Frequently Asked Questions

Holiday parks and campsites get listed on Pitchup.com in a few different ways:

- A user familiar with your site may have alerted us to its existence
- We may have heard about your campsite/park from a third party, such as a tourist board
- Our editors may have come across a reference to your campsite/park in an article, guidebook, brochure or website

Because we want to be a comprehensive source of campsite information for our users and we accept reviews for all holiday parks and campsites that are listed on our site, we will not remove a listing at the management's request. If you'd like to remove your listing because your site is permanently closed contact us.

We’re very happy to answer any other questions or comments – please use our contact form. You can also send us problems with the site or ideas for how to improve via our feedback form.

Pitchup.com gives your site immediate access to up to 180,000 daily visitors looking for a site matching their exact criteria, and the chance to capitalise on our national media coverage. We can help you with shoulder season, mid-week breaks, special offers and main season - providing a similar service to LateRooms or lastminute.com in the hotels market. We can refer customers to you who are unlikely to have come across your holiday park or campsite otherwise and we've got the testimonials to prove it.

Research into online travel has shown that one-third of online customers now book via a ‘one-stop shop’, rather than via suppliers’ websites (source: PhoCusWright), a very large market to tap into for extra bookings. Contacting a list of individual sites about availability can take days and many users won’t wait, especially at the last minute. Our users want to search and book multiple sites in one place and it is these additional customers that Pitchup.com provides access to.

The more information about your on-site facilities/amenities and good-quality photographs you add to your listing, the more referrals you'll receive as you’ll appear higher in search rankings and you will also feature as a local site when users are looking for festivals and attractions. To make the most of Pitchup.com, become a bookable listing and we could generate as many as 3,400 bookings for you per year.

To find out how Pitchup.com can boost business at your campsite click here.

Please use our contact form: we monitor email and chat every day.

See also How do I close or remove allocation over a longer period?

Here's how the process works for bookable sites:

• Manager specifies pitch types, allocation, prices, extras and minimum-stay rules (all changeable at any time).
• Pitchup.com displays matching accommodation and prices to the user at the top of search results.
• We take the booking via a simple one-page booking form, taking our commission as a deposit, and send a confirmation email, copied to your email address. All bookings are also displayed in the "Bookings" tab across the top of your manager portal.
• Site collects the remaining balance from customer on arrival, or if you are signed up to Payup to collect payment in advance, the remaining balance will be automatically debited from the customer’s payment card on the payment ‘due date’. Pitchup.com calculates this using the payment date settings entered in your portal and the payment will be made direct to your Stripe account. Where the booking is payable ‘as soon as possible’, Pitchup.com will take the full payment at the time of booking and the balance payment will go directly into your Stripe account. You can specify your own cancellation and payment policies - all customisable on Pitchup.com.
• No further commission is due.

At Pitchup.com we ask that our clients add a reasonable level of vacancies throughout your season so that our customers' searches yield good results. Our allocation thresholds also reflect the growing advertising value of a Pitchup.com bookable listing, which stays live throughout without allocation.

Typically we require allocation at weekends and during peak season in addition to less popular periods.

Having higher allocation on Pitchup.com also brings other advantages:

More visibility: listings with consistent allocation across the year, including peak season and at weekends, rank higher in Pitchup.com search results when customers search our site. Consistent allocation levels generate more off-peak bookings.

More bookings: a good level of allocation increases your chances of bookings on Pitchup.com. Our best-seller had over 3,400 bookings in 2020 alone thanks to consistent allocation across their opening dates.

Press coverage opportunities: Our media team works hard to raise awareness of Pitchup.com sites and parks with good allocation, both online and in the national print media. Our clients tell us that press coverage attracts customers who would not normally have come across their business. 

Remember - if you need to reduce, increase or cancel Pitchup.com’s allocation as the date of the holiday approaches, you can update the site instantly - there are no penalties or release fees, either.

To avoid any possibility of double bookings, we recommend allocating vacancies to us on an exclusive basis, blocking out these vacancies so that they're not available to book direct with you or via another booking agent.

Pitchup.com does not allow you to set premium rates for Pitchup.com and/or mark up rates for Pitchup.com in any way, so campsites and holiday parks must always enforce ‘rate parity’. By accepting Pitchup.com’s terms and conditions, you agree to pay our commission to take advantage of the services provided by Pitchup.com and reach the large number of customers the website provides. This commission may not be passed onto Pitchup.com customers, since customers do not pay a fee to use Pitchup.com.

