learned a hard lesson a couple of years ago - we had been voted 'Best Small Site' in the UK by Practical Caravan Magazine readers for the second year running. We were swamped with bookings and having to turn lots of people away, so we decided to increase our all-in pitch fee by £2. The following year, bookings plumetted, but we were nevertheless voted 'Best Small Site' for a third year.
- This tells us that no matter how good our CL is, the pitch-fee is critical to CL guests. CAMC Members who pay £40K - £50K for a caravan and suitable towcar will choose to go elsewhere for the sake of £2. This is human nature - a similar mentality to driving to the next petrol station to save a penny per litre on fuel.
- This is somewhat frustrating, when we see a commercial site 2 miles from us, alongside an 'A' Road, with tightly-packed vans, which charges double our pitch-fee, whereas we offer peace and tranquility, views across 9 counties and just 5 vans spread over 2 acres - all for for only £14 per night, including EHU (and no charge to use our Wi-Fi).
- In effect, by staying as a CL, our prices are constrained by the market forces, i.e. the prices of other CLs. CL Owners can view prices of other CLs on the CAMC website or Sites Directory, and then make up their own minds regarding pitch fees.
If we want to make more money from our land, I am firmly of the opinion that we would need to leave the CL network. We choose to remain because of the nice guests we get coming back year after year. Club members are 'easy company' - they tend to know what to expect from a CL and are usually grateful for what they find.
BTW - we are caravanners ourselves and use both CLs and Club sites.
Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.uk
Birch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.uk
CL Number 1280 in the 2019/20 CAMC Sites Directory
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Thanks, Ian. It’s good to hear the views of an owner. From the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
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On the other hand Tinster I do love a good conspiracy theory-I feel a little deflated right now☹️. I do hope Ian doesn’t go on to debunk the ‘Elvis was seen in Shropshire’ news item😇🙃
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Aw, Rocky. We'll have to fill you with hot air to inflate you again. Fortunately, you’re in a good place for that. 👍🏻😁
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Ian Kelly, You say that a few years ago you were "swamped with bookings", but a quick look at your on line bookings page shows that is not the case now. Is there just one day in the whole of this year when your CL is fully booked?
You have mentioned price as one factor, but I wonder what other reasons you see. Why is it that despite your awards and your obvious meticulous attention to detail people are not beating a path to your door? Do you have ideas?
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It is still early in the year and I'm comfortable with the level of bookings to-date, but thank you for your kind concern.
The past 2 years have been our best-ever for bookings and this year is looking good as well - we've just had our busiest-ever February.
Although our online availability calendar shows vacancies for most of the year, there are dates where we have only 1 pitch left - this is not obvious because our online diary just shows 'full' or 'not full'. Green colouring on the calendar does not mean that we are totally empty.
As mentioned in the original post, being 'swamped with bookings' used to manifest itself in the form of phone calls in the fortnight before members wished to stay here (often when we were sitting down to a meal). It was frustrating to be interrupted 3 times in a single mealtime and have to decline all 3 bookings in order to keep within the 5-van rule. Introducing an online booking system has meant that members can see availability for themselves and book online. This has meant fewer phone calls (and fewer interrupted mealtimes), and a distinct increase in bookings.
Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.ukBirch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.uk
CL Number 1280 in the 2019/20 CAMC Sites Directory3 -
Good post, Ian. I'm glad to see that you're doing well. From my point of view I believe it's the new sites that are being directed by the sites "advisor" on the level of price that they should be charging when they first open. However I could well be wrong, I often am.
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You could well be right. It would be nice to have a comment from the owner of a new CL.
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Great post Ian, one of the most informative to date.
Thanks
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The person from the Club who does the initial visit to a prospective CL is called a 'Field Officer'. Just like CL Advisers, these are also unpaid volunteer Club members.
As they are not Club employees or CL Owners, I suspect that the only advice that they could usefully give would be to check the CAMC website for the pitch-fees of neighbouring CLs - this is what a prospective CL Owner should be doing anyway - simply as part of routine research and business planning.
The guidance on setting-up a new CL can be found here and does not contain advice about fees - it even says "Choose your own pricing"
https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/setting-up-a-certificated-location/
Ian3 -
I would think any potential CL owner would look at what is being charged in the surrounding area, just as when selling a car you browse the adverts to see what others are selling the same vehicle for. ( Yes, I know there's Parkers!)
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Ian
Thank you for your very informative and detailed post. You seem to have busted the myth that the CMC are encouraging CL's to enhance their pricing. However the rumour seems to persist that CL owners are somehow being encouraged to charge higher fees so are we to assume that perhaps chance conversations between CL users and owners when price is mentioned, as having gone up, that the CMC are being blamed rather than the CL owner having to justify putting his prices up? The interesting thing is that there is often a parallel discussion on the C&CC forum on exactly the same issue!
David
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Good luck Mummypig. Care to tell us more? You have some big users of CLs hanging on this thread, and free advertising is always good. Location would be useful if nothing else at this stage.😁
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I’m interested to hear what facilities you consider essential for your CL. EHU, HS…?
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Thanks for asking about our new CL it will be called Cherry Cottage.
Currently the CL is a flat grass pony paddock, with views of the surrounding farm land. Ground work for septic tank etc and electric being installed in next few weeks hopefully! We are looking to provide 2 hard standing pitches and 4 grass (3 in rotation). We know the 5 van rule!
We are putting EHU in despite having to have a new electric supply installed. Whilst we are happy to survive on a solar panel we know many of our guests won’t be. We will have a toilet, laundry room, info hut, bin store, usual waste, water etc.
We are in Hardy’s beautiful Dorset almost midway between Sherborne and Dorchester, with easy access. We are very lucky with a regular bus service passing the gate between both towns and linking with the rail network. There are lots of great walks including a footpath to the village pub which serves good food and is dog friendly.
Interested to know what you think.
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Wow, sounds good and just the right distance for us for a short break. I hope the HS pitches will be bookable. Look forward to seeing the site up and running.
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It is indeed sounding very nice. A great location as well, long time since we have done Dorset, could very well be one for us. Dare one ask about well behaved dogs, and well trained owners?
Certainly wishing you all the very best. Don’t forget to announce your opening once everything is in place. 👍😁
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Tinwheeler and TATD thank you for your positive comments, it’s great to know we are on the right track. I will keep you posted as we progress towards opening and are in a position to take bookings and will look forward to hopefully welcoming you to our CL in the future.
Dogs on leads are going to be welcome to bring their well behaved owners and little people with them. Too often we find a lovely CL only to discover we can’t visit because either no dogs or adults only. In my opinion the market for CL customers is already restricted by members only why restrict it further if we have no reason to.
To put the thread back on track regarding pricing, we are yet to confirm the exact price, but it will be based on our cost to operate, supply and demand, local competition and ‘ceiling price’ for a CL etc.
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Hope it all goes well for you, MP1. 👍🏻
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Yep, everyone welcome CLs are always nice. All the best, will keep an eye out on forum for your opening date.😁
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