[00:00:00] Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast.
[00:00:02] Matt Sims: We find out more about the chance to win a motorhome with the people actually running the competition.
[00:00:07] Keith Gooden: In the news, we’ve got a big announcement at That Leisure Shop, and the Motorhome Pass scheme has missed its target by more than 98%.
[00:00:17] Matt Sims: And we answer your questions on breakdown cover and the cost of campsites.
[00:00:29] Keith Gooden: Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden and.
[00:00:32] Matt Sims: I’m Motorhome Matt.
[00:00:33] Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans. It’s all brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:00:43] Matt Sims: Now remember, please do follow on your favourite podcast app and if you’re watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe.
[00:00:49] Keith Gooden: In the news, the Highland Motorhome Pass scheme aimed to generate half £1 million a year. It’s missed its target by 98%. So has it raised £32.50?
[00:01:03] Matt Sims: Well, the best bit about this, and this is hilarious, I’m sorry, but this is such an epic fail. The original target was reduced by 96%. So originally they wanted to raise half £1 million. They were failing spectacularly. So, well, let’s set the target at £20,000 then. Only a government scheme would do that. And—
[00:01:22] Keith Gooden: Hope nobody notices.
[00:01:23] Matt Sims: Yeah. And then they have actually raised a total of £7,988.56.
[00:01:30] Keith Gooden: The £0.56 is very important. So that was earned from the passes between the 1st of July last year and June the 3rd this year. And it’s been a resounding success.
[00:01:42] Matt Sims: Yeah. I’m sorry. I think it was a terrible marketing effort by the Highland Council, and I just don’t think anyone knew anything about it.
[00:01:49] Keith Gooden: Just to backtrack then. So what do you have to do? So they charge you a tourism tax, do they?
[00:01:54] Matt Sims: Yeah. Well, it was a scheme to buy a pass enabling you to camp in their car park.
[00:01:59] Keith Gooden: So what about the people who didn’t buy the passes, who clearly went?
[00:02:01] Matt Sims: Then they just parked up without a pass or went on a campsite.
[00:02:04] Keith Gooden: So you didn’t have to buy a pass?
[00:02:05] Matt Sims: No, it was an opt-in. And the whole point was campsites were up in arms about this because it was said, well, it will stop anyone coming to our campsites because it’s cheaper to buy this pass and then camp in these government-approved locations. But I think the campsites definitely obviously didn’t promote it. Why would they? It was therefore fated at the beginning because it went up against local campsites. I think at the heart of it was a great idea about getting people camping and parking up responsibly, but it was just executed really badly. Hopefully next time they get me involved and I’ll tell them how to do it.
[00:02:39] Keith Gooden: A couple of road signs on the way in and a couple of booths wouldn’t have hurt. You know, buy your pass here, would it? Because whether it’s optional or not, people do want to do the right thing, don’t they? Of course we do. It wasn’t a lot of money, was it?
[00:02:50] Matt Sims: No, it wasn’t a lot of money, but it was just not communicated at all. Well, not at all, but just really badly. I mean, I didn’t see any promotion.
[00:02:58] Keith Gooden: Only 2% of the people.
[00:03:01] Matt Sims: And the best bit is the way they reduced the target by such an epic amount of money. Well, it probably didn’t even cover any of the costs of doing it. So will they run it again next year? We’ll see. If they do, we’ll keep you posted. Maybe they’ll engage with us and then we can communicate it effectively.
[00:03:16] Keith Gooden: That’d be fantastic, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Get in touch. It’d be great. The podcast can help you. Also in the news, a new shop announcement. What’s that one about?
[00:03:25] Matt Sims: Yeah. So That Leisure Shop, our very own business, is opening its second branch. We are really excited about this. We have partnered with the lovely guys at Chelston Motorhomes in Wellington, just south of Taunton in North Devon. We are taking over their shop from August this year, 2025. It will become a That Leisure Shop. There’s a whole refit going to take place that’s happening throughout August, so if you do visit during the summer you may see some disruption. The guys are going to be down there with paint brushes, new fixtures and fittings, with a big open weekend planned for the end of September, so stay tuned. We’ll be announcing that in due course, but the Taunton store will become That Leisure Shop’s second shop, That Leisure Shop at Chelston.
