Site Costs

I feel that most motorhoming "problems" happen because people choose to park their vans for ages and ages rather than moving around more often.

When I am "on the road" I have no trouble charging my batteries even on dull days, when my solar panel is not at its best, because they get both get filled up when I'm driving.

Water taps are everywhere here in Portugal, as are (free) places to empty your tanks.

More and more supermarkets provide parking spaces, washing machines and servicing facilities.

I know of a largish free "aire" in a popular "tourist" spot where the EHU is free.

I know of another where you pay 6€ per night but that includes EHU.

I know (and use) many, many completely free parking spots in beautiful surroundings.

Moving from one to another keeps my mind fresh, my water tank full, my other tanks empty and allows me to frequent supermarkets and shops to fill the fridge with grub. It also allows me to pursue my cultural pursuit of Burger tasting.

I am not a member of any club but then motorhoming is not my hobby, it is my life.

I simply love waking up in the morning needing a little time to remember where I actually am and then trying to decide where I want to be that night.

I couldn't afford £20 to £50 per night on my pension!

Keep your van wheels moving and all your stress and troubles slide away...

Live the dream.


JJ :cool:
 
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In my short experience, I'm only 56, I have noticed...

My dad was a tugger, campsites were glorified fields and you went and buried your toilet waste far,far away
Caravan club came along and made sites uniform so you knew what you got wherever you went, you could turn up in Devon,Doncaster or Dumfries and the site was the same (much like premier inn,etc nowadays)
Move on to today and cmc have lagged way behind, they still do what they do with obvious success but they have been caught up and superseded by independents, cl's were the cheap, living in the wild option for hardy tuggers but they are (mostly) now small fancy sites with ehu and heated toilet blocks....my dad would be furious
The price difference between a cmc or ccc site and an independent commercial site has become minimal making the 'membership' more of a choice of place to camp rather than financial saving
With the club sites sometimes costing £50+ a night.....mid week in june...I think it has got a bit silly price wise but hey ho 🤷‍♂️
We can all sit here and think we are the majority campers but tuggers are still the massive majority and will continue to be so
I do think (hope) that more basic sites may open but in the mean time....suck it up 👍
 
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Lenny HB said:
That's OK if you are not living if a pension.
And if I was paying UK prices I wouldn't enjoy it.
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I think you missed the point. I was simply implying that you should only pay for what you can afford and should enjoy it. My pension, whilst not big, enables us to have some degree of choice for which I’m extremely grateful for and we will stay on a variety of sites and aires based on our budget. You’ve made it crystal clear one or two times that you don’t like paying to stay on sites nor do you like sites. I respect your decisions and enjoy reading about your choices. We are all individuals with individual requirements and needs.
 
Thing is - you can moan about the CAMC and/or the CCC but no-one has identified a huge gap in the market to provide a different offering... unlike Camping Car Park who, apparently, have identified a way to make money from aires.
If there was some way to negotiate the land prices and the planning regulations and make a profit, then some corporate investor would have jumped in.
 
Some interesting comments. I think there are two ( or more) different types of customer for camp sites. When we were in our 40's with 3 small kids, we had a Swift caravan, we went away to France for 2 weeks a year and had a few weekends away in the UK. Cost was not an issue, it was all about quality family time away. Now we are retired, we want to spend more time away, so I agree there will always be those happy to pay £40 or £50 a night, because they are earning well and dont uses the network for more than a couple of weeks year. But for those who were hoping to spend their retirements exploring the UK and being away for a number of weeks, cost is becoming a real issue

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Lenny HB said:
Been known to pay €20 in Spain for a nice big pitch with EHU but won't pay stupid UK prices.
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100% - your 20e site in Spain generally also brings a bar, pool, free wifi and a shop. No comparison. UK has priced itself out of the market for us as for who uses the van for 5+ months a year.
 
JJ said:
I feel that most motorhoming "problems" happen because people choose to park their vans for ages and ages rather than moving around more often.

When I am "on the road" I have no trouble charging my batteries even on dull days, when my solar panel is not at its best, because they get both get filled up when I'm driving.

Water taps are everywhere here in Portugal, as are (free) places to empty your tanks.

More and more supermarkets provide parking spaces, washing machines and servicing facilities.

I know of a largish free "aire" in a popular "tourist" spot where the EHU is free.

I know of another where you pay 6€ per night but that includes EHU.

I know (and use) many, many completely free parking spots in beautiful surroundings.

