Can no longer afford
Sadly, I have had to cancel all of my bookings with the Club because of both the cost of pitches now on Club Sites and the price of diesel. How many more of you are having real difficulty in getting away as often as you used to?
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We are using cl,s up to a hour away, less travelling
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People also complain because CL prices are rising. See this thread-
Incidentally, both posters above, you can select your own user name by visiting My Profile at the head of the page. It saves confusion as one 'ScreenName' looks very like another.
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I suppose its inevitable that as inflation increases, we will all have to face difficult decisions as to how we go about our leisure time, but we do have some choices.
The CAMC isnt your only choice. Shop around a bit, and I'm sure you'll find better value for money elsewhere.
Keep it local. Even a 25 mile trip can seem like an age away
A couple of things that we've done lately include slowing down on the motorway to conserve fuel (i tend to have a heavy right foot!) and take advantage of the 'tow' effect behind a line of HGV's. (safely, of course)
I have also discovered Aldi and Lidl, and now do 80% of the weekly shop with them. I reckon I save £1000 a year.
If you need stuff for the caravan, buy second hand. I bought a 2nd Aquaroll for £15, and after a scrub up and a rinse out with cleaning powder, it looks brand new.
Whatever, I hope you find a way to continue caravanning
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We are feeling similar.
Last year, with the VAT reduction, we used a few Club sites, but far more CLs and CCC sites where we get the age reduction. However we found we very rarely used the facilities block.
This year we have so far used only CLs , CCC sites, and private sites.......all much less expensive than Club sites for better (for us) facilities, such as serviced pitches.
We have excellent on board facilities, so really do not need a facilities block, especially if we have a serviced pitch.
Just back from a 5+ week tour and our most expensive site was £27 per night, fully serviced, with excellent facilities if we needed them. Good play area for children too, info and good shop on site.
While on a site, we have considerably restricted what we do, visiting fewer places due to the cost of fuel, and qspending more time than usual relaxing on site.
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I have just commented on the ‘CL price rise’ page that we have almost stopped using Club sites now and just use a CL or the no facility sites. We never use the shower/toilet block as we have our own so why pay for them? Most CL offer much more value for money, for us anyway. As for the diesel price it does add to the costs but we try to make economies elsewhere.
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Having never been away for more than three weeks on a single trip or considered that we go away particularly often it's not too noticeable that anything is less affordable than it was.
So no, we're not feeling the pinch too much, prices have gone up but we're still able to get away comfortably although we rarely need or want sites with many facilities which will inevitably cost more.
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We each have to live within our means and budget accordingly.
The only thing to do is to get on with life as best we can. Cut back where necessary and adjust our lifestyles. Been there, done that. Leisure activity expenditure is clearly one of the non-essential areas of life where we can cut back and those who spend the most nights away have the biggest scope for making savings.
We had several years of only grabbing a few days holiday per year when times were hard. It’s life and there are ways of managing.
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We are at end of a 5 week trip, a short one for us, using mainly CLs plus one non-facility club site and one commercial site, and the average cost is a little over £17 per night, so much lower than we would have had to fork out if using full-blown club sites. This year so far we have had 134 nights away on our caravan at an average cost of £16:25 per night, so touring is possible with careful planning, without the cost being excessive,
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I think, if you have a caravan or MH, it makes little sense to keep it if you do not use it regularly/for a reasonable number of nights per year. Just exactly how many nights is debatable.
Ours is now 14+ years old, we will hang on to it meantime as both we and DD+family are using it, but we will not be buying another caravan at our age.
We would very much like to be away more......maybe not at present while fuel is so expensive!........but we have agreed to help look after the grandchildren, which we very much enjoy, so our days away are fewer than before. I reckon only about 13 weeks total this year.
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One other way to keep costs down is to have a look at your centre (or any centre come to that ) for rallying.
If you are with the other club have a look at their Temp holiday sites.
Once you have got used to doing away with the orange hook up cable you will be able to benefit from much cheaper site fees.
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There is a perverse logic there. Whilst Club sites may well be expensive how much cheaper would they have to be for you to carry on as you have before? Fuel costs are going to be the same and the only way you can save is to either use less sites and travel less. Even by Nellie's reckoning of spending on average a frugal £16.25 a night he has already spent over £2000 on campsites this year and I imagine that figure will by the close of the year be well over £3000 if he maintains his usual nights away for the rest of the year? Not wishing to sound unsympathetic but if we are questioning the cost of a hobby, which is not just a passing phase, I think we have to be honest with ourselves is asking whether we can continue or give up. Owning a motorhome is not a cheap option when you take into account insurance and servicing and perhaps storage. The Club obviously have a model of charging that covers their costs. I know many argue with that model but it is what it is and unless the Club see a massive decrease in occupancy which forced them to lower prices I expect a spin off from that would be to close less popular sites to save money and I would question whether that was to the benefit of members.
