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Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

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Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#51

Post by gambiting »

petercooper wrote: post #4

I've just come back from Center Parcs and have been many times over the past 15 years (but took a break between COVID and now due to their policies over that period). It was fantastic as always, but I'm not sure everything is well. The park has demand-based pricing for the accommodation , but this doesn't apply to activities or restaurants. We dined out every day, yet despite the park being full, the restaurants were…

I love Center Parcs, it's great place to go with the family. But we always just bring our own food, pack our bikes on the car and usually eat out at one of the restaurants maybe once per stay as a special treat. I assumed most people did the same? The restaurants are hugely overpriced(imho).

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#52

Post by nxobject »

NeoTar wrote: post #15

> which is why it’s spelled in the somewhat Francophile Center Parcs, and not Centre Parks. (I thought this is why we did Brexit?) Pardon me? The French for center/centre is centre - the 're' ending of British English spelling is either taken from the French, or sometimes a direct reference to French spelling (i.e. 'prestige' spelling - like how some American publications will use British English spelling because the…

A touch of France so it’s classy, a touch of America so it’s trendy.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#53

Post by dwighttk »

“Price-gouged” is sort of a dog-whistle for me these days… most often when it is used it is a person complaining about a limited resource costing more when in high demand. It’s not always 100% that but usually leans heavily that way on the spectrum.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#54

Post by tolien »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #13
lol768 wrote: post #5

This is really partially the government's fault. Parents are fined and (in a minority of cases) imprisoned for taking children out of school in term-time. Usually it's the ones who are honest that end up getting in trouble, and the others that can pass it off as sickness get away with it. During Covid and recent NASUWT/NAHT/NEU strikes though, it's seemingly not been seen as a problem for kids to miss out significant…

We took our children out of school for three months about twenty years ago because I had the opportunity to work for that period in the US. We asked the school to provide the targets for the period for each child and my wife ensured that the children did a few hours work every day, not a whole day by any means. When we got back to Norway all three of the children were ahead of their classes. In Norway there seems to…

> One idea that might reduce the problem that the UK has would be to adopt the Polish system of dividing the country into four school regions with staggered holidays.

We're some of the way there - Scottish school terms run differently to England/Wales/NI (Scottish schools stopped and went back ~2 weeks earlier).

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#55

Post by petercooper »

gambiting wrote: post #51
petercooper wrote: post #4

I've just come back from Center Parcs and have been many times over the past 15 years (but took a break between COVID and now due to their policies over that period). It was fantastic as always, but I'm not sure everything is well. The park has demand-based pricing for the accommodation , but this doesn't apply to activities or restaurants. We dined out every day, yet despite the park being full, the restaurants were…

I love Center Parcs, it's great place to go with the family. But we always just bring our own food, pack our bikes on the car and usually eat out at one of the restaurants maybe once per stay as a special treat. I assumed most people did the same? The restaurants are hugely overpriced(imho).

A lot of people certainly always did that, but now it feels like most people are. The restaurants have kept their high prices while seemingly losing most of their clientele. I wouldn't be surprised if they introduce cruise-style dining credits or something with the higher priced lodges to mitigate it.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#56

Post by dmurray »

blitzar wrote: post #2

This is really a story about EBITDA. "People who use EBITDA are either trying to con you or they're conning themselves."

It's just one measure of profitability. Is it a con to report a business's gross revenue? Hardly.

It has a useful meaning in its context. If you're going to value a business based on a single number, your problems can't be fixed by blaming the number.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#57

Post by dwighttk »

londons_explore wrote: post #19
ajb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that's why forest land has gone up so much! Thanks, I'd seen the same rise, and couldn't figure out why.

I've been mulling over buying up farmland and planting trees and then just sitting on it for 20 yrs to capitalize on it.

In the us sometimes people do that because of an agricultural exemption to property taxes.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#58

Post by ggm »

dspillett wrote: post #34
rwmj wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's known colloquially as "Earnings before bad stuff" because you can use it to hide all the stuff in your accounts that doesn't make you look good. It's not a con, more like obfuscation.

> It's not a con, more like obfuscation. Which is a very subtle and complex distinction, like the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance.

Feather? Legal. Whole bloody chicken? Pornography.

Re: Getting price-gouged by private equity in the UK's happiest resort (2023)

#59

Post by gmac »

roenxi wrote: post #9

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…

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.
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