Price Shock

Welcome back. There are 33 sites listed on line within 5 miles of York and the price range is pretty variable, though if you can afford that smart new camper van I am sure you can afford the dearer ones. Good wishes.

Site fees are only one element of owning a motorhome but somehow you tend not to get people complaining about fuel/servicing/insurance which probably add up to a lot more than a few nights on a campsite. There are always cheaper alternatives but when you get a campsite in a unique location costs are bound to be high. Lets face it, none of us have any idea of how much the running costs are of the York site are. If people are determined to spend less Cherry Tree Cottage (no facilities but on a regular bus service into York) will probably cost half. But you could argue that despite its value it is not as convenient as being right in your. A couple of weekends ago we spent £86 for one night in a Premier Inn, but that did include breakfast. My motorhome would have been more comfortable!

David

Thank goodness for CLs - and if they get any more expensive, I'll not be renewing next

september, after 45 years !

And before anybody tells me that he club don't set CL prices, I have had first hand a number of reports that Club inspectors hav advised that owners should be charging more !

I have read these reports too. Some from regular posters on CT.

It is not in the interest of  members for volunteer inspectors to advise CL owners to increase prices, so if this is indeed happening, that is not good.

There are still reasonably priced CLs out there, even near York, we have booked one for a week in April, serviced hard standing, £22 per night I think, OH makes our bookings, but it is not of course as convenient for a MH owner as being close to the city centre.

These volunteer inspectors are probably the only face to face communication CL's get with the Club. Whilst the Club have clearly said that they don't recommend prices it would be foolish to think that subject of prices is not discussed on these occasions. The trouble is that automatically people think the Club is trying to influence prices when the reality is that these conversations are probably seeking general advice. So if I was a CL Inspector how should I react if the CL owners says to me that he is struggling with the fees he is charging. Surely the Inspector would ask have you considered putting your prices up? He could throw into the mix the fact that nearby CL's are charging XYZ for the same facilities so the owner has a ball park figure to consider. What would be wrong would be for the inspector to suggest they put their prices up without any prompt from the owner. I suspect those charging £25/30 a night, especially if they are offering everything a larger campsite would, without the benefit of scale, have done the maths and worked out how much they need to charge to not only recoup the investment but also make a reasonable profit. 

David

I agree TW. York is at least 20 times the size of Honfleur, notwithstanding the the differences in country.

I think Moulesy hit the nail on the head with his per person per night breakdown. The last time we thought about visiting London we thought the pppn at Abbey Wood to be great Value for Money. Circumstances prevented that trip. As nice and as beautiful as Honfleur is there is no way that a like for like price with YRP would be VFM. Apples and Oranges.

I think you should expect to pay more for city sites. Look at the alternatives for immediate access not at where you would have to travel in.

GTP

Thanks for the insight. That sounds to me as if the campsite is charging an unrealistically low nightly fee? I just wonder if you would have been willing to pay and extra 5 euros a night for that site which might have eased the owner's financial worries? The other side of all these cheap sites in France is that clearly a lot of them are uneconomic but there seems to be an over supply of pitches so they have to try and survive as best they can. In our latter years of touring abroad we noticed sites being taken over by companies that converted them to all static accommodation. I understand that many Municipal sites have been sold off, some to be converted into motorhome only stops. Going back to cost comparisons I assume how much a campsite charges, be it in France of the UK has a large element of supply and demand about it. If there is a ready supply with restricted demand prices will be lower. Whereas in the UK, certainly at certain times a year, throughout the year, demand seems to outstrip supply so just on that basic economic question prices are bound to be higher?

David