Vanpark Prices

Gundog · Guru

RE: Vanpark Prices

86GTS · Senior Member

msg wrote:
Gundog you are talking about a minority and possibly myths. Bit like the horse and dog blankets in the washing machines and the plug and toilet roll stealing. (from my observation over the last 15years anyway. Never seen it)

You must have lived a charmed life on your travels because all of these dishonest behaviours happen quite regularly & they aren't just done by backpackers.

Pre-covid we spoke to a park manager who caught an elderly gentleman armed with a cordless drill filling a large spindle with toilet tissue.

The manager waited until peak happy hour time to get up & point out the thief in front of those gathered.

Personally we've heard a large campfire gathering of oldies bragging about how many dunny rolls they've knocked off & how much hand soap they've syphoned off on their travels.

As you say its a minority, thankfully.

Plain Truth · Guru

We were at a caravan park the wife went for a shower and a women came in the next cubicle,showering with her dog.

twins Bazel · Newbie

msg wrote:
Gundog you are talking about a minority and possibly myths. Bit like the horse and dog blankets in the washing machines and the plug and toilet roll stealing. (from my observation over the last 15years anyway. Never seen it)

You should have mentioned you are blind......,.

But staying at the Gunning Showground at Xmas, a nomad was talking to us about how she'd been coming here for years, you know the type, anyway I commented on how lovely the amenities where and she said she also fills her water tanks up in the van when she stays.

I said for a donation it was an incredible overnighter, she said, what donation, I've never paid.

So there you go, msg, no guide dog required for that old b$%#@h.

Needless to say, I called the shire and I informed them of the bludger

msg · Guru

twins Bazel wrote:
msg wrote:
Gundog you are talking about a minority and possibly myths. Bit like the horse and dog blankets in the washing machines and the plug and toilet roll stealing. (from my observation over the last 15years anyway. Never seen it)
You should have mentioned you are blind......,.
But staying at the Gunning Showground at Xmas, a nomad was talking to us about how she'd been coming here for years, you know the type, anyway I commented on how lovely the amenities where and she said she also fills her water tanks up in the van when she stays.
I said for a donation it was an incredible overnighter, she said, what donation, I've never paid.
So there you go, msg, no guide dog required for that old b$%#@h.
Needless to say, I called the shire and I informed them of the bludger

Not Nice. Please keep it civil I suppose you really get a lot of experience camping in your backyard each weekend though, so you would know. I really dislike with a passion a Dobber.

Cupie · Guru

I have no problems with those who go to the trouble of informing the appropriate authorities of those who break the rules/law.

The notion of abhorring 'dobbers' is one of the past that is best left behind in a bygone era.

For those of you why look to every opportunity to save a dollar in free camping ... go for it .. but abide by the rules, as I will in the terribly over priced Caravan Parks.

JayDee · Guru

We have booked into the Fingal Beach C/Park just south of the NSW border. Cost for the week approx $360. This park is right on the water, for us fair value for the position.
Impossible to book waterfront views at any of the Gold Coast parks.

Now our mode of accommodation is Bush Camps or low-cost camps, then Caravan Parks. The reason is we do not like the "Sardine Effect" in Parks.
Having said that, we do use Parks when we have to, particularly in major towns.

Caravan parks provide a facility for us travellers. It is up to us if we wish to use the same.
Now consider the price of a unit on the Gold Coast for a week, especially during peak holiday periods.
Plus the growth in the sale of new caravans has seen the demand for park facilities grow in tandem.

It is a sign of the economic times regarding fair value for services.
In North Queensland, As winter approaches and the yearly migrations of caravans from the southern states getting a spot in C.Parks will be as scarce as ever.
History shows it will balance out as we go forward enjoying this great country of ours.

Like the saying goes. User pays.

Jay&dee

mixo · Senior Member

I'm off with the family to Airlie beach big 4 for 2 weeks. Daily rate $150(ouch). But is it worth it, my lordy load it is. Never see the kids till they are hungry, the missus and I can have some peace and quiet and enjoy our stay. The park has all the facilities you could need.

