A small caravan or holiday park needs four things from software: a pitch-level availability calendar, online bookings with deposits, billing for seasonal pitches and metered utilities, and card payments that reach your account. AI helps with replies and routine checks, not with deciding who gets which pitch.
List prices below were checked on 27 October 2026 and vary hugely: a one-off $795 desktop licence, a fee of $3.50 for each booking, or GBP 25 a month for ten pitches. Which is cheapest depends on how many bookings a year your park takes, so count those first.
Start with the pitch, not the product
Park-software listicles open with feature grids. A better starting point is your own map. List every pitch with its type, its rule and its price, because the software has to model exactly that. A pitch that holds a 7-metre tourer on hard standing with a 16-amp hook-up is a different product from a grass tent pitch, and it sells on different nights at a different rate.
Here is an illustrative small park. It has 24 pitches: 8 grass pitches for tents and small tourers, 10 hard-standing pitches with electric hook-ups, and 6 seasonal pitches let from March to November to the same owners each year. There is a small shop, a toilet block, a warden who works on site and a partner who answers the phone. This is the park used for the examples below.
The pitch register that software will ask for
| Group | Pitches | Rules the software must hold | Rate logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grass, no hook-up | 8 | Tents, small tourers; no vehicles over a set length | Per night; two-night minimum at weekends |
| Hard standing, electric | 10 | Maximum unit length, awning allowance, hook-up included or metered | Per night; peak and shoulder rates; electric add-on |
| Seasonal | 6 | Fixed dates, named owner, insurance and van-age checks, bond | Annual fee in instalments, utilities billed by meter |
If the software cannot hold a rule, the rule ends up in your head or in a note on the office wall, and that is where double bookings begin. Before you look at a single vendor, write the register above for your own park. It takes twenty minutes and makes every demo shorter.
The four jobs and what each needs
1. A pitch-level calendar
The calendar is the heart of it. For a small park that means one row per pitch, one column per night, with blocked dates for maintenance and a rule that stops a pitch being sold twice. Ask a vendor to show you a booking made from your phone and the same pitch disappearing from the website instantly. If two people book the same Friday at the same minute, which one wins?
Some guests choose a numbered pitch from a map, others only pick a type and you allocate on arrival. Decide which you offer. Allocation on arrival is easier for you and impossible to explain to a guest who read "Pitch 4, riverside" in a review, so offer pitch choice only where it truly differs.
2. Online bookings and deposits
Guests book at night. A park that only takes phone calls loses the ones who search at 10pm, decide, and book somewhere that answers. A booking page needs rules: minimum stay, check-in time, unit size limits, a deposit and a cancellation policy that appears before the guest pays. The deposit and the balance should arrive in your own account through a payment provider; check whether the vendor keeps a commission on top of card fees.
3. Seasonal pitches and recurring billing
Seasonal pitches need billing that tourist-booking tools often lack: an annual fee split into instalments, a bond held and released, and renewals that roll over with the same owner. Many small parks keep this in a spreadsheet for years because the booking tool cannot do it. That is a reasonable choice if you have six seasonal pitches, but not at thirty.
4. Utilities and meter readings
On a seasonal pitch, electricity is often metered and billed by reading. The software needs a place for the previous reading, the new reading and the rate, and a bill that adds the total to the instalment. If a vendor's page does not mention meters, ask. Firefly's page lists a smart-meter integration as a $25 a month add-on, which is worth pricing in if you bill electricity. The Campsite Booking System page, for example, lists add-ons such as hook-ups but does not list meter readings, and Campground Master's home page does not mention them either; both may offer them in another form, so ask for a demo that shows the screen.
What the vendors list, checked 27 October 2026
These are the prices on vendor pages, not recommendations. Each suits a different park, and one product that every listicle repeats is missing here because it does not publish a price.
| Product | List price | Model | What the page says it covers | What to ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campground Master | $795 one-time (USD) | Standalone desktop licence; 30-day free trial; no monthly fee or fee per reservation | Reservations for any rentable space, custom transaction types and payment types | Support and update renewal cost; remote access add-on price; seasonal and meter billing |
| Firefly Reservations | $3.50 for each unit in a new booking; $3.50 a month for each long-term reservation | No setup fees or contracts; the page lists no monthly base fee; a free trial (length not stated) | Live availability, a site map, add-ons, a point-of-sale register, automatic monthly charges for long stays | The base fee, text-message rates, and who pays booking fees; the page lists add-ons for smart-meter ($25 a month) and gate ($15 a month) integrations |
| Campsite Booking System | GBP 25 a month or GBP 250 a year for up to 10 pitches; extra pitches GBP 25 a year each; free for one pitch | No commission; card payments go to your own account; prices shown in pounds (GBP) only | Availability calendar, seasonal pricing, add-ons, seasonal pitches, check-in view, calendar sync | Meter readings, card-processing fees, setup help |
| RMS | Not published | Quote after a demo | Booking engine and maps; a case study describes AI call handling at one park | Price for a park your size and a minimum contract term |
Two other names turn up in guides but were not verifiable on their own pages this week: Anytime Booking's site did not publish a price on its home page, and CampManager's site did not load when I tried. I have left them out rather than repeat a third party's figure. Check them directly.