[00:04:10] Keith Gooden: Can’t wait. On the main drag into and out of Cornwall. Yeah. Well, not Cornwall, but in a position it is.
[00:04:15] Matt Sims: And of course junction 26 is currently being rebuilt, so when it’s done it’s going to be amazing. Huge plans for loads of new houses, loads of new retail around the whole area. So it’s a brilliant time for us to partner with Chelston. This has been some time, having the conversations about it, so we’re very excited and very much looking forward to the next chapter for That Leisure Shop.
[00:04:35] Keith Gooden: Chelston’s going orange in a big way.
[00:04:38] Matt Sims: Well, one corner of their dealership is, yes.
[00:04:40] Keith Gooden: Product feature of the week. It’s the Quest Falcon 500 windbreak. We’re announcing a price drop on this. This is the box, or as they say in France, this is the box. There it is. Beautiful, isn’t it? It was £299.99, now reduced to £199.99. £100 off.
[00:05:06] Matt Sims: I have to say, it’s really light. It says lightweight and quick drying.
[00:05:09] Keith Gooden: By the way, you are buying something in the box. It’s just not the box.
[00:05:13] Matt Sims: It’s a brilliant inflatable windbreak. All the guy ropes in it as well. And yeah, check it out, www.thatleisureshop.com
.
[00:05:19] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
[00:05:21] Matt Sims: And me, Motorhome Matt.
[00:05:22] Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe. Now, you may have heard of a new competition that launched a few weeks ago. It’s called Motorhome Dreams. It’s a chance to win your very own motorhome. Matt, you were visited here in the studio by the guys behind the competition.
[00:05:40] Matt Sims: Yeah. So Chantal and Richard from Motorhome Dreams both came here to the studio to unpack with me how this works and why have they done it? Well, I’m delighted to be joined by Chantal and Richard from Motorhome Dreams. Guys, welcome to the podcast.
[00:05:56] Chantal Jeusette: Hello Matt. Hello.
[00:05:57] Matt Sims: It’s great to have you here. Now you are the people behind this amazing competition. And there’s a lot more to it than just enter to win a motorhome. It happens every month for the whole year. Just tell us a little bit about the motorhome first. What type of motorhome can people win?
[00:06:14] Chantal Jeusette: So we’ve specifically chosen a type of motorhome that anybody can drive. So we’re only going to target a three-and-a-half-ton van, four berth, four belts, so we can get all the kids in. Ideally island beds, but occasionally we might have a couple where we’ll have a rear lounge, something like that. But we wanted to choose this particular one because it ticks all the boxes for all the people to get all the family in there.
[00:06:38] Matt Sims: So the first motorhome you’re giving away is a Chausson 788 Titanium, island bed, front lounge, electric drop-down bed as well. Yeah, four seats, four belts, sleeps four very comfortably. Yeah, I remember it’s a Ford Transit because I saw it at the Newark show. Yeah, it’s automatic as well.
[00:06:53] Chantal Jeusette: That’s right.
[00:06:54] Matt Sims: And this isn’t a 20 grand rotten rusty old thing in the corner of the yard, is it? This is a very aspirational modern, can I call it that, motorhome. Yeah. How old is this first one you were giving away?
[00:07:08] Chantal Jeusette: It’s a 2021.
[00:07:10] Matt Sims: Okay. So four years old. So £60,000 worth of van.
[00:07:14] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:15] Matt Sims: Richard, just tell us a little bit about where the motorhomes are coming from.
[00:07:17] Richard Wood: Yeah, well, our sister company is the Motorhome Depot and we get offered quite a lot of vans during the months and the years. So there’s a hell of a lot of nice ones coming through. So we’re picking out a real good one for the competition that we’ve got going forward. So it’s nice when you can see five or six and you can just pick one that’s got no problems and low mileage and something that you’d want to have a go in.
[00:07:41] Matt Sims: And is that going to be the case then for the rest of the year? The standard of the motorhome is going to be of the kind of nature of this one.
[00:07:47] Chantal Jeusette: 50, 60K, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:50] Matt Sims: So definitely a motorhome that you want to win. And I understand it’s just £2.50 a ticket. That’s very cheap.
