CL Price Rises
Comments
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We go to North Yorks a lot and would definitely not be paying that. We stay on many a lovely site and expect to pay between £6 and £10 for non ehu and £12-£15 for ehu (we don't really consider toilets or showers). In the north, there are many lovely CLs to choose from at those prices.
If we were paying £20 a night it would cut down on the amount of weekends we are able to get away, and as we work so have to leave Sunday it wouldn't really make it worthwhile. If we weren't going away for weekends every 2-3 weeks in the summer and once a month in the winter then we really would have to think about whether it was worth keeping the caravan.4 -
I think that is a decision many will be making this year.
Our ideal price for a CL without toilet and shower would be £15-£18 per night, with shower and toilet £18 - £20 per night. It would have to be very special to pay more than that.
We have just booked a CL @ £17 per night, it's been that for a few years I believe. Checked to make sure no nasty surprises when we get there, no deposit required, cash or Bacs will do fine. 😊
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We have made the decision not to use any more club sites. They are now outside of our price range
We recently completed a 5 week tour using only cl's. Total cost per night averaged £18.64. Some full facility others not. Every one different and enjoyable
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TG, that will be Highfield, will it?
We are on a CL at the moment, H/S and EHU, with a view to die for, at £16 pn, and the owner was saying that this year they have not had that many staying during the week, and only 4 on this weekend. Our next CL is £12 pn, + 25p for the dog, and also has H/S and EHU, and has been this price since 2019.
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We have stayed there a couple of times, once in the snow!!😲
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Ditto!
The last time we were on a club site we were surrounded by a very noisy disruptive crowd of Travelers who monopolised the facilities all day. At night they were all sat around drinking and talking loudly. Their children were left to run around willy nilly at all hours.
Not a nice experience.
The last club site we booked got cancelled by the club due to lack of staff.
Not a great advert!
When it comes to pitch prices I feel that Dick Turpin is alive and well!
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When it comes to pitch prices I feel that Dick Turpin is alive and well!
I don’t believe Dick gave folks the choice of wether they paid up or not. We of course do have the choice. We are continuing to use CAMC sites as they meet our requirements. However, they are no longer the default choice and our number of advanced booking has reduced, being replaced with other providers. I can only see this trend increasing when deposits are finally introduced.
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I think the inflationary economy & fuel/power costs are doing the job that the introduction of deposits was vaunted to do my many requesters of deposits🤷🏻♂️
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I too don't get this idea about club/CL prices being somehow akin to robbery. Dick Turpin above and previous references by a poster calling them daylight robbery.
In both cases money is taken against your will, if you voluntarily book then drive into such sites and pay (again voluntarily) it's all down to you and not the site that sets the prices.
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On our recent aborted trip to the West Country we had planned to use 4 sites, one Club site and three commercial sites. Unusually at £20 a night the Club Site (Cadeside) was the cheapest although no facilities which was fine by us. The commercials sites were, £29, £32 and £35 a night which I didn't think was to bad? When planning the trip I did look at some CL's but none of them achieved my convenience factor of either being within a shortish walking distance or equally near public transport. So when applying those "conditions" I was better off with the chosen sites. I know some of you spend many, many days away in your vans so I can see if you are spending half the year away cost might become a more important factor. Now we no longer go abroad spending something like 70 nights away is a busy year for us! There just seems so much more to do at home to spend longer away. Basically what I am saying is that I would rather spend the money on sites which are convenient for me rather than always seeking economies and as I see it, making compromises. One thing this trip taught me was to be very cautious in future of paying upfront weeks before arrival. I don't mind risking a deposit but losing nearly £200 on a pre-booked site because of illness did make me think!
David
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The window tax was literal daylight robbery👍🏻
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...rather than always seeking economies and as I see it, making compromises
+1 to all your post and especially that sentence
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I looked up “daylight robbery”, from a business perspective, rather than historical origins, and it’s much clearer in terms of meaning as applied on this thread.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/daylight-robbery
Speculative pricing, where the commodity for sale, be it PPE during a pandemic, shoddily manufactured caravans and Motorhomes, or camping pitches where supply might outstrip demand, means that something is for sale at a higher than expected price.
The value of that commodity is something totally different, and will be an individual choice. For some, it has to be paid no matter the price, for others, it’s too high, and they will look around, compromise, do a deal.We are all likely to be at different points on the price v value scale.😁
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and fortunately so, otherwise, we'd all be at the same campsite! Well type of campsite.
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+1 ED
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For us it's not all about the "Price" and it's not always about the spending power of the stayer either.
CLs offer a more relaxing, varied way of caravanning and in general I tend to find that my fellow stayers are more genial than those I come across on Club Sites. Not only that but owners tend to have more time to stop and have a chat as well. This all builds into what Ttda was on about, namely value. It's hard to quantify but in some cases it doesn't even matter that the facilities aren't top notch (but acceptable).
Quite often on club sites we'll find our immediate neighbours are pleasant if a bit reserved and the only time their reticence goes away is when you are packing up and trying to hitch up.😂 I'm struggling to think of the last time I had a really long or extended friendly chat with a neighbour on a club site whereas I can remember having one on every CL we've been on this year. Not a great deal wrong with reticence but the atmosphere on CLs tend to be more relaxed whether it's a £12 per night one or a £20+ one. Plus quite often pitching "Rules" are a bit more relaxed as well which certainly helps.
