Camping and caravan club

[Tony Jones]

RogerGW - 2010-10-27 12:54 PM

 

Tony Jones - 2010-10-27 10:39 AM

... in the absence of UK Aires, their CSs provide the cheapest comprehensive network of places to stop.

 

How much do you typically pay. Tony? Is that with hook-up?

 

Roger

 

It's varied between £4 and £8 a night, with plenty of them around the £6 mark. Each CS has a "price" letter at the end of its entry in the Club book, with a key to them on the bookmark, and so far these have always been correct.

We don't usually bother with hook-up, as everything in our van will work without it (and our Gaslow system is cheap to run). On most CSs where it's available, hook-up would add another £3-4, which would still leave the majority of the ones we've used under £10!

[pepe63xnotuse]

It's worth thinking about the ground conditions,when choosing a CL/CS though(especially if using one at this time year),as a great many of them are little more than an unused corner of a farmers field.. :-S

 

...google earth comes in handy to check you'll not be pitched next to rusty old tractor husks or dead landrovers.... (lol)

But I agree,they really are a great and inexpensive option to "club sites ...

[RogerGW]

Tony Jones - 2010-10-27 2:09 PM

 

It's varied between £4 and £8 a night, with plenty of them around the £6 mark....On most CSs where it's available, hook-up would add another £3-4, which would still leave the majority of the ones we've used under £10!

 

I prefer a hook-up, so would take that as my base mark. Indeed, that was what I paid at my last CL, which I visit several times a year.

 

My most recent club site bookings (both clubs) stretch from the end of September to late November. The cheapest was £7.10 a night (C&CC) and the dearest was £8.93 (CC).

 

All were for one person, with hook-up and, where available, hardstanding. Oldies' discount applied to the C&CC bookings. I'm in a 6-metre motorhome with no awning or towed vehicle.

 

For me, then, a five-van site is not always, or even often, the cheapest. I go to them for their location, or when I can't get on the club site I want or sometimes just to have a change from looking at row upon row of oversized margarine tubs on wheels.

 

Roger

[bazooka]

Arriving on spec at keswick ccc site iwas told i could have a service pitch for one night (all grass pitches now out of use for this year),icalled in reception the next morning and asked if it was possible to stay another night,yes but I'd have to change to another pitch which idid.Just after a campervan the same size as mine moved from the top field on to the pitch i'd just left!what was the point?

Baz *-)

[duffers]

presumably he'd asked to move ?? so they honoured his requested.

 

btw - are you expected to pay the extra for the suer pitch even when it's all that's available and you've no intention [or ability] to use these wondrous extras???

[RogerGW]

Last year, i was booked on to an ordinary pitch at Boroughbridge C&CC site. Two days before I was due there, the warden rang to say the area my pitch was in was flooded (a common occurrence, I've since discovered) but they could put me on a super-pitch on higher ground at no extra charge. I of course accepted the offer.

 

Roger

[tonyg3nwl]

Hi, I wonder how many of the contributors to this subject have actually done a wardens job or similar.

 

My wife and I have, for 4 seasons in france for French country camping responsible for the ready erected tents on a commercial site.

 

The job was very enjoyable and we met considerable numbers and variety of clients and would have been even more so were it not for the 1% or so of wingers. We were instructed to remember at all time the customers were correct, even if we sometime thought otherwise, and on a number of occasions went over and above the defined duties.. eg arranging emergency hospital assistance for a seriously ill child, taking him and family 70 mile to the specialist hospital, and interpreting for the family.

 

another example involved emergency dental requirement for a lady whose dentures were broken. A dentist was persuaded to accept her as an emergensy, and translation again was involved.

 

On all the club sites we have used over the 30 plus years or so, I can only remember one 'jobsworth' who insisted we moved our van so be square in the pitch, even though it meant that the van would then be sloping from side to side.