[00:07:58] Richard Wood: It’s an interesting point because we’ve been setting this up for about a year now, haven’t we? During the research, there’s all sorts of prices from, I don’t know, £15, £20 a ticket, £10 a ticket, right down to some 29p a ticket. And a lot of people have got things where you can bundle them up and lots of different things. But, you know, we looked at all of them and got confused with a lot of them and thought, you know, we just want an easy, simple system. And £2.50 for a ticket, £10, I think most people will probably go £10, and it just seems simple, easy.
[00:08:31] Matt Sims: That gives you four chances of being drawn.
[00:08:33] Richard Wood: Yeah, for sure.
[00:08:34] Matt Sims: Yeah. And is there a limit to how many tickets you can buy?
[00:08:36] Chantal Jeusette: No. No limit at all. So they can buy as many tickets as they want.
[00:08:40] Matt Sims: Wow. So I think you’re going to see people buying 20, 30 tickets.
[00:08:43] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah. We’ve had, I’ve noticed, a few of the tickets coming through at £20, £30 worth. That’s probably been the maximum. But usually I’d say people are buying two.
[00:08:51] Matt Sims: Yeah. And what happens if you don’t sell enough tickets to cover the cost of the motorhome? Do you just not? Is there a cash alternative?
[00:08:59] Chantal Jeusette: No cash alternative. And it will be drawn no matter how many tickets we sell.
[00:09:04] Matt Sims: Right, okay. So if you only sell 100 tickets, you’re giving away a 60 grand motorhome?
[00:09:10] Richard Wood: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Matt Sims: Yes. So you’re pretty committed. You’re pretty confident.
[00:09:14] Richard Wood: It’s probably the biggest challenge for anybody looking to set one of these businesses up, is it’s really rolling the dice that you’re going to get somewhere near enough ticket sales to generate the money to pay for the motorhomes.
[00:09:26] Matt Sims: And that’s why you’re on here with me promoting the fact this competition exists. I mean, am I allowed to enter or am I too attached to it?
[00:09:35] Chantal Jeusette: No, you’re not allowed to enter. We’re not allowed to enter.
[00:09:38] Matt Sims: You’re not allowed to enter?
[00:09:39] Chantal Jeusette: Family.
[00:09:40] Richard Wood: Family or employees.
[00:09:42] Matt Sims: Okay. Well, I’m not an employee, but I guess I am associated with it now. But I’ll tell you what, it’s definitely, the odds must be pretty good. How many tickets are you hoping to sell?
[00:09:51] Chantal Jeusette: We’ve got a maximum of 63,999.
[00:09:55] Matt Sims: Okay, right. That’s a very specific number. Well done, Chantal, for remembering that. Okay, so let’s see if we can sell them all. And how often are you doing this?
[00:10:03] Chantal Jeusette: Every month.
[00:10:04] Matt Sims: So you’re pulling a winner every month?
[00:10:06] Chantal Jeusette: That’s correct.
[00:10:07] Matt Sims: Okay. And one ticket enters you once, is that right?
[00:10:10] Chantal Jeusette: That’s right.
[00:10:11] Matt Sims: Okay. So you enter again. And if I win it, the big question that everyone’s going to ask is, can I sell it?
[00:10:18] Chantal Jeusette: Certainly. You can sell it, yes.
[00:10:20] Matt Sims: Okay. Obviously, Richard, you’d prefer to sell it via Motorhome Depot.
[00:10:23] Richard Wood: Yeah.
[00:10:23] Richard Wood: You can get in touch with Motorhome Depot. They’ll either buy it off you for cash or they can broker it for you, which is what they’re more well known for.
[00:10:30] Matt Sims: Yes. Yeah, of course. So the terms are that you don’t have to keep it. Can I hire it out?
[00:10:36] Richard Wood: You could do, yeah. Yeah, if you wanted to.
[00:10:38] Chantal Jeusette: It comes with a 12-month insurance, but I’m not sure whether that’s covered.
[00:10:41] Matt Sims: Probably wouldn’t insure it, no it wouldn’t. So you include a year’s insurance?
[00:10:45] Chantal Jeusette: Year’s insurance, 12 months road tax, warranty and a membership to the Caravan and Camping Club.
[00:10:51] Matt Sims: And I understand a habitation check as well. Is that right?
[00:10:54] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah, yeah. Engine service and habitation check.
