Let battle commence
'Offers' emails from both clubs this morning....
CAMC......Book early and save 10% on Autumn Getaways
C&CC......No more booking in advance (to take advantage of 2023 offers...this looks like a bit of one upmanship over the CAMC 'qualifying' T/C
has the explosion of new campers and the desire to get out there slowed with folk getting back to their normal holidays of packages and cruises?
some (not all) anecdotal evidence on CT suggests (some) sites are running well below capacity...
prepare for more in the inbox...
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On a CL in Cambridgeshire at present. Just us and a caravan. They have been touring around for a couple of weeks, Manchester, E. Yorks, York, Lincs and now here. Booking the day before, no problems getting pitches, largely CLs. None of them full, not even York. Owners all saying much quieter than usual.
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Its getting very confusing, but I think the CCC offers not requiring advance booking are much better than the book early for Autumn.
Our experience has been so much choice and availability on sites this year making choosing where to go harder, we are no longer booking ahead as can't afford loss, if cant travel due to health, caring or high wind.
When on a club site in June we were very surprised at how empty the site was.
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Not sure what battle is being referred to? And how will anyone know who has won in the end?
Surely people will just choose the best option for them? And that includes a mixture of location as well as price and quality? And it's great that there is so much choice, what will fit one person in terms of the above won't fit another so just choose what is best for you.
Well below capacity - not sure what that means or even how it's measured. No one ever said all club sites were running at capacity though a lot are, and certainly the ones I've been on have been.For everyone saying club sites are well below capacity others will post otherwise. Difficult to tell.
And of course as always, extrapolating what is posted on CT to actual real life occupancy is really just total speculation in my view, especially when considering current high memberships levels? A more comprehensive picture will come out at the AGM.
But as said great there is no much choice, surely that is a very good thing for those booking?
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Perhaps just an accident of history? Had there been no pandemic the new system, I imagine, would have been introduced a year or two earlier and as they say the rest would have been history? Since the last normal year, 2019, many things have been turned on their head. So I suppose we should be judging things against 2019 rather than trying to work out whether more are going overseas or those that took up camping as a means to an end and have now gone back to their usual types of holiday. Its all very well me saying we should judge against 2019 but I don't have the figures. We have only been on half a dozen sites this year, one commercial which I reckon was only half full, one affiliated which was probably 70% full, three CMC sites, one was packed at the weekend the other two had room and now on a C&CC site at Cambridge which seems to fill up every night. Interestingly we last stayed here in 2019 at almost the same time of year and the fees have gone up about 30p a night! £10 cheaper than Cherry Hinton!!! One of the C&CC site staff told me that have had a massive increase in membership recently. Whether that turns out to be the case we will have to wait and see. I think what the CMC might have overlooked is that they had a massive captive membership who only stay on their sites and the new booking system has come as quite a blow. Many of these members are probably of the age when they have medical conditions which are not as predictable as making a regular check up appointment with the dentist. So the new booking system introduces an element of stress. Any amount of discounts and lower deposits are not going to make it easier for that element of Club membership.
David
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"and now on a C&CC site at Cambridge which seems to fill up every night. Interestingly we last stayed here in 2019 at almost the same time of year and the fees have gone up about 30p a night! £10 cheaper than Cherry Hinton!!!"
Anyone who's visited both sites will surely head to where you are.....??
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Brue, nail on head...I guess most folk thought the introduction of Dynamic Pricing would see a genuine contrast in prices asked at 'way ahead of booking', 'a few weeks away' and (genuine) 'last minute'.
price panels for CAMC do not show any significant variance with prices falling in the days before a potential visit....a few pence here and there (wit( no seeming logic) won't be the sort of magnet some thought it might be.
what did we, the customers, get?.....an inbox full of emails with offer after offer, changing in deposit levels (after hiking them recently) and myriad discounts with strings attached, still aimed away from last minute booking.
confused.com?
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We also got those e mails from the Clubs today, we just MIGHT be tempted to take up an offer or two in September, but will not be booking too far ahead if we do.
We have friends to visit in Fife, where there are no nearby suitable CLs, but Balbirnie Park, which we have used once before, would be about £23.50 per night from late September. Only problem is that it is only that price from rather later in the month than we would like.
Will need to see how that would fit in with going elsewhere first, and ending up at wherever DD & co decide they want to go in the school October week.
Getting a decision out of them is never easy!
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It isn’t just an option of one Club or another, or CL versus CS. There’s a wealth of other family owned independent sites.
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We tend to visit both as they have different advantages, one year we stayed at both! Cherry Hinton has the edge for getting into the City by bus and there is a pub nearby where you can have a meal. The C&CC site has a more open aspect and still good bus connections but is a bit further out from the centre. Don't know what will happen when or if Cambridge introduce their congestion charge as I suspect the CMC might be in it but not the C&CC. But perhaps more to the topic of this thread I was surprised at the price difference and it can't all be down to the over 60's discount. I somehow doubt the CMC want to go down the route of an OAP's discount but they could offer a discount based on years of membership? The problem with the current rash of offers is they are not universal. I looked at East Anglia and I can get 10% of at the Norfolk Broads site but not Seacroft which would be our preferred choice. A month or so ago we took advantage of the discount offered for Cayton Village which was good but the Club do make everything so over complicated.