 

For those who think the Wardens are perhaps a bit uppity, please try the job for a season and then you might have a different view. Occasionally, the customer is not right, and the warden might just have had a bad night dealing with some other problem..

 

tonyg3nwl

[colin]

tonyg3nwl - 2010-10-28 9:10 AM

For those who think the Wardens are perhaps a bit uppity, please try the job for a season and then you might have a different view. Occasionally, the customer is not right, and the warden might just have had a bad night dealing with some other problem..

 

Not a very good excuse for turning a member away from a 3/4 empty site on a cold wet night IMO.

[Tony Jones]

RogerGW - 2010-10-27 4:33 PM

 

Tony Jones - 2010-10-27 2:09 PM

 

It's varied between £4 and £8 a night, with plenty of them around the £6 mark....On most CSs where it's available, hook-up would add another £3-4, which would still leave the majority of the ones we've used under £10!

 

I prefer a hook-up, so would take that as my base mark. Indeed, that was what I paid at my last CL, which I visit several times a year.

 

My most recent club site bookings (both clubs) stretch from the end of September to late November. The cheapest was £7.10 a night (C&CC) and the dearest was £8.93 (CC) ...... For me, then, a five-van site is not always, or even often, the cheapest.

Roger

 

There's certainly a lot more seasonal variation in the prices on Club Sites than there is on CL/Cs ones, so I can see how the difference would narrow at the time of year you're talking about here. During autumn/winter we only average about one night away per month, so have tended to stick with CSs from habit. Seeing those prices I'll look more carefully at Club Sites in future during the "off" season - assuming they don't mind having us for just the odd night!

[josie gibblebucket]

The franchised sites eg Thetford, Polstead and no doubt several others, always give a warm welcome and great service, but it is still their own business, so is in their interests to be good. We have found wardens (sorry HSM's) on other CCC sites to be quite bolshy. Sandringham for one, but not as bad as Moreton. They were truly dreadful. We also find that only having a very small pvc, that we get shifted to some far away little spare bit of space, even being told at Kessingland that we would have to park sideways if we wanted to put our awning up. As the van is only 15'4" long, and the awning 3m x 2.5m we were a little disgruntled. We're paying the same (or less as we're not 55+) than others, yet they are allowed a 24ft caravan, an awning large enough to put the caravan inside and space for their 4x4's. The small size of our van should not relegate us to some dodgy spot/pitch that no-one else wants, but I'm afraid it happens when somebody else is in charge of telling you where to go. I don't think they like motorhomes or campervans really. Caravans are preferred as far as the club sites are concerned. Yet if you are to believe everything you read, some 40% of the CC membership are m/home owners.

[ips]

Mrs ips and I run a c&cc cl and we dont mind at all if you only stay one night in fact most of the business comes from one nighters as we are close to the M6.

With regards to the thread, there is a lot more work involved in running a site than peeps think 4hrs to mow the darned thing and another hour to strim and then there is the re-fencing weeding etc etc. I have been camping caravaning or motorhoming for 35yrs and we have met the odd grumpy git of a warden from time to time but then again you meet people who are good at there job and some who arent in every walk of life so I dont spose its fair to tar all wardens the same. In fact over the years we have met some who have proven to be very friendly and helpfull.

ips

[lennyhb]

Vote with your feet, I'm a member of both clubs but only for access to the CL & CS network. Very rarely ever stay at club sites as the last thing I want when enjoying my leisure time is to be bossed about by a bulshy Sergeant Major,

 

A growing trend with CC Club CL's is to fit mains Hook ups and hike the price up & not give a discount if you don't want mains. Why on earth would I want mains, I have Motorhome it has batteries, it has gas, it's self sufficient I DON'T NEED MAINS.

