booking system

SMARTER PARKS, HAPPIER GUESTS

Posted on August 3, 2026

AI IS BECOMING A VALUABLE business tool, supporting everything from booking management to customer service.

Why AI and mobile technology are becoming essential tools for holiday parks, caravan sites, campsites and glamping destinations...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mobile apps are no longer futuristic concepts—they’re becoming essential business tools for holiday parks, caravan parks, camping and glamping sites across the UK. Whether it’s streamlining bookings, improving guest communication, or helping staff work more efficiently, technology is transforming the way parks operate while enhancing the guest experience.

Today’s holidaymakers expect convenience at every stage of their stay. From booking online and checking activity schedules to receiving instant updates during their holiday, digital technology has become part of everyday life.

At the same time, park operators face ongoing challenges including staffing pressures, rising operating costs and increasing customer expectations. AI and smart apps are helping bridge that gap.

Rather than replacing people, the best technology works alongside your team, removing repetitive tasks and allowing staff to focus on delivering outstanding customer service. From reception to maintenance, entertainment to marketing, digital tools are making parks more efficient while creating smoother guest journeys.

AI BEHIND THE SCENES
Many operators assume AI is all about chatbots or robots answering customer enquiries. In reality, some of the biggest benefits happen behind the scenes, improving systems that guests may never even notice but certainly appreciate.

Booking management, payment processing, channel management and automated workflows are all areas where AI is making a significant impact. Faster processes reduce manual administration, minimise errors and improve the overall efficiency of park operations.

AI IS CHANGING THE GAME — THE TRICK IS ADDING VALUE SAFELY
AI Is Changing the Game — The Trick Is Adding Value Safely Artificial intelligence is transforming holiday-park technology at pace, and it is genuinely exciting to watch. But for operators the real question is no longer whether to use AI — it is how to add value safely, with the end customer kept firmly in focus rather than chasing the technology for its own sake.

Some of the biggest gains happen out of sight. At GemaPark, AI already helps us build new features faster and resolve technical support queries more quickly. It also speeds up the way we connect to third-party providers — the behind-the-scenes plumbing that lets a booking system do far more for a park.

Recent additions show what that delivers in practice: Clover terminal payments, so guests can pay online, at reception or out on the park; a deeper Stripe integration that brings better payment terms; and full two-way synchronisation with Pitchup, so availability and bookings stay aligned across channels without double-handling.

Attention is increasingly turning to guest-facing systems, and that is where care matters most. New tools should be evaluated in your own environment, not adopted on trust. The goal is genuine end-to-end process support — not simply routing more tasks back to an already-stretched reception team.

TODAY’S HOLIDAYMAKERS EXPECT instant access to information—mobile apps help parks meet those expectations.

It pays to be honest about what AI can and cannot yet do, and to introduce it only where it removes workload rather than quietly adding to it. Search is changing too. Traditional SEO is giving way to AEO — answer engine optimisation — as AI-driven search returns direct answers rather than lists of links. One common response is to lean on the big online travel agents for visibility.

The catch is that you must play by each platform’s rules and remain exposed to their policy shifts — Google Hotels, for example, requires accommodation to have a roof, so is useful for statics and pods, but not for touring pitches. The sensible hedge is a full-functionality PMS that gives you your own online booking engine alongside broad, flexible integrations.

Data security is another aspect of safety, and reputable providers adopt strong measures to ensure cybersecurity is taken seriously and that guest and payment information stays protected. GemaPark follows security best practice and connects to a wide range of OTAs, including through Wubook, so no single platform’s rule change can strand you.

AI will only do more from here, and it is changing fast. The parks that benefit most will be those that adopt it deliberately, keep the end customer at the centre, and use it where it genuinely helps. That is the approach we are committed to: harnessing AI where it adds real value — safely.

A BRANDED MOBILE APP puts essential park
information, entertainment schedules and local
attractions at guests’ fingertips.

APPS PUT INFORMATION IN EVERY GUEST’S POCKET
While AI often works in the background, guest apps are highly visible and increasingly expected. A well-designed park app acts as a digital concierge, giving visitors instant access to everything they need throughout their stay.

Rather than queuing at reception to ask when the pool opens, where tonight’s entertainment is taking place or what time the restaurant serves breakfast, guests can simply open an app. This not only improves convenience but also significantly reduces repetitive enquiries, freeing staff to spend more time providing personal service.

