Two tier pricing system for summer holidays days out

[Fullofglee]

Anyone notice this? I was looking for something to do with my 8 year old for her birthday and look at a local farm they have a term price and summer price. 3 tickets for one adult and two dc is £43! Same for lighrwater Valley two different price charging more for the summer. Aibu for thinking these companies are greedy. I know its been covid but a simple day out the farm becomes very expensive when you factor petrol and food aswell. Thing is we went to an indoor amusement park last week for £36 for a family of four and it was unlimited rides so it's not everywhere. Looking at the life centre it would only cost 25 pounds for the 3 of us with parking included.

@starrynight87

That price is insane, to wander round a farm.

depends on what the "farm" is.

When you spend an entire day, with a mix of animals, activities, and the kids have a great day, it's very good value.

Car park for a day at the beach cost around a tenner in most places! And that's just parking.

Places charging you parking on top of tickets annoy me, it's a just way to present a cheaper ticket, at least be upfront about it!

Yes it all seems very expensive nowadays. If people continue to pay it they'll continue to charge it though. If you don't like the price don't go!

Its always been like that , supply and demand. So long as people pay it, they'll charge it.

YABU. They are businesses. They want to earn money (just like the rest of us). It's the way of the world and I've never really understood why people feel personally affronted.

The thing is there are cheaper places to go. @BarbaraofSeville mentioned Cannon Hall Farm which is a brilliant day out, my dc love it there and we will go next month when it is quieter. I don’t think £10 pp is bad when you consider that you have a wide variety of animals, soft play, outdoor play, animal talks, tractor rides and more.
But if you just want a simple farm visit then there is also Meanwood Valley Farm in Leeds which costs less than £10 for my family of five and that included feed for the animals. It isn’t as fancy but still fun.

I think Britain is generally overpriced for attractions which aren't always very good. But if people continue to pay, they will continue to charge. Only way to change it is to not pay it.

I completely agree! The Web Adventure Park in York (which is a soft play with small fairground rides) charge £12 just for adults! Even disabled adults like myself who can't go on anything even if I wanted to - I still have to pay £12 just to sit at a table and drink overpriced Tea! Since when did cafe's charge entry fee?! Term time it's only £1.50 for adults And yes, they have fairground rides during term time also!

Children £14
Adults £12!
So a single parent taking their one child out whilst said parents sits down and watches - £26!

There is a place in my local town which doubles the price of food & drinks during the holidays! £3.95 for a cup of TEA!!!!!! £1.95 in term time!

@EmilyEmmabob

It's atrocious the way that these places hike the prices up, I'm on an ok income and I'm definitely struggling to afford a lot of the things available at the minute. I know there have always been differences but it seems worse this year.

I think we are in a similar area OP, we looked at Flamingoland and considering my DC are to young to go on the bigger rides it was still going to cost us £150 ish for the 4 of us to go. Having been before I know it is not worth the money at all!

We recently went to an outdoor dinosaur attraction, it cost £30 ish for us to go which sounds manageable but it was literally a muddy track with 10ish plastic dinosaurs and then padded out with farm animals and superheros. Nothing else, nothing interactive. Paid £30 to walk through a patch of woodland. Our local woodland does attraction similar to this for free!

Went to Flamingo Land recently - absolute hell hole! The place is falling apart, 70% of the rides are non-operational and it was filthy. Never ever again

A company trying to make money, CF's they should open for free.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously

I think Britain is generally overpriced for attractions which aren't always very good. But if people continue to pay, they will continue to charge. Only way to change it is to not pay it.

After reading loads of threads on here parents these days feel like they have to take their kids out every weekend and most days in the summer holidays or the kids will miss out and be forever scarred

I agree most attractions are overpriced and poor value, but people keep going. You dont have to keep taking your kids to these places, its peer pressure

It’s not peer pressure to go, it’s trying to keep them occupied.

And don’t say it’s good for them to be bored, sure a day or two but not for the 42 days that the summer break entails.

Many of these visitor attractions have huge overheads, so whilst it my seem like prices are high, so are the expenses.

I used to work in a visitor attraction and visitors would see a couple of staff selling tickets, staff on attractions and gift shop staff. People I spoke with were surprised when I told them them that we employed over 1000 staff - maintenance, design, marketing, finance, HR, IT, cleaning, health and safety. All working behind the scenes, but very much needed to keep the attractions running.

I don't have a £900 iPhone because I think it's incredibly poor value for money. I don't start threads whinging that iPhones should be cheaper so I would value them enough to buy one

Supply and demand. They wouldn't keep charging the high prices if people weren't paying tjem.

Same as rip off pubs who bump their prices on a Friday and Saturday night but have a happy hour at 4pm on a Tuesday...

@FlorenceWintle

It’s not peer pressure to go, it’s trying to keep them occupied.

And don’t say it’s good for them to be bored, sure a day or two but not for the 42 days that the summer break entails.

