If you've got a bit of spare land and you've been wondering whether you could welcome a few caravans or motorhomes onto it, starting a CL site is one of the simplest ways to dip your toe into the campsite business in the UK. You don't need a full site licence. You don't need a shower block. You need a friendly patch of ground, a handful of permissions, and a willingness to meet people.

This guide walks through exactly how to start a CL site, from the first conversation with the Caravan and Motorhome Club through to welcoming your first guest. Expect around two to three months from application to your first booking, and budget for some modest setup costs depending on the state of your land.

What is a CL Site?

A Certificated Location, or CL, is a small campsite certified by the Caravan and Motorhome Club. It's limited to a maximum of five caravans or motorhomes at any one time, which keeps it refreshingly informal compared with commercial touring parks. CLs are the country's best-kept secret: there are thousands of them tucked away on farms, at the end of lanes, behind village pubs, and on corners of large gardens, and they've been a staple of UK caravanning for decades.

The reason the scheme exists is that the law lets exempted organisations, like the Caravan and Motorhome Club, certify their own small sites without each one needing a full local authority site licence. In exchange, the Club sets standards of its own and inspects sites regularly to make sure they're up to scratch.

For a more detailed look at day-to-day life once your CL is up and running, see our practical guide to managing your CL. This page is about getting to that point.

Who Can Apply to Start a CL Site?

There's no special qualification required. You need to own or have a long lease on a piece of land, it needs to be suitable for caravans and motorhomes to pitch on, and you need to be willing to take bookings and welcome guests. Most CL owners are farmers, smallholders, pub landlords, or simply homeowners with a paddock or large garden. Some are retired; some are running it alongside a full-time job. A few are on the edge of pretty villages; others are on remote hillsides that take guests all the way out of mobile signal range.

If you're wondering whether your land is likely to qualify, ask yourself:

If you can tick most of those, you're almost certainly a candidate. The rest is paperwork and preparation.

Step 1: Speak to the Caravan and Motorhome Club

Before you spend any money, get in touch with the Caravan and Motorhome Club's CL team. They'll send you their current information pack and application form, and they'll often have a friendly chat with you about your land, your plans, and whether they think you're a good fit. This early conversation is valuable because the Club can tell you upfront if there's an obvious issue, saving you the time and expense of applying formally.

Be honest about your land at this stage. If the access is tricky, say so. If there's a historic covenant on the land, mention it. If you're in a conservation area or an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, flag that too. The Club would rather know now than during an inspection later.

Step 2: Complete the CL Application

Once you're ready, you submit a formal application to the Club. The form asks for:

The Club charges a modest administration fee with the application. Fees change periodically, so always check the current amount on the Club's website or ask the CL team directly. The fee is a small fraction of what you'll earn in a typical first season, so it shouldn't be a deciding factor.

Step 3: The Site Inspection

After you apply, a Club inspector will arrange to visit your site. The inspection is friendly but thorough. The inspector is checking that:

The inspector will also talk you through the Club's expectations for how you run the site. Things like keeping a booking record, maintaining the pitches, dealing with complaints, and displaying your certification when it arrives. If your land isn't quite ready, they'll often offer practical suggestions rather than outright rejecting you. It's in everyone's interest to bring a good CL on board.

Step 4: Making the Changes

Depending on the inspection, you may need to make some small changes before certification. These might include:

Most CL owners get through this stage for a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, though if you need serious groundwork — think hardstandings, a new access road, or electric hook-ups — the cost climbs. Start simple. You can always add more later once you're earning.

Step 5: Certification and Your First Booking

Once your changes are signed off, the Club issues your certification. You're now officially a CL, listed in the Club's directory, and ready to take bookings.

Bookings come in from several places. The Club's directory and website bring Club members directly to you. Word of mouth and repeat guests quickly become a big source of bookings, especially if you look after your first visitors well. Many CL owners also appear in online campsite listings and Google search results, which we cover in our guide to getting your campsite found on Google.

Your first few bookings will probably come in by phone. That's traditional, it's fine, and it's how thousands of CLs have always operated. What matters is that you record the booking somewhere safe and reliable so you don't double-book.

Do You Need Planning Permission for a CL?

This is the question we get asked more than any other, and the short answer is: probably not for the certification itself, but sometimes yes for the groundwork.

