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I think that with the increasing number of single parent families it is essential to provide a family bath room with loo, basin and shower/bath in it . Then dads can go in with their daughters and mums with their sons.

A dedicated dog walk, nicely mown, is also essential if you are allowing dogs.

Good luck with your new venture

                                                           Sue

I know this is probably obvious but we all like different things, so your never going to please everybody.

Get the basic's right then listen to you campers maybe have a suggestion form for people who have stayed to give you feedback and then consider there requests/opions.

Think clean toilets and showers are a must though.

I'd just like to echo the other comments i.e

A proper bath (most campsites charge £1 for this due to increased volume of hot water, which is gladly paid)

Dedicated dog walk where dogs can run off the lead (an exercised dog is a happy dog) with dog bins and maybe even doggie bags supplied so there can be no excuses for not picking up after your pet!

Also if the campsite is not near a shop then have a small amount of essentials (milk, bread etc.) available in reception.

Good luck with it all and keep us updated

Lots of decent sized showers, and preferably not with those push button type controls.  Also plenty of shelves and hooks in the showers and a decent sized changing area which is dry, more often than not this area ends up as wet as the shower area! My other personal no-no is shower curtains, i think they are really unhygenic as they never look clean. My only other 'would likes' are marked out pitches so there's no problem of your neighbour being right on top of you and a lovely dog walk, with doggie bins.

A shop that opens all day would be nice, not one that shuts 11am till 4pm. And, a shop that sells less sweets and tacky toys than most.

A field for kids to play in, with a football net and maybe a basketball net and a wildlife area (if you've got the room of course)..You can then scrap the 20k adventuree playground, with its exhaustive planning permission and health and safety issues. 

A communal bbq and a picnic area, you light the bbq, we bring the sausages. Great way to make friends.

Views of the Atlantic and access to a beach are always a nice feature.

Sorry, forgot to add, good luck!

Would second just about everything that has been said here so far. As a couple who go camping without any children and are always looking at a holiday as a way to get away from it all, i would say the following things would be on our wish list,

1) a bit of peace and quiet; not talking about the usual noises of life that you just switch off to, but things like loud radios, boistorous parties, incessant screaming and shouting of kids. A rigourously enforced noise curfew at night (10.30ish) is a real favourite of ours as is some system of stopping access to the site after a certain time of night.

2) marked pitches; these leave people in no doubt as to where they can and can't pitch and ensure that a) nobody pitches on top of you b) the owner can't suddenly cram in a load of extra tents at busy times. (not saying that you would but you see my point) When we were newby campers we sometimes found it quite tricky when faced with a semi-full field of randomly pitched tents and were told to just pitch where we liked. I agree that campsites should not look too ordered and neat but a bit of order leaves everyone knowing where they stand. 

3) being able to book a pitch would be really good for us. We travel from London to the lake District and we often have to arrive at busy times either on a saturday or a bank holiday sunday. Being able to book a pitch would save us a great deal of time trawling around site after site looking for one with spaces. We would quite happily pay a small (no refundable) surcharge for being able to book in advance.

4) a seperate space for children to go off and play in or preferably fields specifically set aside for families. That way, everyone is happy and people with children usually don't have a problem with other people's children running around. Such a field could also be adjacent to the play area so that parents could keep an eye on their children and people without children don't usually want to pitch right by the play area.

5) good policies; as someone else said, high standards beat flashiness everytime. If possible, regular walks around the site by the site owner or management, chatting to people will create a real sense of security and also fill in the gaps on what people want. I don't think there is anything worse or off-putting to visit a site and have your stay spoiled by the completely inconsiderate behaviour of others, especially if you feel that the site management don't really care and just want you money. Dealing effectively with complaints is good, keeping on top of the bad behaviour and stopping it before it starts is better.

6) I would say that if at all commercially possible (and i would suggest it is because of the diversity of campers) sites really need to decide who they are for and stick to that. If you are happy to accept large single-sex parties, then cater specifically for them as you will recieve no end of business from such groups but will seriously alienate everyone else. Likewise, cater for families and families will be happy or cater for older couples and you will attract droves of those. I think the problems start when sites try to be everything to everyone as although most campers tend to be tolerant people they do want different things from a site.

Really good luck with the site; i think the very fact that you are concerned enough about your guests to try and get ahead of the game on what to provide for them shows you are well on the way to success

Quote: Originally posted by camper1967 on 25/6/2007

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Hi

I am in a lucky position and am about to open a new campsite (from scratch and subject to necessary planning) and after looking through the postings here it apears everyone wants something different from a campsite.

My idea is to have a campsite that is aimed towards the family market and would love other members opinions on what they would like from a campsite. My main areas of concern are

1) showers and toilets...besides being clean which goes without saying would you pay slightly more if you could have a private bathroom for your stay? Would family showers ( i.e. shower rooms with 2 or more showers)be of interest? Is it necessary to provide child size toilets, urinals, sinks? Are hair dryers and straightners a must?

i personally would be fine with sharing showers rather than having a personal bathroom, although having a few family bathrooms would be GREAT! you could have one child size toilet/urinal/sink in each block, or you could have a toilet stall! also a changing area. i hate shower curtains, would much prefer to have two doors within the shower just to partition the clothes! don't put in straighteners and hairdryers, put in plugs instead! oh, and good size mirrors!

2) play area...what do people want?...should play areas be from 18 months up to 14years? or should i be looking at older teenagers too and what would they like to see? In an indoor area what would children want...i have looked into ball pools and snooker tables.

ah, now here's a subject close to my heart! please, please, cater for older teenagers, as a 16 year old, i still love play areas! basically you want some baby swings, some little people stuff and some bigger swings, maybe a tyre swing, definately an aerial runway, great fun! erm, oh i know, one of those obstacle course things with stepping stones and ropes and chains and stuff! as for indoors,well, not too keen on that, but a soft play area, pool table, things like that.

3) Pricing..i can't get this right..would it be better to charge per pitch or per person?..The trouble with per pitch is that i could get 10 people on 1 pitch and just the 1 person on another pitch.

go for per pitch, but charge less for a pitch with just 2 people on it and a small tent. this will work a treat!

What would you like from a campsite? I know what me and my family like but new ideas are much appreciated

a nice place to get away from it all which is suitable for all the family, also one that is not too much like a home from home! hope this helps!

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I would like to see kiddie size toilets, just one in each would be great.  My local CC&C site that we use loads has a kiddie urinal and DS loves using that just like dad.

A family bathroom is great, along with a bath (ds doesnt like showers) so I end up washing him in the sink.  I wouldnt mind paying £1 or so for this luxury.

Basic supplies such as milk, butter, eggs, bacon etc are always good.  Stayed on a site that ran a 'trust' shop and it was great, only small amount of bits, but you could get one mini box of cornflakes and they didnt charge the earth.

Pitches that are properly marked and where you dont have to trail your EHU cable for miles.  Lots of water points

But above all, like everyone else, its a case of keeping the showers and loos immaculate and fully stocked with loo roll.  I really dont mind if they are basic as long as clean