Moving from one to another keeps my mind fresh, my water tank full, my other tanks empty and allows me to frequent supermarkets and shops to fill the fridge with grub. It also allows me to pursue my cultural pursuit of Burger tasting.

I am not a member of any club but then motorhoming is not my hobby, it is my life.

I simply love waking up in the morning needing a little time to remember where I actually am and then trying to decide where I want to be that night.

I couldn't afford £20 to £50 per night on my pension!

Keep your van wheels moving and all your stress and troubles slide away...

Live the dream.


JJ :cool:
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That’s the difference between the UK and mainland Europe. Aires aplenty, mostly free or at most reasonably priced.
 
OutTheOffice said:
Some interesting comments. I think there are two ( or more) different types of customer for camp sites. When we were in our 40's with 3 small kids, we had a Swift caravan, we went away to France for 2 weeks a year and had a few weekends away in the UK. Cost was not an issue, it was all about quality family time away. Now we are retired, we want to spend more time away, so I agree there will always be those happy to pay £40 or £50 a night, because they are earning well and dont uses the network for more than a couple of weeks year. But for those who were hoping to spend their retirements exploring the UK and being away for a number of weeks, cost is becoming a real issue
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An excellent point. We are currently stopping on a CMC site middle of December £76 for 2 nights. There are over 50 pitches. Last night there were 11 pitches occupied a mixture tuggers and MH, tonight there are 7 in total. Spoke to the warden last evening, apparently it’s been a lot quieter this late season than normal. Could it be the cost?. We’re only here because we need to be near a poorly family member for 3 days. You can see why the fees are so high, fully heated 24 hours facilities block, probably 50 light post lit from 4pm.
 
We were at Braemar (Invercauld Estate) campsite early December. They had just changed over to prepay electricity meters on every pitch. I was surprised they were only charging £0.24 per kWh. Much cheaper than at home for us. However we had onboard gas already paid for so didn't use their electric over the 3 nights we were there.
 
OutTheOffice said:
100% - your 20e site in Spain generally also brings a bar, pool, free wifi and a shop. No comparison. UK has priced itself out of the market for us as for who uses the van for 5+ months a year.
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Yep, and that usually includes 4Kw of EHU per day. (y)

Lenny HB said:
No way would I pay those prices.
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OutTheOffice said:
More would I.
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And nor would I. :(

I'd rather give a pub landlord thirty quids worth of business, than pay that amount for facilities I don't need. I just need somewhere safe to park overnight, so I'm very much a fan of Aires and Stelplatz abroad, and wish we had a wide network of them over here.

Cheers,

Jock. :)

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EuroTrotters said:
We stayed on a very nice CL in the new forest in august. £15 inc 16amp ehu. Talking to a full time caravanner, rates were cheaper if you stayed longer. But he was moving off to another site that was cheaper. So they do still exist.
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Which CL site did you stay at? We usually use the Camping in the Forest Sites.
 
OutTheOffice said:
This is not supposed to be another moan about the cost of C&MC club site costs. But it is clear rising costs are an issue for many. So it has started me thinking about how the club / business could ( if it felt inclined ) reduce costs for pitches.

The first thing I would love to know is how the costs for running a site are distributed -- and which ones are fixed and which are variable, does anyone know,? this would tell you the scope for cost cutting ( can't do much about business rates). There must be ways to cut costs without too much detriment to the quality of the experience. Some ideas I have had:

1. Look at the whole booking in process, the need to go twice to reception seems over kill, make it once, or not at all could help reduce staffing
2. Reduce the number of times the grass is cut and hedges trimmed, its a campsite not a garden and it would reduce noise. Again might lead to staff reductions
3. On the continent most sites have 10amp electricity or less, if you are careful not to run heavy use appliances at the same time this never causes an issue -- would that cut costs
4. Could the density of the sites be increased by introducing an aire type of area on the sites for motorhomes -- or are we too wedded to the spacing rules. More vans, the greater the income etc
5. Outsource the cleaning of the toilets to a third party, could well save costs and reduce staff levels

I just wonder whether there is scope to reduce costs and if there would be a will to do it. Does anyone have thoughts on this? If enough good ideas come from this thread, could summaries them and fire them off to the club as pro-active suggestions, rather than just a whinge.
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Prices have already risen and will continue to do so to pay increased electric costs. Sites should either ban awnings in the winter or charge a significant fee for them so that those of us who do not have awnings do not suffer / subsidise those who want to heat what is in effect a tent.
 
TheMachMan said:
Which CL site did you stay at? We usually use the Camping in the Forest Sites.
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Here it is, owners name is Roy, lovely bloke.

Trevor
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