Because CLs are certified by an exempted organisation, you don't need the standard caravan site licence from your local authority to run one. However, planning rules are a separate matter. You may need planning permission if:

The 28-day rule sometimes comes up in this conversation too. It's a separate permitted development right that lets you use land for camping for up to 28 days a year (60 days in England since 2023) without planning permission, but it doesn't apply to CL certification, which is a year-round permission for five vans under the Club's exemption. If you're thinking about running both a seasonal tent pitch and a year-round CL, speak to your local planning authority. The rules interact in ways that catch people out.

Always check with your local planning authority before you start groundwork. A polite phone call to the duty planner usually costs nothing and can save you thousands.

Insurance You'll Need

You absolutely need public liability insurance. Your existing farm insurance, home insurance, or business insurance may or may not cover campsite activity, and you can't assume. Phone your insurer, tell them you're planning to take paying guests onto your land, and ask specifically about:

If your existing insurer won't cover the activity, specialist campsite and caravan park insurers are used to arranging cover for small sites. Our campsite insurance guide covers the topic in more depth.

How Much Does It Cost to Start a CL Site?

This depends entirely on the state of your land. At the low end, if you have a firm, level field with an existing water tap and a suitable drain, you can be ready to open for a few hundred pounds: the application fee, a basic sign, a public liability premium, and some simple wayfinding.

In the middle, if you need to run a water pipe, install a proper disposal point, improve access, and put up a couple of signs, you're usually looking at one to three thousand pounds all in.

At the high end, if you want to install electric hook-ups, level and gravel pitches, create a proper access road, and install a little amenity block, you can easily spend five or ten thousand pounds. Spending more doesn't necessarily mean earning more, especially in the first season. Most successful CLs start small and upgrade over time, using a year or two of real guest feedback to decide what's worth adding.

We go into income and earnings potential in more detail in our guide to how much a CL site can earn.

What You Don't Need

A lot of first-time CL owners are nervous about the scale of the undertaking. Here's what you don't need, despite what you might expect:

The First Season: What to Expect

Your first season is a learning curve. You'll take bookings on days you didn't expect to, turn away guests during the few peak weekends, and probably have a surprise or two. Expect:

A quiet start. Until you're indexed in the Club directory and appearing in search results, bookings can trickle in slowly. Don't panic. Most CLs take a year to find their rhythm.

Bank holidays and school holidays are gold. Five pitches fill fast on sunny summer weekends. Most CL owners say the peak six or seven weekends of the year account for a disproportionate share of their season's income.

You'll meet lovely people. CL guests tend to be seasoned tourers. They're generally tidy, considerate, respectful of your land, and genuinely interested in the area. The occasional tricky guest is the exception, not the rule.

The paper diary starts to groan. Most CLs begin with a paper diary. It works fine at first. But as phone enquiries stack up, as you and your partner start taking bookings on different days, and as peak weekends fill up, you'll find yourself flipping back and forth to check. This is usually the point at which owners look at digital tools.

Common Mistakes First-Time CL Owners Make

Tools You'll Actually Use on Day One

You don't need much. A reliable booking record, a simple way to take a deposit, a welcome message for new guests, and somewhere to keep the guest details in case the Club ever asks.

CampSuite is free for CL sites, because small-site owners shouldn't have to pay through the nose for software designed for 200-pitch holiday parks. It replaces the paper diary with a mobile-friendly calendar, prevents double bookings automatically, handles card payments if you want them, and sends guests their arrival details without you having to write another text message. If you'd rather keep things purely on paper to start with, that's fine too — the important thing is that you start, and that you know a proper tool is there whenever you're ready.

Your Next Steps

If you've read this far, you're serious. Here's what to do this week:

  1. Walk your land with a notepad and look at it from a caravanner's eye. Where would you put five pitches? How would a car towing a van get to them?
  2. Phone your insurer. Find out what they say about taking paying guests onto your land.
  3. Phone your local planning authority's duty planner. Describe what you want to do. Listen carefully to their response.
  4. Contact the Caravan and Motorhome Club's CL team. Get the current information pack and ask any questions you have.
  5. Quietly check what other CLs look like near you, either by searching the Club's directory or visiting a couple as a guest. You'll pick up useful ideas.

Starting a CL is one of the most rewarding ways to put a piece of land to work. You meet people, you earn useful income, and you become part of a network of thousands of small-site owners across the country. Take your time, get it right, and enjoy the process.