Popular Site Weekend Availability
We have been looking at making some weekend bookings for the coming months, living in Yorkshire we have some really popular weekend sites, York Rowntree, Chatsworth, Castleton etc usually these are booked up and hard to book for most of the year. This year we have noticed they seem to have quite alot of availability.
We are wondering if this is due to now having to pay deposits or the fact the club prices are now quite expensive in some peoples mind or maybe just the general cost of living.
Just wondering what any other members thoughts maybe as to availability on sites not what all our financial status maybe.
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Comments
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Who knows? We could speculate for days, and probably will, and still not discover the real reason.
Just make the most of it and book your sites. 👍🏻
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Well the deposits were introduced for just this purpose, perhaps they have worked and people are booking nearer the time?
Or maybe the increase in sites fees?
Or (we're told) there are cheaper and just as good sites out there now?
Or cost of living crisis?
Or increased fuel prices?
Or maybe more people are (re)turning to going abroad either with their outfit or not?
Or...
As said by TW anyone of a number of things. Just enjoy it.
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'We are wondering if this is due to now having to pay deposits or the fact the club prices are now quite expensive in some peoples mind or maybe just the general cost of living.'
you mentioned price (a recurring theme) so I just checked the prices at Chatsworth...a Super Pitch is £57 at peak, £5.90 more than a HS awning pitch.
as a normal SP is £4.90 more than a HS, the hedge and black waste drain seems extraordinarily good value for a pound....I'll have a hedge and drain please (shades of an old Two Ronnies sketch set in a café I seem to recall)...
Speaking of popular sites, I then checked Hillhead as I thought this might be even more expensive...and it is at £60.20 for an SP at peak.
I thought this was the pinnacle of pricing until I scrolled forward to New Year and from Jan '24 said SP will set one back £63.30!
For just the increase I could have three hedges and three black wastes for that at Chatsworth and 30p change.
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Some club sites are the prices as you state but as always you do tend to pick on the most expensive dates and the most expensive options like a SP and super pitches.
Also you always choose Hillhead as your headline price but Hillhead is most certainly not a typical club site in any way shape or form with it's heated outdoor pool, eating places and entertainment. Go there out of peak, say May, and the prices are £45, a fair bit different.
I would pay to use Hillhead if I wanted to be in that area, I've used Seacroft before and it was great but they are not typical. All of the sites I'll be using this year, touring all through the year apart from August will be a far more traditional club sites with HS and SP but I'll paying a max of £45 and a low of £35.
a recurring theme? Not really I would say but then so what if it is so much as you claim on here. Here being CT, doesn't really count, as I've told you and JK has SP are the very popular, (full over Christmas at Seacroft on it's 34 SP) people are happy to pay them and that's counts?
There are far more expensive sites than club sites, Concierge Camping that you've been to in the past is far more expensive and certainly takes the pinnacle for pricing with it's top end pitches at peak coming in at £99! Or even £145 over the Christmas break.
It's all about what one perceives as quality and value for money.
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My thoughts are it's all of the above.
Higher prices are easier to swallow when the weather is good, given its winter and folk are having to weigh up what they can and cannot afford they have probably chosen to spend their money elsewhere.
Deposits were brought in to stop speculative booking, it appears to have worked.
Of course let's not forget the wonderful new booking system. How many folk have given up trying to use it and gone elsewhere.
Last but not least I would think some folk have decided that if they have to pay the best part of £200 for a pitch, plus fuel to get there, they may as well pay a bit more for a cheap winter break in the sun.
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When discussing the 'pinnacle' of pricing it's surely usual to look at the topmost bracket?
this can be compared from year to year and also be reminded of how far CAMC prices have moved recently.
as you know (yet seem to have forgotten regularly) my recommendation for a certain site was a fair few years back when I thought it was good value for money.
it's still a great site, with top class features but, again as I have repeatedly reminded you, prices have become silly.
similarly, in relation to what they provide, IMHO CAMC prices have moved to the silly end of the scale.
the OP was about what factors might lead to better availability...deposits, T/C will contribute, but the high price is certainly one of them.
