A pipe dream ?

Any experience ?

If anyone doesn’t mind a chat I’d love to ask a few questions.

Will add more details tomorrow on wants and questions

TIA

Think someone on here has a farm with some camping near Harrogate?

It’s my pipe dream too. Got a potential site and probable funds to do but just can’t take that step. Too many implications for family for me I think. What kind of chat you looking for, no experience but done some research.

This place is run by a STWer, username dti, http://www.beudybanc.co.uk

Lovely site on a farm near Machynlleth.

We stayed at a lovely site in Betwys over the bank holiday – it certainly made me think!

My sister-in-law’s folks have run a successful family campsite in Cornwall for years. Strikes me as being massively hard work, and far from glamourous.

There’s lots of cleaning up after people, and dealing with overly high expectations, a sense of entitlement and overly low standards of behaviour…. and this is on a campsite with clear family-friendly, no-groups, no-loud-music policies.

There’s ok money to be made (down here at least), although the season is short. There’s 6-8 weeks each year when they’re full, or 44 – 46 weeks when they’re only part-booked at best, and they have to be there 7-days-a-week for cleaning the bogs, running the shop, sorting problems, and cutting the grass!

I’ve worked in tourism for nearly 20 years (different field, if you’ll pardon the pun), and it does wear you down. Whilst 99% of people are lovely, the combination of the other 1% and the relentless hard work, long hours and unspectacular pay means that most people move on sooner or later.

Sorry, don’t mean to p*ss on your bonfire. You just need to really want to do it (and then keep remembering that 99% are lovely)!

beudy banc site looks great.

Bit short of an address or a map though! Got there eventually via the airbnb location bubble and google maps. got family in Tywyn. Full house though, so sometimes need to find somewhere else to stay.

It’s also my dream to own a campsite. I reckon Location has a lot to do with the folk that come there, and you have to have realistic expectations of earnings. I don’t it’ll make you a millionaire, but thats not why i’d be doing it.

I don’t have the money though, campsites cost a lot 😥

Some great advice above –

Pz_Steve

LD – Member
It’s my pipe dream too. Got a potential site and probable funds to do but just can’t take that step. Too many implications for family for me I think. What kind of chat you looking for, no experience but done some research.

Would it be okay to chat at some point ?

Basically been in same job for last 15 years running a business which I started (not mine though) – feeling suffocated – supportive wife who wants me to follow my dream (and wants a happy husband) young children and i’m 43 years old. Feeling I need to make a change- anxiety- frustration-anger- and all the other stuff at an all time high.

Funding is possible.

Look forward to hearing back

Do what they have done in my village in Norfolk and open a
“back to basics eco-campsite” in other words, a field.

Filled a long drive back from Cornwall a year or two back with talk of buying our own campsite. We planned to add old vw campervans, retro caravans etc.
Reality check was how much do you like cleaning toilets for strangers. I think the cost of land anywhere ‘nice’ would be prohibative

Depends on the site I think.

We stay on Caravan Club CLs which are half an acre or so of mown grass with two toilets (if you’re lucky). Max 5 vans and around a tenner a night. They are usually quite well occupied between say April and September at least – often have to phone around to find one available.

You could clear £300 a week I reckon for what must be pretty minimal work. A tidy bit of pocket money after your farm income or whatever you wanted to do part time.

There was a larger non-caravan club version of same – very big field with this time 8 toilets and showers, and wifi – near the Long Mynd, with easily 50 people on it when we went in the summer. Something like £5pp. He must’ve made a tidy packet from that and he could’ve paid a local kid to clean the bogs.

Helps if you already own the land though!

I think the cost of land anywhere ‘nice’ would be prohibative

Really? Loads of land out there in the proper sticks that would be ideal. As long as you’re not looking at Surrey or simialr I’m sure it’d be fairly inexpensive.

Don’t assume that you can just set up a camp site, you need planning permission. This can be pretty hard to get if my understanding is correct. It’s worth doing a search for campsite planning permission, there’s a number of sites with really good info.

Pz Steve’s nailed it. I do villa rentals and over time the 99% good respectful clients have remained so. However the 1% who spoil it for everyone else have got worse.

I put it down to social media, twice now someone has said refund my money or I will trash you on review sites, when there has been no problem, it’s just a scam which I suppose big companies just roll over and pay out.

Saying that you can’t pit a price on working in shorts, being your own boss and having some control over your life. I looked at camp sites but the season is too short, you have to live for 52 weeks on say 10 weeks income.

Good luck btw, I was going to do a campsite with airstream caravans, still fancy the idea to be honest.

thought about a glamping site?

I always reckon the margins on those must be pretty tidy – charging people £50-odd a night to stay in an old caravan or whatever. And you could potentially have a slightly longer season as people aren’t quite so exposed to the elements.

