To not expect to pay excessive amount as we're family.

[Boop1e]

In laws brought themselves a caravan on a haven site a year ago. Decided to spend some pension money on it.
the site fees have renewed and have gone up just like everything else in life.
They don't rent it out and we only use it as family.
Anyway father in law has just charged his own son £75 for 3 nights to use it. He owed me money for ordering him a new tablet and doing him a favour so took the money out of that which I couldn't afford to lose.

Before the season started he mentioned charging £25 a day but nothing else happened and no mention of it again before we went.

He's also charged brother in law £150 to use but they paid upfront.

Am i being unreasonable to feel this is a lot to charge your own children and £10 or so a day would be sufficient. I'm not convinced I spend £25 a day heating and lighting my 3 bed home. They get their passes included with the caravan for 10 people.

Husband won't challenge it because it won't make any difference.

I agree - you shouldn't expect to pay an excessive price. You haven't

He told you 25 a night and you signalled your agreement by then going and staying in it.

Don't go again if you don't like the price.

Crikey i was expecting you say they were charging £2000 or something truly excessive 🤣. £25 a night for utilities seems reasonable enough.

Yeah so you can get away with saying "well we gave them a tenner for the weekend, they should be grateful to us for funding their lifestyle"

I'm with the 91%
YABVVVU, even with the slight shift in what you are saying over the pages and pages of posters telling you that.
£25 per night (for the whole van, not pp ?) is ridiculously cheap.
It costs a fortune to maintain one of those nice caravans on a site these days, even before you start on depreciation (and most sites force you to upgrade after a few years).

@Boop1e

better for whom?

OP, you sound like hard work. Have you ever invited your in-laws to be your guests on any travel experience where you were covering the cost? Have you ever invited your parents on any travel experience where you were covering the cost?

Are you always the beneficiary of generosity , but never the giver? Even when our children were vet young and we were just starting out ( we both worked full-time) we would rent a cabin at a lake resort and invite our in-laws. They lived near by and were very engaged with the kids. They were capable of and did travel frequently , but the were kind and often took the kids away with them.

We were both reared to not ever accept more than we were willing to give. They neither needed and perhaps did not always want to go the cabin, but the accepted graciously and we all enjoyed the time together.

But PIL would be maintaining it either way. It's not like the Op ages the caravan or wears it out.

Yes, £25 is cheap, but who on earth charges their own kids, unless they are piss poor, in which case they should sell the bloody thing.

YABVU. You are getting a brilliant deal and sound like you are very grabby.

@ArcticSkewer
people shouldn’t take the piss and show entitlement and expect free holidays family or not

Would it make you feel better to think of it as a £300 discount on what Haven would've charged you? @Boop1e

Or think of it as how many nights holiday you've had over the years and only spent £75?

Times are tight. It's a gift they can't afford to give at the moment. That's fair enough isn't it?

If we get rid of this government, and reverse Brexit things might start improving for this county and you can go back to normal not paying.

Until then, this is how it is.

Site fees are quite a lot on Haven sites, and the gas used for heating is costly I don't know if they also pay electric and water on top. Then cleaning charges if they have that service. They may be finding its more than they could afford with everything costing so much more now

Considering running a car costs more than the petrol I'd expect to contribute if I was using it. New tyres, oil change etc will be more if it is being used more. I'd think anyone who didn't offer to contribute was just a user.

It would prob cost you atleast 850 to book via Haven for a week and that would be the basic caravan not the nicer ones.

I've never posted before and have worked out it's a miserable place for people to rip strips of each other.
I could have explained myself and worded my post a bit better earlier.
We both work and pay our way in life and help out family and host at Christmas and in the summer as we have enough space.

I think £25 a night is reasonable. They have to pay site fees, maintenance as well as utilities. Who cleans the caravan between stays? Or do you just clean it yourself before leaving? Everything is going up. Try getting somewhere to stay for less than £25 a night. You won't. Even camping in a tent can cost more.

We use our brother’s holiday homes and pay for cleaning which is around £85.
We would feel awful not paying at least for something, when they’ve been so kind on letting family stay - they’re losing a lot of money in rental if family stay there too (which of course they don’t mind) so I’m afraid yes you’re being unreasonable to not pay something. Think of just how much you’re saving!

The trouble with that is child A is generous and pays £50 a night, child B is a user and gives £10 a night. I'd prefer to pay what everyone else is paying because I'm the mug who'd be offering £50 a night.

It's left in the same pristine state we find it in. We work hard for what we have and I'm far from self entitled and ungrateful.

I do thanks

were one of the lucky ones my in laws have a holiday home right by the beach. only family are allowed stay. we get allocated dates then if no one else is staying we can stay a bit more. they don't charge us however we do contribute to maintaining it. we paid for the outside to be painted last year. alos got tye boiler serviced and parts replaced. I pay for a regular window cleaning service too. there is only one hotel in the place. that charges 250e a night. Air b and b you are looking at least a grand a week high season and would struggle to get accommodation. so to me I am very fortunate and have no problem paying for rent if they asked for it. they don't but they know we appreciate and will look after it. Holiday homes are high matainec. I get that you didn't pay for it before but this is still cheap. I love going to my inlaws place is so relaxing and as we have been going for years we know what yo do and have a great time. yoir family will have good memories from yoir hols. suck it up my dear

So you’re happy to pay just not as much as they want? You want to pay say £10 a night he wants £25.

So it's a actually three visits you've had for £75?

Some valid points which I've taken on board.
I'm Not selfish or self entitled or tight or all the other rude things I've been accused of being for starting a discussion.
I wouldn't charge family as I find it an odd principle but gladly would buy a gift or make a contribution and have brought lunch etc before.
I do know we're lucky to have the chance and it's not expensive compared to booking direct. It's the principle of charging family a set rate per night is strange as it's not the way I was brought up.

Reading the comments on here makes me extremely grateful for having the family I do! This feels like a weird Mumsnet thing where once your child reaches adulthood you should immediately stop caring about them, stop helping them out with anything and basically start treating them like acquaintances. I'm so glad my parents and In-laws aren't like that.

This sums it up perfectly:

Yes, £25 is cheap, but who on earth charges their own kids, unless they are piss poor, in which case they should sell the bloody thing.

I would never pay to stay in my immediate family's caravan (and I include in laws)! And nor would I ever even think to charge my close friends/family to stay in mine. I know my family would never expect any money from us to stay.

So what if it's cheaper than booking a holiday, this isn't the same at all.

In the case of someone buying a caravan, or other holiday let, with the intention of renting it out to strangers then the accommodation was presumably bought with the intention of the income from the holiday makers covering the initial outlay + overheads and running costs.

I presume your PIL would still use the caravan themselves and wouldn't sell up if you and other family members stop using it? In which case the site fees will have to be paid regardless of whether you stay or not.

I guess the cost of electricity/gas is different, because they wouldn't have been paying for that if you weren't there. But I can't imagine charging my own child for a bit of gas/electricity, unless they really don't have the money - in which case they should maybe think about selling the caravan!