We’ve been toying with the idea of buying somewhere already set up or with the possibility of a holiday cottage and/or ground we can put aside as a campsite during the summer. In all around 3.5-4 acres with 1 acre we would use as a campsite/caravan park while the sheep are on their rented summer grazing and then we have 2 acres + for lambing and summer hay prodcution and all for winter use.

Been putting together some costs and pricing but wondered if anyone has any first hand experience. One thing we would need is someone to provide a cleaning service for the cottage at the end of a weekly let and daily or twice daily in a toilet/shower block if provided.

Prices around here seem to be £300-700 per week for a 2 bed, sleeps 4 cottage depending on time of year and £20-25 per night for a camping pitch + £3 electric.

Not interested in providing winter caravan storage as it looks untidy and availability from March to October so say an average of £550 per week for the cottage in that period based on what I have seen.

Price for camping seems steep.

£20 per night camping could be OK with nice facilities (nice new washrooms and showers etc. I suppose it depends where it is.

Good point, that was the daily rate of the campsites round here I saw online.

Longer stay rates are £15-20 so that is a better figure to use.

I was surprised to see a flat rate for all types as I was expecting £10ish for tents but maybe it is due to them needing more facilities?

We did toy with stables to allow people to bring horses (stabling rates seem to be £10-15 per night with food) but that would depend on the property and location. One place we have seen would be better suited to a 3 bed, sleeps 6 holiday cottage with a stable and grazing for horses and no camping. That was £150k cheaper but we would have to do a monster barn conversion on a barn that has permission to be a holiday let but we would try and flip so the house was the holiday let and we had the barn as a highly efficient farmhouse.

We rent out a holiday cottage, they key issue is the occupancy level you get year round i.e. August, Easter etc will be fine but how many weeks total can you rent and what rates can you achieve high season to low season. A strong location will give you good rates and high occupancy if your outside a traditional tourist location it may be a bit hit and miss!

You need to present the place in A1 condition and clean with everything working fine – if it doesn’t expect complaints. You will need an agent or agencies to secure bookings and expect to pay up to 20% commission! Our agent sorts out the cleaner for us.

Campsites are more specialist, I would assume you need planning permission and a load of work to setup the infrastructure (electrics, plumbing etc).

£20 per night camping could be OK with nice facilities (nice new washrooms and showers etc. I suppose it depends where it is.

plan is to do something nice. lower density etc. Always the possibility to put some fancy tents up or some gypsy caravans etc. Not looking to make a living from it, just pay a % of the mortgage.

I would quite like to be higher up in the hills (Mendips) so there would be hiking and mountain biking right from the campsite but one we are looking at this week is slightly closer to the coast which is also not a bad thing but still not a million miles from bridleways. Just a bit of a ride or 10 min car drive to the proper trails.

You need to present the place in A1 condition and clean with everything working fine – if it doesn’t expect complaints. You will need an agent or agencies to secure bookings and expect to pay up to 20% commission! Our agent sorts out the cleaner for us.

Campsites are more specialist, I would assume you need planning permission and a load of work to setup the infrastructure (electrics, plumbing etc).

hand’t thought of using an agent nor that they could provide cleaning. I had factored in 15-20% for cleaning. Was thinking about approaching a cleaning agency about that side so it was done though a company rather a self employed cleaner like we use for home now. The plan was to just set up a website that did the bookings but overseen by us. One reason I would rather aim at specific groups eg walkers, cyclists, horse riders was we could target advertising.

One place we are looking at this week already has a toilet block, planning etc and a decent layout (road way up the edge with caravan hook-up points between the roadway and trees).

Occupancy rate I was going on 20 weeks for the cottage and likewise for the camping at 10 pitches filled for the same period on one acre which I think is pretty conservative? Not sure what is a realistic number of plots on that size plot. Its a balance of wanting to not ram people in but get enough in and at the same time not have to expand your facilities or overload them.

