PitchDesk

The booking form your guests use

It sits on your own website, shows what is free for the nights a guest asks about, takes the payment and sends the confirmation. Put it on a page as a button or as the whole form, or skip the website altogether and share the link to your booking page.

What the guest does

  1. Picks the nights

    A calendar showing which nights still have space. Nights that are full, outside your season, or shorter than your minimum stay cannot be selected, so nobody gets to the end and finds out they were never allowed to book.

  2. Says who is coming

    Adults, children, infants, dogs and vehicles. If your pitch takes six and they ask for eight, they are told there and then.

  3. Chooses a pitch type

    Each type with its own description, photograph and the real price for those nights, including your seasonal and weekend rates. If you allocate named pitches, they pick the one they want here.

  4. Adds the extras

    Electric hookup, firewood, an extra car, a gazebo. Priced per night, per stay or per person, whichever way you charge for it.

  5. Reads your terms and pays

    Your cancellation policy and your site rules, on the page, with a tick box. Then the card payment, on Stripe, into your account: the full amount, or a deposit with the rest paid on arrival, as you choose.

The pitch is held for 20 minutes while they are paying, then released if they do not finish. Nobody else can book the same pitch during that time and no pitch is quietly lost to an abandoned basket.

What it shows when there is nothing free

It says so for those nights and gives the reason next to each pitch. One press takes them back to the calendar for other dates. An empty calendar with no explanation is how a booking form loses a guest to the next site on the list.

What it shows when a card is declined

The reason Stripe gave, in words, and the chance to try another card while the pitch is still held. The booking is not confirmed and your calendar does not fill up with unpaid holds.

What it shows while it is thinking

Prices and availability come live from your calendar, so there is a moment of waiting. The form dims while it checks, and the button that was pressed waits too, so a second tap cannot send the booking twice.

Two ways to put it on your site

Each is one short piece of code, pasted where you want it. Neither needs a plugin or anything installed on your server.

As a button

A button on your page. On most websites it opens the booking form over the page; on Wix, GoDaddy, Square Online and Google Sites it opens your booking page. It suits a home page or a header.

<a href="https://pitchdesk.co.uk/book/your-campsite"
   data-pitchdesk="pk_your_key"
   data-colour="#1c5d43">Check availability</a>
<script src="https://pitchdesk.co.uk/w.js" async></script>

In the page

The calendar and the booking form sit in the page itself and grow to fit as the guest goes through it. Best for a page of its own.

<a href="https://pitchdesk.co.uk/book/your-campsite"
   data-pitchdesk="pk_your_key"
   data-mode="inline">Book your stay online</a>
<script src="https://pitchdesk.co.uk/w.js" async></script>

Each one starts with an ordinary link to your booking page. If a website builder strips the script out, or a plan does not allow code, the link is still there and guests can still book. Your own code, with your key filled in, is in your dashboard the moment you sign up.

No website at all?

Every site gets a booking page of its own at pitchdesk.co.uk/book/your-site. Put that link on your Facebook page, your Google Business Profile and your email signature, and you can take online bookings without owning a website. A five van CL can run its whole season on that page.

How it behaves on your page

It takes the brand colour and the site name you set, and it uses your own pitch descriptions and photographs. It does not restyle the rest of your page and your theme cannot break it, because the form renders inside its own frame.

It is built for a phone first: a single column with large targets and no map or slideshow to download, so it copes with one bar of signal. On a phone the button opens it full screen.

It works with a keyboard and with a screen reader, every field has a label, and errors are attached to the field that caused them.

It sets no advertising cookies and runs no third party trackers. The only outside connection is to Stripe, at the moment the guest pays.

Where it works

  • WordPress, in a Custom HTML block. WordPress.com needs a paid plan with hosting features switched on
  • Wix, in an Embed HTML element
  • Squarespace, in a Code block, on the Core, Plus and Advanced plans
  • GoDaddy, in an HTML section
  • Shopify, in a Custom Liquid section
  • Square Online on Plus or Premium, Weebly, Jimdo Creator and Google Sites
  • Any page you edit by hand
  • Facebook, Instagram and a Google Business Profile, using the link
Where a plan does not allow code, the link in the code still works. Step by step for each website builder.

Questions

Does the guest leave my website?
On most websites, only to pay. Stripe takes the payment on its own secure page in your business name, then sends them straight to their booking confirmation. Wix, GoDaddy, Square Online and Google Sites keep pasted code in a box of their own, so there the button opens your booking page instead; use the whole form on those to keep guests on your page.
What if my website builder will not take code?
Use the link. Every site has its own booking page, and the code itself starts with that link, so if a builder removes the script the guest still gets a working link. The install guide says what each builder allows on each plan.
Can I have more than one site on one account?
Yes. Each site gets its own key, its own pitches and its own booking page, and you paste the relevant key into the relevant website.
What does the guest get afterwards?
A confirmation email in your site name with their reference, the nights, what they paid, what is left to pay and your arrival instructions, plus a link to their own booking page where they can see all of it again.
Will it slow my website down?
The script is small and loads without holding up the rest of your page. With the button, the booking form itself only loads when a guest presses it.

Put it on your site and take a booking through it

Thirty days free with no card. Your booking link and your code are in your dashboard, under Put it on your website, from the moment you sign up.

£7.99 a month

£95.88 a year. Any number of pitches. No commission on anything you take.

Start free for 30 days Read the install guide

No card to start. Cancel from your own settings page.