# Brit stops



## magbrin (Jun 18, 2010)

Who knows about this new scheme? France Passion is almost here :lol: :lol: Supposedly MHF is a "friend" of Brit Stops but I had never heard of it when I got an email to see if I wanted to take part  I have failed to find anything by using the search facility, so if there are any other threads relating to it could someone please fill me in .............................................. and please consider the benefits of the scheme and participate - it is starting THIS YEAR


----------



## paulmold (Apr 2, 2009)

I've just googled it and found www.britstops.com and the scheme sounds a great idea. It mentions that you have a one-off purchase of the guide to give you access to the list of sites but I assume that it is in it's early days as there is no link to purchase said guide, only a registration form for hosts to register. I will watch with interest.


----------



## CurlyBoy (Jan 13, 2008)

paulmold said:


> I've just googled it and found www.britstops.com and the scheme sounds a great idea. It mentions that you have a one-off purchase of the guide to give you access to the list of sites but I assume that it is in it's early days as there is no link to purchase said guide, only a registration form for hosts to register. I will watch with interest.


........and me, I have emailed for info

curlyboy


----------



## StephandJohn (Sep 3, 2007)

Just received this reply from them.
Looks like it's going t be good.

Dear Stephanie,
Many thanks for your message. We always planned to “go live” in mid March, but will have to jump the gun a bit now that the message is out on MHF!
As you probably saw, our website is primarily set up to procure and register host sites at the moment - we do have the pages for motorhome members ready in the background, so will now have to get those up online sooner rather than later! Look out for new pages on our website over the next week.
Membership will cost £25, but there will be a pre-order discount of £5, and possibly a further discount for MHF members, as I've already been in touch with “nukeadmin” (which is why MHF is listed as a friend on our website. Of course if you are aware of or used France Passion (or indeed Fattore Amico, Espana Discovery or Ars Vivendi), you will know that the initial cost of membership can be recouped in one or two stopovers.
As keen users of France Passion ourselves we really can't see the downside to the scheme for either motorhome owners or host sites, so we're really keen to make this work in Britain like it does in mainland Europe. We do know, however, that those who haven't come across the European schemes sometimes need some extra explanation, so as many of us as possible spreading the word will really help.
Thanks again for your interest, we hope you'll join Brit Stops and enjoy stopping over at the many different sites, whether you are looking out for new and interesting places to stay or simply looking to break a long journey.
Kind regards,


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

Many old members on here may recall that I and Dave (NUke) tried to start British Passion back in 2004/5 but what with MHF going down and losing all its information and that included everything to do with British Passion as Dave had been doing the web site for us, we lost a lot of people who had pre-registered.

I didn't get it off the ground, but I was contacted by BritStops and asked if I was still intending to do it etc., I explained where I had found problems and also passed on all my info and have been able to help in a very tiny way to this venture.

I really do hope that MHF members will get behind it if they can, and perhaps if they know of any potential hosts could pass them on to BritStops via their web site.

I was asked to keep it under wraps until they were ready, but heyho plans never go straightforward but let's see if we can help push it along.

Carol


----------



## Addie (Aug 5, 2008)

Seems to be quite a few of these schemes charging a fee from members but on the face of it having very few stop over locations. I don't think any one scheme setup quick enough to dominate the market like French Passion and thus seems we are left with lots of smaller schemes?

I personally don't think there should be any fee for what is essentially a database of information that could be fully automated online (and supported by advertising if necessarily).

Once it is established and proven it's worth, members could order a paper version or a small fee could be charged (or maybe an iPhone app could be bought).


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

I can't agree with you. I don't know what Steve's costs are, but I do know what mine were, 5 years ago, forget the time and phone calls and trips to meet potential clients, and someone has to cover those costs for you to benefit.... Is £25 a lot for a year's worth of free stop overs, you can decide if it is for you, if not don't join. But most people would prefer a safe night stopover, to a layby with the option of perhaps being moved on, or finding it frequented by undesirables. You have the chance perhaps to enjoy a nice meal, or perhaps buy some wine... I don't know the exact places that Steve has signed up, but they are perhaps a selection of various types, from farms, to vineyards, to pubs and perhaps theme parks, they were the type of operations I was going for.

He is also producing a book with direction etc., in, the same idea as France Passion, because bear in mind we don't all have web access when away and many do not even have the internet.