 

 

 

[ips]

Exactly our thoughts, which is why we have not spent thousands on getting hook up installed. Seems to us that some peeps want to spend £10 + a night on eleccy but lots want to spend £6 a night and use the vans facilities which they have allready paid for. I raised this question of how much peeps want to spend and what they wanted for there money on another forum however It got pulled and I got labelled as a troll. :-S

 

[Rayjsj]

We all tour and camp in different ways, personally I like having a EHU if it's available(it helps charge up the Batteries if nothing else), and if theres a bit of something hard to park the van on, even better, (it means i don't have to deploy the Bread crates, so that we don't bog down overnight) I'm all for an easy life with no hassle, and back to the original bit of the thread, AND I like to choose which pitch I go on, (I look on it as a basic right, if i'm paying) that's if there is a choice of course and the place is'nt full, apart from one. If there are only 2 empty pitches I still like the choice of which one i go on. I don't need or want someone to choose for me. (are you listening.....Holiday Site Managers ??) End of Rant.

As i said I voted with my feet. Ray >:-)

[LordThornber]

Rayjsj - 2010-10-29 10:14 AM

 

We all tour and camp in different ways, personally I like having a EHU if it's available, and if theres a bit of something hard to park the van on, even better, (it means i don't have to deploy the Bread crates, so that we don't bog down overnight) I'm all for an easy life with no hassle, and back to the original bit of the thread, AND I like to choose which pitch I go on, (I look on it as a basic right, if i'm paying) that's if there is a choice of course and the place is'nt full, apart from one. If there are only 2 empty pitches I still like the choice of which one i go on. I don't need or want someone to choose for me. (are you listening.....Holiday Site Managers ??) End of Rant.

As i said I voted with my feet. Ray >:-)

 

 

I agree 100% Ray, (except the bread crates :D )

 

Martyn

[Rayjsj]

colin - 2010-10-26 10:52 PM

 

Your complaining because you didn't get to choose a pitch! We should be so lucky, we left because a warden refused to allow us a pitch!

Must be at least a year since I last posted this, so I will retell.

It was a wet day out of season, we turned up 'on spec' at a C&CC site, waited about an hour or so for the warden, when he turned up told us it was too wet to park on grass and all hard standings where full, was refused the option of parking on any 'non designated hardstanding' and was turned away.

We went 'down the road' several miles to a comercial site, manager/owner said "it's too wet to park on grass, just park van next to shower block", this is the kind of common sence I would expect of any club I would be member of.

When (if >:-( ) the new van turns up will be rejoining one of the clubs for access to CL/CS's, I think we might choose CC next time around, can any one tell me roughly how many CS's CC have?

 

 

In answer None ! The Caravan Club calls them CL's not CS's ;-) he he.

They have hundreds of CL's though.

I had a similar experience at a CCC site, I was told that the grass was too wet for me to park my M/H on it (well, it was in Wales !) and I replied it's OK 'I'll just put my van's 'Snow shoes on' (4 bread crates that i always carry for grass pitches) he was not amused and would NOT budge, he actually said that he reserves all his hard standings for Caravans,

and couldnt accommodate us, I realised then that this 'Friendly Club' was not for us. *-) Ray

PS mind you if I'd had to wait for an hour for him to 'turn up' he would have found me already pitched and happy (and without 'armed assistance' he wouldn't have moved me either). >:-) Maybye that's the secret !! if you have a motohome always arrive when the 'HSM' is at lunch, and then just do as you would on a Caravan Club site. ( HSM stands for 'Hedonist Sergeant Major' ) 8-)

[flicka]

If he had an ounce of sense, he would realise that to put the Motorhome on the Hard Standing instead of the Caravan, it would be more beneficial to the Site.

We weigh H*ll of a lot more than a Caravan, so common sense should have screamed at him that M/H would cause most damage a grass pitch.

 

But with some CC Wardens, common sense is often lacking.

[mel wood]

THANK GOODNESS FOR THE CARAVAN CLUB.