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We do tend to find staying on a CL a totally different experience to staying on a Club Site, as you say WN. It’s often where the “added value” bonus provides a great deal more than the price charged. What was nice was that we found things similar on the little Aires and Forestry pull in’s up in D&G last month.
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Totally agree WN. We do use Club sites, but only during late autumn/winter and very early spring. I'm afraid that for me, at any other time they no longer offer what I consider to be value for money; to be on a (probably full) big Club site at the height of summer would not be my idea of a relaxing time and I certainly wouldn't want pay the fees charged at those times.
We have used CLs much more during the last few years, including in July and August, and have experienced the same as you: people are willing to spend the time of day with you much more. Added to that the fact that there are only a maximum of 5 units, in addition to charging much less than a Club site, to me offers better value.
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Yes, we've been here before WN. I don't disagree with most of what you say although I do not use CLs; it does not surprise me at all that folk are more genial, approachable and sociable on CLs. I wrote the following in response to your post (and that of others) on a previous thread sometime back:
On the question of sociability of members I suspect that it is true, albeit a bit of a generalisation, that those who visit CLs are more likely to be sociable types. The very nature of CLs is such that one is less anonymous, one of a small number and almost a part of the farm or household or establishment that runs the CL. This gives it more of a rally type atmosphere. Maybe this is more for the outgoing sociable types. A person who is shy or unsociable on a club site is not likely to suddenly come out of their shell on a CL [and they are probably less likely to use one in the first place]. It is not the CL that makes people sociable, it is that sociable types are more likely to go to CLs.
I, too, find that a lot of campers are reluctant to engage on club sites. I get quite dismayed when people avoid eye contact and go out of their way not to chat. I suspect that has changed over the years. I have theories about why that is, but that can get into socio-economic and quasi-political areas so I won't go there. But I do have chats with other campers - neighbours mostly or at the service point - on club sites, but it is a long time since I had enough interaction to get into first names or maybe sit together for a chat over a cup of tea or some such. Once I became friendly enough with a couple, at Morvich, many years ago, that we visited one another subsequently. It does happen, but I suspect that is rare nowadays.
I have thought about using CLs but finding a CL with public transport nearby and with hard standing (these being more or less essentials for me), as well as in the chosen area for the trip in question, is quite a challenge I find. I have used CLs but very rarely. I, too, do not like very busy sites and most of my nights away are out of season.
I had a close friend who ran a CL in St Asaph, North Wales, sadly now passed away. For him it wasn't about money at all provided he covered his costs, which were pretty slight. He loved the interaction with customers and some became friends. One couple from France became lifelong friends and he (the CL owner) and his wife ended up buying a house in Béarn to be close to them. Anecdotal, I know, but it illustrates the particular personal, convivial nature of CLs.
Regarding pricing, the actual thread topic, it's called supply and demand.
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We love using CL’s. Like InaD we don’t find Club sites are value for money these days although we do use the ‘no facility’ sites like North Yorkshire Moors. We don’t need shower blocks as we don’t use them. We have noticed that CL’s with hardstanding, which we prefer, seem to be getting a bit more available. Prices this year have increased a little £16/£18 a night seems about average this year although we have booked one for September that is £25 but we wanted the location and still cheaper than a Club site.
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isn't there a north south divide when it comes to talking to your neighbour? 🙄😉
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We also rarely use club sites now, and if we do it's usually the no facility sites. I am still working but we like to have quite a few weekends away as well as our main holidays, and we wouldn't be able to get away any where near as much if we used club sites at their prices or even using some CL'S which have increased their prices enormously.
We regularly use a CL with metered EHU and so we know how much electricity we use, even on our last visit it averaged out at under £2 per day without using the heating. For a CL to charge an extra £5 per night to cover the cost of electricity in the summer is a bit excessive in my opinion 🤔
We have just had 9 nights away, first CL was non ehu at £12 pn but it was in the Cotswold's, second site in Somerset, huge almost level grass pitch with EHU, masses of space, fabulous view, water tap, good CDP, nice pub just down the road all for £14pn. 🙂 So there are still some excellent sites at reasonable prices out there.
Space, and peace and quiet is top of our list, after location, don't need HS, toilets, showers or even electric now we have fixed the fridge so it works on gas! 🤣
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We have just had 9 nights away, first CL was non ehu at £12 pn but it was in the Cotswold's, second site in Somerset, huge almost level grass pitch with EHU, masses of space, fabulous view, water tap, good CDP, nice pub just down the road all for £14pn. 🙂 So there are still some excellent sites at reasonable prices out there.
We are on a CL at the moment, hard standing, EHU, at £12 per night, and it also has a farm shop which well their own icecream!!😀 There are certainly still bargain sites out there.
BTW which CL did use use in Somerset, Helen?
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It’s very interesting to read the comments on CLs, the pricing and what facilities different members prefer.
In our early days of caravaning most small sites just had CDP and if you were very lucky one toilet. As caravans developed, out went the gas mantles, toilet buckets, and cooler boxes and in came more electrical appliances. This resulted in the demand for sites to provide EHU, with some sites taking it further and providing a shower as well as a toilet. Obviously the cost of providing and maintaining these facilities must be covered by the pitch prices.
What really amuses me is that we have reached the point where units are so well equipped that some owners now just want a field with CDP
. Back to the future.4 -
What really amuses me is that we have reached the point where units are so well equipped that some owners now just want a field with CDP
I think that has always been the case with those that have well equipped vans and are prepared to use them.
peedee
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