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For 3 nights this coming weekend I'm paying £21.50 per night for me and 2 dogs.  As I wanted a site with plenty of facilities, I don't mind paying that and I knew up front what the charges would be. 

Having said that, I'm paying for the dogs but they aren't getting any facilities specific to them, yet if I went in low season, the charge for them would be as low as 50p per night, instead of £2.  It's not as if the dogs will be using EHU or the showers/toilets!

I'm hoping that as I get more experienced with this camping malarky that I can go to places where there are less facilities and therefore pay a bit less.

A lot of hotels charge more at weekends than midweek, so maybe campsites are the same?  I guess that if a site takes a booking for a weekend, then that pitch is unavailable for a whole week, so unless they get a booking for the midweek days, they lose out...

We're going camping with friends to Cotswold View next month - 3 adults, 2 kids ages 4 and 5.  When my friend booked, the nice lady at the site said she'd put us down as my friend and I in one tent, friends son with the two young kids in the other so that way we wouldn't be charged any extras.  And the dogs, 4 between us, go for free

Quote: Originally posted by shadowx on 21/7/2009

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well we recently booked up on Hollands wood in the nw forest (part of the forest holidays group, who i thought were reputable given their links with the forestry commission, i think anyway...)

But then the charges... something like 16 for the pitch per night. humm, ok it is a nice place, good facilities, lovely area.. fair enough. Then a supplement for not being a member... Cant agree but ok... Then a supplement for it being a weekend.... and, if perchance you went on a bank holiday you then pay another supplement!!

But we thought it was a very nice place and we need the facilities as its our sort of first time so we paid up. £90 quid per pitch (despite there being only three of us, the couple staying in a two man festival popup and me in a 2 man fishing bivvy, we had to book two pitches in the name of insurance or health and safety, or as i politely told the woman, money making scamery) we shall see if its money well paid or not.

But i agree in principal. As long as i dont put extra strains on the resources, like a party of 15 using their showers etc... or go past the boundaries of my pitch i dont see the need for extras. But thats life...

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Forest Holidays, in my incredibly humble opinion, are the epitome of evil and really deserve a place in our affections that is on a par with M.P.s, journalists and Al Quaeda.

 

If you wish to take a masterclass in "extras" may I suggest requesting their brochure for 2009 and reading the small print, my flabber has never been so ghasted.

 

It's the bottom line that counts, not the extras. If the bottom line is too much, vote with your tent, and stay elsewhere.

Paying for dogs - fine if there is a dog walking area, and poo bins. There is a cost to both of these facilities. If not, I'd query why there is a charge.

On open field type pitches - paying for pup or utility tents also fine by me. Somebody else could be pitched there, therefore the owner's income could well be lowered by turning people (income) away due to the amount of utility tents pitched on the field. On marked out bigger pitches that I tend to go for, I'm paying for the pitch, so I'm not so sure there should be extras.

Paying for children, or extra adults on top of the pretty much standard tent + 2 basic charge- depends how much. If the site has a park or other facilities for the little campers, then that too has to be paid for. Showers need to be heated etc. I

Like other posters have already said, if you don't like the charges, don't stop there. In all fairness, if I owned a site, I'd try to maximise my income, but there is probably a fine line between losing custom for overcharging, and maximising profit.

Quote: Originally posted by Trifecta on 22/7/2009

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Quote: Originally posted by shadowx on 21/7/2009

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well we recently booked up on Hollands wood in the nw forest (part of the forest holidays group, who i thought were reputable given their links with the forestry commission, i think anyway...)

But then the charges... something like 16 for the pitch per night. humm, ok it is a nice place, good facilities, lovely area.. fair enough. Then a supplement for not being a member... Cant agree but ok... Then a supplement for it being a weekend.... and, if perchance you went on a bank holiday you then pay another supplement!!

But we thought it was a very nice place and we need the facilities as its our sort of first time so we paid up. £90 quid per pitch (despite there being only three of us, the couple staying in a two man festival popup and me in a 2 man fishing bivvy, we had to book two pitches in the name of insurance or health and safety, or as i politely told the woman, money making scamery) we shall see if its money well paid or not.

But i agree in principal. As long as i dont put extra strains on the resources, like a party of 15 using their showers etc... or go past the boundaries of my pitch i dont see the need for extras. But thats life...

---

 

Forest Holidays, in my incredibly humble opinion, are the epitome of evil and really deserve a place in our affections that is on a par with M.P.s, journalists and Al Quaeda.

 

If you wish to take a masterclass in "extras" may I suggest requesting their brochure for 2009 and reading the small print, my flabber has never been so ghasted.

 

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Quote: Originally posted by Trifecta on 22/7/2009

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Forest Holidays, in my incredibly humble opinion, are the epitome of evil and really deserve a place in our affections that is on a par with M.P.s, journalists and Al Quaeda.

If you wish to take a masterclass in "extras" may I suggest requesting their brochure for 2009 and reading the small print, my flabber has never been so ghasted.

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Our last trip was to their Christchurch site in the Forest of Dean. It was expensive and we had to pay extra for our dog (although we ended up leaving her with my Dad in the end). I thought that it would be worth the money. I expected top notch facilities. I was very very wrong. Of the four sites we have visited this year it was easily the worst of the four. Horrid facilities that weren't even clean.

I don't mind how sites structure their charges (but then I don't have a utility tent or a pup tent so I guess it doesn't really apply to me). All I ask is that if their fees are on the high side, that they provide the facilities to justify the higher cost.

It's really put me off Forest Holidays, which is a shame as we stayed in one of their lodges a few years ago and that was fantastic.

I suppose you could look at it that if you book a pitch of a certain size then it should be yours to do what you want with, wether it be filled with 1 big tent or a tent + outhouse etc.

But if you book into a site where you can plonk yourself wherever you want then the owners must at some point have done some basic maths of "we can fit x number of people / tents onto the site".  If everyone then starts ariving with gazebos and pup tents and outhouse then it's a lot of wasted space for the site owner.

Our "lads weekends" site in Glencoe only charges per man and within reason you can put up as many tents, gazebos, mess tents etc as you want (although we have been charged for a mess tent before during a busy weekend).  This year the NT sites in the lakes have revised their prices to the nth degree (but with some logical changes) which in some cases makes them more expensive than they used to be (if you bring extra kit).  I assume they've been doing their maths and worked out that they were not necessarily making as much as they could (or are just jumping on the charges bandwagon).

At the end of the day for me (lads weekends exluded as they cost as much as a holiday abroad), it's ultimately cheaper than a B&B and meal and as long as you feel the total cost is reasonable then it doesn't really matter how it's made up.

Funnily enough, it's the extra 50p for the showers in Glencoe that narks me.

(Sort of repeating Alphonso there. Missed that post)

I try to set a per night budget (it's usually about £25 per night for 5 of us plus dog) and then find somewhere suitable.

I don't mind if the site charges per pitch for everything or break the prices down - I just stick to my budget and if it doesn't fit in with that then I look elsewhere!!

Some places do seem to see pound signs and will charge for every little thing they can but if you're not happy with their prices then don't stay there - simple!!

There are plenty of reasonably priced, well cared for, good facility sites around and if you find a good site pass it on to the rest of us!!!! lol

Helen xx