You you have listened to our members
All the changes the club has introduced over the last couple of years such as new system, deposits and possible electric charges for a few you have said “:We have listened to our members” or you wanted the change we delivered it, I personally have never met anyone who asked for the changes but that apart I have been following the discussion on exorbitant pitch prices and find after many members concern over the increase in prices the discussion has been blocked, will you please listen to your members concerns on this issue.
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In her post in the other thread, Ro said:
"However if you do want to send any feedback on Club pricing please contact the Club directly as we always appreciate feedback from members"
That's the way to do it - by contacting the club directly rather than posting on the forum.👍🏻
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Over the last few years the Club have run quite a few surveys and sent out questionnaires after you have stayed at a site. Now whether the information gathered from members has been used to meet member demands or whether it has just reinforced what the management of the Club feel they need to do is difficult to say? Many complained that there was never any availability and it was impossible to book a complete week and very difficult to book a weekend. Some members even suggested deposits as the answer. The Club introduced a new booking system that allowed deposits and had it not been for Covid they would have been introduce sooner. The trouble is that deposits have not been an unqualified success. The Club point out that it has reduced short term cancellations by a massive figure so it seems to have been a success in that regard. But we have gradually seen the deposit percentage reduce from 20% to 5% and clearly the lower figure no real disincentive? From the offers given it seems that a proportion of the membership are unwilling to commit even a small deposit months or even a year ahead because they fear their circumstances will change and this is despite quite generous cancellation terms. AS far as prices are concerned I imagine the Club work on the basis of the site network being in balance each year. If there is a surplus its just ploughed back into the network. Any serious reduction in site prices could have two consequences, either that sites would not be upgraded which would mean them providing less value to the Club and members or those sites that struggle to make ends meet would just close. I think higher prices are here to stay but perhaps will level off and in a year or two won't feel as bad as they do now?
David
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I haven't met anyone Perosnally either but there was certainly many threads and posts on here.
Deposits, yes many posts and usually about not being able to book a pitch due to speculative booking, and while some asked for deposits there was certainly a great cry for easing the speculative boking which had some sites booked a year in advance with large numbers cancelling a few days before. Now I think the 'lead time' is about two months and the club has said cancellations are down by 70% (is that correct?), and it's a much better system in my view.
Metering, well again some posts asking for it but I wouldn't worry too much the DG has said this won't be happening until a better easier system can be in place for payments. It will be a while yet.
While the exorbitant pitch price wasn't in any way blocked, where are the many members you talk about? I've just done a very quick count and there were 16 individual posters, of course making more than one post, (page 1 and 6 are not available) so hardly many members when considering the whole membership and those using club sites at the moment. Also it wasn't all one way about prices. There were 7 who though prices were alright, 5 who thought them too much, and 4 posters were neutral or had an opinion nothing to do with prices. As I said a very quick count so don't hold me to those figures but allowing for errors it was evenly balanced.
But the club does listen, it listens to the most important thing, people actually paying and turning up at their sites. This will really do it, not posting on here as flatcoat posted very well. And it has to said as you posted in another thread that you have booked a club site, which may imply you're were at least prepared to pay the price and if you're willing to pay £40 a night then are you not helping to keep prices, as you think, high?
As TW said follow Ro's advice on feedback but in reality wheels on pitches is the ultimate feedback. The sites I've used are doing well this year, in fact it appears to me the higher the price the more campers it has.
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We've booked 28 nights away from the 8th September at 4 different sites, and the average price per night is just under £29.00. If we want to cancel any of them it will cost just a fiver, which is no big deal.
Yes, we've taken advantage of the Autumn discount offer, but I reckon thats a pretty good price.
No doubt there are plenty of people who know of sites that are cheaper, and good for them, but we are also voting with our wheels, and sticking with the CAMC.
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How pitches are being priced……..(quote from an article on demand based pricing)
“There are three different approaches to demand-based pricing:
Price skimming: Operators charge the highest price of a product that customers are willing to buy and then gradually scale the price down.
Penetration pricing: Operators undercut the value of a new tour and set low prices to attract new customers. That way, the operator generates buzz around the new tour right away. Banks often do this to attract new customers. You’ve probably seen them offer a “free checking” account or a similar offer for a limited amount of time. The idea is to attract the customer with a discounted service or product and provide so much value that they stick around long-term.
Value-based pricing: Operators price a tour based on how much customers think it’s worth. For example, Starbucks knows it has a loyal customer base. For its loyal customers, the perceived value of a Starbucks drink is far greater than the actual price of the coffee. They love the experience of walking into a cafe, ordering their favorite drink, and lingering around long after they’re done. As a result, Starbucks is able to charge a premium for its drinks.”1 -
Corners' comment clearly implied the positive correlation
As the writer No I did not and it wasn't what I was thinking about. Expensive sites appear to thrive while cheaper sites appear to be closing, a simple observation and which I even posted somewhere that there has more going on than price in all this.
I made a simple observation based on my experiences on the sites I visited this year so to do any correlation on just my observations (and then apply that to all club sites) would be foolish and I certainly wouldn't do that.
Also again if you want to discuss correlation theory Freddy quoted £100, now that is far in excess of even the most expensive sites (three or four?) on the network and an even greater excess when considering the average price on standard sites of about £40 to £45 meaning £100 is over two times bigger. As I'm sure you remember correlation fails miserably if you try and go too far outside the data set, as you know there's even a name for it - extrapolation.
And my observations were based not on honeypot sites but 'standard' club sites, names available on request. I don't think it's to do with price alone but paying for certain facilities and quality than club users appear to want.
