Price Hikes for school holidays

[saint-spoon]

I have been looking at caravanning options for next year; our preference is for the wilder New forest campsites where the children can run around outside and make new friends and so on, but they are closed over the winter so we have a favoured venue that has an indoor swimming pool and on site restaurant/bar and so on. Anyway we have booked up for a few weekends over the deep winter season, a weekend in January for a fully service pitch with electric hook up and all services is £15 a night for two adults and two children… try and book the same pitch for 10th February and it shoots up to £45 a night because of half term. Now whilst I understand that they are business and make their money from such things I reckon that trebling the price to persecute families with children is taking the widdle a little bit.

 

[ProfJohnL]

The same point and question has been asked before, and the answer we seem to get back is the price during the holiday season is the real price, and they discount for other times....Hmmmm. :huh:

 

[Mogwyth]

There is a good reason why school holidays are dearer, We have two holiday cottages on the farm, say we need on average £200 a week to make any money, however for a third of the year we are closed for maintenance, weather is not to good our holiday etc so we now up to £300 a week for the remaining weeks, now for maybe half the remaining time demand isn't very high (too much supply, weather, not much going on, kids in school etc) so we have to lower the price to entice people in so we charge £250, that leaves us the school holidays and the shoulder weeks to make up our loses and make a bit of profit so our prices can go up to £500 a week, simple supply and demand and need to make a profit. All the prices are real prices.

 

[otherclive]

Its not just school holidays. In some areas September is a very popular month for those without children to take their holidays. And although the prices are lower than for school holidays those prices do reflect demand and supply. Unfortunately its the same with most services and commodities. If demand exceeds supply you can charge a higher price. When I worked for a "blue chip" engineering company we had a lecture from an eminent professor from LBS. His advice was that "you price your product at the highest price that will achieve a sale" !

 

[Martin24]

At the end of the day the price is the price and there's a choice, pay it or not. We prefer CL's and CS's with minimal facilities and there is rarely a price difference from one month to another. Yes some charge an extra pound or so for the children but then with three children we're bound to use more water and put more footfall on the grass than if we were just a couple. A site that charges extra for awnings and dogs is not for us so we just go for another site that doesn't. There's loads of choice out there so no need to pay huge prices if you don't want to.

 

[Raywood]

The whole holiday industry is locked into this system and we are stuck with it. Quite simply if anyone was to reduce midsummer prices and increase the others they would soon be out of business. Yes they would be full in summer but the rest of the year the higher prices would price them out of the market and they would have very few takers leaving them with a substantial loss. A few small sites do get away with a fixed charge but they are a small minority and the site is not going to be their main business.

 

[Dustydog]

A lot of sites are only open 6 months a year. They have to achieve a years turnover in half the time.
Many CLs charge the same flat fee all year. Ironically their costs are greater in winter due to electricity use!
At high peak times sites have to employ additional staff which in itself increases costs.
Like it or not the fundamental Principle of Supply and Demand applies :kiss:

 

[Raywood]

A lot of sites are only open 6 months a year. They have to achieve a years turnover in half the time.
Many CLs charge the same flat fee all year. Ironically their costs are greater in winter due to electricity use!
At high peak times sites have to employ additional staff which in itself increases costs.
Like it or not the fundamental Principle of Supply and Demand applies :kiss:

It is true the electricity use is higher in winter and some sites must charge little more than that cost. On the other hand if the site is empty then it brings in nothing so getting what you can does bring in something. On smaller sites it is probably the owners who live there anyway running it alone so there are no real extra costs involved.

 

[Hutch]

Mogwyth, Thanks for your honesty, I think all people undertand that, If your in business, thats the way things are.

Unfortunatly , ferries etc rip off. Why pay more if you go for three week trip before coming back as opposed to long weekend, or double cost for a one way trip.

 

[Mogwyth]

There are some things that must remain a mystery :lol: Actual there will be a rational to it but not sure what it is,

 

[Dustydog]

I meant to add that this anomaly of high prices during school holidays was the catalyst that got me into camping and caravanning in the first place. When the kids were young Spanish type holidays were not affordable