[00:10:57] Matt Sims: See, that’s amazing because you guys also own Habcheck, the company that does habitation checks.
[00:11:03] Chantal Jeusette: Yes.
[00:11:04] Matt Sims: So you’ve really thought about this?
[00:11:05] Chantal Jeusette: Yes.
[00:11:06] Matt Sims: So basically the first year of ownership is sewn up. No costs.
[00:11:09] Chantal Jeusette: Here’s the keys and drive away.
[00:11:10] Matt Sims: That is amazing. Now, last week we were talking to Kelvin Fletcher, famous for Emmerdale, 20 years man and boy in Emmerdale, and then of course he went on to Strictly Come Dancing and went and won it. And now has bought a farm. Fletcher’s Family Farm is famous for that on ITV. We were watching it again the other night. It’s very entertaining. And Kelvin’s really involved with this competition. Tell me, what’s his involvement? What’s he actually doing and contributing to it?
[00:11:38] Chantal Jeusette: So I think he’s wanting to bring in lots of people to enjoy the countryside, go out and make memories with the family. And I think that’s his draw to it, is to get everybody out there enjoying the great outdoors. And this is a great opportunity for somebody to do that in a motorhome, enjoying holidays.
[00:11:55] Matt Sims: And he’s really passionate about the great outdoors. I mean, he’s a farmer now.
[00:11:58] Richard Wood: He is, yeah.
[00:11:59] Matt Sims: And father of three children.
[00:12:01] Chantal Jeusette: Four children.
[00:12:02] Matt Sims: Four children. Yeah, that’s right, of course it is. Yeah, they’re outdoors all the time. And Kelvin’s happy to get involved and willing to get involved with the handover, isn’t he?
[00:12:11] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah. Yeah. He’s quite excited about speaking to the customers, also speaking to the winner, finding out where they’re going to go on holiday in it and what kind of ideas they’ve got, what holidays they’ll take.
[00:12:23] Richard Wood: He’s got a sort of unit near his farm where he’s going to do an outdoor sort of entertainment area. And he’s going to do things where you can go with your company for—
[00:12:33] Chantal Jeusette: A corporate.
[00:12:34] Richard Wood: Event, yeah. Corporate events.
[00:12:35] Chantal Jeusette: And weddings and things like that.
[00:12:37] Richard Wood: Yeah. So what his plan is, at the end of the year when we’ve got the 12 winners, is we invite them all down to the farm. He’s going to put on a bit of entertainment and a barbecue, and he’s got an area where you can all camp. And we can get down there as well with them for the weekend and just have a good old celebration of winning some motorhomes.
[00:12:53] Chantal Jeusette: About sharing the memories and seeing where people have been on holiday in them, and what kind of experiences they’ve had and what places they’ve visited.
[00:13:00] Matt Sims: So he’s really got under the skin of this, hasn’t he?
[00:13:03] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah.
[00:13:03] Matt Sims: Yeah. And of course, he’s a very well-known face. I will confess, I’d never watched Emmerdale. I never really watch any soaps. And when you said to me, oh, Kelvin Fletcher from Emmerdale, I googled him. Oh, he’s the chap that won Strictly. Yeah, I recognised him straight away. And him and his wife, they’re lovely.
[00:13:19] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah.
[00:13:20] Matt Sims: Really friendly people, very accommodating. And I imagine a weekend on their farm would be great fun.
[00:13:26] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah.
[00:13:26] Matt Sims: I think they would really look after you.
[00:13:28] Chantal Jeusette: They’re really excited about the whole thing, aren’t they? They’re the ones who drove quite a lot of the interest with how they want to speak to the customers with the handover and the campsites.
[00:13:38] Matt Sims: And how did you discover Kelvin then? Why did you choose to partner with him? Were you aware of this passion that he has for the great outdoors?
[00:13:46] Richard Wood: Well, it came through two things. A friend of mine knows him as well. Also, with him being very outdoorsy and his profile of people who follow him as well, we thought they are the type that would probably buy motorhomes. So that was one of our main fits for him.
[00:14:00] Matt Sims: So it’s turned out to be a really good fit. So where can I enter this? Well, I can’t, but where can you enter this competition, listening and watching this?
