Internet should be free
Because of its location I recently stayed at a Camping and Caravan Club site. It was exactly as their strap line states "Friendly" its also had free internet on unlimited devices and good quality.
I then moved to a CMH site which was considerably more expensive on top of which i had to purchase internet and it was only valid for one device, the contrast could not have been more stark. Many members were grumbling and commenting.
Yes overall CMH sites are of better and more consistent quality in terms of facilities and grounds etc but paying for internet today is like living in the dark ages.
Free internet is ubiquitous; hotels, airports, shopping centres restaurants, pubs. even McDonalds. ...nearly everywhere except CMH sites
Comments
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Just interested. How much extra would you be prepared to pay on your nightly fees for the club to provide "free" wifi? Knowing the cost of installation and maintenance in a rural location my estimate would be very different from yours. Nothing is free. The C&CC club have an "interesting" pricing structure which I'm sure includes at times the cost of that free wifi. Just my opinion of course.
JK
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While I totally agree re internet being free your comment, "many members were grumbling and commenting", as long as they continue to do so the club will do nothing. Charging for internet as they do offsets things they advertise as free. I don't use it, my contract allowance serves my needs.
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Am currently on a 1 month tour of England stopping at 8Cls as I go.
Have considered it worthwhile purchasing an O2 sim with 15 Gb for £15.
It is lasting well and may even have some left over by the time I get home.
If internet is a must for you may I suggest this sort of route rather than worrying about what a club site might or may not give you.
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Why "should" wifi be free? It’s not set in stone that anything should be free. JK, above, has made some good points and whatever other organisations do has no bearing on the CAMC stance.
I'll also add my view that the Wi-fi is often abominable and, if the charge for it was hidden within site or membership fees, we would all be forced to pay for something that frequently in my experience is not worth the money. As it is, I can leave paying for it to those who are prepared to attempt to use it.
Like Redface, I make my own arrangements via the mobile network and for £8 per month I get a darned good service of 10 gb with unlimited calls and texts thrown in and it works in places other than some CAMC sites.
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Have you studied the annual accounts to arrive at that conclusion?
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Internet is indeed free if using the Club website. Beyond that it is difficult to justify because we don't know how many members use the Club WiFi. If 100% of members used the WiFi there could be an argument for including it in the site price but we don't know, do we? A free service would also be the lowest common denominator in terms of service. One of the reasons many of us use our smart phones to access far better internet via 4G.
David
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Free wifi is at the bottom of my list for choosing a site, location, facilities... and having a SP comes top. No I realise that is just me and if anyone has good (never mind free) wifi near the top of their list then a club site is not the place to go.
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The only time we have purchased Club internet is when staying at Crystal Palace for a week and thought it would be useful - as it was. However, it wasnt wonderful in terms of reception etc.
We often use CLs where even phone signals can be hit & miss - so cant tether on my phone (or at least I couldnt get it to work & I assume it was to do with what was poor phone signals).
Obviously it is not always easy to get good wi-fi, especially in rural areas, that allows the amount of use that some members seem to want. Even on a domestic basis, living in an urban area, we still cannot get fibre broadband.
We have now made our own arrangements with our new van - 4g router + sim card etc. Allows access in many more places, but is still not going to be perfect. Many new motorhomes now come with wi-fi systems either as standard or as very affordable add-ons. Dont know if this applies for caravans.
I for one can think of better things for the Club to spend money on (our money - subs & fees) than very expensive wi fi options that every one would have to pay for if incorporated into fees.
There is already a push to have pitches with no electricity as an option (obviously cheaper pitch fee) and differential charging for awning/non awning pitches - may be we are moving towards a more subtle and menued (is that a word) approach to charging!!
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I have not toured since 2019 but was generally happy to pay the annul price for CMC internet. We also use a 4G router if we are both online as OH reads more and since I lost sight in one eye I find reading books tiresome as I cannot scan the page.
The CMC internet worked fine
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I know where to find the accounts and they are also published in the club magazine but my question was whether you had studied the accounts in order to arrive at your view that "i think the CMH rates are high enough already to cover it".