I work for a self catering agency in the South West with around 750 properties on our books. We aim for around 30 weeks occupancy but this is based on an agreed limit on the number of weeks the homeowner takes out themselves at peak times (if they exceed this then they pay our commission). Our standard commission is 25%. Location is really important but as mentioned above so is the quality of the property, particularly if it’s in a less desirable area for holidaymakers. We expect the property to be maintained to a high standard and apply our own star rating. We also have an open feedback / review process which means we publish all customer feedback (good and bad) which tends to mean any problems are picked up and dealt with fairly quickly!

We don’t provide a cleaning service but have links with agencies and individuals who do provide the service – if the area you’re considering is a popular one then it’s worth looking at this at an early stage as you may find it difficult to find someone on peak changeover days (Friday / Saturday).

One thing to bear in mind is that the fact there is a campsite on the same site may actually have an adverse impact on your self catering bookings as it could put some people off – you may be better to look at two separate locations – they are quite different business propositions really.

PM me if you need any more advice – I’d gladly put you in touch with one of our property managers.

We use a small local agent who is then linked to bigger national listing sites, they take care of the enquiries & bookings, payments and cleaning for us. We get emails to say when its booked and don’t need to do anything else (we are not on site). This is far more effective for us than procuring advertising and setting up a booking system / taking payments but I guess for camping you are trading more like a cash business and are full time hands on, even so I would assume you still need to be easy to find on the web and that means an agent or listing of some sort.

yeah something to consider. Sites like trip advisor are good for holiday cottages and becoming the ‘wikipedia’ of places to go for food and hotels. But there will be a cost there.

People camping will often look at the local tourist information and also places like the caravan club I guess.

@sprocketjockey – taking a look at a place on Friday so will give you a shout if it’s any good as it would be worth seeing what the figures stack up like. If not some time in the future when we find something we think is a goer.

We are lookng in the W-S-M/Cheddar area.

Point taken on cottage and campsite. Would be looking for a plot that was well segregated or one or the other. Holiday cottage seems to be the least hassle so is preferential.

I did see a nice house with 55 acres on the mendips but at £1M. A solar farm, camp site and the farming income would cover about 75% of the mortgage though. But no one would give us it and it’s AONB so no chance on both counts.

For campsites things like ukcampsite.co.uk, coolcamping and pitchup are the main go-to sites.

Not just saying it because I work in the industry but the main advantage of going with an agency for the holiday let is that you are getting their expertise on online / traditional marketing, SEO etc together with income insurance and the payment and booking management side. Given time, you can do all that yourself of course but there are economies of scale.

We do cover Somerset – see how you go and get in touch if you need any info. Our property managers should be able to give you a rough idea of rental income from the estate agent details.

I do holiday lets in spain and have just been in the lakes looking for something similar
Best gross yield i could find was c 5%. After costs you would struggle to service
Any debt. It only really works of you can do it all yourself or buy with cash.
You used to be able to transfer yr trading losses onto other activities for tax
Purposes but i think that perk has gone.
Good luck btw

Can’t help on the business side, but as a regular camper £20-25 a night is top end – I expect that for a very good site, usually on some nice coastline with walking access to a beach, for the whole family (5 in our case) for that sort of money. Thats for tents though, and generally without electric hookups.

If it was exceptionally low density and sold as such I’d consider it though.

EDIT: http://www.coolcamping.co.uk is worth a look for ideas. Some could be reclassed nightmarecamping or hipstercamping depending on your point of view though 🙂

My family are big consumers of holiday cottages

Almost all of our booking are via agencies. I’d say the main reason for that is availabilty search. Even agencies with searches that don’t show avialabilty are a PITA

Its worth seeing the process from our side

I think lets go to South Wales for half term.

So I google South Wales cottages. I then end up on an agency website

I search say 5 people, 1 dog, 3 bedrooms and the dates. I then get a list to search

Your cottage maybe on my google search but I have top click the link just to see if it takes a dog etc. Some how its never worked for us

Of course over time you can build up repeat visitors and that makes life easier

Another amateur opinon. To me it doesn’t sound like a top end holiday area. I’m sure its lovely but my gut feeling would be that occupancy would be lower than Coastal Devon

The idea of spaced out tents at a premium price sounds like a good sell to me

Final thought it looks like your hoping to subcontract some of the work like cleaning, which makes sense to me. But presumably running a campsite will involve some hassle day to day, I can’t get my head around how much

I’d second looking at cool camping. Allowing fires is a plus

As an avid campsite user I would gladly pay £20 a night on the proviso that you have access to walking/biking from your site, preferably a pub within walking distance and most importantly, decent bathrooms.