[00:14:08] Chantal Jeusette: Well, the website’s www.motorhomedreams.co.uk
. Yeah. We’ve obviously got links on Facebook and Instagram. Also Kelvin and his Fletcher’s Family Farm Instagram have also got links on there. So they’re actually collaborating with us. You just click on the link, you can watch the lovely video that they made and then just enter there.
[00:14:28] Matt Sims: Brilliant. Okay. Now one thing I want to ask as well is that, as with all competitions, without reading all the terms and conditions to you, there are some non-cash ways of entering. Just tell us the rules of this competition.
[00:14:40] Chantal Jeusette: So there is a postal entry. So all people need to do is click on the, there’s a drop-down on the first page on how to enter by post. There’s an address on there and they have to answer the question. They enter the competition that they’re entering, their name and address and the answer to the question, yeah, and then just send it on a stamped addressed envelope. They can only do one entry per postal entry, so they can’t do bulk entries, but they can send one through and then we’ll get that scanned through to us through the address.
[00:15:12] Matt Sims: I bet one person enters like that every month.
[00:15:15] Richard Wood: We’ve got one already, for already for—
[00:15:18] Matt Sims: Wow. Wow. Surely it’s just easier to enter online at £2.50 a go and enter ten times.
[00:15:23] Chantal Jeusette: I don’t actually know how much a second-class stamp is, so.
[00:15:26] Matt Sims: I don’t know. It’s probably 90p these days and no guarantee it’ll arrive. But the fun thing is going to be when we do the live draw, because we’re going to do a live draw on Facebook.
[00:15:46] Chantal Jeusette: We want to keep it nice and simple, to the point.
[00:15:48] Matt Sims: Yes, yeah. Very good. And who gets to be the person, the privilege of pulling the winner?
[00:15:53] Richard Wood: Well, I think it’s just press a button on a computer.
[00:15:56] Matt Sims: Yeah, but who gets to press it?
[00:15:58] Chantal Jeusette: Me.
[00:15:58] Matt Sims: Okay. So is that going to be broadcast as well?
[00:16:01] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah, yeah. We’ll live stream it on Instagram.
[00:16:04] Matt Sims: Motorhome Dreams. So there you go. You heard it first. £2.50 per entry, that is all. That is incredible. No limit to how many times you can enter. You can enter for free by post if you really want to. And you have the chance of winning every month if you keep entering a quality motorhome, a real motorhome, 50, 60 grand’s worth. And every month is a different type of motorhome, is that right?
[00:16:27] Chantal Jeusette: Yeah.
[00:16:28] Matt Sims: It is. Yeah. Brilliant. Okay. So just, Chantal, tell us again the website that people can visit.
[00:16:32] Chantal Jeusette: It’s www.motorhomedreams.co.uk
.
[00:16:36] Matt Sims: There you go. Guys, thank you for coming in. It’s great to be part of this. We’re giving this competition the Motorhome Matt Approved stamp of approval as well, so you can find out more about this competition at mhmp.info or click the link in the description of this episode.
[00:16:54] Keith Gooden: So that was Chantal Jeusette and Richard Wood, both from Motorhome Dreams. We’ve got news, haven’t we? Our first winner we have.
[00:17:02] Matt Sims: We have pulled our first winner. And Sally Herbert, congratulations Sally from Stoke-on-Trent. She’s a new mum to twins, has been dreaming about having a motorhome and entered the competition after seeing it at the Cheshire show. She bought two tickets and won a £60,000 motorhome for just £5.
[00:17:20] Keith Gooden: That’s fantastic. Now the next competition is now live. It’s £2.50 a ticket and you’ve got to buy now to be in with a chance of winning. The last ticket sales is 18th of August, so it closes on the 18th of August.
[00:17:34] Matt Sims: And you can find out more. Just head to motorhomedreams.co.uk to discover more.
[00:17:41] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
[00:17:43] Matt Sims: And me, Motorhome Matt.
[00:17:45] Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:17:48] Matt Sims: Get 15% off your insurance premium by using the code MOTORHOMEMATT over the phone, or simply click the link in the description.
[00:17:57] Keith Gooden: Time now for the Q&A, the questions and answers. We do it every week. Very popular with you, and thanks very much for all your questions. As I say every week, you ask those questions and Matt, he’s the expert, he’ll answer them. If he doesn’t know, he’ll ask somebody who does know the answer. First of all, Steve Horton is in South Wales.