In other words, I was trying to establish if you had accounting evidence to support your statement or whether it was more of a general grumble about site prices.🤷🏻♂️
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Interesting. comment about site prices. ,as posted elsewhere in April we had next to us four hired motor caravans, all non members, and they were saying if they had realised how reasonable the prices at the CAMC sites were ,they would have hired the vehicles before and done as they were now doing, It was costing them ,including non members prices £32per night for two people
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I thought the non member 'premium' was £12?
so they were on a site which only charged £20 per head?.....might just about be posible in April...??
Hillhead in summer, member price is around £50....i doubt theyd think £62 a head was 'reasonable'....
id certainly expct free internet (and waiter service) at that price....
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Earlier in the year we went to a CL in Cornwall and another in Devon. Both had free and reliable WiFi. When we were in the Black Forest in Germany a few years ago the whole of the village we were staying at was on free WiFi. Yes, it has to be paid for in some way but what is the actual cost of installing and running it? I've no idea but the prices charged by CaMC have always seemed very high to me and so don't use it. As said in previous posts, there are plenty of places and hotspots where WiFi is free.
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The problem is it doesn't work fine on all sites, in fact I think some sites have hot spots only so it can be disappointing to the unwary who pay up and then find their particular site has a poor signal.
We tried it at first and everyone can use the CAMC web site freely but for us there's much better connectivity using our own means.
That said we do connect up to free wi fi if it's available elsewhere but we switch between our own connections if there are any problems.
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How much would it cost to install Wi-Fi from scratch on a typical site? Somebody please tell me so we cannot stop making guesses on if/by how much this might effect charges.
I'm guessing if you looked at this sum compared to the pitch fees taken in an average year it would make interesting reading.
I think the argument about all paying for something they may decide not to use does not really hold water. We make a choice on what facilities we use on site. Some do not bother with the showers, preferring to use those in the van, when I think most of us would agree the amenities blocks are a club strength.
Inependant sites and CL's with good facilties are offering free Wi-Fi at pitch prices that vastly undercut club sites. Yes it is true that they do not offer the services the club does, but then again they also do not benefit from the economy of scale or proceeds of such services.
We are living in a high tech world so why not have high tech services.
Colin
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The difference between site Wi-fi and the other facilities already included in the site price, such as showers and dish washing, is that those facilities work. Site Wi-fi is, in my experience, appalling. Come the day it works properly, I’ll reconsider my view of not wanting to be forced to pay for it.
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I think it is about time the club took the issue of the internet seriously. Their own website which supports this, I believe, is contracted out and I do not know of any other mainstream website of any large scale organisation that is closed so often for "maintenance". If you have to shut it down on such a regular basis then it is not fit for purpose.
In addition the service provided on club sites is generally found to be sub standard both in the quality provided and the price paid for a shoddy product. Again it is contracted out.
This general standard will not be acceptable to the younger members, those the club are chasing. Most will make their own arrangements.
If the club do in fact want to offer wifi on site then they need to find a better provider. Either that or don't offer it at all.
They need to employ a dedicated unit if they want to carry on. Start from scratch if necessary but make sure they employ people who know what they are doing.
I tend to agree with most of what TW has written. The current system is poor and needs ditching not patching. I'm not willing to have to pay a supplement in my pitch fee to support an inferior product.
Just to say I have had free wifi (yes JVB, free as the fees had not increased to accommodate providing such wifi) on 3 CLs this year and 3 cottages. The club is lagging behind.
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I have limited experience of Club WiFi, I usually use 4G but do tend to use the Club's system to access their services. I think it was at the last Club site I was on 4G was better than that of the sites. I am currently on a commercial site. £23p.n. hard standing, 16 amp EHU inclusive of my drive away awning, streaming prime music on their free WiFi and posting this.
peedee
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Colin, we were on a commercial site last month that had feee wifi......
AND larger, nicer pitches with far more room and less crowding
AND far better showers than typical Club fare and they never closed
AND water supply on the pitch
AND a bar
AND a restaurant
AND reception manned all day
AND a heated pool
AND it was the same price as the Club site a few hundred yards up the road (which was further from town).
providing the top class services that customers want is certainly possible and shouldnt (but seems to) be beyond the CC.
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It's real, JV but there are always swings and roundabouts. Some things are free but there are downsides not mentioned. Why a site should charge a fee of a couple of quid simply for allowing you your book to give them your business beats me.🤷🏻♂️ Then there are deposits and cancellation T&Cs…..
I guess it's down to the individual whether he prefers the swings or the roundabouts.
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