App My Community helps UK holiday parks deliver a better guest experience while making day-to-day communication easier for park operators. Your fully branded mobile app becomes the central hub for everything your guests need before, during, and after their stay.

Guests can quickly view entertainment schedules, activities, events, opening times, interactive park maps, food and beverage menus, local attractions, and important park information—all from their mobile phone. Instant push notifications allow your team to communicate weather updates, activity changes, emergency information, special offers, and last-minute announcements in seconds.

GEMAPARK IS HARNESSING AI to help holiday parks streamline operations, improve bookings and deliver better guest experiences.

By providing guests with easy access to information, your reception team spends less time answering repetitive questions and more time delivering exceptional customer service. The app also helps guests discover more of what your park has to offer, increasing participation in activities, promoting on-site facilities, and enhancing the overall holiday experience.

Every app is custom-branded with your park’s logo, colours, and content, creating a professional digital experience that reflects your brand. Features can include event calendars, interactive GPS maps, digital forms, maintenance requests, staff resources, in-app purchases, loyalty programmes, QR code integration, and local business promotions.

Whether you operate a single holiday park or manage multiple locations, App My Community provides an easy-to-manage communication platform through an intuitive online administration portal. Updates can be published instantly without requiring guests to download a new version of the app. Today’s holidaymakers expect convenient access to information from their mobile devices.

App My Community helps UK holiday parks meet those expectations while improving guest satisfaction, streamlining operations, and strengthening communication across every stage of the guest journey. From arrival to departure, your guests have everything they need in one convenient place, helping create memorable stays that encourage repeat visits and positive reviews.

ECHNOLOGY CONTINUES TO RESHAPE the holiday park sector, helping businesses work smarter while enhancing customer satisfaction.

LOOKING AHEAD
Technology will continue to evolve rapidly, but the most successful holiday parks won’t necessarily be those with the newest gadgets—they’ll be the ones that adopt technology with a clear purpose. AI and mobile apps are proving their worth by reducing workloads, improving communication and delivering better guest experiences without losing the personal touch that makes holiday parks so popular.

For operators considering their next investment, the focus should remain on practical solutions that improve efficiency while supporting staff and delighting guests. Used thoughtfully, AI and apps are becoming valuable partners in creating smarter operations, happier teams and memorable holidays.

GemaPark
www.gemapark.co.uk

App My Community
www.appmycommunity.com

UNMISSABLE OPPORTUNITIES

Posted on October 26, 2022

UNMISSABLE OPPORTUNITIES

Four shows in one at Birmingham's NEC...

 

FOUR SHOWS IN on, promises to be a crowd pleaser at Birmingham’s NEC.

Combining industry-leading exhibitors with the latest products and services for the holiday park sector, with a healthy splash of networking and discussion opportunities from its inspiring speaker programme, Holiday Park & Resort Innovation returns to Birmingham’s NEC this November 2nd and 3rd Together with Farm Business Innovation, Leisure Food & Beverage and the Family Attraction Expo, Holiday Park & Resort Innovation creates an unmissable opportunity to be inspired and equipped to develop your business in 2022 and beyond.

More than 500 exhibitors will showcase their offerings across the two days of the event. Amongst them is Greenspan Projects, whose team is excited to be back at the event. “This is a show that pushes the boundaries of holiday park and resort innovation,” said Greenspan’s Michaela Rowland. “There are always fascinating exhibitors and special guest speakers which leave us feeling inspired and excited to see what we can deliver next for similar clients.

THE SHOW PRESENTS an unmissable opportunity to be inspired and equipped to develop your business.

EXCITING PROJECTS
“This year, we will be talking about our most exciting projects involving zip coasters and high ropes currently underway in the USA, Canada and the Mediterranean, as well as a world first – adventure golf in an underground cavern, recently launched in partnership with ZipWorld.”

CampManager will also be returning to the event to showcase its cloud-based management and booking system. “We recognise the value and quality of Holiday Park Innovation and have made a dedicated effort across several years to attend the show,” said Thomas Drake. “We are itching to get out of the office and in front of potential and existing customers for a good chat.

With over 16 years’ experience in the industry, we are excited to share our top tips with the UK’s growing community of holiday park and campsite owners.” The keynote theatre programme – sponsored by Maxxton and CampManager – includes Luke Hansford from Hoseasons who will discuss the importance of consumer insights in creating valuable holiday experiences for guests and in helping operators maximise revenue.