Yes we lot do, but I know from approaching people on sites when I was doing this that there are far more people NOT using the Internet, their kids may be, but then these 'kids' are grown up and not living at home.... So he is going for all options - and all that means costs.

Carol - and no I am not involved in this - but just trying to point out why it isn't free or likely to be


----------



## StephandJohn (Sep 3, 2007)

I agree with you Carol. 
This sounds like a great idea and will be well worth the fee once you start using it.
Steph


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

magbrin said:


> Who knows about this new scheme? France Passion is almost here :lol: :lol: Supposedly MHF is a "friend" of Brit Stops but I had never heard of it when I got an email to see if I wanted to take part  I have failed to find anything by using the search facility, so if there are any other threads relating to it could someone please fill me in .............................................. and please consider the benefits of the scheme and participate - it is starting THIS YEAR


Will you be one of their hosts - I do hope so - as I think t needs to be promoted and obviously needs as many hosts as they can get.

I know through MHF in 2004/5 the members here supported me and many helped find hosts then, so let's hope with far more members now, that we can also help Steve.

I know he had wanted to get as many as he could on board before he launched, and he has 3 times as many as I did, and almost 4 times so come on, tell your local pub, (with a large car park) your local farm shop perhaps or farmer who sells and produced his own products, they would also benefit from our custom, and also of course we would be helping them in these difficult times.

I loved the France Passion idea and hope it can work here.

Carol


----------



## CourtJester (Aug 26, 2009)

Hmmm. We are interested in this. Thanks.


----------



## cabby (May 14, 2005)

I remember when you were doing this back in 2004 and the crash happened and all the information was lost and we all had to rejoin  If I remember correctly it was surviving on donations rather than a suscription.

I will be interested in thius new scheme, keep us all up todate please.

cabby


----------



## magbrin (Jun 18, 2010)

carol said:


> magbrin said:
> 
> 
> > Who knows about this new scheme? France Passion is almost here :lol: :lol: Supposedly MHF is a "friend" of Brit Stops but I had never heard of it when I got an email to see if I wanted to take part  I have failed to find anything by using the search facility, so if there are any other threads relating to it could someone please fill me in .............................................. and please consider the benefits of the scheme and participate - it is starting THIS YEAR
> ...


Yup! Signed up last night. We are/were already offering free stopovers having enjoyed FP so much ourselves. Have had lots of communication with Steve since my first email, including apologising for letting the cat out of the bag.
Spread the word everyone, come and see us in the Highlands, and lets all make it work!


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

cabby said:


> I remember when you were doing this back in 2004 and the crash happened and all the information was lost and we all had to rejoin  If I remember correctly it was surviving on donations rather than a suscription.
> 
> I will be interested in thius new scheme, keep us all up todate please.
> 
> cabby


Cabby - yes we had something over 200 pre-registered before the crash and then nothing. Although I emailed and posted on both MHF and [email protected] it was in May if you recall and I think a lot of people were away and therefore didn't see the posts and although I sent them a few times, we only had about 80 re-register...and it was only after I sent the last email out asking if people were actually prepared to join, before I went to print with everything for a Jan launch - that I only had about a 40/60 for joining at that time, from those few that did respond, that Duncan and I decided that we couldn't afford to risk our money (well his really) in retirement, so emailed and posted to say I was not going to proceed.

Later I received quite a few messages from people saying, we didn't get the email - which was of course presumably because they had not re-registered after the crash.

I always thought it a shame, but Duncan i always felt had this feeling that should it really get going, we would not have got away in our own motorhome, which can of course be the downside to it.

We all learn from mistakes, and I really do hope Steve gets the support that was originally shown to me.

Carol


----------



## carolgavin (May 9, 2005)

Hi guys thought you would like to know that Facts is doing a sort of kinda similarish thing for subscribers here. Well maybe not that similar but just on case you missed it!!

Linkie thing http://www.motorhomefacts.com/homestay.html


----------



## magbrin (Jun 18, 2010)

carolgavin said:


> Hi guys thought you would like to know that Facts is doing a sort of kinda similarish thing for subscribers here. Well maybe not that similar but just on case you missed it!!
> 
> Linkie thing http://www.motorhomefacts.com/homestay.html


Unfortunately there are a lot of small somewhat uncoordinated schemes. Some better than others but most having relatively few spots. I have been involved with a few, and know of others, but so far I have had most visitors by offering my nursery, myself, as a stopover on a number of different forums.
This is why I think that Brit Stops is going to take off - It is being well co-ordinated by Steve and although it may be small in the first year or two I am sure that, if it gets the support it will not take long before it is widely known about and well used by motorhomers from UK and abroad.


