The Caravan and Motorhome Club and Yurts

[Jim]

How many Yurts are turning up on CAMC sites? Is this a trend we members should worry about?

 

[Wingingit#1]

I'd be quite happy to be pushed out into europe right now , its pretty damn miserable here wind,rain, wind and rain etc ...

 

[DDJC]

It matters not at all. But if they start putting yurts on busy sites instead of extra pitches, then it's a bit rich given that they are being built with cash from tourers.

Even though I'm a member I don't follow their meetings or read their minutes, so no idea what the plan is. From the outside looking in, it appears to be an odd decison. However, maybe it's part of a plan to benefit tourers where they will use the extra cash generated from Yurts to build other sites or extra pitches elswhere.

I doubt that any sites are in it, purely for the joy of it. They are there to make a buck. If there are more customers wanting to stay a week, in the same place, in a scrap of canvas (shudder), than tourers, then it seems a pragmatic business move.
Not noticed a shift in any of the European sites I have stayed at. They prefer more solid chalet-type statics. I have stayed on sites where tourers are more of an afterthought, but you have to really love a place to own a static and go back to the same place year after year.

Definitely not for me. The driving around between sites is as much of the holiday as parking up with a bottle(s) of good wine.

 

[DDJC]

I'd be quite happy to be pushed out into europe right now , its pretty damn miserable here wind,rain, wind and rain etc ...

Agree. We're in Wales over Easter weekend and the forecast is a mix of drizzle and showers. Which for Wales, is practically tropical ...
Waking up ankle deep in a Yurt? Oh god, no.

 

[Odd-no-more]

I have a friend who runs a pop up camp site, tents and small camper vans only, we called in to see him last year, we said we couldn't stay there now and one of the regular camper offered to lend us a tent we were gone very quick

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[carthorse]

Just aThought do these yurts and pod things have electric, will the site owner save not having
to provide expensive electric.

 

[Jim]

I doubt that any sites are in it, purely for the joy of it. They are there to make a buck. If there are more customers wanting to stay a week, in the same place, in a scrap of canvas (shudder), than tourers, then it seems a pragmatic business move.

I agree, but we're taking about the CAMC. Not regular privatley owned sites. The members who are paying for the yurts will not likley be using them. Thats why I'm asking if anyone knows if this is some master plan to enrich members or shaft them.

 

[SpeedyDux]

I agree, but we're taking about the CAMC. Not regular privatley owned sites. The members who are paying for the yurts will not likley be using them. Thats why I'm asking if anyone knows if this is some master plan to enrich members or shaft them.

CAMC's explanation is that these yurts etc enable Members to share the site with friends and relations who don't have a MH or caravan.

Thin end of the wedge in my view.

Seeing how the Club also gave stern advice to Members to use their own toilets and showers inside their vehicles to prevent the spread of Covid, the addition of these yurts that depend on the site facilities block seems contradictory.

 

[SpeedyDux]

It matters not at all. But if they start putting yurts on busy sites instead of extra pitches, then it's a bit rich given that they are being built with cash from tourers.

Even though I'm a member I don't follow their meetings or read their minutes, so no idea what the plan is. From the outside looking in, it appears to be an odd decison. However, maybe it's part of a plan to benefit tourers where they will use the extra cash generated from Yurts to build other sites or extra pitches elswhere.

Based on recent Club magazine pieces my guess is that a large chunk of the £16 million budgeted for upgrades and refurbs this year will be spent on rolling out pay-as-you-go metered hook-up bollards that are currently being trialled, and installing more solar panels and heat pumps for the facilities blocks, rather than acquiring more new sites or pitches.

 

[Wingingit#1]

I reckon both of you (jim and speedydux) are spot on .

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[weejocky]

They are takin the tee pee

 

[hja]

I agree, but we're taking about the CAMC. Not regular privatley owned sites. The members who are paying for the yurts will not likley be using them. Thats why I'm asking if anyone knows if this is some master plan to enrich members or shaft them.

I think expecting any ordinary members to know what plans the CAMC has is like expecting pigs to fly. Let’s face it, they can’t even communicate with members over the numerous issues around the new web site.
As sd said, some of the marketing is around family and friends using them
There have been some reports of groups booking two or more yurts or pods or whatever and then not seeing why they shouldn’t party until the early hours!
Somewhere either the Club has said or it has been reported, that these things are on parts of the site not suitable for touring pitches. Personally I have my doubts about that.
I know there is bound to be evolution in the camping market (tents, to caravans, to motorhomes for instance) but I still don’t like them. But maybe I am just a stick in the mud!

 

[cyberyacht]

I think CAMC are looking ahead to the day when EV's that won't have sufficient grunt to pull caravans any sort of a distance, certainly the big jobbies so loved by the core clientele of CAMC, becoming more or less ubiquitous. If "net zero" is is enforced it looks very much like touring as we know it is going to change radically.

Being even more cynical, are they positioning the business for a hedge fund (aka 'asset strippersRus') buyout for all that juicy real estate.

