Campsite charging... Per pitch? Per person?

Paid £35 a night for a tent on a site in Cumbria last weekend. It had good showers, a play park, a nice bar, food truck selling evening meals, plus a suburb pub half a mile away in the next village. Very happy with that, and already booked it for same 4 nights next year.
 

Agri Spec Solicitor

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have found on our CS 5 unit site that charging needs to be kept simple unless you are prepared to have a head count.
We had a bad review where we were said to have tried to overcharge. The customer asked how much extra for what they called a ‘pup’ tent for some children. No problem we said, it can be included in the standard rate for the one unit. When they arrived the pup tent was accompanied by a second car pulling a second caravan and wanting a second pitch all for the price of one pitch. So they turned round and off they went.
We agree with the comments about electricity cost for modern caravans when there is no incentive to economise.
Has anyone found a good way to charge the electricity to each pitch? Pre paid cards seems to one option. Or are they too much of a nuisance to administer?
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
We have found on our CS 5 unit site that charging needs to be kept simple unless you are prepared to have a head count.
We had a bad review where we were said to have tried to overcharge. The customer asked how much extra for what they called a ‘pup’ tent for some children. No problem we said, it can be included in the standard rate for the one unit. When they arrived the pup tent was accompanied by a second car pulling a second caravan and wanting a second pitch all for the price of one pitch. So they turned round and off they went.
We agree with the comments about electricity cost for modern caravans when there is no incentive to economise.
Has anyone found a good way to charge the electricity to each pitch? Pre paid cards seems to one option. Or are they too much of a nuisance to administer?

Metered EHU are easy
 

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
£25 a night with electric, for camper van/ caravan. Tents were £15 no electric. Stopped taking tents as they are not worth the hassle/ mess/ kill the grass. I don't charge extra for more occupants and cars as I don't take them, keep it simple , couples or small families only , no extra cars
 

Kim_rural

Member
Livestock Farmer
Doing a pop up campsite on farm for the first time...

Wondering how people charge, per tent? Per person? Extra for multiple vehicles? What do you think works best?

Also interested on people's thoughts on dogs, risk of Neospora?

Thanks,

CB
I'd recommend doing a bit of research on a website such as pitchup.com, to see what others locally are charging. You could opt to charge per person or per pitch. Per pitch is easier to manage as you don't need to worry about checking the right amount of people have arrived.

You could also charge for additional vehicles, but do you want to allow this/encourage this? Is there enough space for additional vehicles?

I notice another reply mentions caravans - these are not allowed on pop up campsites. You can only have tents and your facilities must also be temporary moveable structures.

If you want any other advice on pop up campsites, I've written an article for Farmer's Guardian, so happy to help.
 

Kim_rural

Member
Livestock Farmer
£25 a night with electric, for camper van/ caravan. Tents were £15 no electric. Stopped taking tents as they are not worth the hassle/ mess/ kill the grass. I don't charge extra for more occupants and cars as I don't take them, keep it simple , couples or small families only , no extra cars

If you're doing a pop up campsite under the extended permitted development rights, you cannot accept caravans or motorhomes. Its tents only!
 

Slowcow

Member
I'm considering a pop up campsite for the summer hols, how many pitches/loo do folks generally have?

I've stayed on a few campsites in the past but really can't remember how many loos etc!

Anyone found out a rough cost for hiring showers and toilet blocks? I reckon they might be short if a lot of people do it?
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
We're tents only and a standard pitch is 3m x 3m.

I measured our area out for the number of pitches we could have then halved it. It's my first go at this and I don't want a load of hassle.

I don't have a lot of money to spend on it so have gone down the wild camping route. We have a compost toilet and running water - that's it.

We have grander plans for the future but we're using this as a trial run first. So far the planning of the site and its promotion have been fairly straightforward and would recommend speaking to pitchup about it as they have been very helpful for me.
 

Slowcow

Member
We're tents only and a standard pitch is 3m x 3m.

I measured our area out for the number of pitches we could have then halved it. It's my first go at this and I don't want a load of hassle.

I don't have a lot of money to spend on it so have gone down the wild camping route. We have a compost toilet and running water - that's it.

We have grander plans for the future but we're using this as a trial run first. So far the planning of the site and its promotion have been fairly straightforward and would recommend speaking to pitchup about it as they have been very helpful for me.

How many pitches have you gone for? Just one bog or a few, have you had many bookings? I was thinking of using pitchup, don't have a lot of spare time but could do with the money!
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
Going to make a double outhouse with steps up. The box to contain the material will sit underneath and moved by tractor and pallet tines.

The water will be a sink on a stand.

Bookings have been steady - we're certainly not near capacity yet but it takes time to move up the rankings. How often do you go past the first 3 pages on a search engine? The market our campsite will attract will probably people that look at the weather and think "right, we'll go this weekend" and then book. We've got people staying for one night all the way up to 5.

The money we make won't be a fortune but we've spent next to nothing doing and pitchup take their upfront so the money in our bank account is ours to keep.

This is a trial and if it works and we're happy with the level of input it needs we plan to invest more for the future.
 

Barleycorn

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Hampshire
Another vote for Pitchup, they've been very helpful to us. We set up a 50 tent site on 4 acres. We have just been approved by the Freedom Camping Club, so can have 5 caravans / motorhomes as well. We have 5 compost loos and two showers powered by gas. The compost loos will be converted to flushing as soon as I can get a cesspit dug, I spend my life in sh!t, but prefer not human sh!t!
 

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