Park discounts, what are the best caravan groups to join?

I think the largest chains offer some form of discounts..such as Big 4 etc. We have
never contemplated such a membership for it seems to be an invisible tie to stay at
a certain place. We find the ambience of the smaller parks more amenable than the
larger, often busier, ones, & free camps even more so. However no doubt some
will have some more specific advice...not much is not known on EO..:))))....oldbaz.

I should add, we dont have any children, so we arent needing big parks with all the bells and whistles. And plan on doing a bit of touring in each state for about 6 months.

IMHO the big 2 ie Big 4 and Top Tourist are worth the money you will get it back plus I think about $80,for 2 years total which is both chains.The other chains Family friendly, Oz parks are few and far between in the western states SA WA & NT.

G'day blueteddy

Big 4, Top Tourist, and Family Parks of Australia are the main ones I think. Maybe your motoring organisation also gets discounts for you. The discount is usually 10% I think, but may also be limited.

The perceived advantage is that the chains will have laundry, camp kitchen, pool etc and that to reatin chanin membership they have to meet standards (presumably inspected from time to time).

In the end it comes down to how often you think you will be using them. If it will be 'frequently', then the discount will recoup the membership fee.

Cheers
John

We have been camping and caravaning for more than 40years and never have belonged to any caravan park group and never will.
We go for the bush camps and the small caravan parks that do not have all the so called bells and whistles.
Our needs in a Park are clean amenities, laundry and sometimes power.
Our set up I should add is self sufficiency.
We find that the unattached small parks are usually cheaper.

The discounts are, if you read carefully 10% or maximum of $30 in one case and $40 in a different group.

IT IS NOT 10% OF THE TOTAL STAY PRICE

SO if you stay 2 nights for $30 a night you will get $6 off

If you stay 3 weeks you will get $30 off or $40 depending on which chain.

We found also that if you booked for a period and then extended after getting the $30 we didnt get it again as it was still considered to be the original booking.
Pays to read the fine print.

We are members of both Top Tourist and Big4. We show no loyalty to either of these, opting for the best deal for the facilities we require at the time and location. The discounts are not huge, but membership can pay for itself relatively quickly. The big company parks are not always the dearest...like car insurance, shopping around pays off. Some even offer seniors a discount.

Ant

We usually travel for around 6 months of the year, as we travel with a dog we don't stay at Big 4 parks, (but that may change if they change policy) We are usually members of the OZ Parks, Top Tourist & Family Parks chains. We stay at a park that suits us (ie location/dog friendly), not just because it may belong to a chain we may happen to belong to at the time. If we book into a park that belongs to a chain and we are not members/current members of that chain then we generally join the chain because over the life of the membership we would stay enough nights in member parks to be in front. We don't renew membership when it expires but wait until we use a member park again, sometimes this maybe 6-8months since our membership expired.

Other cards/clubs one may be a member of may also allow us to discounts at various parks, the ACC (Australian Caravan Club), RACV, Seniors card etc.

We are travelling the WA coast from Kunnanurra and are now in Busselton. During our stay in all the towns along the way we always stay in caravan parks as we need power we belong to all three caravan organisations and use our membership for discounts on the parks where we have always got the usual discount 10% for each day we stayed,also a lot have discounts on offer at petrol stations usually 4c a lt also there was discounts for different tours we did like $60 off a swim with the whale sharks at exmouth from the big 4 park so the membership has well and truly paid for itself
thanks Karl

Hi blueteddy

It may well depend on where you intend to travel. The towns we visit often only have one or two CPs and generally not members of any chain. Even if we found one that was it would be a different group to the last town. We have rarely ever stayed at a caravan park that belonged to a chain. The only one i can recall was when we couldn't get into our preferred CP at Alice Springs and the one we went to was under the OzParks banner.

Here is a summary of what i hope covers all existing groups.Caravan Park chains/groups

Note the comments in the summary of a WA Parliamentary Enquiry into the Caravan Park industry:

Extract: "Caravan parks that were members of a caravan park chain and/or the CIA were more likely to have a higher pricing structure than those which were not members." Some reasons followed.

So you are paying a premium to get a discount. We prefer Shire run and smaller private caravan parks when in towns.

Motherhen