Hi all,just got back after couple of weeks touring had a great time with good weather.Whilst away we stayed on 5 different sites 2 of these sites are converting more of their pitche's to seasonals.The riverside at Bentham and Bridgehouse marina at Garstang are both doing this,they also have both stopped taking tents.I understand the economics as they are getting the revenue for 10 mths whether the pitch is used or not.My concern is if more and more do this we will find it harder to find places to tour,Has anyone else come acroos this trend.
bluey
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Have also noticed a lot more pitces going to seasonal or even statics.
I posted a thread last month on a similar topic and found many were charging upward of 2grand for a season, some over 3. With those figures and people daft enough to pay the prices as you say who can blame them.
We have found that in a few places, on one site we were pitched in the middle of rows of seasonals..trouble was none of them were in their vans..it was like a ghost town, it may make good sense to the site owners but it is spoiling it for those who want to tour/camp.
I have a seasonal pitch at the Ranch near Evesham and still go touring a lot as well both in the UK and abroad. This pitch allows me to use my van every weekend all year round with the exception of December and January when I have to catch up with the house maintenance.
There are 20 seasonal pitches at the Ranch and over 100 touring pitches so there's no problem there with seasonals taking over the place.
A FAR bigger problem, which those who used to go to Leadons in Broadway will know and now affecting us at the Ranch, is the spread of Static vans. This winter will see the loss of another 20 touring pitches at the Ranch in favour of 10 statics. This is on top of loosing 15 pitches a couple of years ago to Statics.
Again I know this is economics - the owners get year round rent from statics of a miminum of £2,000. The Ranch has over 200 statics now so do your maths - when you add the prices of the better static pitches and the "log cabin" statics you are approaching £500,000 per year.
The recent flooding in the Avon area has made this problem worse - all those nice riverside pitches are now seen as risky so people are moving away inland a bit.
we have a seasonal pitch on a small site near York. The owners told me that they want to maintain a 50:50 ratio of seasonals to tourers/tents, although as the year goes on, it appears many touring visitors like the site and want to stay for the rest of the year.
I can see why seasonals are preferred by some owners, economics for one. After such a poor year weatherwise, no wonder some want more seasonals! Couple this with the attitude expressed by some on here a few months back, suggesting that as the summer was so bad for sites, we should all try to get discounts as the sites would be desperate for anything!
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As I said on the other thread though down in South Devon 4 sites have stopped or reduced their seasonal pitches altogether. I still haven't fathomed that one out!
Quote: Originally posted by marpin on 05/11/2007
We have found that in a few places, on one site we were pitched in the middle of rows of seasonals..trouble was none of them were in their vans..it was like a ghost town, it may make good sense to the site owners but it is spoiling it for those who want to tour/camp.
We've been on a few sites like this recently. Just as camping is becoming more popular than ever we're either getting turned away from sites or stuck in between empty seasonals.
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Quote: Originally posted by Fat Bum on 07/11/2007
It must get really boring going to the same place all the time - part of the joy of having a caravan is being able to go to lots of different places.
Not at all! South Devon is so vast that we have barely scratched the surface yet. Within half an hour of the van we have Plymouth, Exeter, The English Riviera coastal towns and Dartmoor. Why would we want to be anywhere else?
I know I'm probably in the minority - but I have a seasonal pitch and still go touring regularly to see other parts of UK and France.
I keep the van in the Cotswolds near Broadway so there's always plenty of places to visit in the area - and it doesn't get boring - how many of the tourers go back to the same old favorite sites year after year - can't really see the difference here.
My job means that I can't always get at a reasonable time away on the Friday night - without the seasonal pitch my van would be unused at the weekend.
Points have been made in some previous threads (on this same subject) about seasonal pitches taking up space at the expense of touring pitches - that may well be the point in the few peak weeks of the year. However at the Ranch last weekend there were only 7 touring vans on 120 plots. Yet there were 15 of the 20 seasonal pitches occupied by us lot.
If you were a site owner what would you do? Cater for 8 to 10 weeks of the year or try to run a business that gives you all year cash flow?
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Topic: Seasonal s Taking Over
