Searchforsites

[Grumpyman]

 Seasons Greetings 

I'm  thinking of joining  search for sites and cancelling membership to the motorhome and caravan club due to their extortionate fees. I am wondering if anyone has used this site and what was there experience. 

Grumpyman 

[Den]

We are cancelling our membership after being members since 2002 

looked for a site near lands end for the 3rd Jan. £40.00 !!! 
I didn’t want to buy  the site and decided to stay overnight in Exmouth for £11 for 24 hours. 
I use Park 4 night and found it suits us perfectly specially abroad 

[laimeduck]

We were CMC members in the 80's then again about 2008/9. Cancelled each time as we didn't like the petty rules. Not really our scene.

Covid forced us to tour in UK rather than Europe and we disliked having to book in advance. In Europe we never book  and usually have no problems. Allows us to tour with no constraints.  Against our better judgement joined CMC again 2023 as we wanted to use sites for a N Yorks/Lake and Peak district trip. Big mistake! Didn't use any sites ... far too expensive ..only used a few CL's. We could have stayed on the CL's without being CMC members.

How CMC can display prices and then nearly double them for two people is appalling! Cheaper to stay in a budget hotel now?

We will not use them again ... in the UK we'll simply search on google on the day and use pub stopovers where possible.

Jeremy

[snail]

Laimeduck, how can you stay on a cmc cl without being a member? If the cl owner is allowing this to happen then you are denying paying members to stay?

[TeamRienza]

I use, and add reviews to, searchforsites and have done for many years.

it can be accessed on the web for free. All you need to do is register a couple of basic details.

The app has a cost of about £5 per year (from purchase date). It is pretty intuitive and clear, easy to use.

It has the added advantage of being capable of being used when offline or no internet signal is available.

However, due to the frequent new reviews and addition of new stops etc, it does need to be updated every few weeks (but worth the minor downtime while it loads new information).

i like it as it has plenty of photos and frequently updated reviews by motorhomers always in English and fairy honest points of view.

Davy

[paulmold]

Search4sites is a brilliant website/app . You can join for free or pay £5ish for full access which includes lpg autogas locations. It lists all types of sites, club sites, CL and CS sites, independent sites and stopovers/Aires for motorhomes. 

[Grumpyman]

Thanks for all of your comments sounds like a good £5.99p fee. 

grumpyman 

[hja]

I use S4S non paid version, its fine. I will retain CAMC membership for the CLs. If CLs allow non members to use their sites then they risk losing their "certificate". We shall retain CCC membership, partly for CSs but also being of a certain age we get cheaper rates on their main sites. 

[crocs]

The two things are for different purposes. S4S is simply a (very good) listing of sites whereas CAMC own and operate a large number of very good, clean, well laid out sites which are discounted for members.

[laimeduck]

3 hours ago, snail said:

Laimeduck, how can you stay on a cmc cl without being a member? If the cl owner is allowing this to happen then you are denying paying members to stay?

Many of the CL's also have other pitches in addition to the 5 CMC pitches. Run as a separate enterprise but with same rates. 

I'm not denyiny anyone? I am/ .. soon to be was,  a CMC member!

Jeremy

[colin]

Have used 'search for sites' in past, and may use them again. 

We are members of C&CC as they give good rates for seniors and off season, and for CS's.

[paulmold]

11 hours ago, crocs said:

The two things are for different purposes. S4S is simply a (very good) listing of sites whereas CAMC own and operate a large number of very good, clean, well laid out sites which are discounted for members.

I would argue that by saying the sites are not discounted for members but are surcharged for non-members. The so-called discounted rates make them comparable to independent sites, no- one in their right mind would pay the non-member price.

[Den]

Hi HJA 

I’ve been aware that the club offer discounts for OAP’s but I’ve not noticed it the booking system. I tend to book by phone but I did look on the app after reading you reply. 
Is there a section I should look for 

thanks 

Dennis 

[Keithl]

24 minutes ago, Den said:

Hi HJA 

I’ve been aware that the club offer discounts for OAP’s but I’ve not noticed it the booking system. I tend to book by phone but I did look on the app after reading you reply. 
Is there a section I should look for 

thanks 

Dennis 

Den,

With the C&CC you get Age Concession Rates when you are over 60. Look for ACR on the booking form.

Or if you have completed over 25 years of membership and one of the members receives a state pension you can apply to be a Veteran member

[colin]

With the C&CC, when booking by phone we've always been given ACR (age concession rate) since registering for it, but when booking online you need to make sure you click the right box, as standard it enters the first person as non ACR, reduce this to 0 then put in number of people with ACR in relevant box.

