Rally Chat Temporary Holiday Sites and Winter Rallies – Let’s Make It Happen!

One of the best THS sites was Skegness Academy. It's the playing field in the school holidays, you could use the school showers and Skegness was a walkable distance, they stopped doing it though for some technical reason.

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Jim said:
No it doesn't. Members arrange to meet friends in a field and share the costs. No profit.

Members agree with a site owner a nightly fee per van to pitch on a winter sun site. They park up and pay. No profit.

Why complicate it?
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Agreed.

But that is then just a "we are going to this site, if you want to come along then the site booking website is this...."
Which is fine for a couple of dozen tuning up around the same weekend.

In effect the 'risk' is placed with the site owner.
If it's raining that weekend, then no one turns up.

Whereas a rally for hundreds, which means, with stewards, entertainment, food, ablutions blocks, site cleaning and maintenance, back up plans, etc is a very different kettle of fish.

In effect the 'risk' is placed with the rally organiser.
If it's raining that weekend, then no one turns up.

(Obviously risk can be mitigated by either party, if pitches are sold up front)
 
We are at the moment halfway through our two and a half week stint as stewards for the Camping Club THS at Horragate Rugby Club and this one will probably lose money this year. I don’t know how much the rugby club are charging but at Exmouth last year they were taking £10 for every unit that arrived per night. We are not very busy with only 5 units in today and there are only 7 on in total. Although we are volunteers we do get paid for the fuel costs to get here and back home again, also on this site it cost £300 just to get the water pipes to the camping area.
 
Mikeco said:
We are at the moment halfway through our two and a half week stint as stewards for the Camping Club THS at Horragate Rugby Club and this one will probably lose money this year. I don’t know how much the rugby club are charging but at Exmouth last year they were taking £10 for every unit that arrived per night. We are not very busy with only 5 units in today and there are only 7 on in total. Although we are volunteers we do get paid for the fuel costs to get here and back home again, also on this site it cost £300 just to get the water pipes to the camping area.
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We were there last week, it's a bit isolated and nowhere near Harrogate 🙂

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MichaelT said:
We were there last week, it's a bit isolated and nowhere near Harrogate 🙂
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I believe that they tried it as the Great Yorkshire Show was on and not far away but although there is a bus service outside the gate it’s infrequent. Fortunately we have brought the Smart so we can get about a bit on our days off. Will not be doing this one again though .
 
C&CC run meets (don't know about THS though)at Hunstanton Recreation Ground which is a large area, we stayed there at Spring bank holiday, it's very near the centre of Hunstanton & it was £11 per night, there's a pavilion there with toilets which was available for socialising.
 
Driffield showground is used by camc for rallies, we went over new year couple of years ago had entertainment in the pavilion. Probably about 50 Van's for 3 or 4 nights
 
Richard n Ann said:
The fruit farm at Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire is used for the C&CC club THS. The farmer let's you stay in the field any time if you ring him, could be an easy one to arrange 😊
There's just water and an elsan there.
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South Lincs DA of the CCC are using Pear Tree Cottage this year in Chapel St Leonards.
 
Salisbury Rugby Club had the AutoTrail Owners Club on the field over the weekend, not sure if it was all week or not.

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PaulC70 said:
Salisbury Rugby Club had the AutoTrail Owners Club on the field over the weekend, not sure if it was all week or not.
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Was that on Hudson’s Field, Castle Road….??🤔
 
I am in the don't over complicate it team. I have organised up to 30+ van rallies and helped with a couple with about 100. The organiser(s) needs to do the sums, and charge a fee plus a tiny contingency. One rally I was on some years back they said that insufficient money had been raised to cover the fee's so yes we had a whip round. Most people were happy to put their hands back in their pockets, indeed I don't think anyone refused. It ended up with a surplus that went to a charity. There is no way the organiser should ever be out of pocket except for their own rally fee. Unfortunately personal difficulties mean I cannot take it on at the moment. Overseas rallies may prove more difficult though.
 
Our local village hall used to have Caravan Rallies in the car park , 20 vans maximum, cars were parked offsite elsewhere, had events in the hall , that other who werent staying and were local could attend.

IMO it needs to be a hard standing venue, nothing takes the shine off of a weekend away , than having to spend the following weekend cleaning up afterwards.

And then you need to decide if its going to have stuff laid on, entertainment etc, and need any kind of facilities.

There are lots of small motorsports venues around the country, with plenty of space, and i recall as a kid my dad having a book with a load of horse racing venues that opened to campers year round, so maybe that could be something.
 
Small independent summer show fields may be an option where the event is held on a farmers field.
Two that spring to mind are Wolsingham show and Stanhope show.
There is usually water already on the field and a elsan point could be arranged like at chester food and drink festival.
 
Where did i info on the CCC THS,s as I'm struggling to find them on their app or do I need to do it on the website?