 

MORE THAN 500 EXHIBITORS will showcase their offerings across the two days of the event.

 

Sustainability will be the main theme for Michael Holding of Visit Inverness Loch Ness as he explains how the area became the first carbon neutral business improvement district (BID) in the UK. Other confirmed speakers include Jonny Baird of Bluefield Houseboats and Richard Carroll of Landal Green Parks. Andrew Jones, winner of Diversification of the Year in the British Farming Awards, will be talking about his journey from farmer to glampsite owner and what he has learnt along the way.

David and Felicity Brown of Hoe Grange Holidays will discuss how winning awards helped raise their business’s profile. Sheena Corry of The Forge will explore the business opportunities of wild swimming and retreats. Look for full details of the speaker programme are available on the show website Holiday Park & Resort Innovation returns to the NEC Birmingham this November 2nd and 3rd. Tickets are free and available now at www.holidayparkshow.co.uk

HOLIDAY PARK & RESORT Innovation promises an inspiring speaker programme.

YOUR A-Z OF MUST-SEE EXHIBITORS

 

JOINED-UP THINKING

Posted on August 2, 2022

JOINED-UP THINKING

A complete park management and booking system...

Visitors to Folly Farm, Pembrokeshire’s award-winning tourist attraction of 30 years, often commented that you needed two days to do everything on offer. With 100 acres of land to the North of the attraction, the team listened to their visitors and set about creating their own Folly Farm Holiday Park. Offering a wide range of accommodation for the family market to suit all budgets, to date Folly Farm boasts a 43 pitch-touring park, a 20-pitch campsite, four Showman’s Wagons and six fairground themed luxury lodges with hot tubs. A further eight luxury lodges and six safari tents will open soon.

 

 

LOCKDOWN LAUNCH
“We were confident there would be huge interest in our accommodation offering from our strong and loyal customer base but then the pandemic hit and we found ourselves launching our touring park after the first lockdown in July 2020 with just three weeks’ notice,” explains Zoe Wright, Head of Marketing “We achieved a 76 per cent occupancy rate that first August and followed that in August 2021 with 94 per cent.” Ease-of-use was top of the list when Folly Farm was selecting a booking system so the team partnered with the highly recommended GemaPark . GemaPark has exceeded our expectations in terms of a booking system for our touring park and campsite,” confirms Zoe.

“In fact, we also import into GemaPark partner bookings for accommodation we don’t sell directly, because it provides top line booking, arrivals and performance information in a much more user- friendly way than our booking partners’ systems,” she adds. GemaPark is used by many members of the team at Folly Farm. Holiday park wardens use it to generate arrivals reports and to check if customers are returners so they can welcome them back. Office staff confirm all the bookings and chase payments while the marketing team can easily upload or change tariffs and run property performance reports and push any availability. The finance team can easily reconcile payments, run spend-per-head reports and financial forecasts.

EASE OF USE
“Every member of staff finds it easy to use and it’s one of the few software systems we use that the staff don’t moan about,” says Zoe. “Reporting was a key consideration as we’d little to no experience of running accommodation so to be able to easily query occupancy rates, property performance for our different accommodation options and check financial performance has been pivotal to the future development of the holiday park,”

Zoe continues. “CRM was also important as we were building an accommodation audience from scratch. “We would happily recommend GemaPark to anyone looking for a booking solution for their touring site or campsite and the fact they can easily integrate with leading booking partners is a bonus.”

Netguides/GemaPark
T: 01983 282420
W: www.netguides.co.uk
W: www.gemapark.co.uk

No Quick Fix

Posted on September 11, 2018

no quick fixNo Quick Fix

I will start with a confession. Wisper it quietly, but there is no ‘quick fix’ that will instantly fill your holiday park with customers, especially in the quieter months. That magic button for your website – the one that will send bookings through the roof is, well, I’m afraid just a myth…
So, it’s time for a reality check. The only way to ensure your park is best placed to turn those clicks and enquiries into bookings and sales is to have a proper strategy in place. It can be really frustrating to see large volumes of traffic coming to your website but so few of those continuing to book their holidays. Abandoned bookings and poor conversions rates are an obvious sign that all is not well somewhere in the online booking process.

