Prices gone mad.

Same as us. We would never pay £18:50 for a CL pitch, regardless of the facilities available.

Of course they are, but we as CL users can choose what price we are willing to pay and can also express our opinion on prices rises, too.

I am rather opposed to separate fees for awnings. It is often a way to disguise the headline price. Effectively the CL under discussion is £20 per night and we are in commercial site territory here. What then is it's USP? At that price it has to be more than merely being restricted to five vans.

I am jumping to a conclusion here, so forgive me please if I am incorrect! Suspect you are looking/talking about a CL in North Wales, Gwynedd, Clwyd area? If so, the price comes as no surprise to us. We looked at an early Spring holiday in this area (no BHs) some five or six years ago. We could find little in the way of CLs for under £15 per night at the time, most of them basic. So we looked at alternatives, and ended up taking a fantastic cottage (dog friendly, open wood fire, ensuite bathroom, all appliances, half a mile from Rievaulx Abbey), closer to home, worked out at £16 per night, everything included. Ok, we booked it late, and probably got a bargain, but it was better value for money.

We have found North Wales one of the most expensive areas to visit, no doubt due to the wonderful scenery and things to do, and the CL owners are probably just taking a look at other sites around and pricing accordingly. I for one don't begrudge them that, and trust they do get plenty of visitors. 

We will pay up to £18 for ehu awning shower/toilet on a CL with a nice view, not a penny more mind!

I'm sure that you will correct me if my sums are wrong.

If a CL site charges £20 a night for each pitch then the owner has earned £100, which when maintenance expenses are deducted is in minimum wage territory. The situation is further worsened if the site is not 100% utilised throughout the year. I cannot imagine commercial site operators being the slightest bit interested in that level of return so it must surely be a case of a labour of love? 

We will pay what we feel a site is worth to us; top of our "values" are a site's location in respect to where we want to be.
As already stated CL/CSs can only operate on a maximum of 5 units so have a totally different and quite minimal opportunity to recover cost so it hardly surprises that they can seem expensive compared to commercial operations.
That they do exist is to us invaluable and those we use by choice are far removed in what they offer to commercial sites, that is a massive part of their charm.  What we are buying  with 5 van sites is thankfully quite a different camping experience. I doubt there are many that even at £18.50 or £20 pn are really exploiting their clients and even fewer that get anywhere near a 100% 365 occupancy on which some critics must be doing their arithmetic.

Our criteria is location, location so if the price is £10 or £20/night that's the price we pay!

at the other end of the scale, its very easy to portray a scenario where (in season) a small cl in a nice location (no ehu/showers) could have 5 vans a night at £15 (£75 a night, £525 a week) for mowing a field (albeit a nice field, in a nice place).

with just 9 weeks full occupancy, a good 2 month summer, (even spread over the whole year) thats an approximate £5k return.....

even with an EHU supply, in summer the usage will be very low, around 10% (£1.50) a night, so return still around £4.5k.

money for old rope?

just playing Devil's Advocate....

CL's can sit anywhere between the (made up) scenario above, right up to those with showers and toilets, where the costs are much harder for suppliers to keep down and for customers to weigh up on value...and all  combinations in between....

each of is have an idea of what we think is good value, a d we tend to vote with our wheels to get it.

Plus, there is water to be paid for, most likely commercial rates for garbage/recycling disposal, sewerage charges and if on part of a farm much bigger than a small holding then there is legally VAT to be paid. On top of those somebody has to sit on the mower, invest in the mower, fuel the mower, keep the returns paperwork the club needs and the returns the accountant needs for the IR, as well as answer the phone and in most cases be polite enough to spend time interfacing with you even if only to collect the fee. That is without mentioning that the land has to be purchased and set aside for being a CL rather than other income earning use.

A bit more than "mowing" really if looked at properly.

We are not looking for bargins, just paying what makes things viable. Whilst not wanting to be ripped off we have direct experience of the costs involved and armed with that insight want the owner to get enough out of providing these CLs to keep doing it.