It seems to be a uniquely UK thing that it is acceptable to provide a B&Q plastic shed with one bog and a mouldy lean-to with a cold shower in it for 50 campers. Then to charge top rate without batting an eyelid. Cool camping my arse.

Good luck either way. Can’t beat a good campsite.

Edit: and none of this ‘three night minimum’ bollocks either.

we do a lot of cycle touring and our main requirements are local pub near by, decent facilities, hot and cold water (without additional charges). What makes a top campsite is a dry area to sit and eat at if raining e.g. a sort of mess tent, fridge/freezer, washing line & picnic benches dotted round.
TBH we would suck our teeth at 20-25GBP a night but I guess you are trying to encourage families so not have a pppn rate. Offering a discount for walkers and cyclists gets a thumbs up!
we don’t often stay in rented cottages so can not comment on that.

20 per night is acceptable for a caravan or large camper with kids and very good facilities but you can not charge that much for a couple in a small tent driving a Clio. I know you may prefer to only have the high paying customers but you can always garentee to be full of rich retirees.

Edit. Pp+ vehicle works quite well. Different rates for different types. Bike and on foot free. Lots for a massive caravan.

+1 on fire. You can always have movable fire pits and sell bundles of fire wood and kindling. Places I have been to sell kindling at 0-2 GBP and a sack of logs at 5-10 GBP. Most people seem to get through a bag of logs in 1-3 nights so it is a good top up sell.

Agree on the pricing thing. a lot of places don’t display prices round here as you have to ‘enquire’ about availability and pricing. Per person per night seems a fair way for tents but a caravan pitch is obviously different.

The worry with the campsite is the increased workload, I was thinking you would have to clean the toilets/showers twice a day but some reviews I have read people are praising places that clean them once a day!

I can’t stand horrible toilet blocks and would never have one. A well built and hygienic one is much easier to clean and am thinking if i have to build or renovate one I would do wet individual wet rooms so no small toilet and shower cubicles and rows of sinks.

We are off to look at a place Friday which lists the following so seems pretty sorted in that respect:

Touring Caravans, Hardstanding only pitch, A well-sheltered site, Showers, Electric shaver sockets, Ice pack freezing, Alternative Accommodation, Trailer Tents, Grass only pitch (no electric), Flushing toilet, Washbasins, Chemical toilet disposal point, Designated dog walk, Electric hook-up

The benefit of the let/camping is it helps pay for a property we need anyway for the livestock at not much extra costs. We need >2 acres so we are already on the wrong side of £500k for a modest house.

Ideally I would like somewhere more on the hills and cater for more active people. I’d supply equipment wash facilities (bikes etc) so that’s not done in the toilet block and possibly some secure storage for days they are not using things like bikes, canoes etc

Good comments on fires. Obviously don’t want people burning the grass as it looks a mess but I guess we can either create a pit and keep the bit of turf ready to stick back in and make a new one every so often to keep the pitch looking fresh or supply some sort of raised metal fire pits/BBQs which would be my preference.

In terms of things like eggs, milk, firewood etc we could supply the eggs and get a local milkman to provide milk and try running it on an honesty box basis. I will probably speak to local shops like butchers and bakers too as I am keen to support local businesses and as an added bonus there would be less non-recyclable supermarket packaging in the bins.

