Far too expensive
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel the prices for pitches are way too expensive.
Knaresborough club site. 3 adults and one child - £58.60. That's disgusting!
Won't be staying there and to be honest, I am not sure why I am a member, most of the sites I have stayed at are independent.
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Plenty of choices near Knaresborough - there are 14 other sites within 5 miles of the town.
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Harrogate Caravan Park (highly recommended) would have cost you about £44 plus a little more for dogs and an extra car should you have one. Nice farm shop next door. Over bank holidays there is a three day minimum booking. (which the Club don't have). It's interesting looking at the fees of the respective sites, the Club charge far more for extra adults and children (over a certain age)
David
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It used to be the old Great Yorkshire Showground site run by the CMC years ago. In the lobby of the toilet block is a large aerial photograph of the old site. Next to the site is a nice farm shop and restaurant. At the end of the road is a Sainsburys supermarket and buses into Harrogate.
David
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When have you booked this for?
I have a week booked in August, currently only for 2 adults as I'm not sure how long our granddaughter is going to be with us.....
On current prices it is £311 (£1.20 more than what I've paid), adding a child it is £342.20 which equates to £48.90pn
Which I am prepared to pay.
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We rarely use site facilities either, so look for CLs with hardstandings and , ideally, serviced pitches.
We also like to have our daughter and 2 grandchildren along when possible, which now is only possible in school holidays, so even more reason to seek out CLs.
At Easter we spent 8 nights just outside York on a CL with HS and serviced pitch, £22 per night. And used one in North Wales that was only £18, which did have a good toilet and shower available.
We very rarely use CAMC sites these days, CLs , CSs, CCC sites and many commercials offer us better value.
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Harrogate Caravan Park is very nice if you are doing an event at Harrogate Showground. Fodder is the big farm shop DK mentioned next door, and there are nice walks direct from the Site. It’s not that close to Harrogate town centre, but on bus routes. You cannot book it for Great Yorkshire Show though in July.
Freddy, Harlow Carr is a lovely full day out. Huge car park. There are some nice CLs in the vicinity as well. We have used two so far, one with CCC.
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Prices went right up when electric had a large hike after covid . I agree with the poster that the prices at Bank Holidays are over the top . Its fine when your able to go off peak but its hard on working families . Weve just been to North Yorkshire and stayed away just two days and not three so the club misses out , I stayed at Troubeck Head recently and its facilities are really five star hotel standard . The Club dosnt need to spend so much on luxury at this level when people are caravanning and most have bathrooms .
Final point I really hate joining the inevitable queue waiting to get on at 13.00 and wondered who made this rule ?? What the outcome would it be if members were surveyed ? . I have never met ONE MEMBER who agrees with the 13.00 site opening . Get them off site at 11am and allow entry at 12.00 so members can get on with their day at a decent time.
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I get a little fed up of the bellyaching about pitch prices. No one is being forced to use club sites, (they do not have the monopoly); have they tried looking at the cost of alternative holiday accommodation lately? Guest houses, self catering cottages and so on?
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One had to read your opening post in order to find out exactly what it was you considered to be "far too expensive".
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Your issue is that you have a third adult in the party which really bumps up the site fee. Most campsites charge for extra adults beyond the two included in the pitch price which is often the way commercial sites operate. The Club have always charged "per person" with the odd exception. Brilliant if you are a single camper but not so good if you have more that the usual two adults in the party. I doubt the CMC is about to change its fee structure anytime soon?
David
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As a solo tourer, I definitely agree with you that many Club sites are better value than many CLs, but some Club sites are rather expensive if there are more than just a single tourer.
Most sites, undertandably, put up their prices when fuel costs increased by quite a lot, but whilst the Club has put many of their prices down, CLs have not. I tend to stay on Club sites more than CLs as you have a very good idea of what they are going to be like and not too many CLs have dishwashing facilities, which I prefer to have.
I do think that some of the prices that CLs are now, are too expensive, especially if they have not got toilet or shower facilities and the electric is metered as well, but of course for couples rather than single tourers, the price is more reasonable.
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We have not stayed on a Club Site for several years that hasn't been full or very nearly full.....
It's quite evident that the general membership don't find prices too expensive.....
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It could also be that they now know they have free spaces which they can encourage folk to book with various offers. Before deposits they wouldn’t have been able to do this as there were many more bookings made that were not taken up. I remember several on here saying they were able to make a week by picking up cancellations over a period of time. I suspect there are a lot fewer cancellations now.
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Interestingly, I just got an offer for up to £40 off a 3 night stay, someone has presumably noticed we have not been using Club sites, as this offer does not feature in the “offers” listed elsewhere.
Valid through to the end of September, but unfortunately has to be booked by 23rd June
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We have stayed on more Club Sites in the last six months, than we have in the last ten years. (We are doing one day events, need safety and security for our dog, are awash with unspent “ holiday money” due to my caring duties.)
Our experiences have been that Cayton Bay was empty in November, Bolton Abbey was busy on first opening weekend with the free night offer, North York Moors less than 50% full midweek, then a few more on Fri/Sat, but not full in March, Clumber Park less than 50% full midweek, full at weekend in early May (weather gorgeous). We are now at Burrs, which was around half full last night, busier tonight and Sat night.
Conclusions? Weekends still busy, so it might still not be easy to get that “full week” with weekenders booking a couple of nights. Midweek is very quiet away from honeypot/town centre sites. It’s a lot easier to pick up an “on the wheel” booking, or extend a stay. We are paying around £30-35 per night, and making sure we use all the on-site facilities we can. I looked at a couple of sites for July, and for the two of us, the price jumps into the £45+ region, even midweek with pitches still left to book. Haven’t seen many families away, mainly senior couples or lone tourers. We won’t pay the premium rates for Summer pitches (and don’t forget, these have apparently been discounted one way or another). It will be back to CLs and other options for Summer/ longer tour, if we get the chance.
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In addition to what Steve has said I wonder if the new booking system is providing more accurate "real time" information which allows the use of special offers. Out of the loop now but some of them seem pretty good. especially if you are willing to book ahead. £40 off a three night stay looks worth while.
David
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Yes, it sounds OK, but the conditions look a bit vague in some areas.
The offer seems to be a free night if your nights are less than £40 each, or a max of £40 off if they are more than that, but it is not 100% clear.
We do hope to go away in September but have made no decision as to where, so having to book that within roughly 2 weeks is not so good, especially as we have a lot on at the moment. And 3 nights, to get the best deal, is a bit less than we usually like to stay on one site these days. Usually we stay at least 4 nights, and mainly 5.
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The Facebook group page down on the coast at Looe calls itself “Looe Moaners”. Maybe Club Together could have a separate section just for moaning too.
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Another E mail from the Club today telling me what sites are near to us (why do they think I do not know that, and they are all sites we have used before), and urging me to check Late Availability in my area. Never had these sorts of emails before, there must be a lot of unbooked pitches
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It is called marketing their product ie site pitches ,just wonder if they will start doing heavy discount on short notice bookings like some of the holiday companies do to help cover the costs on sites better to have a small profit than none at all
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I’m getting same couple of times a week K. They just get deleted.
Now if it came up with a free night for us, as a thank you for booking five different Club Sites in the last six months, I might take more notice. But they don’t do that kind of marketing. We won’t be using Club Sites now as prices rocket for Summer months.
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And yet - as I’ve posted elsewhere, we are currently on the Sandringham site and it’s packed - unlike when we were here at Christmas when there was hardly anyone here. And the weather’s not much better!!
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If they started charging per dog would help to bring down prices with the increase in revenue they could afford to lower pitch price.
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