JIGSAW PIECES

Whether you own a large group of holiday parks or you’re just starting out with a few touring pitches, your online booking platform is arguably the most important piece of the jigsaw. You can spend thousands of pounds per month on marketing but, if it’s all let down by a process that inhibits the booking process then you’re wasting all your hard-earned cash. Online booking systems vary greatly from one another - and the most expensive one may not necessarily be the best for your park. You need a system that not only fulfils your requirements from a park management perspective but is, crucially, easy for your customers to navigate and book online.

It is too easy to forget the customer booking journey with parks too often spending more time focusing on the back-office functionality of an online booking system. But these online booking steps are, potentially, far more important than whether the system can produce all your different financial reports. Most systems (but not all) on the market will come with a set of online booking steps that will be the link between your website and booking system. It is crucial that you choose a system that has booking steps that are clear, straightforward and easily navigable for your customers.Why not take the journey yourself, as a customer would (we recommend trying this on a mobile too). If you find yourself getting frustrated then multiply this by the average number of people who visit your website and you’ll soon see why so many people abandon their bookings.

GDPR COMPLIANCE

hate to be the bearer of bad news but complying with GDPR wasn’t just sending out a few re-subscribe emails to your database at the end of May. It’s fair to say that it’s had (and will continue to have) a big impact on the holiday park industry. One thing’s for sure – it’s already had a big impact on the online booking sector, with many changes having been made to systems to comply as best they can with the new regulations. A cornerstone element of GDPR is customer data. Your online booking system is, potentially, storing thousands of customer records, accounts and, in some cases, payment details too.

Do you know for sure where all that customer data is? Is it stored directly on the computer in your office – and is this vulnerable to hackers? Or is the data stored in the cloud? Is it encrypted to the highest level? Are your online booking steps collecting marketing information even from those who don’t complete a booking? If so, what’s being done with all that data? All these are vitally important questions you should ask your current provider or ask yourself before changing to a new system as you will be liable, should the worst happen.If your online booking is the final part of the jigsaw, then getting your customers into that booking process, is the first. How do you attract the right sort of customer to your park to begin with?
Before you commit to spending hundreds or thousands of pounds per month on a Google AdWords PPC campaign or such like you need to ask yourself one fundamental question – who are your customers? How old are they? Where do they live? What interests do they have? What do they spend on an average holiday? Once you have a clear idea of the people you’re targeting then you’re more likely to achieve the desired result. Depending on the sort of customer you’re targeting, your marketing can be grouped into various activities, including your website, email, social media, pay per click (PPC) or printed media. All of this will filter back to the online booking process.

KEY WORDS

A good website that’s well optimised for all the relevant keywords is certainly a good start and will be integral for just about everything you do but it will not, necessarily, be the huge driver of traffic on its own, that it once was. Things are ever-changing in the world of the web and the level of competition has gone from stiff to fierce, especially in popular holiday destinations such as the South West of England.

That being said, there are some key things to consider with your current website to help it work best for you:

• Does it stand out from the crowd? Does it have a ‘wow’ factor?
• Is it quick and easy to use on a mobile device?
• Do the images properly showcase your setting and accommodation range?
• Are your CTAs (calls to action) clear and consistent – ‘book now’ ‘check prices & availability’ ‘call now’

How much do you spend on your marketing and what sort of Return on Investment (ROI) are you getting? Do you know? If the answer to this last question is a resounding ‘no’ then it’s time to take stock of your current activity…and think again. If, for whatever reason, you are not able to apportion revenue against your marketing then you are working with one hand behind your back.

MEASURE SUCCESS

E-commerce tracking really is the cornerstone of measuring a campaign’s success, whether it be a promotional email or a Google AdWords campaign. Without this knowledge it’s almost impossible to know if what you’re doing is right. So many people are obsessed with the volume of clicks and traffic that a campaign sends to their website but this can often be very misleading. Always think – quality over quantity! You’re aiming for ‘qualified’ clicks; those that come from an audience who are in-tune and interested in your product, not those who may have clicked your banner ad by mistake. To this end, your external marketing should follow the same premise. As mentioned, know your audience and aim your marketing at this focused bunch of people, don’t waste your time and money on a scattergun approach because it simply won’t work.

Pitched
Tel. 01726 418118
Pitched.co.uk