Well some thought the future, others thought an idea (I personally wouldn't call it a hypothesis) but I hope it's clear what I was referring to.
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From another thread K Brown posted the sites he had been to this year, and next week are been mostly full to full. My experience also.
I noticed that Troutbeck Head was full over the BH, I can't remember the last it was full, certainly fullish but never full as it has 150 pitches. But it lead me to do a quick count of what the picture look likes if you want the BH weekend, and at least two nights, so looking at the Saturday night only in the order they appear on LA (when I did the search):
Lakes 7 sites, 4 full, 2 lows - and one site that does have space has no facilities.
East Anglia 10 sites, 8 full, two lows
Wales 13 sites, 6 full, 5 lows
NE England 7 sites, 4 full, 1 low - Nunnykirk has space
Cotswold 11 sites, 6 full, 2 lows
Southern E 16 sites, 6 full, 5 lows
North West 5 sites, 3 full, 1 low
Yorkshire 15 sites, 9 full, 3 lows
Scotland 20 sites, 3 full, 2 lows (Melrose in full for caravans/MH so 4)
East Mids 3 sites, 2 full
Devon 20 sites, 1 full
South East 17 sites, 4 full, 2 lows
West Mids 2 sites, 1 full
Peak District 7 out 7 full sites.
If you do the search for SP it's the vast majority full. I theory those full figures above could go up as I searched for all pitch types so there will be some tent pitches included.
With perhaps an error in quick counting makes 60 full sites. Now does that support the OP that site prices are exorbitant and there are many concerns? Yes many concerns on CT but in reality?
Disclaimer, yes it's BH, yes it's snapshot in time on a Saturday and proves nothing, and yes the club will look at occupancy over time, I'm not giving a view apart from I was quite surprised how good that looks, at least to me, but I'm just as always asking a question.
So yes let the club know your feedback but what is the club going to look at? Again a question.
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I did another look at LA for again this Saturday, and narrowed down the search to all touring pitches so as to exclude tent pitches, I won't (perhaps bore you with) the list by region again but just the main figures.
As of 30 minutes ago there are now 85 full sites (up from 60 two days ago) and 24 sites showing low, now even on the smallest site low means at least round about 90% full, other larger sites maybe 95% or more full Now to me that is very good indeed. I wish I had done one of these in previous years to give an idea if that is actually good or bad.
Usual disclaimers as above, and I'll add another perhaps the discount and low deposit helped, and we will never know if there are any cancellations but at least all those despists are in the bank (a quick calculation based on average site size at 90% full comes in at £370,000 just for that day alone) and I would suggest it won't alter things too much?
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sorry £37,000
which is probably low as I used 75 pitches as an average size.0 -
CS , Thanks for going to so much trouble, but let me reassure members who might like to come to the Southwest.
For the week commencing 27 August 2024 every one of the 20 club sites in Devon and Cornwall has availability every day for the entire week. Come on down. It’s still summer.0 -
And if anyone is interested (Yes I know -probably not) all pods and cabins are full at all locations. You can book a safari tent or Yurts though but even they are all low.
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Yes I did note that fully in my earliest post EuroT, but Devon and Cornwall has always been that way, hardly ever does it have full club sites, although it's two now full on the saturday BH weekend, being 'out on a limb' perhaps and fully harder to get to than a more central location, and of course if those members aren't a work for your dates.
And I should be thanking you, you often take the trouble and post about how many sites are not full, especially in D&C and it was the Peak District I think I recall last time - which is now full? So really I should be thanking you.
But apart from that my post was to answer the OP's point the many members concern over the increase in prices. Disclaimer applies.
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Just as a matter of comparing prices of site fees I came across a diary note of a stay at the soon to be closed site at Llanbrynmair, Gwern-y-Bwlch.
In 1999 we paid £4.45 per night for 2 adults and electric included. Looking on Google the inflation figure in the intervening years should be c83% higher so an equivalent fee of £8.14 should apply. Of course I know that nothing is ever that simple but I must admit that the original price came as a bit of a surprise to me.
BTW - the site was packed according to my diary note.
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I thought a forum was for open discussion.
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We can compare similar at Marazion. 1999 possibly a couple of pound more, might have been around £10 with electric. Booked full. We last stayed in 2021, think it was around £25 a night, site was still booked solid, we couldn’t extend our stay. Carnon Downs doesn’t interest us, not a good enough Cornish location.
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Discussion, yes, but you need to appreciate my post was replying to the OP who was attempting to address comments to CAMC. Using the forum for that purpose is not very effective and direct contact is much more likely to reach the powers that be.
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I suppose people might wonder what type of site Gwern-y-Bwlch was and what was its prices?
Luckily I still have a my 1999 sites handbook and it was an F band site all year, meaning it was a basic site and was the club closing basic sites even then? The pitch fee was £1, adults £1.50 and electric from £2.20 to £1.45 giving your price.
But at the same time about now in 1999 we stayed at our very first club site Troutbeck Head which was an A band site when we stayed so the prices were £2 for the pitch fee, adults £4.00 and electric the same giving our price to be £11.45, more than double your price.
Now that equals about £25 today but it's under £43 at the moment, but again as you say not so simple. A pint in 1999 was 95p now the average is over £4. Bread has gone up by three times, petrol has doubled, so not too bad
But club prices are still middle of the road, there are cheaper and more expensive sites out there.
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You're absolutely right. But which members are you talking about and where to listen? On social media, here? How is that any representation of the members? And is it the best way to listen? I've said it's the number of wheels on pitches that make the most sound
But you're right but a slight problem with that is of course is that members will have to stop using club sites in significant numbers.
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