Help shape future facilities at UK Club campsites
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We have used quite a few CLs with pay to use showers. Last one was in Shropshire, it was a lovely CL with 10 seasonal pitches adjacent, and the owner had just built a pair of very swish and spacious bathrooms, both of which could be used by almost anyone with a disability, even if they needed a carer as well. Open for all to use, CL occupants, seasonal stayers. I think it was 50p per use, that got you a nice long shower as well. It was our last port of call, so we did make use of showers, so we didn’t have to wipe down onboard bathroom before a quick getaway. The pitch fee was I think £12, so very reasonable and gave those staying the option to pay more if they wanted to, or just pay £12 and use onboard. We appreciated the choice.
Similar set up at Rectory Farm, one bathroom for CL, one bathroom for private Site, showers on a meter. Personally, it works for us, but is a different model to Club Sites of course.
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Some of us are lovingly nurturing classics CY😉 In our case, a 1971 MGB, a 1984 caravan, and a 20 year old Autosleeper MH. All three cost us less to run than our other toy put together🤣
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You're not selling CL's to me at all TDA
I just view that sort of arrangements as just not my sort of holiday in any way shape or form, and that's great isn't it as it's more choice for people that do.
I've always said there should be plenty of choice, CL's shouldn't be club sites and club sites shouldn't be CLs although it sometimes appears that people want all of one type and somehow appear to say one is superior to another. It isn't of course.
Let everyone choose what they prefer.
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I think it depends how you like to tour Corners. We are quite happy using our onboard facilities for 95% of our time away, so we have a huge choice of sites available to us. The fact that some charge a small all inclusive pitch fee, and provide showers if you want to pay a bit extra is a huge bonus for us. Likewise, we are happy to pay up to £20 per night if a decent shower, hard standing is also provided. We only use shower facilities occasionally, usually if we want a quick getaway, one will shower while other does final pack up. Location, places of interest is our main driver in terms of where we stay, not the loos or showers. But you only have to read Club Site reviews to understand a lot of folks will choose a Club Site because of the facilities.
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Indeed it does TDA - hence my point about the need of choice and lots of it.
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I've liked your post tda, as it's how we like to tour; we've found some real gems, as no doubt you have, most recently a CL with HS, fully serviced pitches (admittedly "only" 10 amp EHU, but for us that's plenty anyway) so fresh water and waste water drain on pitch, and WC and shower. Shower had honesty box, £1 per shower, it was a domestic type shower so not on a timer. At £18 per night, excluding price of shower, to me that's extremely good value. Pitches were large and had plenty of space between them. And we pitched across the pitch rather than reverse in, as that gave the best views.
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Yes, we love those kind of Sites😁 Not only showers with honesty boxes, we have done a few with freezers full of goodies such as bread, joints of meat, ice cream, etc…., milk, eggs and butter, jams and chutneys, some with crafts for sale, a really nice one where you paid £2 and could use the swimming pool, spa and adjacent showers for as long as you liked. All just throw a few coins in a tin. Absolute gems, run by trusting, nice folks.
I have all we need for next weeks stay. Gate code, place to leave money, just arrive when you want and have a nice time.
Don’t begrudge those who make Club Sites their choice either, but it would be nice to pay a more basic fee, for a basic stay. That’s what the no facility Sites were all about. I am seeing a two swipe card system myself🤔 A fee for a basic stay that only lifts the gate, another that has a swipe card that lifts the gate AND opens the shower block door. The real issue will still be the price though.
Every commodity the Club offers has a value. That value will be made up of a percentage to cover provision/delivery of that commodity, the rest will be the extra the Club loads above the provision, profit if you like. Take away a commodity, and you take away a little bit of profit to the Club. I think the Club values a hard standing a £1 more than a grass pitch (or it will when the new booking system and deposits goes live, if I recall correctly), so the difference between having a particular commodity, and not, is unlikely to be that great, so not likely to attract those who want a basic stay.
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Just tried out a site comparison, two sites, both inland, both in attractive areas, neither possibly first choice for a family with children. Taking a night in August, one comes in at £17 per night for two adults and four children. The other comes in at £57.20 per night for same occupancy. Both have hardstandings and hook ups. (Didn’t include being on a serviced pitch). One has just the pitches and a small reception, huge NT estate over the road, the other has loo block and a small childrens playground, and probably a drive over MH point.
Thats £40 per night difference, per pitch. And cannot be the EHU cost driving it, as both offer EHU. We have used both, and preferred the first one for a number of reasons. Neither that close to a town, both rural based.