 

We are attending a Christening on Sunday 16th January which will necessitate an overnight stay the previous night near Chester. As CCC members for 17 years we immediatetly thought "Delamere Forest" CCC site where we have stayed on other occasions. NO CHANCE !. CCC 'rules' mean that at ANY TIME OF YEAR a booking which incorporates a Friday or Saturday must be a minimum of 2 nights.

 

The Caravan Club have no such rule and we have been able to book one night at Chester Fairoaks.

 

We still see advantages of being members of both clubs but find that sometimes the CC has more flexibility than CCC.

 

I have emailed CCC about this. IF the response is anything other than bland I will be surprised but if there is anything of worth in it I shall post it on this thread.

[LordThornber]

flicka - 2010-10-29 11:57 AM.

But with some CC Wardens, common sense is often lacking.

 

And just to add balance John, I pitched on a CC site the "wrong" way, i.e. facing the pitch marker so as to take advantage of the view on offer.

 

I took the opportunity to mention it to the Warden, half expecting to be disembowelled/shot/beheaded and he said, "no problem, don't blame you"

 

Consistency? What the heck's that? :D

 

Martyn

[Neil Hunt]

The damage done by motorhomes is insignificant compared to the huge enclosed awnings employed on some caravans. I believe there is a rule about lifting groundsheets each day but have not seen much evidence of its practice. Witness the large areas of anaemic yellow to white grass left behind after a week's stay.

 

Membership clubs/organisations are an interesting phenomena, it seems universal that once they grow and start employing people those employees eventually take 'ownership' of the organistion much as CEOs in companies with a similar relationship to that of shareholders. The AA went all the way and bought out its members and the CTC is another example of a club that has drifted a long way from its original purposes and its relationship with its members.

 

Maybe this is inevitable and clubs that expand become huge businesses which find the fig leaf of membership an added USP to their main purpose which is continued growth and accumulation. The C&CC 'call of the wild' ideology sits very strangely with their luxury cabins in manicured parks.

[malc d]

Neil Hunt - 2010-10-29 1:36 PM

 

The damage done by motorhomes is insignificant compared to the huge enclosed awnings employed on some caravans. I believe there is a rule about lifting groundsheets each day but have not seen much evidence of its practice. Witness the large areas of anaemic yellow to white grass left behind after a week's stay.

 

Membership clubs/organisations are an interesting phenomena, it seems universal that once they grow and start employing people those employees eventually take 'ownership' of the organistion much as CEOs in companies with a similar relationship to that of shareholders. The AA went all the way and bought out its members and the CTC is another example of a club that has drifted a long way from its original purposes and its relationship with its members.

 

Maybe this is inevitable and clubs that expand become huge businesses which find the fig leaf of membership an added USP to their main purpose which is continued growth and accumulation. The C&CC 'call of the wild' ideology sits very strangely with their luxury cabins in manicured parks.

 

 

Absolutely right !

 

The C&CC is developing into the Camping, Caravanning and Chalet Club

with a sideline in caravan storage.

 

 

 

 

:-(

[747]

If Mel Wood gets any reply back from the C&CC it will be a revelation as they have never replied to me yet.

 

It is high time that they removed the 'Camping' word from their business title. Last year while between motorhomes, we spent a night on a private site (recommended by the C&CC and in their big sites book). We used our Movelite XL driveaway awning as a tent. The charges on this site was a maximum of £15 for a Caravan or Motorhome (with hookup). A 4 person tent was £20 (without hookup). Needless to say, there was only us and one other tent on a huge field. We were both there because of a Dog Show otherwise it would have been totally empty.

 

The site was obviously deliberately putting off tenters to build a cast iron case to stop them. That way, they could increase the number of vans and caravans and also do away with the facilities needed for tenters (Lounge, Cookers, Fridges etc.). This private site can do what it likes but for the C&CC Inspection team to turn a blind eye was disgusting. My query on this to the C&CC was never acknowledged.

