Tier 2 CLs Re-Opening 2nd December
Re-opening on 2nd December - Birch Hill - an award-winning hideaway in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club.
Ellesmere is a peaceful friendly market town in North Shropshire. Our CL is 2 miles from North Wales, 5 miles from Cheshire and 9 miles from Lady Margaret's Park Caravan and Motorhome Club site.
- £17 per night including EHU. No charge to use our Wi-Fi. Grassed hardstandings.
We are in Covid Tier 2 and are only accepting bookings from Caravan and Motorhome Club members who live in Tier 1 or Tier 2 areas.
For more details, availability and online booking, please see our website - https://www.birchhill.co.uk/
https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/certificated-locations/england/shropshire/ellesmere/birch-hill/
Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.uk
Birch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.uk
Birch Hill Farm - an award-winning hideaway in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club
If non-caravanning friends wish to join you, please see our new Glamping Pods - www.ArchersMeadow.co.uk
Comments
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I see you've upped your price from the advertised one of £14. Don't you think that a 21% increase is a bit steep during these, for many, financially challenging times?
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Hi Nellie,
we feel that the price increase is overdue and was planned in line with the publication of the new Sites Directory.
It has been prepared-for on the Club website for several months (scroll-down our entry to the 'prices' section). I have asked the Club to update the 'from' price shown in the heading.
Although the Sites Directory is due in about a month's time, our increase takes effect from now because winter weather usually sees a sharp rise in our electricity usage.
I agree that we are in financially challenging times - this particularly affects us as CL Owners. The big factor affecting our decision is that our costs have rocketed due to COVID.We take the safety of our guests very seriously. We added dedicated water taps for each pitch because we felt that would be safer for our guests than touching a communal tap. We installed alcohol-based hand sanitiser points (not cheap), and now spend more time each day checking the site and cleaning touch-points with virucidal sprays.
However, the main change resulting from COVID is that our guests seem to have adopted a different style of caravanning:
- Historically, most of our guests would use Birch Hill as a base for days out to visit local attractions, pubs and restaurants.
- Since re-opening post-lockdown, our guests tend to prefer the peace and safety of staying on-site in their own vans.
More eating (& drinking!) on site means:
- Increased electricity usage.
- A huge increase in grey waste - I counted 15 sacks of rubbish one week. Compare this with our own family usage, which usually equates to just 1 or 2 sacks.
- Our real shock and unexpected expense came during the summer, when our CDP filled about 3 times as quickly as in previous years. We have now installed a second CDP to reduce the need to pump out the tanks as frequently. (This also means a shorter walk for guests staying on our 'top field'.)
Running a CL is not cheap, and I hope our guests will not begrudge £17 for one of the best CLs in the country.
Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.ukBirch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.ukBirch Hill Farm - an award-winning hideaway in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club
If non-caravanning friends wish to join you, please see our new Glamping Pods - www.ArchersMeadow.co.uk
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BHF, Quite a comprehensive reply and when you put it like that I'm sure people will see it for what it is. The main point I picked out as a massive plus point in these Covid times is the individual water points. These are a massive must have for us because of the extra water used in showers etc and knowing the water won't run out. Overall reading your explanation you have thought out your cl very well to cater for members.
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Very good post and one that many who "complain" about prices are still it seems not able to take in how much costs for services increase year on year
Also many still expect the prices in the sites directory to be currant instead of what could be nearly three years out of date from when the directory was first sent to the printers
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Personally I would have thought that £14 a night for the facilities offered by this CL was far too cheap and £17 far more realistic and a price I would have no objection to paying.
David
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Since re-opening post-lockdown, our guests tend to prefer the peace and safety of staying on-site in their own vans.
More eating (& drinking!) on site means:Increased electricity usage.
A huge increase in grey waste - I counted 15 sacks of rubbish one week. Compare this with our own family usage, which usually equates to just 1 or 2 sacks.
Our real shock and unexpected expense came during the summer, when our CDP filled about 3 times as quickly as in previous years. We have now installed a second CDP to reduce the need to pump out the tanks as frequently. (This also means a shorter walk for guests staying on our 'top field'.)