Now if I had to pay this for an overnighter, I would tell the park they dreaming.

If the CP didn't have all the facilities/dirty, run down and charged me this(yes I got stung once in Kalgoorlie) Its a hard pass.

Each to their own I suppose, everything has its time and place.

mixo

Peter_n_Margaret · Senior Member

The price for most consumer services is set by supply and demand. That is the CUSTOMER eventually sets the prices.
If a van park is not filled regularly, they will reduce the price.
If a van park is always full, they will increase the price.
If they think that bouncy castles and camp kitchens will bring other customers in, that is what they will supply.
If the price being charged (set by the customers) is too low to make a profit, they go out of business.

Don't like the prices or the facility? Vote with your feet (wheels). If others agree (and do the same), the price will come down or they will close.
Cheers,
Peter

Gundog · Guru

I suppose one thing that is not often considered when accounting for CP prices, is during the Grey nomad season (May to September) many parks operate at 75-100% capacity, a month or so either side of the period proberly drops down to 50%, after which depending on location it could be as low as 5% for the remainder of the year.

Some of these park need to make enough profit over the busy period to carry themselves through the rest of the year.

Recently we spent 4 months in Brisbane for medical reasons, during that time we stayed at CP's owned by the Morton Bay Council, average cost over the period of Low, Sholder and High season pricing was approx $260 pw, and these parks were running at 90-100% every night, maximum stay was 6 weeks. we rotated between 2 parks for oure time there, Beachmere and Toorbul both excellent parks.

Cupie · Guru

I have just moved into an Igenia Lifestyle Village & to my surprise am now eligible for 25% discount at their CPs (with conditions of course).

In 25 years we have free camped perhaps twice but have started using Showgrounds recently.

When we slip down the highway to our favourite at Tallebudgera Creek CP we always choose their premier waterfront sites (Site 24 preferably) that cost a motza but it's a far better option than the other cheaper sites. Great views of the water & the passing parade of yummy mummies too. Good for launching my kayaks as well.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

In the last 18 months we have spent around 200 nights staying in caravan parks across every state and territory of mainland Australia. We have been in some pretty basic ones such as the Bourke and Wills, Halls Creek, Ravensthorpe, Sandfire Flat, Dunedoo to name a few but the cost tended to match the facilities that they provided so no complaints. The most expensive parks were in the more popular tourist destinations during the holiday periods as well as in the northern parts of the country during the dry season when Victoria is vacated. The most we paid for a powered site was $80 in Cable Beach which was going to go up to $120 the following week because the school holidays were starting. What we found was even in places away from the coast we sometimes had trouble finding vacancies mid week eg. Narrabri because of the number of itinerant workers staying in the town during the week. Some companies are even buying old caravans and leaving them set up on powered sites sites for their workers to use through the week.

A lot of the family orientated parks (ike the BIG4 in Mudgee) are removing their kids play grounds, jumping castles etc. because of the huge rise in the cost of insurance. Park prices are driven by supply and demand if theres a limited supply and lots of demand like with the popular tourist parks they will charge whatever they can get for them. We tend to try and plan our trips so we keep away from those more touristy areas during peak periods. Will the prices come down I doubt it with the number of people we saw on the roads, in CPs or free camping across every part of the country it probably means they are more likely to increase.

BB

-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Friday 22nd of March 2024 02:22:01 PM

littledick · Senior Member

Brodie Allen wrote:
Do you think that park prices will reduce to something like
pre-pandemic prices once the rush dies down?

Not if your NRMA Tuncurry!! disbelief

mixo · Senior Member

Unless there is a major downturn in the economy prices are going one way and that is up!.

I haven't seen a huge slowdown of vans being sold, I have seen times(delivery) on some makers lessen but the big boys books are full for a year or so...

Or when you can go to bali(i.e international travel) for under 200 bucks...

mixo

Brodie Allen · Guru

Being the original poster, I would like to add further to the discussion.

I am currently 2 months into a go anywhere trip as is my habit, and

it is becoming abundedly clear that anywhere other than in remote struggling

towns the Councils are reducing staying times in freecamps and closing

many others.

