A Bargain?

[Wussername]

HW are offering 40 % off all new bookings for August.

That is one hefty discount.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Wussername

[CambridgeCabby]

A sure fire way of not getting early bookings for next year , I would not be happy if I had booked for this year early only to find out I could have saved a few hundred pounds by waiting .

I understand that bookings this year are suffering due to many factors , the opening up of overseas holidays post covid, the perceived expense of boat hire , the recession and the lovely British weather, being just a few but the slashing of the hire prices in such a manner must surely impact the cash flow of future seasons compacting the perceived problems for years to come.

[Broads01]

As I always say, why don't they just charge less in the first place?

[oldgregg]

Indeed.

I've booked my boat for the regular weekend with the boys in the next few weeks. And it was booked with Ricko's because we know we can book months ahead and the price won't change.

Could I have got a 'better' boat for less money with Woods? Quite probably by the looks of it.

Am I interested in playing Herbert Woods' silly games? Nope. Especially when their reputation for maintenance issues is as poor as it is.

Price it right and you won't have empty booking charts.

[SwanR]

I agree that Richardson’s are the one you can usually trust that the price you pay won’t be discounted. Most of the other yards seem to put offers out.  Although I’m not sure what Horning Pleasure Craft do. But I do see the offers from Barnes, HW, and Ferry Marina regularly on Facebook. 

[Mouldy]

28 minutes ago, SwanR said:

I agree that Richardson’s are the one you can usually trust that the price you pay won’t be discounted. Most of the other yards seem to put offers out.  Although I’m not sure what Horning Pleasure Craft do. But I do see the offers from Barnes, HW, and Ferry Marina regularly on Facebook. 

I’m fairly certain that Clive doesn’t engage in the discounting shenanigans at Horning Pleasurecraft.  As Simon (CC) said in an earlier post, it’s a sure fire way to impact early bookings for the following year.

[YnysMon]

I don't think Clive needs to discount. As far as I can see from the Hoseasons website, he only seems to have one boat available for next week and one for the week after. I couldn't see any availability whatsoever for September. Unless I'm using the search wrongly! There there are boats available for October though.

[jeffbroadslover]

If all the yards charged a sensible price in the first place they would not have to offer huge discounts to get their boats out of the yard 

It seems to me that following Covid they are still trying to recoup what they missed out and so increase the prices for those who cloud not hire a boat at that time.

Jeff

[Mouldy]

56 minutes ago, jeffbroadslover said:

If all the yards charged a sensible price in the first place they would not have to offer huge discounts to get their boats out of the yard 

It seems to me that following Covid they are still trying to recoup what they missed out and so increase the prices for those who cloud not hire a boat at that time.

Jeff

It might seem easy to hire a fleet out at low prices, but will that guarantee the yard’s existence in the future.  Let’s take a holiday costing £2000, over £300 of that will be VAT, which is not kept but paid to the revenue.  There may be booking agents fees, there will be tolls, insurance, servicing costs, staff wages, fuel costs for the yard (heating, lighting etc), rates, turnaround cleaning costs plus a whole load of other things that we may not be aware of.  New builds have to be financed, loans paid and we all know how much interest rates have risen over the last year.

Costs to businesses have increased massively over the past eighteen months, just as they have for us.  It’s easy pointing a finger and saying that they’re profiteering, but are they?

If times were better for the majority of us, would we be questioning the cost of holidays.  When foreign travel wasn’t available to us, no one cared.  We were grateful to get a holiday anywhere, whatever the cost.  It’ll be interesting to see how folk deal with the anticipated EU visas and whether the inevitable resulting delays deter sun seeking, all inclusive foreign holiday makers to return to UK based breaks.

These extraordinary times have certainly generated a lot of social media discussion.  It might be worth remembering how lucky we are to even be thinking about a holiday in a World where so many folk won’t have that opportunity.

[oldgregg]

2 hours ago, Mouldy said:

I’m fairly certain that Clive doesn’t engage in the discounting shenanigans at Horning Pleasurecraft.  As Simon (CC) said in an earlier post, it’s a sure fire way to impact early bookings for the following year.

Clive was behind the fair price charter at Stalham when he was running the hirefleet so yeah I can't see him doing differently at HPC.

[DAVIDH]

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

If times were better for the majority of us, would we be questioning the cost of holidays.  When foreign travel wasn’t available to us, no one cared.  We were grateful to get a holiday anywhere, whatever the cost.  It’ll be interesting to see how folk deal with the anticipated EU visas and whether the inevitable resulting delays deter sun seeking, all inclusive foreign holiday makers to return to UK based breaks.