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Grummyb said:
Where did i info on the CCC THS,s as I'm struggling to find them on their app or do I need to do it on the website?
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If you are a member, it should be easy as you have to be a member before you can visit a THS.
I get my Out & About booklet delivered with the monthly magazine.
 
PhilG said:
Our local village hall used to have Caravan Rallies in the car park , 20 vans maximum, cars were parked offsite elsewhere, had events in the hall , that other who werent staying and were local could attend.

IMO it needs to be a hard standing venue, nothing takes the shine off of a weekend away , than having to spend the following weekend cleaning up afterwards.

And then you need to decide if its going to have stuff laid on, entertainment etc, and need any kind of facilities.

There are lots of small motorsports venues around the country, with plenty of space, and i recall as a kid my dad having a book with a load of horse racing venues that opened to campers year round, so maybe that could be something.
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Agreed 👍🏼

We ran a Valentine meet, many years ago, at a cricket club with a lovely club house. We had about 35 funsters, because of the hard standing availability. We’re lucky that we have a family professional DJ. We had a theme, music and everybody contributed to a Jacob’s table and it was a really good weekend. It broke up the long winter.
Unfortunately, we are not in the position to run another winter rally until I no longer have horses. It’s too difficult to get winter cover for them.

We need more organisers…..
 
Jim said:
No it doesn't. Members arrange to meet friends in a field and share the costs. No profit.

Members agree with a site owner a nightly fee per van to pitch on a winter sun site. They park up and pay. No profit.

Why complicate it?
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Precisely what I would have posted but thought I would get accused of arguing, why the hell has it got to make a profit, just a simple idea where everyone pays their own camp fees and for their tow out of needed. Just find a suitable field, and advertise it on here and everyone makes their own arrangements, then everyone does their own thing, join in or not as the case maybe,
simples.
No committee just basic rules ,no one makes anything so no tax or other stuff to get into.
How can that get complicated.

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chaser said:
Precisely what I would have posted but thought I would get accused of arguing, why the hell has it got to make a profit, just a simple idea where everyone pays their own camp fees and for their tow out of needed. Just find a suitable field, and advertise it on here and everyone makes their own arrangements, then everyone does their own thing, join in or not as the case maybe,
simples.
No committee just basic rules ,no one makes anything so no tax or other stuff to get into.
How can that get complicated.
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People!!!
Mike.
 
Lenny HB said:
The C&CC THS organisers have to pay the C&CC £4 from every fee they take.
So every £12 per night fee they collect C&CC rake in in £4.
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That’s not the case Lenny, the CCC make no money from THS, hence the undercurrent from some within the club to limit them. If you sit on the Executive Committee and visit a site which only has 50% but find a THS next door has 50 units you can see their point. But that’s looking at it from their lens, looking at it from ours, we don’t want or need toilet blocks or hook ups so why pay the extortionate prices.
Each DA negotiate with the landowner a price per unit per night. The DA then adds a small fee onto that to cover the cost of the volunteer stewards units and hook up if available and enough to cover the expense of sundries like marquee and pegs etc. most also add something to host a children’s Christmas party as well. Hence the reason you may find a THS charging one price then it closes and another DA open up at a different price.
 
meanders said:
I am in the don't over complicate it team. I have organised up to 30+ van rallies and helped with a couple with about 100. The organiser(s) needs to do the sums, and charge a fee plus a tiny contingency. One rally I was on some years back they said that insufficient money had been raised to cover the fee's so yes we had a whip round. Most people were happy to put their hands back in their pockets, indeed I don't think anyone refused. It ended up with a surplus that went to a charity. There is no way the organiser should ever be out of pocket except for their own rally fee. Unfortunately personal difficulties mean I cannot take it on at the moment. Overseas rallies may prove more difficult though.
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Provlem is if some people only come for a few nights and go then they won't pay extra?

Really shouldn't make a loss. Normally charged per night per unit by land owner so all you have to do is charge a little bit on top to cover anything else you may need to pay for but except for rubbish removal I can't think of anything.

All this talk of warners shows and entertainment etc is not what a THS is about, like Jim says keep it simple. Maybe ahould be somewhere central if in UK and there are loads of places we use in C&CC if it's abroad a winter one in Spain would be nice but would need someone local to speak to land owners i guess as well as to know where to go.
 
stewartwebr said:
That’s not the case Lenny, the CCC make no money from THS, hence the undercurrent from some within the club to limit them. If you sit on the Executive Committee and visit a site which only has 50% but find a THS next door has 50 units you can see their point. But that’s looking at it from their lens, looking at it from ours, we don’t want or need toilet blocks or hook ups so why pay the extortionate prices.
Each DA negotiate with the landowner a price per unit per night. The DA then adds a small fee onto that to cover the cost of the volunteer stewards units and hook up if available and enough to cover the expense of sundries like marquee and pegs etc. most also add something to host a children’s Christmas party as well. Hence the reason you may find a THS charging one price then it closes and another DA open up at a different price.
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And as I said above the DA have to pay VAT.

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