David
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I know it is not really a fair comparison, but it gives an idea of savings that can be made.
We have just returned from 5 weeks in northern France and NL. With the exception of food and visits it came in at about £1500 for the two of us. It is not cheap, but it is good value.
Booking in advance, using both ACSI and C&MC deals meant bigger discounts and £13 -18 a night fees. Advance bookings on crossings resulted in drastically lower prices, eg Hook of Holland to Harwich for £100. Towing a low profile van behind a 1.5 petrol Audi at 50mph gave 40mpg over nearly 1/2 of the towing miles, and about 36mpg over the remainder of the towing.
On our return we stayed the night at a CL near Harwich. This turned out to be our most expensive night at £20.
Colin
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For anyone on a budget currently the cost of fuel is the overriding factor. As has been mentioned there are much less expensive sites than those run by the CAMC. However, fuel costs can only be significantly reduced by travelling shorter distances. Whilst undoubtedly site costs, particularly with a MH can be significantly less in Europe, you do have to get there. Even for us with a reasonably economical MH and living in the East Midlands, getting to and from the ports is an additional £125 cost, which could be used as part of a restricted tour closer to home.
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Fuel is, without doubt, the biggest expense, so perhaps Brittany, Normandy and Holland will become the destinations of choice rather than long treks to Italy, Croatia and Spain. So far this year my site costs have averaged £12.60 and I will continue to seek value for money which makes club sites pretty much a non-starter. I have seen such sentiments expressed across a number of forums.
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As already pointed out the cost which is the most difficult to overcome is fuel and only real way to save on that is not to travel so far but as far as savings on site fees, you have a motorhome and the world is your oyster. Overnight costs can be free or very cheap compared to Club sites. I have just come back from a 30 day tour of northern UK and if I discount the Club sites I stayed on (both Cubs) my avergae nightly cost of using the C&CC temprory holiiday sites and official overnight parking areas was £7.70.
peedee
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Now that we are retired an extra £20 or £30 to fill the tank is not going stop us going away. We are however having less coffee’s out and taking a flask and packet of biscuits instead. Life is too short to worry about a few extra £’s to fill the tank.
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DK wrote:
There is perverse logic there.
I see nothing "perverse" in the OP's logic. On the contrary, it sounds normal and understandable and a common notion that I have heard a lot. However, I do not hold the CMC responsible (I am not saying the OP was having a dig at the CMC prices particularly, but that does seem to be the flavour of recent threads). I am not one of those who perceives club sites as particularly expensive. Against CLs, yes, of course, but CLs are a quite different kettle of fish. Against good quality, private sites, not at all expensive in my experience. Mind you, I am a solo motor-homer so the CMC way of charging helps me compared to sites that charge only for the pitch.
The real killer for me is paying £130 + to fill up my diesel tank. Scotland is my great love, but going there now is expensive. I work things out and find that a three week trip to Scotland might cost me about £7 a night more because of the extra fuel cost. Can I afford that? Probably, and so I carry on - for now! Next year might be different. I certainly fully sympathise with the OP. Nothing perverse to see there.
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Since having the caravan these past few years we know how much we spend / allocate each year. Its pretty constant. If pitch costs go up, number of nights goes down has been our mantra so far.
We have noticed a large increase in CAMC site costs over that period, well beyond inflation and in comparison with other options. The exception was the voucher discount available during the peak of Covid, for which we took advantage and had some great breaks away in peak school holiday period South Wales, North Wales, Southport, Ferry Meadows involving towing fair distances. Well done CAMC. Why not do it again?
The main cost increase is fuel, so those meals out supporting local business will go, pub visits etc. also. Price of a pint is another comparator, £6.50, £8 per pint won't get our business either. As for £34 for fish and chips, no thank you.
As we are now able to go outside school holidays there is more choice than in our caravan ownership so far. If CAMC are lower cost they'll get our business, if not they won't.
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That's a good argument, but as with everything there comes a tipping point, especially if income is fixed or not keeping pace.
In my case the extra cost of a tank full is closer to £50.
In the 12 months to June 2022, the AA figures show that the average price of diesel in the UK has risen from1.330 per litre to 196.4. My last fill up cost 199.9, but this has fallen in recent days.
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Graydjames wrote:-
However, I do not hold the CMC responsible
I do...based on an explanation as to why a significant addition site fee has been introduced to cover energy costs.
When I queried why a site booking had increased by £12.90, I was informed by EG that it was to cover the rise in energy costs. When I further queried why this had not been future proofed (as a large organisation)...the unbelievable answer was that no-one realised there would be such an increase...
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It does sound incredible that they had not organised fixed price contracts well ahead, usually you can renew commercial ones up to 6 months before the current ones expire.
However, we do not know exactly how the Club organises these things, if each site has a separate contract these may well end at different times, so possibly easy to be caught out on at least some of them, but not I would have thought on all of them.1 -
I cannot entirely agree there.
