Is it a rip off?
Comments
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Do they care about long standing members? I doubt it. Send em a plastic sticker every 5 years and that's it. As long as membership figures stay high, that’ll be all that matters to the club.
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Well, we will certainly not be using these expensive sites!
We do feel, as members for over 20 years, that we are now being priced out of Club sites in the period April-September,
Being on a fairly fixed income, we prefer use value for money considerations to decide on our priorities, and Club sites are not a priority these days.
It is not that we cannot afford to use them, we do have plenty of money in the bank we could use, but rather that we do not feel they offer us value for money when pitch plus 2 gets much over £20 in what we consider low season.
We realise that high season prices, such as Easter, will be higher, but we find that prices in May/June and September are beyond what we consider reasonable.
We remain members so that we can use CLs, but we have joined the other Club and find their sites perfectly adequate and much less expensive due to shorter peak periods and the over 60s discount. We also like that we can book a hard standing.
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Folks will stay members as long as they are achieving what they want from membership. For most folks it tends to be not all about Club Sites. We use them at off peak times, take advantage of MWD if available, use the quieter, no facility sites, but in the main the CL Sites underpin our membership. We have no loyalty to Club, it’s just a means to an end for us, and we are canny enough to get the membership fee back in offers and discounts.
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Me, too, Easy. Whatever the club thinks about it’s membership doesn’t affect the standard of the sites.
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With C&CC's age discount we can generally save £6 a night I reckon for the type of pitch that we want. However I consider that their sites fall short of CC's sites for us on several points and are therefore not our first choice. The use of C&CC sites is usually dictated by their position.
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We also sometimes prefer Camping Club sites, we like the variety of outfits, the variety in their sites and they are often cheaper than this club by around a fiver per night. The quality is adequate, and steadily improving. We also use CLs, CSs and private sites. We are just not prepared to pay approaching £30 or more for a bit of gravel, use of a posh toilet block and all the other facilities which club's sites have, most of which we neither need nor use, it also adds to the variety as we move around which is very much part of the pleasure.
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We all like different aspects of sites and choose our general preferences accordingly. Many of us do use a mix of site providers and for some the cost holds a higher sway than for others.
Presently on North Yorkshire Moors CC site. Next stop Wagtail Park, then Sandringham CC followed by St Neotts C&CC
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I have only ever looked on it as a membership fee. Same as Go Outdoors. The CAMC like any other business is out to get as much for its services as it can, without scaring those customers away. Although there are a few anomalies, in the main I think they have pricing about right. A lot of CAMC customers are holidaying for much shorter periods than us retired folk. When you are away for 6 weeks or so, the site costs are perhaps more of an issue than if it's only odd weekends and maybe your main 2 week holiday.
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I suppose once you really retire and are really on a fixed income then as prices rise for everything there will come a time when eventually club prices may not be an option, a sad fact of life but there it is. Might even happen to me.
What should the club do? reduce it's prices, lose standards, sites and being competitive and become a charity for retired folk?
We are not talking people not being able to afford bread, butter, heating... here but staying on a club site.How many times are we told there are better and cheaper sites out there if only people are savvy enough to know that?
And if things are that bad, how did you buy that expensive outfit? Or pay for it's insurance?
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A lot of CAMC customers are holidaying for much shorter periods than us retired folk. When you are away for 6 weeks or so, the site costs are perhaps more of an issue than if it's only odd weekends and maybe your main 2 week holiday.
many working folk are away 6 weeks plus odd weekends.
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Well put CS, A business will put its prices according to where they want to be in the market ,and that's it ,if you cant afford it look else where . I don't suppose the boss's at Ferrari would think to lower the price of their cars, so the low income can buy on !!!
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We are retired and have been fully retired( drawing state pension) since 2008 and have only rarely used other than club sites in all the years we have been members(50 this year) and have noted how most of the sites have evolved to cater for the ever more increase in use and demanding membership and when taken in context with the majority of leisure industry prices find site prices to be on a par with most and cheaper than some,but there will always be some comercial sites that some think give "better value?"but in conversations on the many sites we use(it pays to talk) the younger members do not see the club prices as ott ,and they are who the club need to attract some who post on here say are not joining,
we are away for two months from the 15th of next month all 9 are club sites
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Hmm, a bit of an I'm alright Jack attitude seems to be emerging....
On a limited fixed income, (and its not a larger final salary pension as some might have) , and with one of us yet to get any state pension due to the pension age being raised, yes we have to be mindful of site prices and budget accordingly.
Do we expect site prices to reduce to suit us ? No that would be beyond ridiculous. But I feel the need, and perhaps right to say, that for us, much of the time, they are beyond what we are prepared to pay and that cheaper alternatives exist which we often use. For the same reason we seldom , if ever, eat out, it is simply beyond our means.
Another reason we are tighter on budget is that we have of course paid for the servicing, road tax and yes, the insurance on our van, which we afforded, for those who are curious, by trading in our previous car, our caravan and by adding a sum of money which I inherited.
But as the Caravan Club's site prices continue to increase, we will I am sure be using them less and less as time goes by.
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I do not see it as i am alright jack,,midweek discounts help ,and when not at home those cost are also less,(our duel fuel dd is £22 a month and also water is £12 per month and we are not on a high pension,our house is paid for and council tax is biggest monthly cost,we put money away per month to cover our 0ne car and caravan costs plus house insurance
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I dislike the business principle of telling people to go elsewhere if they think a price is too high. Undoubtedly there are high prices out there for some goods, some collect high end cars, some might buy the odd one and many won't because the don't aspire to owning one even if they have the finances. But I think when we're talking about club sites it's what the club is offering to their customers for the price they pay and the affordability and rising costs for many who use them. We're taking about encouraging more take up and a pleasant value for money experience when using a site.
Once you start talking about incomes and who can afford what you've lost the plot. People go vanning because they like it and they want to find somewhere nice to stay in a place they like and they expect value for money. The whole industry depends on this principle, buy a van, find somewhere to take it and enjoy it at a price that encourages you to continue this type of holiday.
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I dislike the business principle of telling people to go elsewhere if they think a price is too high.
I hardly think that a 'business principle' Brue. A simple fact of life is if that if you feel a price is too much then you are free to consider alternatives. For my youngest daughter, a single mum with a 6 and 7 year old who augments her income by on linee surveys etc enabling her to claim working tax credit and who also currently recieves child tax credit it would be too expensive.
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As much as we love our hobby if we got to the point where we were counting the pennies to such an extent we had to be constantly searching for cheaper and cheaper sites, rather than going to the places we really wanted to, we would just sell up and do something else. The same would be true if we found that we could that we were only using the motorhome for a week or two during the year. I think the days of doing things on a shoestring have long gone when you take everything into consideration.
David
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I dislike the business principle of telling people to go elsewhere if they think a price is too high.
What? really? Just sounds common sense to me, what business principle would you advise? barter?
So are you saying in something you buy, no matter if you can buy it cheaper somewhere else you wouldn't as you dislike that principle?
I think the idea of competition in the market place is a pretty good and well established business principle?
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It's my view that they offer a well maintained but basic product and much too crowded to justify what are close on premium prices
They also offer a product that many find matches there requirements David. What you describe as a 'basic product' is ggennerally the level of provision that I, and, it would appear, many others require
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...……………………………...NO