Caravan Park, owners and managers take notice.

I may well be talking to deaf ears but here is my 10 cents worth anyway. Too often now my wife and I, as travelling Grey Nomads, caravan in tow, are confronted by caravan parks that have changed since our last visit or have obvioulsy changed recently...I don't mean that they have installed better or upgraded facilities for caravanners, quite the opposite. Caravan parks, (I will refrain from using the term 'Tourist parks' as that implied meaning seems to have faded some.) across the nation appear to have gone on a cabin buying binge.

These modern cabins, usually very well appointed, look great when installed, the very look of them can greatly increase the attraction of the park, certainly a big  improvement over the 'overnight vans' of days long gone...however, to install cabins at the expense of, and the detriment of the caravan park facilities may well backfire.

We are witness to many such parks where this has happened, one example which I will use to describe the situation, an old park in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW, new owners have spend a lot of money....brand new illuminated signs out front, (complete with 4 stars!) well appointed cabins, landscaping improvements, new night lighting good park road...thats at the park front, then  we get into the caravan park area at the back......like driving into a different world, potholed roadway, poor or non-existent drainage, most lighting inoperative, unlevel grassed (mud) sites, leaking taps.....but worse was to come...the caravan park amenities block was not cleaned once during our two day stay...not once.

A second example in Goulburn NSW has had half a dozen new cabins installed yet has done little to improve the caravan park amentiies, a few sheets of Laminex and a few new taps were applied whereas a bulldozer should have been.....again dirt, unlevel sites greet the caravaners once they progress past the ultra-modern cabins to the park section, down the back.

The two examples are not alone....we have travelled thousands of kilometres over many years but we have only now become aware of the trend....I am trying to avoid generalising, we would have to have visited every caravan park in the country to do that, readers of this posting may well be (hopefully) able to shoot me down, from our prospective however we find it worrying.

Caravan Park Cabins typically cost $35'000 to $40'000+ each and they will usually attract around $100+ per night, or 3 times that of a caravan site, on the face of it then it is obvious why parks are going down this track...this mammoth investment needs to be recovered.....bodies need to sleep in these cabins regulary, we are of the opinion that there are many 'sleepless' nights being experienced in caravan park cabins across Australia, some areas, particulary along the coastline may fare ok, during the school holidays anyway.

My message then is this...Park People, do your homework....you will always have us Grey Nomads calling in to stay in your caravan park, dont turn us away with second rate facilities.....like the two examples above, we wont return there but more importantly we will (and already have) posted a review to Australia Park Reviews website and of course we use a very powerful Grey Nomad weapon, word of mouth.

Totally agree,Maybe the cabin route is fine for the mining areas where there is a great demand for somewhere to sleep and not much else.  ie.12Hrs on 12 off. Then FIFO.

The old cliche give them what they want and they will come seems to have gone out the window. There must be hundreds of millions spent on new caravans ,motorhomes etc with self contained facilities.Kept in very clean and hygenic conditions because that's home.

Don't need some run down never cleaned ablutions block or at best watered every other day.

Yes there are great caravan/holiday parks and some are very well maintained but as intimated the standards seem to be declining.

Seems to be a thats what we are supplying you better take it atitude.

The good parks are normally well attended and the others just decline.

Yes there is a capital outlay and expenses for CP owners, but don't expect gold returns on your investment without supplying what people want or need.

So many GN's and others just want an inexpensive drive through site with or without power for a night or two.If we wanted the other facilities we would go to the places that supply what we want.

Old addage "The customer is always right" give people what they want and they will use it.

Quote:
"Caravan Park Cabins typically cost $35'000 to $40'000+ each"

Boy! You're living in the past. Cabins haven't been at that cheap for more than 15 years.
OJ

beiffe wrote:

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I was put away from the group I was booked with because I was a MH and it was a caravan gathering and found the facilities bad and got sick of walking in doggy poo even though they were suppose to be kept on a lead.

Regards
Brian

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 I wonder if you have ever tried keeping a "doggy poo" on a lead, it's not easy.

Howdy Paul & Pam,

talking of sub-standard ablutions in some caravan Parks,

 I struck a real ripper on our recent trip while returning from the Eastern States.

With-out naming the particular Park I will say it was situated in the Goldfields of W.A.

This particular Park had a shower block which was a left-over from some mining camp,

it consisted of 3 shower cubicles for Gents and was nothing more than a skid mounted Fibro shed,

As I placed my foot outside the cubical ready to climb in I sank through the floor to a depth of 150mm,

I had placed my weight on a piece of thin tin covering a large hole.

Now at $25.00 p/n one would expect something safe at least !!!

By the way, there was hot water.....until a second person turned on their shower.

We did wonder why we were the only visitors  in the Park. the rest were  Mine workers.

kiwijims   

As owner of this topic I am pleased to see that my comments are not in isolation. KiwiJim, we too have been subject to unsafe condidtions, such as I mentioned with an amenities block not being cleaned in 48hrs as we experienced recently. Or a totally neglected childrens playground just waiting for an accident to happen.....how many people visually inspect a caravan park playground before allow kids to play?