Having seen the cost of Club sites this year, we decided to look elsewhere, and found it relatively easy to find sites in the areas we wanted to visit at significantly lower prices for facilities that suited us better.
One example.......in mid/late June we used a small commercial site near York, purely a touring van site, with a few seasonals too........usual facilities, good play area, information and small shop on site, serviced hard standing, £27 per night. I wonder how much a serviced pitch at Beechwood Grange would have been at that time!
In mid June we also took advantage of a Haven offer for 7 nights in Northumberland. Not a type of site we would normally consider, but we had the grandchildren along and it has excellent play areas and free use of the indoor pool. Hard standing with water tap, strangely no drain, usual facilities block.........£22.50 per night. It was busy at weekends.
Otherwise we used CCC Sandringham (hard standing and wi fi included) which I think was in the region of £21.50 per night with age discount, something like £12-£13 less than we would have paid at the CAMC site next door, where we have been once before.
Our daughter and family are now also using our van in school holidays. They look for good play areas, some indoor facilities in case it is wet, and always serviced hard standings.
At Easter they paid £30 per night for a site with indoor pool, and at the moment they are paying £30 per night in the Lakes. Nearest Club sites are Kendal, Coniston and Meathop.
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Just checked CAMC prices ........
Kendal, serviced, £32.10 today, from tomorrow £37.90
Coniston, no serviced pitches, £30.40 today, from tomorrow £36.50
Meathop, serviced, £36 today, from tomorrow £41.80
That last one is a bit of a shocker!
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Hang in there, long screenname. You have done the first step, which is cancel expensive options. You can still get away using a nice mix of sites and locations, with a little bit of compromise on facilities and other extras. Club Sites are fine if you need/want absolutely everything laid on for you, little effort in terms of pitching up, and can afford them. But there are other options, including many lovely CLs, small private sites, and some “do a bit more for yourself” type of sites such as water and waste collect and dump. You also have an MH, which can be used as your own cafe, so that’s day out savings as well. We recently did a 10 night tour for an average of £12.30 per night, (four nights without EHU, but four on a £20 per night CL) by mixing up our kind of pitch ups. If you can compromise (and I realise some cannot, or simply don’t want to) then it’s still a good value holiday option. Fuel is slowly coming down in price, it’s six pence a litre cheaper this week than last week round here.
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The price of fuel is coming down, albeit slowly. Whether it ever gets back to around £1.35 a litre we were paying in mid 2021 is questionable but it will slowly come down to more reasonable levels. On the other hand campsite prices are unlikely to come down or perhaps even level off. The cost pressures are unlikely to calm down particularly with inflation pushing 10%. This inflationary pressure has been hitting Club sites for some time particularly in terms paying and retaining staff. I am sure that using outside contractors for certain aspects of site maintenance has also not been without cost pressures. We then come to energy. Commercial enterprises don't have any "price cap" on their energy costs so the increase has probably far higher than ordinary households and of course no Government support. Even if the Club had a fixed price contract it wouldn't surprise me whether there were get out clauses if there was a sudden and unexpected rise is energy costs. Then we come to the thorny issue of comparison between Club sites and individual private sites regarding site fees. With a 200 site network it probably restricts flexibility on prices as each site has to pay its way. It will be interesting to see if the Club's site network is in surplus by the end of the year? Small private sites and large holiday centres operate differently to the Club. The CMC works on the basis that it provides sites open across the year with usually high occupancy rates. Small private sites probably have to be a bit more nimble in achieving a balance between returning customer and attracting new whilst achieving a reasonable return. The big holiday centres are geared up around the peak school holidays and are usually reasonably empty for the rest of the year, so rather like the ACSI scheme they let pitches cheaply just to keep everything ticking over until the next peak. That is my observation of how camping works in the UK and probably how its always worked?
David
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What’s interesting me is that we are being inundated with emails telling me all about Club Sites that I need to visit, that still have lots of availability. Do I want to look at Experience Freedom offers? I don’t mind the emails, (even though as far as I am aware I have opted out of all but those essential everyone must know types)
Its telling me that bookings are down, and there is a lot of spare capacity around on Club Sites. So, I wonder why? Obviously a mix of circumstances, but pricing has to be a major factor. There’s little enticement to make us consider a Club Site as an option, so we simply dismiss them from our planning. They will only be used if the location is absolutely perfect, and the value outweighs the price.
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Somewhat surprisingly, given the background of some of the senior officers, the Club isn’t very pro active with its Club Site pricing. It is relying on its (still) elitist, “the place” to take one’s usually shiny, brand new outfit to sit and watch the grass being mown, staff meeting and greeting, running around doing this that and the other on one’s behalf, and charging for this at a rate that harks back to the days of only those with a certain disposable income being welcome, to be frankly honest.
There are a lot more special offers via Experience Freedom, but the best the Club can come up with for the pitching future is in the realms of a pound off if you choose a grass pitch. Wow………I don’t think🤷♀️
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