Secure you summer holiday for just £5 deposit

the reduction in occupancy is probably down to a number of factors, cost of living, higher site prices and the shift to motorhome ownership which is altering the style of camping and also where they camp.

Oh, I forgot, then there is the weather, wasn't 2023 wetter than normal?

peedee

Whatever the cause of the decline the facts are facts.  

The Club has seven sites in the Lake District. Every one of them has availability every single day for the whole of the rest of July

No wonder Club managers are alarmed and are offering deals.

I don’t think the shift to MH ownership accounts for the reduction in occupancy - assuming there is such a reduction. Members swapping from a caravan are, in my opinion, just as likely to use CAMC sites with a MH as they did with a caravan, albeit they may stay for shorter periods and move on to the next CAMC site. We’ve seen plenty of newcomers with MHs join CAMC as well.

Is it not more likely that any reduction in occupancy is due to people like yourself turning to CLs, THS, rallies etc? Only CAMC can say for sure if there is such a reduction but the evidence of regular site users suggests that may not be so.

But that fact alone doesn't prove or show anything. It's in one area for a start. Also it's not totally accurate either, there are only six sites as I recall (and have checked), and service pitches on two of them are full on quite a few days. 

As a long time user of club sites in the Lakes I can't remember a time when they were full, can you? The majority of them are 100+ site pitches, one over 200, so expecting full sites is a big ask? 

You've alluded to this before (and usually choose different areas to make the same point, usually the SW) but is your measure of club success having club sites full in every area? Do club managers simply look at full occupancy figures to gauge how well the club is doing?

Of course what we don't know or can't tell from anywhere is how full these sites are, are they 80% full? 50% full, or maybe just full enough to cover their costs? This I assume is what club mangers will look at and as we don't know the data we can't wonder either.

As I posted on six sites I look at I can't get more than a few days but again what does that fact show?.

Now of course the more pitches filled the better and yes why not use offers to get more?

For is, it's not the amount of the deposit that prevents us from booking our "summer" holiday, but the 21 days notice to cancel. As farmers our leisure time is in short supply, and is dependant on the weather. So all we can plan is to go away "sometime in August". And we probably get up one day, look at the weather App and click online to go the next day. 

Same here Goldie. Good luck to those who can commit to two three weeks of uncertain weather, we did that all our working lives (mostly lucky, thankfully), but committing at todays prices is a different kettle of fish. It’s not just the deposits, it’s the cancellation period, and the prices per night that have meant folks no longer commit earlier. 

I think the Club is trying to mend a fractured relationship with a core of its long term Members, but the only kit it has at the moment is akin to sticking plasters, and it won’t work to get folks back in without some serious, dynamically applied big discounts on very last minute pitches. I spent a working life filling space and time activities, and early recognised that any money gathered in last moment, is better than having unfilled, unused capacity. That’s dynamic pricing applied to poor take up🤷‍♀️

Do you know for a fact that club managers are alarmed or is that just your thoughts.

I'm not aware of the club having site occupancy issues before the system changes but it seems to now certainly for me the lower 10% deposit encouraged me to book more and I've now taken advantage of the £5 deposit, the whole low deposit flexible options of swapping and changing sites is what attracts me to the club.

Unfortunately, it is not likely to make a difference to the way we book.  Apart from for the main holiday, which we usually book in January, all our short visits are often booked a few days before (or even the day before) we go.  If a site is fully booked, I just choose another site....  Never cancelled a booking until last year - when we were recovered by Mayday from the Outer Hebrides (fortunately not towing the caravan), and the car couldn't be repaired in time for our 'turn around' with the caravan.

David

If a 10% or even 20% deposit is putting people off booking I can only assume they don't use non Club sites, especially the better quality commercial sites? Earlier in the year (before we decided to sell up) we had booked a few days at Castleton. On the morning of departure I was in so much pain with my knee I didn't feel it safe to drive. The fact that I would lose the deposit was neither here nor there. Somehow I had ticked the box to pay before arrival which was no issue as the Club gave me a refund minus the deposit. Exactly as the system should be. Had I been unfortunate enough to have booked a commercial site not only would I have had to pay a deposit but more likely the entire fee for my stay 4/6 weeks before arrival. Had I cancelled at the last minute I would have lost the lot. The latter has happened to me twice in the last couple of years. I understand that I agreed to the T&C's so no comeback but it does leave a nasty taste in the mouth. By comparison the CMC T&C's are so, so much more generous and it is difficult to understand why the Club feel the need to reduce the deposit to such a low figure, in fact half of what it was the last time we took deposits! I am in the same position as TW in that it no longer applies to me but it does seem like a 360 degree reversal of the reasons why deposits were reintroduced in the first place and as TW says it will no deterrent at all as some members will just not show up if all they lose is a fiver? If the Club feel that have made a mistake introducing deposits, why not just say so and go back to the old system of deposit free booking?

David