Based on the tone of the article, I think "price-gouged" is how this gentleman would describe any holiday based spending. He doesn't seem to like spending money on his holidays one bit. Every time he actually go into detail the practices seem normal and the prices fair.
It took me a while to realise that this article does not seem to involve any price-gouging of any sort but is actually about pricing a private equity deal. Still an interesting read.
Author of the article here. That's not what I mean at all. As I said in the article, I love Center Parcs. And I've been on a cruise and spent a ton of money there, and it was totally worth it. The point in here was just that it's interesting to look at the market dynamics of a captive hoilday business like this and how that flows through the P&L and balance sheet.
E.g. Center Parcs makes insane gross margins e.g. food and drink because prices for those ARE insanely expensive relative to other places you could go out and eat. BUT that doesn't actually lead to crazy levels of profitability because it's a capital intensive business that requires lots of capex and/or debt financing to sustain.
The whole point is to take a deeper dive than most surface-level commentaries of "bloody hell Center Parcs is expensive" and see what's actually going on under the hood of the business.
And calling it 'price-gouging' is a bit of a nod to that, and it's a bit of a joke about how expensive a crap steak is there, and it's a way to get people's attention. Like other people have said, Center Parcs is mostly just a function of supply and demand. They have a great product, and people like me are willing to pay for it.
I've never been to Center Parcs and have no plans to go, despite it looking pretty nice, because it is just eye-wateringly expensive. We can debate what 'price-gouging' means, but their prices are insanely high compared to other holiday options. Of course, they can do that. I just find it pretty astonishing that anyone ever goes there.
I've only been once and didn't really enjoy it (family with two kids, 6 and 3, at the time). I can see why people do, though.
You could do all the activities (apart from the swimming pool), better, cheaper and in nicer surroundings, in a cottage in Wales or similar, but that would take planning and effort and (as the article points out) probably involves some driving rather than cycling/walking everywhere.
You are trapped in centre parks and they control the prices for everything. On a normal holiday you have choice of where to eat or what activities to do etc. You don't get that at center parca - it is like a stationary cruise ship where you can only leave when they allow it.
But it's a trap you've chosen to walk into, when there are literally millions of alternative ways to spend your holidays that don't involve staying on a company's private estate whose main attraction is a wide range of chargeable activities which it's the only provider of in the area. As with activity prices on cruises the natural response isn't "gollygosh how did you survive?" it's "if that sort of thing bothers you why did you pick that holiday?". As the rest of the article goes on to clarify, it isn't even like the operators are actually making a killing when you consider the amount of investment involved in buying woodland and waterslides (and that the half-term surge prices for accommodation are the bookends for months of low occupancy).
Plus if you really hate their catering prices, there's nothing stopping you driving to the cafe or supermarket in the next village and bringing your own bikes
Well, yes. That does appear to be what the people are paying for. The point here seems to be a sort of naturalist luxury experience in a carefully over-managed environment. I see this as similar to getting on the cruise ship and then being surprised that there isn't an independent marketplace on board.
If someone goes to a luxury accommodation experience and then become perturbed at being charged luxury prices, that seems to be a problem with their expectations.
Not really. You can walk to your car, hop in and drive out anytime.
They just have security to check who is coming and going, not to stop anyone.
Better still, you can cycle out with their rental bike no problem. Thetford is a nice cycle from Elveden... though the rental bikes maybe aren't the best for those sort of distances.
The experience on the ground is very much one of you being price gouged. It is galling to spend so much on the booking, then sit down at a rubbish Italian chain restaurant and pay twice what you would do in the nearest town.
I don't mind spending a lot on holidays and travel, but we didn't return to Centre Parcs for this reason. It crossed the line from expensive to unreasonable.
It took me a while to realise that this article does not seem to involve any price-gouging of any sort but is actually about pricing a private equity deal. Still an interesting read.