Edited December 23, 2023 by colin

[crocs]

7 hours ago, paulmold said:

I would argue that by saying the sites are not discounted for members but are surcharged for non-members. The so-called discounted rates make them comparable to independent sites, no- one in their right mind would pay the non-member price.

OK. They are surcharged for non-members. The prices are still the same whether by your terminology or mine.

[Den]

Thanks Keith & Colin 

I’ll send them an email to register for senior citizens and not yet veteran with only 22 years 

thanks agsin

 den

[Sydney1]

We use Park4Night, SearchforSites and Britstops. Dropping Britstops as they plan to go all digital and there are a number of free Facebook groups with the same and more info

[hja]

On 23/12/2023 at 12:43, Keithl said:

Den,

With the C&CC you get Age Concession Rates when you are over 60. Look for ACR on the booking form.

Or if you have completed over 25 years of membership and one of the members receives a state pension you can apply to be a Veteran member

Just a word of warning if booking on line, despite having logged in, it sometimes wont let me select ACR and revert to full price and I have to log in again to get ACR,

[Tracker]

Some 20 years ago we gave up on both major 'clubs' due to costs and ever increasing non availability. They are not Clubs for the benefit of their members in the true sense of the word - they are profit making entities with their own agendas aimed primarily at touring caravans and tents that mainly need to pitch for longer periods so we too would not rejoin either. That said we did find the CCC considerably more user friendly than the CC (as was) now laughingly calling itself CMC without seemingly changing its attitude to Motorhomers.

We then gave up on touring the UK where we (as Motorhomers in general) were not welcome so we started going abroad and found the attitude very different. We tried hard not to abuse the welcome and we found books like 'All the Aires' and 'Camperstop' were all we needed to find perfectly acceptable stopovers, albeit often for short stays, which suited us but may not suit others.

We also found that some areas were less well served than others so a little forethought before heading off each day was needed but the lure of no pre booking worked well for us in our meanderings and we found some stunning locations often by pure chance.

The cost of the books was quickly recovered by using low cost Aires but as the years rolled by we found that getting a pitch early in the day in popular locations was a good idea rather than travel and hope for the best come the evening.

From what I read here and elsewhere little has changed in the UK to encourage responsible nomadic, touring, go where you fancy lifestyle that self sufficient Camping Cars are built for.

I guess we have to thank the irresponsible minority and so called 'travellers' and the mess they all leave behind them for that?

[the clampits]

As usual Tracker  makes a lot of good points. We've been members of CMC for 14 years, since we started in our first m/home. We joined CCC a few years back, just so we had a choice, and since then have enjoyed our membership with them. I particularly like the welcome you receive from CCC wardens, and that's at every site.  CMC wardens on the other hand have, at times, been snooty and sometimes downright rude to customers. I haven't been the subject of it myself, but have seen it and found it embarrassing.  

Last year we were pretty disappointed by the huge price hike in CMC fees, so we avoided using them. We stayed on the other clubs sites, or independent sites, and had a great year, only spending one night on a CMC site.  We get the ACR discount with CCC, but not CMC, still a year to go.  It's a big saving when spending 80 + nights a year travelling.

With CMC site fees still far too high, we are cancelling our membership with them, and will continue using sites as per last year. A trivial protest I suppose, but it has to start somewhere.

[Keithl]

7 minutes ago, the clampits said:

We get the ACR discount with CCC, but not CMC, still a year to go.

@the clampits What are the details for the CMC ACR please?

We are now both ACR and Veteran members of the CCC but I've never heard of an ACR with the CMC.

Keith.

[hja]

3 hours ago, Keithl said:

@the clampits What are the details for the CMC ACR please?

We are now both ACR and Veteran members of the CCC but I've never heard of an ACR with the CMC.

Keith.

CAMC make a point of having no age discounts of any sort.

[Keithl]

3 minutes ago, hja said:

CAMC make a point of having no age discounts of any sort.

Thanks @hja I thought as much but @the clampits seemed to imply otherwise in the previous post hence my asking.

I have also searched the CMC website to no avail!

[crocs]

A question at the last AGM of CAMC (I know.... why was I spending valuable time reading them!) was on the subject of ACRs and the response was 'The Club has always operated under the ethos that all members are equal and the Club should work for the benefit of the membership as a whole not just the individual member. The Club doesn't provide an age-related price reduction as we believe the fairest approach is to provide the best price possible for all campsites, available to be booked by all members.' 

Whether or not they do provide the 'best price possible' is debatable but I kinda respect their logic on ACRs.