David
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Lots of threads on here about prices and the complex ( compared to previous) booking system.
For us the reluctance to book is not the price of sites but the new inability to cancel easily.
We are both still working full time, both have elderly parents we have to care for, transport to hospital appointments etc, our own medical situations and working children for whom we provide childcare to our grandkids. Add in the weather, work commitments suddenly changing etc and the 3 week rule just doesn't work for us. I have already had to pay the cancellation fee on one booking but I'm cautious about getting caught again.
The club have basically changed the whole nature of our camping from something a little bit spontaneous and casual to something that needs planning with the commitment and precision of booking a "proper" holiday like a cruise or something.
It might be too early yet to hope that the club will abandon the less popular elements of its new system, but hopefully these emails YT is getting show that someone, somewhere is starting to realise that all is not well......
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I don't think that Young Thomas understands Dynamic Pricing on Club sites. The price per pitch per night rises on a number of sites as availability for that date reduces.
Prices do not go down on empty pitches at the last minute. The idea is to encourage members to book early to secure the lowest price.
This is the approach that the C and CC have taken for many years - albeit with a longer free cancellation notice period (30days) and a higher percentage deposit (25%) than the CaMC..
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Same here, received both emails this morning. Up until this year I've never received as many emails from the CAMC trying to entice me to book one of their sites, especially not during the summer months.
Might well be tempted by C&CC's offers now you can book right up until day of departure, but not by CAMC's T&Cs of booking - 14 days in advance for summer discounts or 21 days in advance for autumn discounts.
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I can only agree. We have not been on a CAMC site for 2 years now, instead using CLs, commercials, and CCC sites. We only take caravan holidays, no hotels or cruises, pension not big enough unfortunately, but we are happy with what we do.
Prices on CAMC sites have now gone beyond what we can afford while still spending a total of 11-14 weeks away each year, and since we stopped using site facilities after lockdown, they are no longer value for money as far as we are concerned. If we do not make good use of our caravan, we might as well sell it.
We actually find it much easier just to use our own shower etc, so why pay for site ones that are not needed!
We might use the no facilities sites, but though some of the offers are quite good on price, the "book before" restrictions and the overall 21 days loss of deposit puts us off. CAMC have lost their unique selling point.
We don't have elderly parents to care for, we are the "elderly" now, but we do have 2 grandchildren we look after 2 days a week, and more often should it be required, generally in an emergency, so cannot be planned for. Daughter works full time in a managerial position, SIL is a teacher, so not easy for them to take time off if the children (2 & 5) are not well.
Being in our 70s and 80s, we have increasing medical problems, one never knows when something is going to go wrong! I have been on the waiting list for a small operation for 18 months now, no idea when I might get a date, possibly at short notice.......would that be a factor in getting deposits back.......who knows?
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I wonder if the upcoming summer of flight cancellations etc. will see some people returning touring again. I think that most of the UK leisure industry is suffering from low occupancy, not just this club. But the current 'economic crisis' doesn't seem to have affected the record numbers taking overseas holidays at the moment.
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Nothing in writing DD but it's true that the C&CC site prices do get more expensive as the availability gets less. Even at last minute.
The earlier you book the better the price. Couldn't comment on CAMC as I have no intention of paying their prices.
Love the new offer from C&CC might just use that and do a wee your up here.
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The sites are very much quieter. This is born out when looking upon the website booking system, and what we hear directly from the site wardens. We also not the sandwich boards out on the sites inviting you to extend your stay.
We believe the CMC has become much less of a membership club and evolved into a commercial company. The pitch prices are becoming far too expensive. There appears to be a greed motive or possibly jumping upon the bandwagon culture.
The pitch price increases do not reflect the often quoted 'due to energy prices increase', when considering the proportion of cost per pitch for energy. You may indeed ask yourself why the CMC is not using capital reserves to keep the club competitive (?)
Members are turning more to CL sites, and in our opinion the CMC will regret its recent changes in booking system deposit requirements and price increases.
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Maybe our experience this year isn't normal as all of the sites we have stayed on have been full apart from 1 CL.
Currently on a CL that has been full since Sunday with multiple changes of units but full nevertheless.
Even the lone club site, Wirral CP, was full but that doesn't have any competition and has always been a popular site for members.
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It does seem a good deal quieter than usual. We had a CL to ourselves last week. More interestingly, the CL also does storage, but we only saw three outfits go out all week. I’d add that the weather was nice as well, not like it is here at the moment.
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Yes, it’s a bit of a swings and roundabouts year.😁
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