Pricing in the directory and online

I am tending to agree that no prices should be shown in the directory as they are next to meaningless for all but a tiny minority of solo travellers. Unless the Club are always going to maintain the from price for the two years of the life of the directory the from price will become obsolete after a year anyway? 

It would be good to get some insight into how the Club decide on individual site prices and why they don't try to consolidate prices and bands into fewer options. One could be forgiven in thinking that its a close your eyes and stick a pin in list method at the moment as the logic seems hard to find?

David

Why is the way in which ANY provider decides on its prices so important? Surely it is the bottom line which is of consequence? 

yes, Alan agreed....it's what we the customers are prepared to pay and weigh that up with regard to value and our own ability to comfortably pay..

some are in a better position to do this than others and some good honest transparency wouldn't go amiss...

as DK says, the from price for a solo is just headline grabbing stunt...for couples and families (surely the core of the club) this is way off beam.

...but it's the myriad bandings that really grates, tweaking a price by a few pence, often for a few days, then back again or changed fractionally to squeeze again...

why can't all the peak prices be set at the same level (at least for the same site....)? 

I agree about the bandings and pence here, pence there BB. I have just looked at one site, it has five different adult charges, four different pitch prices, and that’s before you even start adding variables such as children, service pitches, etc.... and I suspect there are Club Sites with more variance, I just chose one at random. For a three week stay, that could be an awful lot of maths to arrive at an overall price. Not customer friendly.

I know that when ever I see the words from in front of a price from any source I am never going to get that price. It will be for the cheapest week of the year if a holiday or, say for a car, the basic model that really you don't want. I suspect many people think like that and know that.

Having said that I do feel it is sad that the club has taken it one step further in terms of what the from actually means by using a pricing model which most will not be a part of, I think it is taking the from thing almost into fraud? And the club should be better than that.

But having said that (again) I just book the weeks I want and look at the bottom line, like ET, and that's is what I go by. Likewise the different pricing bands do not bother me at all. Also do people do their sums using them or look at the price just before the end of the booking process?

Which Site TDA?

I know that when I look at site prices I occasionally encounter two bands. At Southport from mid December for 15 nights part was off peak and part Christmas peak. No problem.

Sometimes encounter similar on other sites and sometimes there is a mid week discount. Again, not a problem

Alan, when we discussed prices (always?) a few weeks back, I found one site at random and that had 17 (from memory) changes of price.

im not saying it was 17 different prices (I think around 8) but just the number of consecutive increases/decreases throughout the year...

just as an example, checked Henley (as we were there last year) and 15 charging periods, with 6 different possible prices...

two of the bands are as follows....

adult 5.90 child 1.40 pitch 6.80

adult 6.00 child 1.50 pitch 6.90

so 10p difference for each component...

no doubt replicated across many other sites.

I can see the situation BB. What I cannot see is any problem

I just chose Hawes at random ET, not sure if it has MWD, which if it does, adds to the maths lesson. 

It’s not a problem, easy enough to sit down and work out, and of course if you do complete the booking online it’s all totted up automatically. But it makes comparing sites that much more of an effort. And frankly, from a Marketing viewpoint, it is unattractive to members and prospective members.

We use mainly CLs, most offer one price, maybe two if they are open all year. There might be the occasional extra, but rare the kind of CLs we choose.

I might just have a look and see if I can find the most complicated Club Site, outside of AS and MUCs. If I get bored.......

Alan, ...nor none for me, I just pay...or go elsewhere

i think the issue is more about how the club is coming across in this latest 'pricing' saga....

incorrect prices on My Bookings and paper corrections at the till (ongoing)

site books that don't contain pricing info (many posts citing this as a step backwards) 

headline prices shown for solo travellers ('fraud' mentioned upthread..) which bear little resemblance to what the core membership is likely to pay

complex site-by-site pricing matrices with multiple charging periods and tiny price increments which give the impression of penny pinching...

no, there's no problem as such, but the situation has sparked some discussion, most of which is not complimentary.