CL Sites - The Owner's Perspective
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2024
- Ever wondered what running a CL site is like from the owner’s perspective? Then this interview with CL owner Ted Howard-Jones from the successful Cholsey Grange CL site in the Chilterns will be of interest.
This is the second part of my interview with Ted, the other available here • What's involved in ope... has advice on setting up a CL site.
Music : “Release” by Emmanuel-Jacob available on Artlist.io
Really insightful video (maybe a little lower background music next time please so as not to distract from the speaker?) thank you for putting this together. For solo travellers CLs are quite often already more expensive than club sites, especially in non peak seasons. For example last week I stayed at a Caravan Club Site at £14.81 per night as a solo caravaner; the nearest CL was £22 per night. Both pitches hardstanding with electric; the (tiny) club site had a full facilities block, the CL did not but each pitch did have water/waste hook up. Quite a significant price difference...
The same space is (or can be, solos often don't bother with awnings & have smaller vehicles but it's still a pitch) used so the same charge is to be expected for space used but resource usage is lower meaning that the CL owner's costs for things like water, waste and to some extent electric are actually lower so more profit is generated from solo travellers paying the same... I don't know how much water/waste charges are i.e. whether they are significant so the number of people travelling together matters but it certainly seems like metering electricity, which will be a significant cost and separating that out from pitch, charges seems very fair. I do worry how much such infrastructure will cost to install though. Also I don't understand why we all think we should be entitled to charge our electric vehicles at our pitch; we don't fill up with diesel when we arrive on a farm so I think really the nation should be much more focused on fast super charger i.e. replacement "fuel" stations than individual CL, etc. owners having to worry about whether people can charge their vehicle when pitched up!
The CL/CS/etc. network is an absolute jewel in the crown of the respective clubs so I hope as many as possible will keep their individual and often quirky charm.
PS I think Ted (the interviewee) is absolutely correct that it’s reasonable to expect to pay more for exclusivity BUT the knock on business connotation may be that people are price sensitive so if booking E.g. to visit local attractions rather than the site itself they may vote with their feet and occupancy will be lower. The expectation of CLs being cheaper than big club sites I think comes from the perception that CLs are side businesses being run in E.g. a fallow field that otherwise would not be bringing in much if any income & that they don’t necessitate as much looking after as E.g. a clipped/pruned/hanging basket bedecked/leaf blown/mown/hedge trimmed/scrupulously clean facilities “blocked” club site. I’ve stayed on some run as v professional outfits and priced accordingly and other very basic ones, where I never met the owner, little had been done to the site for quite a while as they were on a long holiday so just asked us to leave money in an envelope in a collection box! Frankly those ones did probably take a lot less looking after than a club site pitch but we enjoyed the experience and it was commensurately priced so felt perfectly reasonable. Overall, excellent to get a “professional” CL owner’s perspective; I do hope some of the more informal, almost slapdash ones stay around too. It’s good to have a mix!
Always interesting to hear Ted's thoughts on CL's and he has been one of the drivers of bringing CL's into the internet age. Just a thought on the video production, the background music does make it more difficult to hear the spoken word.
Thanks David glad you enjoyed hearing Ted’s thoughts and I agree he really is an interesting chap with a wealth of experience in the CL arena. In terms of the music I fully take on board your comments. Adding music is always a funny one as it can often help with the flow and to set the desired tone of the end piece, some people can find it distracting whilst others prefer it. This is especially true with people listening on different devices. I hope it didn’t spoil your enjoyment of the video and I’ll try and find ways to get a better balance in future videos.
Dave
Interesting. Speaking personally, my the facilities I look for are pretty basic water, and waste essentially. I don't need electric hook up, the van can carry on for a while without, even in winter although battery power will not last as long, obviously.
The main criterion I use for choosing a site is, is the site suitable for dog walking direct from site, including separation from farm animals.
Glad you found it interesting. We also don't generally need many services so CLs are a great option for us to choose sites that give us just what we need. We don't have dogs but there are more CLs opening that have dedicated off-lead dog areas for exercising dogs (Buttercup Meadows and Garden House CLs of which I have videos of both on my channel). Also there's almost always footpaths very near to most CLs so great for dog walking or walking in general.
Really interesting and agree Electric needs to be monitored, some people use a lot and especially when they heat an awning which im afraid really annoys me .
We love CL’s, amazing value and a lovely relaxing atmosphere and £20 a night with Elec is quite ok for us .