You will see in my post that I had £5 for admin/insurance costs per person ...Kingswood actually have more than 165000 children through there centres each year which amounts to £825k of income based on my costs to cover such things as central office/staff/training/equipment maintenance etc...the accommodation costs were £10 per child per night ..most children share dorms of 10-12 children so that is £100/£120 per room tonight which if you treat it the same way has a hotel includes all the light/electricity/water/cleaning and everything else accommodation related. The cost I forecast for food includes everything to do with food including making the food (a centre doesnt need lots of cooks etc when they are preparing bulk food - we regularly stayed at centre where there were just two cooks for up to 104 teachers/children -its amazing what a commercial dishwasher can do). I dont think I need to explain the transport costs - we are 1hr north of London and Britannia Coaches who Kingswood use quoted (We haven’t heard back from our quotation sent out via Kingswood for 1 x 34 seater for the return price of £918.72, so we wanted to make sure if you required the transport prior to your upcoming trip..) The wage costs maybe on the low side but I do know that Kingswood use European staff and kids on gap years so if they have accommodation and food included then wage costs would not be that high. If you look at Kingswood Accounts the average wage of ALL their employees is just £17K...I think I estimated that activity leaders would be on £14.4k so not that far out given the £17k is ALL employees.(687 employees 11m of costs). The accounts make interesting reading - as do all accounts where there are private equity firms with revaluations of assets (£5m revaluation in 2016).
I'm not a naive parent I actually have used Kingswood about 10 times in the last 7 years for group trips ...I have cut and pasted our quote/price from this years trip taking out relevant information - The cost was £70 for 2 nights fully inclusive of activities/food and in small ensuite rooms because it was families (plus 3 FREE places)... If our group had stayed 4 nights the cost would have been slightly less then pro rata..so less than £140 for 4 nights ..so have Kingswood been offering my group trips for the last 7 years to make a loss or are Kingswood overcharging schools? Its the same package!
Tour Ref: Arrival Date: Centre: No of Free Adults: Sat 05/05/2018 West Runton 3 Course: Departure Date: No of Students: No of Paying Adults: Mon 07/05/2018 27 Party Leader: Year Group(s): 7 to 8 (Yr3),8 to 9 (Yr4),9 to 10 (Yr5),10 to 11 (Yr6),11 to 12 (Yr7),12 to 13 (Yr8),15 to 16 (Yr11),18 to 99 (Adults Only) Accommodation Type: Standard Room Adventure Choice Early Arrival: No Description Deposit per Student plus VAT Due Date NET VAT GROSS FINAL BALANCE £70.00 10/04/2018 £1,890.00 £378.00 £2,268.00 Total Payments £0.00 £2,268.00 Cost Per Student : £70.00 Total Cost of Visit (Plus VAT): (Including paying adults) £1,890.00
We didnt run a program in 2017 with Kingswood but in 2016 we paid £60 again for two nights all inclusive...
If I had not have been getting package prices of well below what schools are charged I would not be on this thread and I do think that activity holidays are great for kids hence why I have been running them for so long (10 years now with a mixture of companies and 7 years with Kingswood).