----------



## Addie (Aug 5, 2008)

carol said:


> I can't agree with you....Carol - and no I am not involved in this - but just trying to point out why it isn't free or likely to be


I think you misunderstood my point 

The main issue is there is a lot of smaller fragmented schemes all charging users for subscription and for anyone considering joining it's a bit of a nightmare - both for the public and for the landowners - as to which to sign up to.

The reality is with sites like Wildcamping, Google POI's and internet searching in general it's very easy to find such places for 'free' and landowners are unlikely to turn away a paying guest (for a meal) because they don't have a windscreen sticker - that's if they bothered to check in the first place!

If you look at the 'Fattiore Amico' in Italy for example, this book came about simply at a annual wine and food fayre in Italy where a representative went and canvassed all the producers and asked if they would sign up to the scheme.

I appreciate the cost to setup a scheme and that someone, somewhere needs to turn a profit in return for their time in administration - but in order for one scheme to dominate and obtain an competitive advantage over the others it could (or should) start as a free scheme or a very minimal cost to join (printed materials obviously extra). Once the user base grows and it becomes established as the leader then charges could be slowly introduced or increase. Very much like the two big motorhome forums that started off as humble beginnings - they'd never had grown to the size they are now if they weren't free to use at the very start.

I hope this (or some) scheme prospers in the way French Passion has - it would give the Caravan Club a run for their money!


----------



## julie1 (Sep 21, 2009)

Hi
Just been on Wildcamping website. 
There's a post on from Britstops explaining the scheme. It's saying that for MH members the joining fee will be £15.00 which I think is quite reasonable. Looking at their website there seems to be a quite a few stops already, certainly in England. Not so many in the North East or Scotland yet. I think we will definitely consider joining. We do a lot of wildcamping but sometimes use CL's and the cost per night for these is steadily increasing. 
Julie


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

I believe Steve is in contact with Dave or trying to contact him, so who knows maybe the same offer will apply here for paid members. It would be nice, pensions have to go so far these days, and as you say CL/CS's are now regularly up around the £10 a night price, so a free stopover where you 'can' avail yourself of any facilities IF you wish is very good for all of us.

I know when I tried to start, the first thing I did was to make contact with FP to ascetain if we could use their model and once up and running if we could link into their site, with obviously a reciprocal link from ours, as a lot more european motorhome users would come if we had a similar scheme to the Aires and Stellplatz, Sostas's etc.

Unfortunately I no longer had the contact name I used, and Steve is finding it difficult to get in touch with them, Spain has apparently responded favourably, but it all takes time.

I do think he is very organised and as said before, support is what he will need.

Carol


----------



## julie1 (Sep 21, 2009)

carol said:


> I believe Steve is in contact with Dave or trying to contact him, so who knows maybe the same offer will apply here for paid members. It would be nice, pensions have to go so far these days, and as you say CL/CS's are now regularly up around the £10 a night price, so a free stopover where you 'can' avail yourself of any facilities IF you wish is very good for all of us.
> 
> I know when I tried to start, the first thing I did was to make contact with FP to ascetain if we could use their model and once up and running if we could link into their site, with obviously a reciprocal link from ours, as a lot more european motorhome users would come if we had a similar scheme to the Aires and Stellplatz, Sostas's etc.
> 
> ...


Hi Carol
Sorry but I meant to say MHF Members and not MH so obviously the offer will apply to members of this site.
Julie
Julie


----------



## carol (May 9, 2005)

At the present moment no such deal is actually in place. Steve phoned me yesterday, I believe he is waiting or was at that time (lunchtime yesterday) waiting to hear back from Dave (nuke).... it may have since happened of course, but that was the plan.

As I understood it he intends to sell the book/sticker etc., for £25 year, but will offer £20 for anyone who pre-registers, and was hoping to offer a further discount of MHF members who pre-register of £15 for the first year.

The problem is there isn't a lot of time, so I hope Dave has responded.

If I am behind reading then forgive me, a page may well be up somewhere on the site and I haven't seen it.... Can't keep up with it all

Carol


----------