Comparing the yearly cost for the 24-pitch park
Say the park takes 600 bookings a year (each one pitch) across the 18 touring pitches, plus the 6 seasonal owners. All figures are illustrative sums on the list prices above.
- Campground Master: $795 once. Over five years that is $159 a year before any support renewal, which the home page does not price.
- Firefly Reservations: 600 bookings at $3.50 is $2,100 a year if you absorb the fee, plus $3.50 a month for each seasonal pitch counted as a long-term reservation, about $252 a year for six over twelve months. If you pass the fee to guests, your cost falls but the booking total rises by the same amount.
- Campsite Booking System: the annual plan covers 10 pitches at GBP 250; the other 14 pitches add GBP 350, so GBP 600 a year, plus whatever your payment provider charges.
The honest conclusion is that the cheapest software depends on volume. At 100 bookings a year, Firefly's per-booking model costs $350; at 600 it costs $2,100. A flat licence or per-pitch subscription wins as your park gets busier, and per-booking wins if you are tiny or seasonal.
Three payment set-ups, compared
Payments is where a small park loses the most time. There are three common arrangements, and the software choice should follow from the one you pick.
- Deposit online, balance on arrival. A 25 per cent deposit is taken when the guest books; the balance is paid at check-in by card. This keeps no-shows low and the booking page simple. The software must show what each guest has paid.
- Full payment online. Easier for the warden but harder for guests who want to change dates. You need a clear change and cancellation rule on the booking page.
- Instalments for seasonal pitches. The annual fee is taken as, say, three payments by direct debit or card. This needs recurring billing, and it is the one most booking tools handle least well.
Whatever you choose, check where the money lands. Some software processes payments through a third party that deducts fees and pays you later; others connect to a payment account you already own. For a small park, same-day access to deposits matters in March, when you are buying gas and repainting signs.
Where AI genuinely helps a small park
None of the software above needs AI to run a park. AI earns a place in a few repeated tasks around the calendar, where the work is words, not availability.
Replying to enquiries and messages
Most small parks answer the same dozen questions: do you take dogs, how long can a tourer be, is there a late arrival slot, can I bring a second car, what is the cancellation rule? Paste your rules into an assistant, add the guest's message and ask for a draft reply that you review. A sample prompt and an illustrative output:
You write replies for a 24-pitch family caravan park. Use only these rules:
- Dogs welcome on all pitches, on a lead, two per pitch, free of charge.
- Hard-standing electric pitches take units up to 8.5 metres including the A-frame.
- Check-in 14:00 to 19:00; later arrivals by phone call before 17:00.
- Deposit 25 per cent; balance on arrival. Free cancellation up to 14 days before.
If the answer is not in the rules, say you will check and reply today.
Guest message: "Hi, we have a 9m tourer and two dogs, arriving around 8pm on Friday. Is that OK?"A good draft says the 9 metre unit does not fit the electric hard standing, offers the grass pitches only if the park's rule allows it (the prompt does not say, so the draft should say "I will check"), accepts the dogs, and asks the guest to ring before 17:00 about the late arrival. What you fix: invented exceptions. If the draft offers a pitch for a 9 metre unit, delete it, because the model improvised.
Reading a booking request that arrives as a messy email
Guests send "Looking for the 3rd to 7th of August, 2 adults, 2 kids, awning, electric". An assistant can turn that into a structured note: arrival, departure, party size, unit type, extras requested. You then enter the booking or send the booking link. This saves two minutes an email, which adds up to hours at the start of the season.
Spotting odd meter readings
On seasonal pitches, ask an assistant to compare this month's reading with the last six months. Illustrative: pitch 22 averages 480 units a month; this month's reading is 41,820 to 42,310, which is 490 units, and normal. Pitch 23 averages 210 and shows 1,260. That is not a bill; it is a question for the warden, because it could be a mistyped digit, a swapped meter or a fault. Give AI the numbers only, never the owners' names, and verify any figure it flags by walking to the meter.
Answering the phone
RMS's own site describes a park case study where an AI assistant resolved 55 per cent of calls. That is a vendor claim about one park, so treat it as a prompt to test rather than a promise. For a park with a warden who is also the cleaner, a voice assistant that answers "are you open?" and takes a callback request can save the summer evenings. See how campsites and glamping sites use AI to answer guests for the message side of the same idea.
Emails around the stay
Pre-arrival emails with directions, gate codes and quiet hours, and a post-stay thank-you with a review request, can be drafted once and sent by whatever email tool you already have. The method is in how to automate pre-arrival and post-stay emails with AI.
One seasonal pitch, billed by hand and then by software
Seasonal billing is the job most small parks still do on paper, so here is one pitch followed through a year. The numbers are illustrative. The owner pays a $3,600 annual pitch fee, split into three instalments of $1,200 due 1 March, 1 June and 1 September, plus a $250 bond held until the end of the season. Electricity is metered at a flat rate per unit.
