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Have you ever wanted to know how you increase your campsite bookings and maximise your attraction to multiple groups of campers? You know you have, and it’s the perfect time to make the most of it.
The Summer is here, what’s more people are seeking alternatives for their summer holidays. More than two years of restricted travel followed by flight cancellations and prohibitive flight costs have made international and even long-distance holiday destinations problematic. This is an excellent opportunity for local campsites to boost their bookings in 2022 and introduce new groups of people to camping life.
While we don’t usually suggest Simplybook.me for hotels or apartment rentals, campsites are a different matter entirely. Booking a campsite place to pitch one’s tent should be simple and easy – especially if you don’t know where you will be for the night. Simplybook.me can do that.
Moreover, SimplyBook.me can simplify additional service extras with your client’s pitch, selling forgotten and essential items, and even ticketing for special events.
Campsite bookings – Attracting Diverse Groups
Camping is not for everyone. Some people hate the idea of sleeping under canvas on the floor. At the same time, others hate the idea of being that little bit closer to nature and all those little wiggly bugs. Depending on the facilities you offer on your campsite, you might be able to your campsite bookings from non-campers by adding extra services, alternatives to sleeping on the floor, rental of luxury items and provision of electricity.
Another way to attract alternative groups could be by providing activities, events and tours as part of your campsite facilities. In most cases, campsites require significant space for pitching tents and parking caravans. That means you don’t usually find them in hotbeds of social activity and hundreds of different activities and entertainment options. If you want more people to consider your campsite as an option for their holiday, you need to find or provide opportunities for keeping people happy and enjoying their break.
Increasing the diversity of your campsite provision will help you find new groups of campers, and maybe you’ll find a niche group who will keep your campsite full throughout the season.
Offering more than a pitch to boost campsite bookings
Camping has always had a bit of a “bare bones” reputation. ‘Real’ camping should be getting close to nature, “roughing it”, and appreciating the few things you have. If you want more people to choose camping, you want to offer more than the bare necessities. You to make it more feasible for those who perhaps prefer a few more creature comforts.
While your die-hard camping enthusiast would be happy with a single-person tent, solid fuel stove and a pan, most people seeking an alternative to a holiday abroad might want a few more frills to make it more of a break than a chore.
What CAN you offer to get more campsite bookings?
Now campsites some in all sizes and can provide everything from bare grass tent pitches to custom chalets. No one expects you to build a pool house or provide luxury chalets if you run a tiny business that can accommodate only 25 tents. However, you can maximise your profits by adding those little extras that can make your client stays so much better than a traditional camping trip.
Look at your Location
How well do you know your surrounding area? Are you on a popular multiday hiking trail? Maybe you are close to environmental, historical or man-made attractions. Perhaps you are near the coast or a lake with water activities. You could be close to a climbing or bouldering range where climbers new and experienced like to visit.
Your location will help you define the extras you can provide and the people you want to attract. By identifying your local attractions, you can find partnerships with other companies, which will help you pin down your most likely target groups to make campsite bookings.
Use Your imagination
Even if your campsite is in the middle of nowhere, there is still the terrain and the local environment that you can use to your advantage. Can you create a “ghostly” night hike through the woods with scary tales and bumps in the night?
If there’s nothing else, perhaps fun and team games in the local countryside, complete with picnic lunches and social connection, would do the trick. Maybe you could also welcome geocachers with some nearby locations.
Bring in the “non-campers”
How could you address some of the issues that some people have with camping? Is it the sleeping and sitting on the floor part? Maybe it’s the set-up and pitching of a tent. Perhaps it’s a lack of comfort. It might even be that they don’t own a tent and don’t want to. From experience, some of the nicest tents I’ve ever owned can take up quite a bit of room in storage.
Camping doesn’t need to be an exercise in deprivation. It could be just as comfortable as a hotel room. Think about the little extras that might encourage non-campers to camp with you. The comfort of a foam mattress on a camp bed, a battery-powered bug killer in their tent, or a mosquito-net canopy (it can double up as a romantic setting for couples, too) are little things that can turn a rabid anti-camper into a sometime-camper.
Welcome families, couples or singles
Who are your most common campers, but who would you like to attract?
Do you have the facilities to accommodate families with small children and help keep them entertained? Maybe you have a range of single-person pitches to welcome the singletons looking for some alone time. Perhaps you cater to the couple market and have nicely separated plots for romantic privacy.
Events, Activities & Special Occasions
Can you accommodate events? How would it be for you to work with some talented local musicians to have a live music night? In the Summer, and specifically when children are on summer break, working with event coordinators and rental companies to make your campsite family-oriented could significantly boost your campsite bookings.
Somebody looking for a place to have a wedding or event reception in the great outdoors? Specific events catering to niche groups could help you fill your campsite at less popular times and extend your profitable season.
If you choose to host a public event on your premises, it needn’t be open only to guests. You will increase your turnover by securing additional campsite bookings, plus entrance fees for event-only visitors.
Partnerships with local attractions
Suppose there are local attractions, such as theme parks, historical landmarks and estates with public access, or even farms and activity centres. In that case, partnering with them could boost your popularity and expand your reach.
Making partnerships exclusive could work well for all parties involved.
Why SimplyBook.me for your campsite bookings?
Virtually everything you want to do to help increase your campsite bookings and reach a whole new range of potential clients, you can do with SimplyBook.me.
From single-night stays to multi-night package bookings, bare necessity tent pitching to luxury ‘glamping’ (camping but with more glamour), you can do it with the SimplyBook.me system.
Want to sell or rent additional service extras? You can do that too. Maybe you want to add an event attendance to a camping package, a hiking tour, or a ghost walk through the spooky forest. You can list them as additional extras for campsite bookings at a reduced price. However, you can also offer them as stand-alone events for those with homes nearby. Perhaps you want to provide portable camp beds and comfortable mattresses for an extra charge. you can do it.
With SimplyBook.me, you can choose to use as many or as few features as your campsite needs. You might want a relatively hands-off approach. You could provide access to scanned access conveniences with a QRcode provided in your confirmation email. Or perhaps simply providing access keys to number-coded doors.
Alternatively, you might want to be more hands-on by approving bookings manually and assigning spaces according to privacy and capacity.
If you expect campers or caravans when your customers arrive, request a license plate before they come. The same is also applicable for other details you might need. Create brief intake forms requesting information on the booking, such as:
- number of people in the group,
- size of tent/caravan,
- any additional requirements such as accessible toilets and shower facilities.
Your campsite bookings should increase significantly when you start adding booking channels to social media (FB & Insta) and Google.
BTW: You could also get some help setting up to make things EVEN easier.