I think the boatyards made hay during the covid years, inflating hire charges to a land-locked public. The same is happening now with overseas holidays rising by around 20% this year. So it may not just be that people are finding the UK prices unpalatable. Flight passenger numbers are reported still to be at 95% of pre-pandemic levels. Apparently, over 2 million households are yet to see their mortgage rate fixes come to an end, and as such, the inevitable pain of higher interest rates is on the horizon for these people. Perhaps this is a year of spending wisely. Instead of taking a holiday abroad and then a UK break (or two), people are focusing their money on just one main break. Of course, the weather hasn't helped and has driven a number of people to head for the sun in preference to the UK. 

[Ray]

Won't all large businesses have people who can evaluate the benefit of a special offer now against possible future lost business, no one has a.crystal ball but it's much more than a guessing game I would have thought.

[oldgregg]

The finance and marketing directors will have had their say undoubtedly, but the reality is that they're ultimately just people with opinions. They do what they believe works and they're not always going to be right. The longer you spend in management the more you realise that people aren't always awesome.

I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that prices were ramped up over the last two or three seasons and they now need a downward adjustment.

Some businesses were more interested in short-term gain than medium to long-term customer retention.

[AndyTBoater]

14 hours ago, Mouldy said:

over £300 of that will be VAT

VAT is not payable on foreign holidays either. Another reason why holidays abroad seem quite cheap in comparison

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, AndyTBoater said:

VAT is not payable on foreign holidays either. Another reason why holidays abroad seem quite cheap in comparison

Didn’t realise that. That automatically puts UK holiday destinations at a disadvantage.

[MauriceMynah]

Does that mean that foreign holidaymakers pay VAT on holidays here, and that our holidaymakers travelling abroad pay the taxes at their destinations?

If so, the playing field is still level. 

[DAVIDH]

No VAT on the overall package but there is APD (air passenger duty) which adds £13 (eg Europe)to £87 (eg Caribbean) to the cost per person. Plus the tour operator pays 20% on the margin it earns on each holiday. 

[Bikertov]

But surely we pay local VAT on hotels etc abroad, and likewise overseas visitors here pay UK VAT on their hotels etc here

So it balances out

[oldgregg]

 

5 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

No VAT on the overall package but there is APD (air passenger duty) which adds £13 (eg Europe)to £87 (eg Caribbean) to the cost per person. Plus the tour operator pays 20% on the margin it earns on each holiday. 

https://www.wildercoe.co.uk/complying-with-toms-and-travel-industry-vat/

[Wonderwall]

I think it's quite concerning that HW are offering nearly half price holidays . I hope all is well with them . I know one or two have criticised them , but I've always found them to be very satisfactory. Yeah , I've had a couple of issues with a boat or two , but they have attended to it promptly .

I wouldn't be a happy bunny though if I had paid full poppy up front and someone else was now getting the same boat for 60% of what I paid , but back to my original point , I hope they are not struggling , as they would know it would upset some if they did this .

Funnily enough , I often watch their webcam ( how sad 😋) just to see all the lucky people , doing what I wish I was doing and loading up a boat for a week or two , and I have noticed it hasn't seemed super busy. Hopefully , I manage to help them out this year , but as the year goes on , and my disposable income goes down 😪, it is beginning to look unlikely .

I never give up hope though 😁.

[MargeandParge]

There are costs to business that remain the same or as at the moment increase very rapidly. They are staff ,business rates. Interest on investment capital and power or energy costs and if all your fleet is moored you can not off set any of these costs without redundancies thus losing your loyal skill based work force . 

It is seasonal as well and a hire fleet generates no income out of season there aren't many businesses that will carry that much stagnant investment for about four months.

So I think that is why boats are offered at a very small percentage above cost to keep a cash flow that services the basics of that business. 

Just another thought as a business would not want to undermine loyalty from their regular customers. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

 

[Broads01]

4 hours ago, Wonderwall said:

I wouldn't be a happy bunny though if I had paid full poppy up front and someone else was now getting the same boat for 60% of what I paid

I agree and I think that's partly down to how prices are presented when they're first published and how they stay unchanged for many months. When huge discounts suddenly hit, it feels like the goalposts have been moved. I would contrast this to the way flight prices work where you know they're 100% variable and very much "point in time". If someone else gets a better deal than you in the same flight you tend to think of it as fortunate for them rather than unjust. I've no doubt though that airlines spend millions on the people and systems to be able to provide the pricing structure they do.

[Troyboy]

I've had a look at the boats on discount. Some good deals for the time of the year. I don't think they are in trouble. There is only about 8 boats available out of 84. Give or take a couple. They are better hired out at 60% than not at all. 

[DAVIDH]

It certainly has had the effect of getting bookings in. I noted there were 18 boat (classes?) available for 7 nights starting this weekend when the deal was announced a couple of days ago. Now there are just 5 left to book. 

[mikeyboy1966]

Unless I’m missing something I’m not sure what the fuss is about.

It’s a few boats for last minute booking next week and one or two for midweek start the following week.

If I was HW I would also rather have the boats on the river,spending cash and using fuel .

hopefully safeguarding local jobs and other businesses.