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Well that's exactly what I did with Concierge Camping as I can't find any other site that matches it, yet that is, so you can't complain there that I've used it in any way by your own logic?
Btw I made no mention of your recommendation about that site did I?
But having said that no I wouldn't use the topmost bracket in talking about club site prices, or indeed about anything, would you talk about car prices by looking at the top end or the middle? Well I wouldn't use the extremes and as you've complained about the club using its bottom cheapest price in the 'from price' so equally it applies at the top end. I always use the middle.
Hillhead has a heated pool, restaurants, and entertainment, one of a very few sites (2 or 3 perhaps) that is like this out of 200, (about 2% of club sites) so hardly representative of club site prices and features so I personally can't see how it's surely usual to look at the topmost bracket? I think one has to compare like with like?
but the high price is certainly one of them.
Not necessarily, firstly that's just your opinion of high of course and it could be one of them, you can't know for sure?.
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Despite the cost Chatsworth is still popular throughout the year with lots of dates full or low, even as far forward as next November when we have a booking. There does seem to be a reduction in weekends fully booked, particularly from June onwards when deposits will be required. It therefore does seem that deposits have stopped a lot of possibly speculative bookings. However, I have no doubt those dates will be filled closer to the time. In my opinion Chatsworth is still value for money.
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I agree with that, perhaps deposits have done their job? And yes it is a great site and worth it due to its features and of course its location. It's on my list for a revisit soon.
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I feel that you are right June onwards seems to be when there is most availability.
Maybe the deposit system should have stated earlier if it seems to be working and making it better for all when booking.
Having been to both Hillhead and Seacroft when our daughter was younger they were great but not sites we would visit now, peace and quiet for us now please.
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Can't say I agree with you there Steve.
We've been of course but neither of use have any wish to return, even more so when you look at the cost of the place, both site and the house and gardens.
We prefer to go to new places not repeating visits, especially now that prices and fuel are so expensive.
There are sites that we do use time and again but these are usually for 1 night on our way to the ferry. If touring in the UK we always try to find somewhere new too visit.
I could never understand those who folk claimed booked up every weekend at the same site.
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"I could never understand those who folk claimed booked up every weekend at the same site."
I can. People who work and like to get away at weekends probably have a limited choice of sites within an acceptable distance from home. They find a site/area they like so return to familiar territory for their weekend escapes. It’s even better if they can leave their caravan on site between weekends. Been there, done that and it was a lifeline at times so I’d not knock others' choices as they have their reasons.
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I fully get this, I am now semi retired so have the luxury of slightly more choice as i still have work some weekends.
In the past we have left our van to ensure we get weekends away it is a life saver when working full time.
Even our most local site Hebden Bridge is like being in a different world even just for a weekend 😀
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Just being away in the caravan does it for me. We once went away for a weekend getaway at the Durham site. Ten minutes' drive away
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It’s about a change of scene and a break from routine no matter where it is👍🏻
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Well it's a good job we are all different.
The reason we bought a caravan in the first place was to explore, not go to the same place over and over again.
If we wanted to do that we would either buy a static van or look for a seasonal pitch not buy a tourer.
Even when we were working we would still go to different places at the weekends.
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As life changes so do our needs with the result that we’ve done it all, with the exception of buying a static. Isn’t it fortunate that this hobby of ours is versatile and allows us to go vanning in so many different ways?👍🏻
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Well said👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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I have stayed 2 miles from home when rallying. I am in TGs court, my outlet when working was to rally most weekends, never far from home but always somewhere different and it opened up my eyes to what there really was to discover within a max of a 30/40 mile drive.
peedee
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The other day we went to a new to us local site less than 10 miles as the crow flies, it was lovely...
this week we've discovered a (local-ish) city we've never really explored before.
change is nice, along with the comfy slippers from time to time...
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