Rate parity means the same and/or better rates for a pitch or unit type and any associated extras booked for the same dates and for the same number of guests. The rates must be subject to the same and/or better restrictions and policies such as payment, booking amendment and cancellation policy as are available through booking directly and following the standard price list (that is the rate charged for customers booking direct). This includes any bookings made via your websites, apps, phone (including call centres and customer reservation systems) or via any other third party that is a business partner of, or in any other way related with or connected to, the campsite.

Please note: Pitchup.com regularly performs random price comparisons to ensure that all partners are advertising rates in adhering to rate parity - overcharging customers will result in the temporary suspension of the listing.

Where the rate parity policy is breached, the manager shall immediately notify Pitchup.com by flagging the booking, agree to refund/discount any difference, and update Pitchup.com rates to adhere to rate parity.

Pitchup.com acts as your agent (that is, the contract is between you and the customer). For businesses based in the UK, the commission ('deposit') we deduct from bookings includes 20% VAT, which we pay to HMRC.

If you are VAT registered in the UK you can reclaim this amount. In your VAT return, you should account to HMRC for the full amount paid by the customer, including the amount deducted by Pitchup.com. You can download a VAT invoice for our commission from the 'Bookings' tab at the top of the Manager Portal. You can select any date period for each VAT invoice, based on arrival date or created date.

If you are signed up to Payup, there is no change to the way you would account for your VAT. You would account for VAT on the full amount of the booking (balance payments are made direct to your Stripe account and then bank account).

You can download a tax invoice for your Stripe fees by clicking on your user name at the top right-hand corner of your Stripe account and then 'Account Settings', and visiting the 'Documents' tab.

Please consult your accountant for further advice on accounting for bookings through Pitchup.com.

If you need to issue a VAT invoice to a customer, please note that this should be for the full amount of the holiday including the Pitchup.com deposit.

Due to different market requirements, we are currently only able to feature non-UK bookable listings on Pitchup.com.

Becoming a bookable listing is easy! It is free with no regular costs or tie-in, to find out more information click here.

To add your campsite/park click here.

If you have any questions or doubts, please contact Pitchup.com using our contact form, our multilingual account management team will get you set up.

Pitchup.com acts as your agent (that is, the contract is between you and the customer). For businesses based outside the UK, the commission ('deposit') excludes VAT and you would be unable to reclaim sales tax on our commission. You can download an invoice for our commission from the 'Bookings' tab at the top of the manager portal. Click 'VAT invoice' and select any date period for each invoice, based on arrival date or booking date.

If you are signed up to Payup, you can download a tax invoice for your Stripe fees at https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/documents or by clicking on your username at the top right-hand corner of your Stripe account and then 'Account Settings', and visiting the 'Documents' tab. 

Please consult your accountant for further advice on accounting for bookings through Pitchup.com.

There is no charge for using Pitchup.com. We only get paid when we send the bookings to you. Read more here.

Pitchup has upgraded its app to a new web-based version that is not available in Google Play or iTunes.

To download the app:

Chrome browser

• Open the Chrome browser (if you have an iPhone and don't have Chrome installed, you can download it at iTunes)
• Visit our mobile site at https://www.pitchup.com
• After browsing the mobile site, you should be shown a button to 'Add to home' (or 'Share' then select 'Add to home' if using iOS). If the button fails to appear, open the menu at the top right of Chrome, and tap 'Add to Home Screen' (or 'Share' then select 'Add to home' if using iOS)

Safari browser

• Tap the bookmarks icon
• Tap 'Add to Home Screen' (or 'Share' then select 'Add to Home Screen' if using iOS)
• Tap 'Add' at the top right-hand corner

Alternatively, visit www.pitchup.com on your smartphone or tablet to use our mobile site instead.

Note: if you manage a campsite listed on Pitchup, a link to the mobile-friendly version of the allocation page is shown on the homepage when you're logged in to our mobile site. You can log in via the side menu.

Pitchup.com is the trading name of Pitchup.com Ltd. We are registered in England and Wales at Zeeta House, 200 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 2SH.

Find out our company details.

You can cancel a customer’s booking by flagging it in the Bookings tab of your manager portal, or the customer can cancel themselves in their Pitchup account.

Amendments can only be made by the site owner flagging the booking. If a booking is amended and the cost for the new holiday is lower than the original cost, discount 15% from the new total to calculate the new balance due from the customer.

Please do not send customers to Pitchup, as we cannot confirm changes or cancellations on your behalf.

Note: If a booking is amended and the cost of the new holiday is higher than the original cost but you can't ask them to simply book more dates (e.g if the new booking wouldn't meet the minimum night stay requirement) then you need to collect the additional cost from the guest directly. This will not automatically be requested. An easy way to do this is by using a Stripe payment link to request the additional balance.