I encourage all to make their experiences known, we utilise Badgers website, Australian Caravan Park Reports is...... http://home.vicnet.net.au/~badger04/ 

One other Spin Off on this issue, and one perhaps not yet fully understood by many; the travelling caravaners spend money in towns, we know that many rural towns have seen the light here, evidenced by the number of communities that have embraced the 'RV Friendly Town' scheme.....agreed that cabin and motel people also spend money but what about the times when the kids are in school and the highways again become grey? and do the FIFO Miners really spend much in the rural towns that they take over?. ie Roma in Queensland to mention just one.

Yes , it's a damn good reason to stay out of CPs .

Look for that little bit of dirt on side roads , along creeks / rivers or just in the bush .

Me thinks we are preaching to the converted and using a lot of hot air..........the chances of CP owners reading this forum is pretty remote. Must say the older I get the more we also look for that small piece of dirt with water views with zero cost !!

Free Camping is something we may be forced into and provided you are set up for it and perhaps not alone it will suit some.....unfortuantly the Caravan Park Industry is very much against this idea for obvious reasons.....one popular TV caravan show recently ran a segment pointing out how free camping should not be contemplated as it threatens the caravan park industry and just messes up the countryside, the show has a major caravan park chain as a sponser and the hosts actually own a caravan park themselves.....their website was absolutely trashed with irate free campers following that incident.

Whiteman, you might be surprised at just how many CP owners do read forums like this, every oppurtunity we get, usually as we check in, we inform them of websites such as Badgers as I mentioned earlier and I urge others to do the same.

Happywanderer wrote:

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Paul and Pam, why do you say you may be FORCED into free camping. I have never been into a caravan park, only ever free camp, love it and would hate to be FORCED into using caravan parks.
I find it strange that free camping would be judged as no other choice in the end. To me its first choice.
How the heck does free camping mess up the countryside? The majority don't leave anything behind.
I bet some caravan parks have to clean up after the clients have left, if not with rubbish at least with muddy sites left from the waste which has been drained in the same spot over and over again.

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 I totally agree with you HW.  When we go around Australia in March next year (start date) we will only be free camping which is why we are setting up our van for just that purpose.  Even when we picnic which is a lot, we take all rubbish with us and leave nothing behind.  The same rule is going to apply when we free camp.  I never throw rubbish from my car window which I have seen many people do, not even fruit remains. 

I think free camping is the only way to travel but that is my opinion only and obviously yours HW 

Michelle

Ok..re being forced into free camping, let me quailfy this............it may come as a surprise but there are many people such as us who for whatever reason perfer, or need, to utilise caravan parks......as the name suggests that is why they are there, to park caravans.

Now, our reasons; due to the world financial situation we have watched our super dwindle away, our beloved caravan is 15 years old, it has no shower or toilet, it has no auxillary power system,  two years ago we splurged and got ourselves a portable freezer.....in other words, at this point in time we need the services that a caravan park will offer and we would perfer it to stay that way...I do see that in the not too distance future we willl probably be confronted with one or both issues, ie. caravan parks will become too expensive or they will become less and less available...then we will be forced into free camping.

Oh, regarding the 'mess' I mentioned about at the free rest areas, no way did I mean it was free campers, quite the opposite, on the rare occasions that we have free camped we have usually left the site cleaner than before we arrived.

Caravan park operators realize that free camping is a threat, an example:, friends of ours were free camping at a road side rest area about 4 km outside a Queensland town, they were all set up and enjoying a happy hour...a utility drove slowly by, on the door the logo of the towns caravan pk....15 minutes later a police car pulled up and told them to pack up, despite there being no 'No Camping' signs.....they did move on but certainly not to the towns caravan park. I beleive we can expect this situation to increase with the parks people lobbying Main Roads Depts and Shire Councils to erect these 'No Camping' signs in places we would not expect them.

An interesting update to this topic.....I had a discussion yesterday with a caravan park owner, as it was a private discussion I wont name the park suffice to say it is located in a major NSW rural town on a main inland highway.
The owner told me that he 'makes no money' from the caravaners and would like to replace the 'van sites with more cabins....currently this park has around 10 cabins and around 30 powered sites and a few unpowered sites. Questioned further the owner told me that his occupany rate is around 76% for the whole park, he didnt, or wouldnt, say what the cabin only occupancy rate was.
As highlighted in comments in this topic his comments are pretty much typical of caravan park management today.

His final comment was one that left me a little puzzled; during our stay, ('off peak' period as they call it) we had noted that each day many caravans would come in, stop one or maybe two nights, a couple of the cabins were used, the remainder, empty, a common occurence in many caravan parks in our country, I suggested to the man that many grey nomads used his park, he responded by stating "95% of my cliental are 'Grey Nomads'. ....this left me shaking my head and wondering (to myself) just how many of these grey nomads would want to stay in cabins!!

On the subject of free camping, this park owner was, understandably, against such a despicable practice....he stated "......free campers just take business away from me and spend no money in town.......", again I wondered to myself if free campers are special people who need no fuel or groceries.... :)