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Yet some folks will be flocking to the £57.20 option for reasons that completely fail me.
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I’ll admit we jumped at the chance at a night there…..but only because we had a Site night voucher. I picked the most expensive of course🤣 Haven’t been back, and not tempted, but it’s popular.
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Reasons are clear, Bill. There are some seriously rich people in this Club. Check out the prices they rush to pay for the escorted overseas tours.
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It was just a personal look at the difference in price between a no facility Site, and one with facilities. Including the children will have skewed things a bit, I will see if I can find something similar based on less extremes and for a couple later. I just wondered what the price difference might be. The interesting bit was around EHU, it was included for both Sites, so wasn’t the main price driver,
Ultimately, I was wondering what could happen if the Club offered two different levels of service at one Site (with facility use, and without) and if the price difference offered might be worth it, and get us using a few more Club Sites. I somehow doubt the difference would be good enough for us.
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Glamping & escorted tours….whatever happened to adventure and the open road?
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Tell me more....you know how.
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I have used a couple of sites in Germany where you are given a credit type card which operates the shower system. It then debits the amount charged, either per shower of "x" minutes or price per time spent to the second onto the card which has had a deposit logged onto it. You get back the residue when leaving and handing the card back.
Just like metering. Quite a few CLs and Independent sites do have actual coin operated meters.
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We too have been on a number of CLs with foodstuffs for sale as you mentioned, one CS from the C&CC had honey from their own bees for sale, and of course eggs from their hens.
Agree with you about Club sites; we do use them but only during off-peak months and of course midweek discounts help too! We do have a couple of favourites which are easy to get to from home. But other than that CLs and CSs are our choice, and that of our cat too
she walks on a lead and with only 5 vans on a CL/CS it's a lot quieter of course.1 -
That’s the sheer delight of CLs, you never know what you might see, what you might get involved in if you ask to watch😁 Calving, lambing, shearing, bee keeping, milking, HM Armed Forces in action, tanks in the next field, bus restoration, classic cars. We did racehorse management three times last year, they were stunning. Followed by barge watching near Devizes😁
And the Club comes up with a research project on loo provision🤣🤣🤣
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And the Club comes up with a research project on loo provision🤣🤣🤣
I did put my name forward for the survey but never heard any more, so presumably I didn't fit the bill ☹️ but having read the questions asked I'm glad I didn't 😁 don't think I'd have had the patience on that subject.
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landscaping with hedge marked pitches of sufficient size to abolish the pegs
As an approximation that would require a doubling of the land area dedicated to each pitch, resulting in a halving of the number of pitches and a consequent doubling of pitch fees. Plus the expenditure of a considerable part of the reserves.
The reduction in occupancy would however probably solve the unavailability of pitches.
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I wouldn’t expect Club Sites to offer anything like a CL in terms of “magic moments” in truth, they have far too large and diverse a Membership to satisfy, and probably know their base market very well, which we know isn’t us, nor probably you I am guessing😁 If the base market is fixated on facilities ( and it clearly is, to read Club Site reviews) then the Club will channel resources that way. At least they enable us to make use of the CL network, which is why we stay Members, and that relatively small fee for the year keeps us onboard.
I don’t disagree about some of your other comments though. The newer Sites, refurbished Sites, are a bit same and tame. But if that’s what the Membership desires…….
Meantime, we enjoy ourselves over here, and you find your heaven overseas, so we are happy. Envy you that GOT location by the way👍 No dragons though I hope🙂
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I love doing surveys, and did ponder. But wasn’t happy to support something I consider to be a waste of Membership fees. Will they reveal the findings, might I be mistaken, will it actually result in anything? 🤷♀️🤔😉
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One Club site where I think they did get it right was White Water Park but I have yet to see it replicated elsewhere. Some pitches, not all, are delineated by hedges and the pitch area is quite large, it seemed only to apply to the serviced pitches. Obviously having hedges around pitches creates more work but I imagine many would appreciate the privacy.
David
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Hmm………..it looks neat and tidy, but very glorified car park. Easy to use springs to mind. It’s the camping equivalent for those who dig up their garden and put in little but tarmac, gravel or block paving. I suppose a bit of effort has been made with what looks like planters. I prefer sites with rabbits hopping around, ducks waddling about, but each to their own. Mind, it has one redeeming feature…..it’s close to the Riverside Stadium😁
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Sanitised, pristine, all vegetation clipped to within an inch of its life. Devoid of wildlife😞
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