Water heating will of course be solar powered as much as possible and I am just wondering if you could do some kind of automated touch screen kiosk for people booking in and out on site, kind of like self-service camping…hmmm

might be a Scottish thing but quite a few camp sites had a camping ‘common’ room/building – chairs/sofas tv/books/local attractions notes/bus timetables etc/old magazines etc and a fridge and freezer, semi sheltered bbq pit/area[so you sell briquettes) seems like a good idea as well – for me for walkers and bike campers this seemed like a GREAT idea.

on toilets – well on the gti site that my gf(nurse, so fairly uptight about hygiene) thought was amazing – they were done every 3 hours, (it had piped music and that skin floor that came 3″ up wall) – ime they should probably search public toilets prior to the Olympics as the places some people can get *** etc appears to require a very high gymnastic ability .. sorry

for motorhomes (they have a buit in drain cock) – need a grey drain facilty in road (drive over liftable plate is usual – but on a non drive thru bit as it can take 10 mins to drain), accessible fresh water tap they can park near (3-4m high, again preferably not blocking access – 15 mins fill time) and emptying a toilet cassette into an actual toilet(bog wc) can be ‘exshiting/messy’ so ime a wider ‘funnel type pourer’ is preferred with a colocated hose/spayer so you can clean up afterwards and also you need 2l of fresh water in cassette to use

remember my gf – wll her observation was (at sites where the loo stuff wasn’t distinctly seperate) was that people would put the hose into the toilet casssette to fill it and other people would put the same hose into their water tanks/bottles ……….

edit – phone booking and ‘named’ notice on pitch (or ‘free’ notice on pitch with price dets and a pay at office in the morning)

Small work related plug here, but have a look at the Rural Entrepreneur Live business event at the NEC in Nov. Loads of help, services, experts and products for this type of venture from booking agencies, booking software, accessories and extras i.e. hot tubs, marketing, website design, free advice from people like Farm stay and the CLA, electrical hookups, wi-fi hot spots, commercial linen providers, insurance etc etc.

http://www.ruralentrepreneur.co.uk/

Free to attend as well.

My mother has a holiday cottage next to her house that she services herself. About 50% of her booking come from her own website (that has links to it from the local tourist information type sites) and 50% via a national agency.

One thing I have persuaded her to do is not book it out in the winter months apart from christmas and new year and not to take short bookings. The agents effectively set the price and the going rate in the off peak winter months just does not make economic sense once you take into account the extra heating costs and use of electricity. Folk renting cottages in the winter stay in a lot and cook a lot. Being a detached cottage in the highlands at 350m above sea level on tanked gas doesn’t help either. She was effectively owning the thing and doing the cleaning for close to minimum wage with all the wear and tear guests bring not covered. It makes so close to no actual profit in those weeks it might as well be empty and her free from being tied down to being there every Saturday.

Re the campsite – your size and the number of pitches you are thinking of, you seem to be a prime candidate for a Camping and Caravan club certificated site.. They have price bands – worth taking a look. Cool Camping has also developed from a series of books into a comprehensive website that presumably you pay to be listed on which could work if you offer a ‘nice’ relaxed not too regimented and pile em high approach to your camping.

sorry – have a drying room/area where people can hang kit/leave boots etc etc

You mention stables – you can find them with B&B’s but not very often with camping.

A lot of people will turn up in a horsebox with living (or me in campervan with a horse trailer) so don’t want to pay for a B&B.

Last place we stayed was expensive and did not match up to its marketing, we parked up in a rough patch of grass beside the stables and the facilities were in the house of the owner.

Basic stables with individual turnout (not many people would allow their horse to mingle with unknown horses) and a choice of either B&B or camping for the humans, add some decent riding (aka hacking) and you’d catch my attention.

@billybadger – that looks good. Cheers. I forgot about the CLA, not been the game fair for a few years due to work but November is generally easier for the OH to get time off (parents at work get the summer holidays, and Christmas, and new year…).

@convert – year summer only. Winter just brings too much mess with muddy kit and dogs and tbh we would probably have family stay in it over Christmas anyway.

@towzer – on my list from staying at fishing hotels (OH not me, I can’t stand it), good to see other people think it’s something to consider

@spooky – stables would be for the holiday let only property – ie our farm house and a 2nd house to use as a holiday let. Was thinking more along the lines of a family that would want to live in a house for a week rather than a horse box. Hadn’t considered camping + stables but something to do some market research for. Would always keep the animals separate, too much risk of something happening so would have the area partitioned eg 1/4 acre per horse with a mobile stable in each and rotate plots with every other booking to give the grass a week to recover.