Any extras you can offer go down well too – I recently stayed in a place where they kept chickens and would sell you fresh eggs every morning. Never mind that they were €2 for six – take my money!

Basically been in same job for last 15 years running a business which I started (not mine though) – feeling suffocated – supportive wife who wants me to follow my dream (and wants a happy husband) young children and i’m 43 years old. Feeling I need to make a change- anxiety- frustration-anger- and all the other stuff at an all time high.

(take this with a pinch of salt but) I’d say work out a plan, give yourself an exit strategy in case you get 12 months down the road and hate it / run out of money, and – if this is your dream – jump in. The only things you can be sure of are that it’ll be really hard work and you’ll learn loads. Which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your perspective 😉

A few here

I always reckon the margins on those must be pretty tidy –

I’d imagine they’d be worse. Tap in a field requires little maintenance, but there’s a lot of work goes into those ‘glamping’ sites.

i read the title….and all i could think of was a great big dirty pair of bombers!! 😆

Biggest downsides would be
– cleaning toilets (though you can sub this out)
– dealing with rude/obnoxious/etc people
– not being able to go away easily without having someone else to run it

Aside from start up cost and planning restrictions, it’s a good idea

Might be hard to make a living off it fulltime unless you broaden the appeal though? (yurts, wooden huts)

It certainly doesn’t appeal to me. I love the outdoors and can turn my hand to most things, but reckon it wouldn’t be the hard work that would finish me off, just the amount of time you’d have to put into it. Reckon there would be a lot of advertising involved too, unless you are in a well established spot.

Location is the key and that costs ££££££££££’s.

Camped in the Purbecks on August Bank Holiday. Every other farmers field was a ‘pop up’ campsite! But like you say, UK season is so short

Without wanting to “rain” on your parade (sorry!) but you are really weather dependent in the uk, a bad wet summer can really knock your takings often for the following year too.

A friend of mine had a similar feeling a couple of years ago and bought a group of holiday lodges off of the retiring owner. It’s already established but he’s having to work his old job and cover this at weekends while they build it up further. He’s happy though and has a plan to do it full time in a few years.

It’s do able but I reckon hard work and stressed in its own way. I suspect you’d actually end up working much longer hours and finding it harder to take time off

Part of my old job, I managed a campsite for 20 years on a 65 acre site. Initially just tents / a few touring caravans etc with £15K pa income between April and October but we gradually built it up by adding self-catering lodges open all year (needed planning permission), more loos/showers and more stuff to do on site. When I left turnover was £300K pa and still growing.

At first I did most things and never escaped during the busy season, a 24/7 job, but as it built up, got some good local staff to do the leg-work. Takes a lot of hard work keeping on top of maintenance and cleaning, and as others have said, majority of people are fine but despite the ‘rules’ a small minority do trash things or generally piss off other guests with anti-social behaviour. You need to be friendly to keep people coming back but equally tough with the **** when you need to be. Certainly don’t miss cleaning up turds on the loo block floor/shower cubicles etc.

Was also camping down near Osmington (Dorset) this year, the farmers there have it sussed I reckon keeping it simple, only open in August (allowed 28 days use without pp), decent composting bogs, hot showers,a farm shop for essentials (inc. beer), allow bonfires, plenty of space in nice fields with great sea views and cheap too at £6pppn. It’s popular without being crowded, I think they must get a good income for that month without ripping people off. Would defintely go back there.

Old Middle School

This caught my eye for size and location.

Huge cost in converting but massive potential as a biking hub for mtb and roadies. Make the car parking underneath secure bike storage , convert over time into bedrooms and lounges , pool/ darts games room . Get a log burner in there , jet wash , tumble drier etc

i have a mate in the west country with a well regarded family orientated camp site. excellent location and setting, well reviewed. I think he does OK but from Easter to October half term he is working and holidays during that stretch are flat out – no summer holidays away for him – not even a weekend.

despite its quite smart set up and family focus he still gets stag groups creeping through and causing havoc and just useless people blocking drains and breaking washing machines etc.

then for six months he has one ski trip after another. it also proved a recession proof business I think.

Singletrackmind. Were you looking to start a new Butlins? 🙂

We have our caravan just north of Morecambe. It is a very basic site which hasn’t changed from the 50s, including the bogs. Yet people keep paying there £75 per month to keep their touring vans there. Then there’s all the old statics. Don’t know what they pay. But it’s right on the sands of the bay. If I had the money I would.
It’s old sites like these that the likes of Holgates take on.

I’ve a cousin owns one in France. 😕 Not saure where, that side mostly live down south and I hardly see them to ask where exactly.

Naturally im hoping to find out so i can turn up come tour time
Hi cuz 😀