Campsite, holiday park, and glamping site operations have different software requirements from holiday cottages and apartments. They need pitch types and site maps. They need meters for the electric hook-ups. They need a price for each season. They must hold touring pitches, static caravans and glamping pods together. They must also connect to listing sites such as Pitchup and Hipcamp. Standard holiday let software does not cover these. The UK campsite software market is smaller and more specialised, with fewer options and less transparent pricing.
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A campsite is not a hotel, and it is not a holiday cottage portfolio. The booking model is fundamentally different. You manage a grid of real spaces. Pitches, pods, static caravans and tent areas. They differ in size, and in whether they have a hook-up. They differ in how near the facilities are, in whether dogs are allowed, and in the view. Pricing varies by pitch type, season, day of week, and sometimes by the number of occupants or vehicles.
At minimum, campsite booking software needs to handle:
CampManager (campmanager.com) is a UK-based cloud system for caravan parks, campsites, and holiday parks. The platform manages your bookings. It also takes bookings on your own website, with no commission. It suits a small site with 15 pitches and one rental unit. It also suits a group of parks with more than 1,000 private owners.
Pricing is not publicly listed. CampManager uses custom quotes based on the size and requirements of the site. You therefore cannot budget without a sales call. The price should then match what you need. You do not pay for parts built for a different kind of site.
CampManager's strength is its focus on the UK outdoor hospitality market. It is designed for UK campsites and caravan parks specifically, rather than being a generic holiday rental tool adapted for camping. The commission-free online booking system means every direct booking avoids Pitchup's 15% cut.
ParcVu (parcvu.com) has been serving UK holiday parks for over 35 years. It is one of the most established names in the market, covering parks from 50 pitches to 20,000+ pitch resort operations. ParcVu has joined Booking Experts, a Dutch park management platform. Together they cover the PMS, the website, the booking tools, the owner records and the sale of holiday homes.
Pricing is custom and not publicly available. Given the platform's target market (established holiday parks and resorts), costs are likely higher than smaller tools like GlampManager, but the feature depth matches.
ParcVu's integration with Booking Experts gives it access to a wider ecosystem of channel connections and booking tools than a standalone UK platform. For larger parks that sell and manage private holiday home ownership alongside letting, ParcVu's owner management module is a differentiator that most competitors lack.
Anytime Booking (anytimebooking.co.uk) is a UK-based provider of booking and management software for campsites, glamping sites, motorhome hire, and holiday parks. The company positions itself as flexible and fully supported, with pricing that depends on site infrastructure, support requirements, and number of units.
Like CampManager and ParcVu, Anytime Booking does not publish pricing publicly. Their prices bend to fit, so the cost should match what your site needs. You still need a sales call to learn what you will pay.
Anytime Booking covers both campsites and glamping operations, which is useful for sites that mix traditional camping pitches with glamping pods or other accommodation. The UK focus means support operates in UK time zones and the team understands UK campsite operations specifically.
GlampManager (glampmanager.com) is purpose-built for glamping sites and has the most transparent pricing in this market. Three tiers are available:
For a 10-unit glamping site on the Professional plan, the monthly cost is £45 (£25 base + £20 for 10 units). That is £540/year, which is reasonable for a dedicated booking and management system. Its channel management uses iCal. That is simpler than a full API, so the platforms may take longer to agree. An iCal feed usually updates every 15 to 30 minutes, and not at once.
Pitchup (pitchup.com) is a marketplace, not a management system. It is the UK's largest campsite booking platform with over 3 million users. Listing is free. Pitchup takes a 15% commission on bookings (12.5% net if you are VAT registered in the UK). The commission is taken as a deposit at the time of booking, so you cannot take a separate deposit from the guest.
Pitchup is a marketing channel, not a replacement for booking management software. It drives bookings to your site (which is valuable, especially for new or smaller sites building visibility), but it does not manage your operation. You still need a booking system to handle direct bookings, manage pitches, track arrivals and departures, and handle extras and payments.
The 15% commission is substantial. On a £200 three-night booking, Pitchup takes £30. If Pitchup drives 30% of your bookings and your annual revenue is £100,000, the commission cost is £4,500 per year. A direct booking system that can capture even half of those bookings saves you £2,250 annually.
Hipcamp (hipcamp.com) is a similar marketplace to Pitchup, originally from the US and now active in the UK. Free to list. Commission is 12.5% + VAT on bookings, plus a Stripe processing fee of 1.4% + 20p per transaction. Qualifying hosts receive up to $1 million in liability insurance.
Hipcamp's audience skews towards unique outdoor experiences (wild camping, farm stays, woodland sites) rather than traditional caravan parks. If your site offers something distinctive, Hipcamp's customer base may be a good match. For standard touring pitches, Pitchup's larger UK audience will likely drive more bookings.
| Platform | Type | Pricing | Site map | Channel sync | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CampManager | PMS + booking | Custom quote | Yes | Yes | UK campsites, 15-1,000+ pitches |
| ParcVu | PMS + booking + owner mgmt | Custom quote | Yes | Yes (via Booking Experts) | Large holiday parks, 50-20,000+ pitches |
| Anytime Booking | PMS + booking | Custom quote | Yes | Yes | UK campsites + glamping, flexible sizing |
| GlampManager | PMS + booking | From £20/mo + £2/unit | Limited | iCal-based | Glamping sites, 5-30 units |
| Pitchup | Marketplace only | 15% commission | No | N/A (listing only) | Marketing channel for all site types |
| Hipcamp | Marketplace only | 12.5% + VAT commission | No | N/A (listing only) | Unique outdoor stays, wild camping |
The dedicated campsite software market is small, and it shows. There are real operational requirements that none of the current options handle comprehensively:
If you list on Pitchup and Hipcamp alongside your direct bookings, the marketplace commissions become a significant cost over time. Consider a 40-pitch campsite generating £150,000 in annual revenue:
Over five years, that is £56,250 in marketplace fees alone, not counting the cost of your booking management software. A direct booking system that shifts even 20% of marketplace bookings to direct bookings saves £11,250 over that period.
The marketplaces are valuable for discovery (new customers finding your site), but the economics favour building your direct booking capability as strongly as possible.
The double entry above is worth taking apart, because it is the reason a channel manager exists at all.
Pitchup holds a booking in its form. Hipcamp holds one in another. Your system holds a third. None of them can point at the same pitch on the same night. The only bridge is a feed that copies, and copies go out of step. That is why an iCal feed that lags 30 minutes can sell the same pitch twice.
On a shared foundation, a pitch, a night and a booking are declared once, with permanent identifiers. Two systems that hold the same booking hold the same identifier, so there is nothing to copy and nothing to reconcile. A marketplace becomes a place that finds you guests, and not a system that owns your calendar.
We explain that market in what does an interoperable software market look like. We show how a whole sector builds on one foundation in bespoke software for a whole sector.
Three of the six options listed above do not publish pricing and require a sales conversation. The one with transparent pricing (GlampManager) is limited to glamping sites. The two marketplaces are marketing channels, not management systems. This is a market where the off-the-shelf options are either opaque, limited, or both.
A system built around your own site gives you six things. Pitch management that matches your real layout. Prices that follow your exact seasons. Direct booking, so you pay no commission on your own visitors. Meters for the electric hook-ups, if you need them. A link to Pitchup and Hipcamp, so nobody types a booking twice. Reports that show what you need to see.
For a 40-pitch campsite spending £500/month on software and commissions, the five-year cost is £30,000. A bespoke system at £20,000-30,000 pays for itself within three to five years and eliminates the per-booking commission on direct bookings permanently.
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