I make it a bit of a habit to ask around and the common reply is that the

Councils are under enormous pressure by vanparks to limit numbers of campers

and duration of stays, or to close freecamps because they harm the "ratepaying" parks.

I get really pissed-off about this, there's no pressure on the likes of op-shops,

libraries or Reject shops to leave town or limit their exposure to the populace.

The selfish parks have no respect for the true Aussie spirit of fresh air and

sunshine - no, come here, pay $40 bucks for the hire of a block of concrete

for not much more than 12-15 hours and bring your house and facilities

with you. (In at 5pm, out at 8am).

And sign up with all your details so that the data harvesters can keep a

finger on you!!! And join our Club.

The vanparks even have their own lobby association to help proprietors

pressure the Councils! Time the van manufacturers of self contained vans

did likewise!!

B

Brodie Allen · Guru

msg wrote:
twins Bazel wrote:
msg wrote:
Gundog you are talking about a minority and possibly myths. Bit like the horse and dog blankets in the washing machines and the plug and toilet roll stealing. (from my observation over the last 15years anyway. Never seen it)
You should have mentioned you are blind......,.
But staying at the Gunning Showground at Xmas, a nomad was talking to us about how she'd been coming here for years, you know the type, anyway I commented on how lovely the amenities where and she said she also fills her water tanks up in the van when she stays.
I said for a donation it was an incredible overnighter, she said, what donation, I've never paid.
So there you go, msg, no guide dog required for that old b$%#@h.
Needless to say, I called the shire and I informed them of the bludger
Not Nice. Please keep it civil I suppose you really get a lot of experience camping in your backyard each weekend though, so you would know. I really dislike with a passion a Dobber.

Dobbers as you call them provide a huge service in assisting authorities to weed out the miscreants, And at

another level keep governments just a little more honest.

Would you make the content of your dashcam available to the police in, say, a hit-run?

Think about it!!

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Friday 29th of March 2024 12:44:32 PM

Bulldozer · Senior Member

Just of a matter of interest, Nambucca Heads caravan park, nothing special IMO. over $100 a night, van site, Xmas time over $200 a night, they are busy.

Are We Lost · Guru

What? I was just there a few weeks ago .... the Ingenia one right at the entrance channel. It was nothing like $100 per night.

We picked the 4 night mid week special for $39 per night. They gave us a free upgrade to ensuite site. We did pick a bad time with noisy heavy equipment while they prepared sites for new cabins. So after complaining we got a 50% refund.

Foreshore Caravan Park now shows as $45 a night or $60 over Easter/school holidays.

rmoor · Senior Member

I agree wholeheartedly with Brodie Allen, a good and accurate summation. particularly with some local councils and the rotten decisions they make.

Just returned from playing 4 matches in the Echuca over 60's cricket carnival. Some observations :

Holbrook - now a drive thru town for me. The council there know what they can do with Holbrook. The pub DID HAVE free camping out the back. They, and everywhere else locally have been banned. The lovely young lady at the pub said they were now losing heaps of trade. So I bypassed the van park there in protest, no doubt the culprits along with the local council. They can stick Holbrook.

So I headed to Corowa (at roo o'clock at the end - thanks Holbrook). Free camped overnight at Grantham Bend. Good spot, well occupied, 30 to 40 vans etc. Right on the Murray River. I am not big on gum trees, the place is littered with them, it was not until the morning when departing that I spotted two better spots, in clearings that if I had seen in the twilight would have been preferred. The road in is poor. Two massive potholes in the first few hundred metres, better described as bomb craters. There were a lot of old bog potholes, looks like a poor spot to camp if raining heavily?

Benalla van park - well appointed, nice staff, good value. Popular. fairly priced.

Coco Bend Moama - I love Coco Bend. The proprietor is a great person. The people there are great too. Nice views of the Murray, too many skiers for fishing and solace though. This park is now getting a bit dilapidated but I love the open spaces. At $58 a night powered, it is 30% to 40% over-priced compared to Beechworth and others. Love the location, but will probably never return due to the exorbitant pricing. As my old economics tutor wrote - the elasticity of price and demand. The higher the price the lesser the demand and vice versa.

