Cost of sites has gone mad

Last weekend we visited family in the New Forest,Black Knowl ran out at £166 for 3 nights.Yes it was the last weekend of the school holidays,ended up paying £99 for 3 nights at Setthorns one of our favourite sites.

Whilst there we received a telephone call that our granddaughter had a football match on the outskirts on London,so rather than take the van all the way home I looked at Abbey Wood  for one night.

This came out at £45.I took the van home and returned to see her play.

Years ago I would not flinch at booking a Club site,but now I just cannot spend this amount of money with being careful withthe cost.

Last year we spent some time at Lady's Mile campsite in Dawlish on a serviced pitch. I thought I would check the prices for this year. For the same time we went last year it looks as if daily prices have increased by only about £1.50 a night to £33.71. Interestingly in September the prices are £42 a night. Whether that reflects the likely increased cost of electricity the later in the year you get I don't know. 

Our average site costs last year were £29.47 with the most expensive sites being CMC ones!

David

Sadly we are unable to tour at the moment as we wish, but when we do, we work on the basis of making sure any kind of stopover gives us exactly what we need on any given day.

This can vary hugely, from a simple pull in to sleep, up and off early transit stop, to a fancy a day on site or cycling/walking stop where we need to know our outfit and more importantly our dog will be safe. Sometimes we might choose to be close to a particular place for a special visit, or an event. Having a MH that we use off site almost daily, we also prefer to actually tour around, rather than spend a prolonged time on one site driving out and back each day. (That said, if there’s enough of interest to us in a given radius, we will stay longer at a Site).

So, based on our needs, we might pay nothing for a legal overnight transit stop, we might pay anything between £5-10 for a nice Aire type stop with hook up and waste/water. For a relaxing sit out all day, go for a bike ride but know the dog is safe day, we have paid up to £25 a night on a gorgeous CL. By mixing and matching our needs, we did 2 tours last year (D&G, and Suffolk, ten nights out each) and our average costs were £12.50, and around £13.50 per night. 

When we can get back out, hopefully for much longer touring stretches, we aim to continue doing this, and know that what we save on not using Sites that don’t fit our desired criteria, we can afford to pay more on those that do. Some Club Sites, possibly the basic ones, might be useful as part of our mix, particularly if outside the peak periods, but the vast majority no longer fit our vfm desires or needs, so we won’t think of them except for a very special need. This is just our way of touring, others will have different preferences, but you just choose what suits your circumstances.

Oh look, there’s a tree.

I think £18 to park overnight in a field is the biggest rip off of all. Good luck to farmers who have the land, but I’ve got better things to do than go to sites like that.

OH was just commenting yesterday that there are a lot of BHs coming up in May, I think she said there were 3.  

We have to be home in May, so will miss them all, fortunately!

I have been a club member for nearly 40 years,so know a few sites whether club or commercial,the club used to be good value for money and often their sites were of a higher standard than those of the CACC but that is no longer the case,both clubs do have high standards but with this club now prices are much higher than the CACC,and you visit any of the clubs sites off peak and Monday to Friday it 75% retired couples.If the club aren't careful they will be loosing members.And the CACC membership starts at £41. 

I paid that price 5yrs ago for the peace & tranquility with stunning views that you have there. I counter your post by saying it’s worth every penny. Monetary costs are not everything.

Membership is from £48 p/a.

For the last few years of course midweek off peak will be mainly retired, who else would it be?

But a case in point, I'm off to one of my favourite sites soon at Melrose, and yes having been there many times in all seasons of course it all retired off peak at midweek, but, and it's a big but, from now till mid August it's all lows and a significant amount of full (on normal pitches and even 'fuller' on SP). If the club were to offer a discount for these retired folk it would lose a significant amount of income which would have to be recouped somehow, by rest of the members subsidising and perhaps higher pitch fees. I would qualify for a discount but it's not fair on people who have to pay for me when I can certainly pay my own way. 

Easily said, isn't it?  But when you've spent the hours I did planning a tour, navigating the maps and websites and trying to dovetail everything together across multiple companies, blissfully assuming the relative costs are going to be much as they used to be, you may think differently. 

In the end I gave up the will to live and just stumped up the swingeing prices for an easier life.  I'll be honest, the booking became so frustrating that I was bordering on cancelling the whole idea and just flying off to the sun for a fortnight instead. 

For several years, I have always favoured CAMC sites, with CCC playing second fiddle, mainly because the planning and booking process with CAMC was easier and more flexible. 

I followed the same mindset for this week's planning exercise, but I'm afraid the exorbitant pricing revelation has taught me that those CAMC and CCC roles will now have to reverse for me.  With these prices, in the future I'll be planning primarily for CCC sites, with CAMC filling in the gaps.