But you don't have to go to a zoo/farm/theme park/soft play every day or even most days.

There are plenty of things that can be done for free or minimal cost. There's only a fairly small age window where DC are too old to be happy with a picnic in the park but too young to want to go out with their friends all the time.

During the off peak times even with reduced ticket prices many places won’t be making much if any money.

The problem is we all want these places to be high quality, not too busy etc etc but without wanting to pay the price that comes with that.

@araiwa

Same as rip off pubs who bump their prices on a Friday and Saturday night but have a happy hour at 4pm on a Tuesday...

And the same applies.

They know that 4pm on a Tuesday is normally a quiet time so they put on offers to get people through the door. They don’t need to have those offers at peaks times which is when they make the money.

I think charging a high price is only fair if people are getting a good experience. I don't agree with priority passes in places like Alton Towers for example - people have already paid lots to go in the first place.

There's a zoo near me that really struggled in lockdown, so they've done a lot of really cheap tickets this year.

It's resulted in more negative publicity for them than I've EVER seen from the pricing... people complaining about traffic jams to get in, lack of parking spaces, it being too busy to see the animals, not enough picnic spots/café seats, etc.

Everywhere has operating costs to cover, and a profit margin to try and achieve. Generally, as long as enough people can afford to go that they can do that, that's all the attraction needs - there will always be people who don't want to or can't spend that much, but that's part of life.

If they reduce the admission cost, they increase the number of people allowed in to hit that same income - and that means a poorer experience.

It's frustrating, but it's always been the way. The pandemic hasn't helped, because a lot of attractions now need to make more money to cover a long period without much, and human behaviour has adjusted. Lots of people are very keen to get out and about and do more now that restrictions are over, after feeling couped up for a year, and lots less people than normal are chancing holidays abroad... so there's even more demand, and costs can go up even more to reflect that.

There's now a farm near me that usually does £5 admission for a day, and is now charging £15 per activity... there's loads of us who have said no way, but equally, it's still rammed. Others are still happy to pay, so they'll still do well from it. I'll wait it out until it's back to being a more reasonable cost - and less heaving!

Adventure valley isnt just a farm. It has a huge indoor play area. Massive go kart track, tractor ride, pony rides, doughnut slide as well as tons of outdoor play equipment, foot ball pitch etc. Yes its gone up in price but you can easily spend the whole day there. Parking free and they let you bring in all your own food and drink. It's also enclosed so kids cant escape

Peak and off-peak ticket costs have been around forever. As many have said, that’s how one of two things happens: either how the electricity gets paid in January OR how they ensure the same amount of visitors all year round (that 12,000 people will come in July when it costs £15 but to get 12,000 in January, they need to lower it to £10). The end.

What I’m wondering is if you’re just noticing a practice that affects event tickets, train and plane tickets, hotel and lodging prices, the cost of every seasonal good from sun cream to winter coats… how are you not getting upset by an actual practice that IS newer than that and ends up targeting the poor? Here it is: You say you went to Harrowgate and paid £36 for all of you. But if you hadn’t bought online or in advance, you would have had to pay £44, a pound more than you’re angry about for Adventure Valley. Harrowgate charges that much more for “at the door” prices. Most places charge more “at the door.” It’s meant to be a surcharge for convenience, maybe it was at one point, but it’s not anymore. It’s a surcharge for those who are truly poor with no internet, or computer illiterate. AND it’s even more greedy than off-peak vs on-peak, because they know once they have money for online tickets, most people won’t be able to get it back if they can’t show up for some reason. That’s absolutely why they charge less.

You’re angry about the wrong things, things that have been around 100+ years (off and on-peak really might have been around longer than 100 years - the cost of seaside hotels in summer in the 1900s, for example) and are, in fact, the way you would have to price your own products if you sold any seasonal products. Winter coats cost less in the summer; we just call it “on sale.”

@UserStillatLarge

I think this is also indicative of the way expectations have changed over the years. When I was a child we'd only do 1 or possibly 2 paid for attractions over the summer holiday (zoo, cinema, theme park, activity parks etc). Over recent years it seems that more and more parents expect to be able to do these things every week. I actually think it's a positive that some things have now been reframed as occasional "treats" rather than things you would do routinely. Children should be able to make their own fun rather than expecting paid for activities all the time. It was interesting to see the number of people that suddenly "discovered" what was in their local area over lockdown, for example.

This!

Also, those talking about the ongoing costs of many of these businesses, especially the ones involving animals, are correct. A fantastic birds of prey centre near us had to close completely because of Covid - we were so sad because we'd had fantastic times there. The family who ran it had sunk their life savings into it - it was their dream.

I’d rather pay high prices to go to a farm than most other attractions, it’s important that they can pay for the animals and the people who look after them properly.

That aside, your main point seems to be that high admission costs will price people out, but if they are still at capacity nearly every day, that that isn’t their concern. They aren’t obliged to be affordable for everyone anymore that the Ritz is.