Pooled pitches and named pitches
Ten identical grass pitches where any tent will do, or fifteen named pitches where the guest wants pitch 7 because it is nearest the tap. These are two different ways to run a site and they need two different kinds of booking system. PitchDesk does both.
Pooled: you count spaces
You tell PitchDesk you have ten grass pitches. Every night it counts how many of the ten are already taken and offers what is left. Nobody is assigned to a particular patch of grass when they book, and you put the caravan with the awning at the far end on the morning they arrive because you can see the field and the software cannot.
This is how most touring fields and most CLs actually work.
Named: the guest picks the pitch
You list every pitch by name. Pitch 1 to pitch 15, or Willow, Oak and Rowan for the pods. A booking holds one particular pitch for its nights, and nobody else can be on it.
You choose whether the camper picks the pitch or you allocate it after they book. When they pick, they see the pitch names and your notes about each one, so the family that wants to be near the toilet block and away from the road can put themselves there.
Which one to choose
| If this is true | Use |
|---|---|
| Your pitches are a mown field and any spot will do | Pooled |
| You move people around on the day to fit the awnings in | Pooled |
| You are a CL with five vans and a level bit of paddock | Pooled |
| Some pitches have electric and some do not | Either, with a pitch type for each |
| Pitch 3 is the only one a 25 foot van fits on | Named |
| Guests ring up asking for the same pitch as last year | Named |
| You have pods, huts or safari tents with their own names | Named |
| One pitch has the sea view and you charge more for it | Named, as its own type |
The mistake to avoid
Naming every pitch when you do not need to costs you bookings. The next section shows exactly how.
Why naming every pitch can lose you a booking
A worked example on a four pitch field, because it is easier to see small. The same thing happens on forty.
What is already booked
| Pitch | Friday | Saturday |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch 1 | Taken | Free |
| Pitch 2 | Taken | Free |
| Pitch 3 | Free | Taken |
| Pitch 4 | Free | Taken |
A family asks for Friday and Saturday
With named pitches, the booking has to hold one pitch for both nights. There is no such pitch. Pitch 1 and 2 are gone on Friday, pitch 3 and 4 are gone on Saturday. The form says no and the family books somewhere else.
With pooled pitches, the software asks a different question: is there a free space on Friday, and is there a free space on Saturday? There is. The booking is taken, and on Saturday morning you ask the family to move ten yards to pitch 1, which takes two minutes and is a thing every campsite in the country already does.
On a busy bank holiday this is the difference between a full field and a field with holes in it that nobody could book.
If you must have named pitches, this is the trade you are making, and it is worth making when the pitches are genuinely different from each other.
Pitch types come first, either way
Before pitches, you set up types: grass tent pitch, hardstanding with electric, shepherd's hut. A type carries the price, the size limits, the maximum party, the minimum stay and which days a stay may start on.
Pooled sites give a type a quantity. Ten grass pitches means the type has ten. Named sites list the pitches inside the type, and the count comes from the list.
Either way the camper sees types, prices and photographs, and never sees your internal arrangement unless you want them to.
Closing a pitch for a while
A closure takes a pitch, a type or the whole site out of the calendar for a date range. The septic tank is being emptied, the top field is waterlogged, your daughter is having a wedding on the paddock in July. Pooled sites can close part of a pool, so nine of the ten stay bookable.
Things both modes handle
- Minimum nights, per type and per season
- Arrival day rules, so a Saturday-only week stays Saturday-only
- A changeover gap, so a pod can be cleaned between guests
- Booking cut-off hours, so nobody books at 11pm for tonight
- Maximum party size, adults, children and dogs
- Maximum unit length, for the pitches a big van will not fit
- Closures, for the days you are not taking anyone
Questions
Can I change my mind later?
Can I have named pitches but allocate them myself?
What about a site with a mix?
Do guests see the pitch names?
Does a named pitch get held while someone pays?
Set your field up the way it actually works
Thirty days free with no card. Put your real pitches in, try both arrangements, and keep the one that fits.
£7.99 a month
£95.88 a year. Any number of pitches. No commission on anything you take.
No card to start. Cancel from your own settings page.