The week before half term
Your football and multi-sport camps run every school holiday at two venues. Parents book in every way they can think of. A WhatsApp message to the owner: can Jack do Tuesday and Thursday? An email with three children's names and no ages. A bank transfer with the reference Camp. A parent who paid through the government childcare scheme and wants to know if it arrived. A text from someone who booked the wrong week.
The owner, who is also the head coach, keeps a spreadsheet of who is coming on which day. Every evening they reconcile messages, payments and places. The camp at one venue is full on Wednesday but nobody told the parent who asked on Monday. On the first morning, a child turns up who is not on the list, and the parent has a screenshot of a message saying yes.
Why camp bookings get tangled
- Parents book individual days, not whole weeks, so every child has a different pattern.
- Bookings arrive through whatever channel the parent already uses to contact you.
- Payments come by card, bank transfer, cash and childcare scheme payments, each reconciled separately.
- Capacity depends on the venue and the coach ratio for each age group, and changes if a coach drops out.
- Changes and cancellations are handled by message, and the spreadsheet is updated later.
What the chaos costs
Holiday camps are often the busiest and most profitable weeks of your year, and you spend the run-up doing admin at midnight. Places go unsold because the spreadsheet says full when it is not, or oversold because it says there is room. Payments go unmatched and have to be chased awkwardly with parents you want to keep.
Parents notice. A parent who got a confused reply, or whose child was not on the list, books with the camp down the road next holiday.
One booking flow for every camp
What we build is either a set-up of a booking system that fits your camps, or a booking flow of our own where your needs are unusual. Either way the parts are the same.
- Each camp is set up with its venue, dates, age groups, daily times, extended day options and capacity per group, which you can change if staffing changes.
- Parents book online: choose venue, choose days on a calendar, add siblings, add early drop-off or late pick-up, and see the price including any discounts you set.
- Places are held while the parent pays by card through Stripe or your payment provider; parents paying by childcare scheme or voucher get a reference and the booking is marked pending until the payment is matched.
- Capacity updates the moment a booking is made, so a full day shows as full and parents can join a waiting list for it.
- Confirmations, a what-to-bring email and a reminder the day before go automatically.
- Changes and cancellations follow your policy online, so parents do not need to message you for routine ones.
| Payment route | How it is matched | When the place is confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| Card | Automatically at checkout | Straight away |
| Childcare scheme payment | Reference matched to incoming payment | When the payment arrives, or by your rule |
| Employer childcare vouchers | Reference matched by your team | When matched |
| Bank transfer | Reference matched from bank feed | When matched |
If you already use a class booking system, we check first whether it can be set up to do this before building anything.
Half term, run properly
Bookings open, and parents book on their phones in the evening. You wake up to a list of confirmed bookings and a handful of pending childcare scheme payments. Wednesday at the main venue fills, and the waiting list starts. When a coach becomes available and you raise capacity, the first parents on the waiting list are offered the place.
On the morning of the camp, the register for each age group and venue is ready, and every child on it has paid or is marked with what is outstanding.
Does your camp booking look like this?
- Parents book camps by text, WhatsApp and email.
- You match payments to bookings by hand in the evenings.
- Days are oversold or show full when they are not.
- Childcare scheme payments are hard to match to children.
- Children arrive who are not on the list.