Reflections Wee Jasper - Nice spot, poor road in. Anything Reflections is now slipping. Run by a board of city-centric turkeys with more letters behind their names than we have collectively had Sunday dinners. They wouldn't know if their butts were on fire. All Reflections parks will slowly fade into poor management as they are now at Mookerawa, Burrendong and destroying the great old fishing hut's history at Wee Jasper. Reflections parks get one star. Based on location only.

Ardlethan - I will post a separate comment on this great little town and brilliant destination as a halfway point etc. Ardlethan gets 5 stars from 5.

DMaxer · Guru

I won't steal your thunder on reporting on Ardlethan rmoor, only to add that a few councils, supermarket owners, cafe proprietors and club managers would be well advised to take a trip to this wonderful little town and observe how you can have a profitable business and well patronised locality without the need to rip off the travelling public.

rmoor · Senior Member

Ardlethan.

Between West Wyalong and Narranderra.

What a brilliant location.

The council there are a showcase to what should be all over Australia for travelers.
There are now 9 power outlets where one pays $2 for 12 hours of power behind the 24 hour toilets. Each site has it's own power box and you simply drop a $2 coin in there and for $8 you get the (limit) of 48 hours stoppage in a safe and clean location.

Observations :

Great costings.
100 metres from the Bowling Club with great meals.
Well appointed little park, BBQ area, 24 hour clean toilets. Shady.
The Bowlo and the town is like being on the set of "Back to the Future". Like stepping back into the 70's or 80's. Great people, excellent bar staff, raffles, old coin pokies (rare). Good beer. EVERYONE returns their plates back to the Bistro. Way too funny - loved the place. People were super friendly and welcoming.

The big one - I immediately spotted there were none of those druggo needle deposit boxes in the dunnies. That struck me straight away and told me the story of Ardlethan.

Negatives :

Very few.
A bit out of the way, is really only a stopover point on a long journey.
The only real negative is that it appears to be a very popular spot and there is a strong chance you would miss out on a power outlet if there were too many vans etc already there. Contingency planning may be required.

On the pluses it has a chemist across the road, a foodworks supermarket and an op shop with a sign, nothing over $1 at the time.

Good spot. It is now my new halfway point going south and back home again. I opened the door for a lovely lady going into the club and she and her husband looked me up at closing and we had a good chat. They told me they assessed living in the town along with 10 other locations and they chose Ardlethan to retire in. They told me the town and the bowling club do exceptionally well commercially from such a simple little enterprise looking after travelers needs. The thing I like about the place is that the toilets remain open for 24 hours and may not have any druggos snooping about like so many locations suffer?

I can see why the elder couple chose this location - the place in my view is a gem.

rmoor · Senior Member

DMaxer.

Nah, steal my thunder.

"I won't steal your thunder on reporting on Ardlethan rmoor, only to add that a few councils, supermarket owners, cafe proprietors and club managers would be well advised to take a trip to this wonderful little town and observe how you can have a profitable business and well patronised locality without the need to rip off the travelling public."

My neighbours are being priced out of our rural town by high rents and overseas investors (guess who) kicking them out to build flats in a ridiculous location for flats. (We have an open cut and underground gold mines about to blossom). I have been singing the praises of Ardlethan. I could live there. There or Lightning Ridge. The drawback, Ardlethan is long way from everywhere.

The elder couple also told me there is a train "carriage"? That has Sydney as a destination with a service through town twice a week. It is an old tin mine town and has silo's for the rural produce. I had a good drive around the back streets and looked at a well priced little property to pass the info onto my mates. The area did not seem to have the "feral" component that my home town and Dubbo and many other western NSW locations have. I think it was Shepparton that indicated to me it was feral also due to the number of burned out vehicles with blue and white police tapes attached to them whilst driving into town. That tells me "don't stop here".