[00:18:17] Steve Horton: Hey Matt and Keith, I’d just like to tell you that I purchased from www.thatleisureshop.com
the Pathway 4G WiFi router, and I inserted an unlimited data-only SIM from Smarty. Then I headed off for 12 days in a hired campervan to test it, from Hartland Point in North Devon to The Lizard in south Cornwall and on to South Devon. It performed brilliantly. There were times when I was sat outside of the van and I had no signal at all on my phone, but once connected to the Pathway 4G, I was able to do anything I wanted, including stream TV. So I would like to thank you for such an amazing product. Great work with the podcast. Keep it up. Love it.
[00:19:03] Keith Gooden: Not so much a question as fan mail then.
[00:19:05] Matt Sims: Exactly. Thank you so much, Steve. That’s great. Hooray. Applause for the Pathway 4G. We had a similar experience. We were in Cornwall, no phone signal. We were streaming something on the laptop. The lady that owned the campsite came over and said, have you hacked my Starlink? And we said no. So how are you getting online? I said, we’ve got one of those, and pointed to the Pathway in our window of the van. And she said, oh, you’ve got a Pathway. Oh, we have several people here with those. They rave about them. It’s brilliant.
[00:19:33] Keith Gooden: Just in case you don’t know, just explain exactly what it is.
[00:19:36] Matt Sims: Pathway 4G. It’s our very own product, brought to you by Belmont Leisure. It’s a router that you lick and stick to your van or the wall of the van. You put any flavour SIM card in it. It works across the UK and throughout Europe and gets you online. Dead easy.
[00:19:51] Keith Gooden: Fantastic. Claire Frewin is in Kent.
[00:19:54] Claire Frewin: Hi Matt. Hiya Keith. This is Claire from Northfleet in Kent. We love watching your podcast. We have learned lots. One question I’d like to know. We’ve recently just bought a new motorhome. What is the best cover for breakdown? Thank you very much. Keep up the good work.
[00:20:14] Keith Gooden: Now Claire wants to know, and it’s for motorhomes, not cars, isn’t it, the best breakdown cover you can get. And there are different flavours and there are differences between when you buy the one for your car and when you’re doing it for a van or motorhome, isn’t it?
[00:20:27] Matt Sims: Yeah. So the key restrictions are the length of the motorhome and its weight. So seven metres and three and a half tons are key criteria. So check with your provider whether they will cover it. Now, the RAC do have a scheme called Arrival, which will cover any length and any weight of motorhome, but you have to apply for it through the Camping and Caravanning Club, so you get a code. Ring the RAC and apply for Arrival cover. I have been an RAC Arrival member for, gosh, 20 odd years. Broke down in a Winnebago that weighed about ten tons and they relayed me back home to Bristol and it took all night. But we got there and it didn’t cost me anything. The AA also do have cover, but you need to check how you get access to that. And also via the Caravan and Motorhome Club, Red Pennant I understand, never had the cover, but they will cover you to over seven metres and over three and a half tons. So the key is to check with your provider first. As I say, RAC Arrival is who I’ve used for a very long time, but that covers me on a car, a motorbike and I’ve got lots of cars that break down. I had a blowout just the other week. They were with me within 34 minutes of making the phone call on the side of the motorway, and I was back on track within an hour. Very good. That was the RAC.
[00:21:43] Keith Gooden: Excellent. Pete Adams in Kenilworth, he says, love the podcast. My wife and I have been motorhoming for 25 years plus nine years full-time motorhome. We travel to Europe every year and we’ve had seven different vans. We now have an Adria 640 SLB. Love it. Why have the price of campsites gone way over the top, he says. Just come back from Spain. We paid £16 a night with a swimming pool, free WiFi, restaurant, bar, fantastic facilities, pay-as-you-go electric which cost us €2 a day. We come back to the UK and charged first campsite for £31 a night. No WiFi, no bar, no restaurant, and that was the winter prices. How can these campsites justify high prices, he says. Thanks, says Pete and Jude, retired and frustrated campers.
[00:22:35] Matt Sims: Yeah, I hear this a lot. UK campsites are definitely getting a bad rep.
[00:22:39] Keith Gooden: But they do have to pay more in tax.
