Real life examples of glampsite reservation and marketing services
Company Name: Cool Camping
Telephone: 020 782 09333
Website: coolcamping.com
Glampsite: Amber’s Bell Tent Camping
Description: Boutique bell tent glamping at two sites near the North Norfolk coast
Number of units: 16 units across two locations
Details
Having consulted with the Cool Camping team about positioning and pricing, Amber Wykes opened her first glamping site at Mannington Hall, Norfolk. It launched with a high-profile feature listing on coolcamping.com including a detailed and colourful review, alongside practical information, images and visitor feedback.
Amber also used the integrated booking system Bedful to take commission-free online bookings on her own website, and to automate many of the related admin tasks such as taking balance payments and sending pre-arrival emails. Bedful is the only booking system that integrates automatically with Cool Camping, Airbnb and Glampingly for maximum exposure across the three main glamping bookings channels in the UK.
Along with promotion through Cool Camping’s social media channels (the largest camping and glamping social media audience in the UK), the glampsite featured in Cool Camping’s best-selling guidebook Glamping Getaways and was promoted, the following year, in articles written for The Times and Hero & Leander Magazine. That year, Amber also opened a second site. Cool Camping promoted this in an article with the The Daily Telegraph, broadcast the opening in an e-newsletter to over 100,000 subscribers and, in 2018, the glampsite will also feature in the new Cool Camping: Coast guidebook.
Feedback:
Amber Wykes, owner, said: “Cool Camping’s brand endorsement validated what we were trying to achieve in the early days and now my humble little campsites are part of the bigger Cool Camping family. Our operations grew quickly and the logistics of running things on my own were getting out of hand. Trialling the new Bedful booking system enabled the growth of my business as things moved quickly away from the fragility of the home-grown, to an organised, strong, viable market contender.”
Company Name: Quality Unearthed
Telephone: 01348 830922
Website: www.qualityunearthed.co.uk
Name of glampsite: Pip’s Place, Gower
Description of glampsite: Beach cabin a stone’s throw from the famous Three Cliffs Bay on the gorgeous Gower Peninsula in South Wales
Number of units: There’s only one Pip’s Place!
Details
This vivid creation is the achievement of owner Pippa, an artist specialising in ceramics, who runs workshops from her garden. Pippa approached Quality Unearthed in 2017, as her fantastic holiday location was ready for the market but she was too busy with her art to strategise her marketing and manage her own bookings.
A lot of energy, love and creativity made Pip’s Place the perfect glamping structure, and Quality Unearthed’s extensive glamping audience absolutely fell in love with it – it received more views on Facebook than any other Quality Unearthed property, and the bookings began to follow suit. Pippa only rents the cabin for six months of the year, so a marketing strategy was composed so that even when the cabin is out of season the advertising is geared towards the weeks that it is open. Pippa receives a full calendar by the time she’s ready to open, and her bookings and payments are all dealt with. This means she can get on with her creative lifestyle, even baking cakes ready for her guests, while our sales team deal with bookings and enquiries seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
Feedback
Pippa said: “The team at QU is wonderfully friendly and efficient. Since being on their books, the bookings have come in thick and fast, and the guests are lovely. The PR that has been attached to Pip’s Place is second to none, with my cabin being featured in Lonely Planet Magazine – I was delighted! Quality Unearthed definitely know how to catch an audience and convert those viewing my property into considerate paying guests.”
Company Name: Bookalet.co.uk
Telephone: 01234834716
Website: www.bookalet.co.uk
Name of glampsite: Oxney Organic Estate
Description of glampsite: Oxney Organic Estate is an award winning vineyard with holiday cottages and shepherd huts
Number of units: Five
Details
Bookalet has worked with Oxney Organic Estate since 2013 when the vineyard and farm launched its three converted barns as holiday cottages. The estate is now adding two shepherd huts located in the vineyard to the portfolio. In total the barns and huts sleep 20.
The Bookalet platform is integrated into the Oxney website (www.oxneyestate.com) and the barns and shepherd’s huts are marketed through a few travel platforms as well as through the estate’s own marketing and PR programme. The Bookalet system enables the estate to keep one master calendar and also take bookings directly through its own website.
Feedback:
Owner, Kristin Syltevik, said: “The Bookalet platform is very sophisticated with a number of advanced features but is also very easy to use. Not only have we found it a brilliant tool but we have also had a number of good reports and positive comments from travellers booking through the Bookalet software.”