The locals told me Ardlethan is about the only location in Australia that offers this overnight power supply service.

When compared to the likes of Holbrook, that I will NEVER stop in again, as I was dirty on them banning the pub from allowing me to camp out back, Ardlethan is a test case for entrepreneurial sensibility in this great country of ours. Trouble is so many in positions of authority on local councils and the like have the brains of retarded pissants.

mixo · Senior Member

Quick shout out to the caravan park in Alpha QLD.We looking for a freecamp, lots of dusty places, but one of our party rang the caravan park to see how much they charging for families and came back with 30 bucks a night unpowered.For us who usually pay 60+ dollars for a night at a caravan park this was cheap as chips.
We thank the nice couple at alpha who greeted us.

Sometimes you just have to ask...

Mixo

littledick · Senior Member

littledick wrote:
Brodie Allen wrote:
Do you think that park prices will reduce to something like
pre-pandemic prices once the rush dies down?
Not if your NRMA Tuncurry!!

I hear in the mid $80s now. All Astro and they put you in with a tractor.

Dick.

Greg 1 · Guru

We have paid upto $70 per night in a park but for the most part, we have traversed the continent on multiple occasions and rarely paid much more than $45 per night and often less than $40. Yes if you are going into a park at peak period in a popular place then expect to be stung. We try to avoid being near the coast at school holiday times as you know the prices are going to be painful. Our biggest cost on our travels is fuel. It is not something we can really do much about, but with caravan parks we can mitigate the cost by doing a bit of free camping where possible and not staying in popular destinations at peak periods.

jontee · Veteran Member

X2.

JayDee · Guru

Plain Truth wrote:
We were at a caravan park the wife went for a shower and a women came in the next cubicle,showering with her dog.

Again more proof as to why we prefer to bush camp / low cost.

Of course, this same woman would always bathe / wash her dog in her home shower???

Cupie · Guru

We always use our own shower ... & toilet too.

Spend all that extra $ to get a fully equipped van that you pull about the country ... why wouldn't you use its' facilities?

No one ever washed a dog in our shower.

Trailer Sailer · Senior Member

We just spent 10 weeks touring Tasmania and we didnt stay a single night in a caravan park. We used free camps, donation camps (and always paid), hotel and club self contained sites (and use the restaurant and or bar in return), national parks low cost sites and out of the way places without camping restrictions.

We are fully self contained including producing our own 12 and 240v power, have both gas and electric ho****er, contain and responsibly dispose of our grey water and use authorised toilet dump points at all times. Very occasionally we have to pay a tiny amount to refill our water tank. We are in an AWD car licensed light truck with slide on camper which is short whilst high and hence can get into and out of places not possible or too small for many motorhomes, caravans and even some camper trailers towed by 4x4s. It will fit (somewhat intimidatingly at times) into a regular street, shopping centre or tourist attraction carbay.

Our goal is touring and to see and experience as much as we can so we dont spend more than a few days in one spot and dont like or generally ever need to book with very limited exceptions.

With very few exceptions we feel caravan parks are now for those on short holidays, with children or travelling with family or friends in larger groups. Some elderly and singles also like the extra company or perceived security. For us Caravan Parks often feel like paying to holiday in a block of flats amongst the maddening crowd we are otherwise escaping from!

An occasional visit to a laundromat and a very occasional paid much longer shower cover those needs adequately for us. On very extended tours even a once in a blue moon luxury nights accomodation generally cost less than 3-4 nights in a caravan park if selected carefully.

We often also occassionally spend on high quality food/wine and cook/drink and eat with views rivalling the most expensive restaurants for a fraction of the price.

At often $50 plus ( even plus plus ) per night in Caravan Parks we would struggle to afford our extended travels. Everyone has different likes but ours definitely doesnt include paying for expensive Caravan Parks where ever we can avoid this. The world has changed from previous where most needed a power and mains water hookup to go travelling around Australia.

PS We often travel without the yacht pictured attached but if using that camping/anchoring is also mostly free.

-- Edited by Trailer Sailer on Sunday 7th of April 2024 09:58:21 PM