[00:22:40] Matt Sims: They do have to pay a lot more in tax. There’s lots of rhetoric around their operating overhead, and I am really keen to come up with a definitive answer to this question of why. Why are they perceived to be charging so much more than their European counterparts? The honest answer from me is I don’t know. So I am in conversation with a number of campsites here in the UK, some of whom are charging an absolute premium and winning and offering a fantastic service, and others are your more traditional campsite who are also winning. And I want to understand why. So stay tuned because I am going to be unpacking this in some detail with some UK campsite operators. We have invited the clubs on to join in the conversation and so far we’ve not had a positive response. Basically, we’ve had a no.
[00:23:31] Keith Gooden: Why? Why are they saying no? Just let’s talk about it.
[00:23:34] Matt Sims: There we are. There’s a good question. Why are they saying no? So they may hear this and maybe they have a change of position. But I am going to be talking to a number of campsites about this. So let’s see if we can get to the bottom.
[00:23:44] Keith Gooden: One thing that occurs to me, we in the UK have the highest energy prices in the whole of Europe. Yeah. Forget the whole Brexit thing, we’re out now. It’s not due to Brexit. But you know when the Ukraine war started and energy prices spiked, we, it’s complicated, but we have less gas storage facilities. So we buy more often from the international markets. What about electricity? People say, well, we burn gas to produce electricity as well. And it just occurs to me, maybe this is something that you can talk to people about, is when we had those spikes in prices, it went up and campsites were being charged more for their electricity, as we all were. Sometimes 50%, 60% more on the bills. But they don’t seem to have gone down again, do they?
[00:24:33] Matt Sims: No, there you are. Will they ever go down again? Well, of course we have high taxes as well in this country. So VAT, one of my pet hates, turnover taxes are rife here in the UK. Minimum wage has gone up, of course, so operating with staff has become more expensive. National insurance has gone up, which is a cost you don’t see as a retailer or a consumer.
[00:24:57] Keith Gooden: Would it have gone up for a small operation like a campsite?
[00:25:00] Matt Sims: Probably not. It depends how many staff they’ve got. Yeah. And this is what I want to get to the bottom of. There’s also the rhetoric as well that we’ve had terrible weather so they can only use a percentage of their facility.
[00:25:10] Keith Gooden: But we’ve always had terrible weather.
[00:25:11] Matt Sims: That’s very true.
[00:25:12] Keith Gooden: It’s England, Wales, Northern Ireland.
[00:25:15] Matt Sims: So stop doing grass pitches. Let’s have more hardstanding. So this is what I want to unpack. And I’m talking to some campsite owners who are really honest with me, and they are innovating. And I think the problem here at the moment is so many people are tempted to go off-grid, and more and more motorhomes are capable of this. And so I’m part of this problem. We don’t always go to a campsite. So I’m part of the reason maybe campsites are charging more because there are fewer people going there. In our recent trip to Cornwall, we were one of a minority in a campsite. The campsite was probably 15% full, and this was in the end of June.
[00:25:50] Keith Gooden: And we’ve been talking in the past few podcasts, haven’t we, about vans and motorhomes being much more capable of going off-grid, as we call it, self-sustaining energy, not having to plug in all the time.
[00:26:01] Matt Sims: So the manufacturers are kind of encouraging people almost not to stay on a campsite. So is that part of the problem? So I really am keen to try and apply some science to this question. So Pete and Jude, thank you for asking it. It’s a great question. Why are UK campsites seemingly so disproportionately more expensive than their European counterparts? Let me see if I can find out.
[00:26:22] Keith Gooden: And we want to support the campsites, of course, in this country, because it’s an important part of the whole pastime and hobby. And we need them. So let’s get to the bottom of it. And if you’re saying no, say yes. Let’s get on. Let’s find out the facts. Okay, Matt, if people want to get in touch, what do they do?
[00:26:40] Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. If you’ve got a question, I always say this, but I’m sure your question is shared by hundreds, if not thousands of others. Head to mhmp.info/askmatt. You can record it on the orange button or fill in the form and we’ll read it for you.
[00:26:55] Keith Gooden: And if you’re looking for trusted brands and services, then make sure you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory. It’s at mhmp.info/approved.
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[00:27:13] Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