 

[Phill D]

I think CAMC are looking ahead to the day when EV's that won't have sufficient grunt to pull caravans any sort of a distance, certainly the big jobbies so loved by the core clientele of CAMC, becoming more or less ubiquitous. If "net zero" is is enforced it looks very much like touring as we know it is going to change radically.

Being even more cynical, are they positioning the business for a hedge fund (aka 'asset strippersRus') buyout for all that juicy real estate.

as far as I am aware most ( probably not all) CAMC sites are rented real-estate. that does not however, stop any potential buyout from changing the complete concept of the CLUB

 

[iandsm]

How many Yurts are turning up on CAMC sites? Is this a trend we members should worry about?

Cant see a problem really so long as they park facing the correct way and with the peg in the right position. Also they shouldn't be driven to water taps that are reserved for cravens but go to the newly installed yurt service areas.

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[Funnymunny]

Yes we need to worry about it. The drive to add Huts and Yurts to sites can only limit the space left for Motorhomes and caravans and with limited pitches it will mean more vans fighting for each pitch, result, it will do just what the CAMC. want that is force prices up even further than the scandalous prices we already have

 

[pelican]

I don’t know how many other C&MC site have ‘camping’ pitches for tents, but Clumber Patk already does

Don’t see it as a worry

And Hillhead Brixham.

 

[dash300]

Yes we need to worry about it. The drive to add Huts and Yurts to sites can only limit the space left for Motorhomes and caravans and with limited pitches it will mean more vans fighting for each pitch, result, it will do just what the CAMC. want that is force prices up even further than the scandalous prices we already have

Down here the farmers are blotting the landscape with tin sheds on wheels ( shepherds huts). Sister has 12 of them! Must be yet another grant they have discovered!!

 

[lorger]

CAMC sites are thankfully free of tents though.

Quite a few already take tents, couple of examples off the top of my head is Edinburgh and Strathclyde park sites.

 

[Tony50]

I'd be quite happy to be pushed out into europe right now , its pretty damn miserable here wind,rain, wind and rain etc ...

It's been lovely and warm in East Anglia for some time, except a few weeks ago we had cold winds from the North east , possibly due to too many toilet doors left open at once I suspect.
ps. Only joking

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[scotzsue]

I don't like when they are taking the place of touring pitches, but ok if it is a new field
Has the advantage that motorhoming/camping/caravanning and those who have none of these can all 'camp' at the same place.

 

[Pekepal]

These are now on The C&MC site in Hythe, Kent. Understand there are 15/16 which are let out nearly every night in high season. The wardens (whose wages club members pay) have to clean these on top of looking after the site and cleaning the toilets etc. They have been told the club will be employing cleaners at some time (again members will be paying the wages). We wonder why the fees are going up!

 

[Pekepal]

I would also add that I thought the C&MC was supposed to be for touring not static accommodation.

 

[mikebeaches]

We stayed at Barnard Castle on a CACC site last weekend it was great and choca with caravans and even more motorhomes. We walked past the CAMC site that's down the road a couple of times it was barely half full and I didn't see any yurts! Come to think of it a few yurt's might of cheered the site up it looked very sterile!

A year or so back we stayed at the Barnard Castle C&CC site and were impressed, but thought exactly the same when we drove past the CAMC site. And yes, 'sterile' is a good word to describe it - or at least that was what we thought.

 

[mikebeaches]

These are now on The C&MC site in Hythe, Kent. Understand there are 15/16 which are let out nearly every night in high season. The wardens (whose wages club members pay) have to clean these on top of looking after the site and cleaning the toilets etc. They have been told the club will be employing cleaners at some time (again members will be paying the wages). We wonder why the fees are going up!

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Not exactly aesthetically pleasing to the eye are they - look more like a load of fuel bunkers plonked in a field to me.

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[sueandjohn]

They can earn quite a few quid more per night. But you'd hope they are never installed on popular sites that are often fully booked.

Coniston park coppice - very popular - camping and glamping

 

[steve 6644]

Good thread .

 

[Dolmen]

I wonder if caravanners felt the same when motorhomes started regularly turning up at their sites and then on a number of occasions started to outnumber them, then they changed the name to Caravan and Motorhome Club (uproar) and now they are adding glamping pods (Good God man), why can't we stay in the 1950's?

 

[Pekepal]

Only a matter of time before tourers are banned from C&MC club and you can only stay if you have a seasonal pitch or a yurt. How long before you have seasonal yurts?

 

[DT]

Trouble with the club is that it is run by people that have no interest in caravans or motorhomes. It is totally wrong that they spend members money on structures like this. Spend the cash getting pitches level, upgrading facilities. There should be a rule that unless you spend 20% of the year staying on sites then you have no say on important decisions.

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[DerryW]

We stayed at Barnard Castle on a CACC site last weekend it was great and choca with caravans and even more motorhomes. We walked past the CAMC site that's down the road a couple of times it was barely half full and I didn't see any yurts! Come to think of it a few yurt's might of cheered the site up it looked very sterile!

If my memory serves me right, I believe they (CMHC) were in the process of extending the BC site when we last stayed there a couple of years back.