[Ina]

One of my gripes with them is their deposit system, not so much the actual deposit itself, but the "rules". If you cancel a booking 7 days or less before the start of the booking FOR ANY REASON, your deposit will not be refunded.

 

I don't know whether this is upheld in practice if you cancel as a result of, say, illness, or a breakdown of your vehicle a few days before your booking starts, but that seems totally unfair to me. If you don't turn up without cancelling, fair enough, it's only right you lose your deposit (although I acknowledge even then there could be a very good reason, ie an accident or being called away to a sick parent), but if there is a genuine reason for cancelling less than 7 days before, I think it is rather harsh not to refund a deposit.

 

Ina.

[mel wood]

Ina - 2010-10-29 4:12 PM

 

One of my gripes with them is their deposit system, not so much the actual deposit itself, but the "rules". If you cancel a booking 7 days or less before the start of the booking FOR ANY REASON, your deposit will not be refunded.

 

I don't know whether this is upheld in practice if you cancel as a result of, say, illness, or a breakdown of your vehicle a few days before your booking starts, but that seems totally unfair to me. If you don't turn up without cancelling, fair enough, it's only right you lose your deposit (although I acknowledge even then there could be a very good reason, ie an accident or being called away to a sick parent), but if there is a genuine reason for cancelling less than 7 days before, I think it is rather harsh not to refund a deposit.

 

Ina.

The rules have 'tightened up" in the last couple of years. Previously, a deposit would be held in the system for up to a year if you cancelled within 7 days of the start date for a "GENUINE REASON" eg, death or serious illness of one of the party of a close relative.

 

As regards vehicle breakdown: no!. Three or four years ago our camper van (and only vehicle) failed an MOT and we had to wait a few days for parts. When I phoned the site to cancel I was told that I would forfeit my deposit as it was less than 7 days to go and MOT failure did not count as a "genuine" reason. I phoned CCC HQ and spoke to a senior person. He confirmed that what I had been told was correct. However if I put things in writing it would be considered favourably. The deposit was put in a holding account as " a gesture of goodwill". As I say, since then rules have been changed to no recompense if cancelling less than 7 days in advance.

 

A Holiday Site Manager later told me that this policy re MOT failure not being considered a genuine reason for cancellation was because some members had made this an excuse not to keep a booking. How that was known, I have nio idea.

[mel wood]

Ina - 2010-10-29 4:12 PM

 

One of my gripes with them is their deposit system, not so much the actual deposit itself, but the "rules". If you cancel a booking 7 days or less before the start of the booking FOR ANY REASON, your deposit will not be refunded.

 

I don't know whether this is upheld in practice if you cancel as a result of, say, illness, or a breakdown of your vehicle a few days before your booking starts, but that seems totally unfair to me. If you don't turn up without cancelling, fair enough, it's only right you lose your deposit (although I acknowledge even then there could be a very good reason, ie an accident or being called away to a sick parent), but if there is a genuine reason for cancelling less than 7 days before, I think it is rather harsh not to refund a deposit.

 

Ina.

The rules have 'tightened up" in the last couple of years. Previously, a deposit would be held in the system for up to a year if you cancelled within 7 days of the start date for a "GENUINE REASON" eg, death or serious illness of one of the party of a close relative.

 

As regards vehicle breakdown: no!. Three or four years ago our camper van (and only vehicle) failed an MOT and we had to wait a few days for parts. When I phoned the site to cancel I was told that I would forfeit my deposit as it was less than 7 days to go and MOT failure did not count as a "genuine" reason. I phoned CCC HQ and spoke to a senior person. He confirmed that what I had been told was correct. However if I put things in writing it would be considered favourably. The deposit was put in a holding account as " a gesture of goodwill". As I say, since then rules have been changed to no recompense if cancelling less than 7 days in advance.

 

A Holiday Site Manager later told me that this policy re MOT failure not being considered a genuine reason for cancellation was because some members had made this an excuse not to keep a booking. How that was known, I have nio idea.