By hand, the warden writes the three due dates in a diary, reads the meter on the last day of each month, works out the units on a calculator and hands over a printed note. In a year with six seasonal pitches that is 18 instalment reminders and about 54 meter bills, and the one that goes missing is always the one the owner queries in October.
With software that supports it, each instalment is created at the start of the season and charged on its date, a failed card triggers a reminder, and each meter entry produces a bill: new reading 42,310 minus old reading 41,820 is 490 units, multiplied by the unit rate. What to check in a demo is whether the bond, the instalment schedule and the meter bill live on one record per pitch, because if they live in three places you are back to a diary. If the software cannot do it, keep a spreadsheet for these six pitches and use the software for touring bookings only. That is a sound split, not a failure.
A mistake worth avoiding: letting AI answer availability
A chatbot on a park website that is not connected to the calendar will happily say "yes, Saturday is free". It has no way of knowing. One realistic failure: the bot confirms a hard-standing pitch for a bank holiday weekend that was already sold on the phone, the guest arrives, and the warden finds a family in a car park. The fix is simple. The assistant either reads the live calendar through the booking software, or it never states availability and sends the guest to the booking page.
Ask every vendor with an AI feature three questions: what does the assistant read, what can it change, and what happens when it is wrong? If it can change bookings, ask for a log of every change. If it only drafts, ask where drafts wait for approval.
A short scoring sheet for a demo
Score each product 0 to 2 on each line while the vendor shares a screen. A total under 10 out of 16 suggests it will not fit your park.
- Holds each pitch separately with its own length, hook-up and price.
- Stops a pitch being sold twice, including from a marketplace or the phone.
- Takes a deposit and shows the balance owed.
- Handles seasonal pitch instalments and a bond.
- Records meter readings and bills the difference.
- Lets the warden see arrivals and departures on a phone.
- Exports guest data and lets you delete a guest.
- States a full price for your volume in writing, including card fees.
Bring your pitch register and one hard week from last summer to every demo. Ask the vendor to enter it live. A product that struggles with your week in a demo will struggle in August.
Which route suits which park
- Under 12 pitches, mostly touring, few online bookings: a free or low-cost calendar, with AI drafting replies. Do not buy a full management system.
- 20 to 40 pitches with a handful of seasonal owners: a pitch calendar with deposits, and a spreadsheet for seasonal billing until it hurts.
- Over 50 pitches, a shop and a bar: ask for quotes from the full management vendors and compare them against the cost of a part-time administrator.
- Several parks: choose software that reports across sites before you add the second one.
Once the calendar is settled, the next job is filling the quiet weeks; caravan park marketing with AI for shoulder-season pitches covers that. If you also let rooms, the question of whether you need a channel manager gets its own answer in channel manager for a bed and breakfast: do you need one?, which applies to a park with cabins as well. And to judge any vendor's AI claim with a checklist, read AI booking systems for appointment businesses: what to check.
Small park software questions
Can a small park manage with a spreadsheet?
Up to about a dozen pitches with few online bookings, yes. A spreadsheet fails when guests expect to book online at night, when the same pitch is sold twice, or when seasonal fees and meter readings multiply. If double bookings happen even once a season, move to a pitch calendar.
Does AI make the booking itself?
It should not decide availability. The calendar knows which pitches are free; AI drafts the reply, reads the enquiry, or answers questions from your site rules. Let a booking engine take the reservation and take the deposit, then let AI handle the words around it.
What about commission?
Marketplace listings usually take a commission on each booking. Software that runs on your own website generally charges a subscription or a fee per booking instead. Compare the yearly total at your volume, including card processing fees, before choosing.
Do I need a channel manager?
Only if you list pitches on several marketplaces at once and a double booking is a real risk. One marketplace plus your own website can often be handled by calendar sync. Test the sync before you trust it in July.
Is cloud software safe for guest data?
Guest names, phone numbers and vehicle registrations are personal data. Check where the vendor stores it, who can export it and how you delete a guest on request. Ask a data-protection adviser if you are unsure; do not paste guest lists into a public chatbot.
Further reads
- Hotel AI Guest Messaging Tools Compared for Independent Properties — Guest messaging tools compared for small properties.
- Free Hostel Management Software: What You Give Up — Free hostel software works for one room and little else. Here is what the free plans leave out and the signs it is time to pay.
- RV Campground Software Compared: Reservations, Payments and AI Help — Five campground systems compared on reservations, payments, messaging and AI, with published prices, a fee sum for a 60-site park and a demo script.
- AI Receptionist for a Campground: After-Hours Calls, No Night Warden — Price after-hours phone cover for a campground at $49 to $150 a month and see which calls must still reach a person.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: vendor pages for Campground Master, Firefly Reservations, Campsite Booking System and RMS, checked 27 October 2026. Prices are list prices and change.