Running a CL is not cheap, and I hope our guests will not begrudge £17 for one of the best CLs in the country.Ian Kelly
01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.ukDoes this mean that after lockdown if people do as they did before lock down. And your costs go back down.
Will your price go down?
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Perhaps that's because you are used the high prices charged on club sites, David.
As you probably know we your all the year round, when permitted to do so, and are reluctant to exceed our travel budget, which if that trend of price increases was across the board, would happen. A 21% increase, even this year would have cost us the equivalent of 25 nights fees.BHF, thanks for the explanation for your increases.
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Nellie
I appreciate that you spend much more time away than the average and I can see that increase would impact on your budget. The other side of that coin is whether CL owners feel it worth staying open if the returns reduce. As Ian has explained costs seem to be increasing way beyond the notional inflation rate. There seems to be an increasing demand for CL's to be like mini sites with all the facilities so I expect price pressure will increase. This year aside we generally spend about 70 nights away each year, slightly more if we go abroad. We tend to avoid spending much time away in school holidays so that tends to save a bit on costs. Having said that location rather than cost is more important to us.
David
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Pitch fees, after fuel, are a major cost of any trip and, whilst a CL owner should get a reasonable return, ever increasing provision of more sophisticated facilities and consequent fees that approach those of club sites detracts from the appeal of CLs.
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CY, I see that as ‘expecting a service to be sold at cost price’ to please a minority. I’ve used basic CL’s & I’ve used those with a shower & a toilet & electric supply. I’ve seen more turnover over the days on the less basic offerings. I think it’s a myth to think most folk out there are looking for a field as I see those folk on lay-bys, field gates, or any flat piece of road side.
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The appeal of CL/CS if the many posts on here and other forums is they are expected ,as you say to to offer ever more facilities (hardstands?etc) to make them into mini full facility sites, but at no cost to the visitors , from what was in the past and in most cases still is a cheaper less "stressfull?"for some, holiday experiance
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Does it detract from the appeal of CLs? We're not all the same, CY, and while some folk want basic and cheap, I welcome the provision of facilities and am happy to pay a few quid more for the pleasure of having them.
I have no wish to spend my leisure time roughing it and after paying through the nose for an overpriced LV, as you and I have both done recently, I can't see the logic in scrimping on site fees.
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As Birch hill owner has posted he has put in add water points , and another waste tank which would not have been cheap plus add commercial waste and electric charges and "Honey Wagons" as our local company are called charge by the load ,over £200 pounds? i would not expect any prices at any CL/CS to do anything but increase
The days of "hobby" CL/CS run for "fun" rather than any return on invesments are fast diminishing
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The average I have paid for the 11 nights I have spent on CLs this year has been £13.45p.n. but then I am not interested in bells and whistles. To this must be proportioned my membership subscription which pushes it up to £15.53p.n.
peedee
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+1👍🏻-location, location, location.
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Well personally I think life is too short to work out proportionate cost of membership every time I go away, but I can't work out how you got that 'proportionate' cost?
The simple way, is cost per day - £54 divided by 366 which is £0.147... per day, so 11 nights will cost £1.62... so where did you get £2.08?
Unless you're doing some other complicated stuff like apportioning membership costs to various things like club sites, insurances...
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well it is all about what one considers acceptable, your acceptable may not be anyone else's. One can't be the judge of these things and make that decision for others based on one's own views?
Anyway for me, acceptable is the bare minimum, or just OK, as in able to be tolerated or allowed.
Not something I'd want on a holiday?
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Sometimes 'acceptable' is an also ran to the best. 🤷🏻♂️
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yes but the daily cost no matter what you do is about 14 pence per day, that is what you're really paying.
To do what you are doing, dividing your subscription by only the nights used is just not logical and doesn't make sense - IMHO of course. You pay £54 whether you use any nights or not.
Just had one night away? Your CL cost is £13.45 + £54/1 = £67.45, would one really think that way?
And of course what about zero nights away? Then the calculation is impossible.
Taking your approach further, also why don't you also work out what your subscription has saved you in your calculations?
I haven't paid any membership fees ever using that.
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