Flagging bookings is the quickest and easiest way to update your Pitchup.com allocation and records and to inform our team of any changes or issues. Even if you use Payup and have already clicked ‘pending’ to cancel the customer’s balance, please do still flag the booking.

a) Customer request to amend a booking

To change a booking’s dates and/or pitch type:

1. Visit your Bookings tab

2. Locate the booking and click on the flag on the left-hand side

3. When the pop-up window appears, choose ‘Customer amended’

4. If dates are changing dates, choose the new start and/or end date. If the pitch type is changing, choose the new pitch type from the drop-down menu. 

Allocation will be restored on any dates no longer used for the booking. If you would like to remove it, visit your Allocation tab.

b) Customer request to cancel a booking

We would urge you to encourage customers to postpone wherever possible, rather than cancel. To cancel a customer’s booking:

1. Visit your Bookings tab

2. Locate the booking and click on the flag on the right-hand side

3. When the pop-up window appears, choose the type of cancellation

4. You can also choose whether to restore allocation or not for the dates booked 

If you are signed up to Payup, the payment date settings you have set in the portal will affect how you deal with a cancellation or amendment. Click here for more information about cancellations using Payup, and click here for more information about amendments using Payup.

Flagging a booking as cancelled will prevent it from appearing in our arrival reminders.

Please note that Pitchup.com's deposit is generally non-refundable, but you will need to refund it in these circumstances.

If a customer cancels their booking in their Pitchup account, allocation will not be restored during this period.

If you issue a credit note and include the Pitchup deposit, please flag the booking so that we are aware of this. 

How will this look in my ‘Bookings’ tab?

• The booking will show as amended in the list of bookings in the ‘Bookings’ tab, and - if the customer has a Pitchup account - in the customer’s account

• By clicking the row corresponding to the amended booking, you can view the history of changes made to the booking, with the date and time of the change 

Will a new booking confirmation email be generated?

• No. However, if you make the amendment to the booking and the customer requests that a new confirmation email be resent via our resend tool, the change will be reflected on the new confirmation email sent out

• Future emails about the booking (arrival reminder to campsite, review invitation to customer) will be updated to reflect any booking changes

Will my rates or allocation be affected?

• There is a warning note, but moving the booking will use a unit of allocation on the new date or pitch type moved to, and will release a unit of allocation on the old date or pitch type moved from. Therefore, allocation must exist on any new dates in order for the amendment to work

• If the date or pitch type the booking is being moved from no longer has allocation left, you must manually close this out to avoid overbookings

• Prices and payments are unaffected by amending the date or pitch type 

I’m using integration- how will this work for me?

• Booking systems integrated with Pitchup.com via API can extend their integrations so that cancellations and amendments are automatically passed through. Please request this from your booking system if this is of interest and is not yet in place.

• If you have an iCal integration in place, to prevent conflicts you may need to manually remove a booking from the allocation grid to reflect a customer cancellation. To do this, go to the Allocation tab, click on the booking on the grid and click on ‘Remove booking’.

How do I move a booking to another unit or pitch type?

a) Moving bookings to a different unit in the same pitch type:

1. Visit your Allocation tab.

2. Find the relevant month and locate the booking in the grid.

3. Click and hold onto the booking and drag it to a new unit. You can do this as long as there is space available.

4. Once the booking is in the new unit, the change is complete.

b) Moving bookings to a different pitch type:

1. See the guidance above under part a) "Customer request to amend a booking", point 4. 

To capture the type and size of unit that customers will be bringing with them:

• Visit the 'Pitch types & extras' tab
• Click 'Edit' on a pitch type (note that this is only for camping and touring, not for rental accommodation units)
• Tick 'Require type and size of unit'
• Click 'Save your pitch type'

With the above ticked, when customers provide their booking details, they will see:

We block customers from booking if the size of unit exceeds the maximum size specified.

Prevent a problematic customer from booking using one of the two ways below, depending on whether the customer has booked with you on Pitchup before.

1. Customer has a past booking

To ban a previous Pitchup.com booking:

• Visit the Bookings tab
• Click the flag icon and choose Type 'Flag customer details, denying further bookings':

• Complete the rest of the form and hit 'Submit'

Watch the video tutorial

2. Customer has not yet booked

Contact us to send us the customer's email address and/or phone number.

What happens when a banned customer tries to book?

When a banned customer tries to book, if either the phone number or email address match an entry, we decline the booking and the following error message is shown:

Bookings flagged before the ban tool

The ban tool and flag reason ('Flag customer details, denying further bookings') were introduced on 3rd October 2023.

If you have previously flagged a booking as banned, you can still reject a new booking from the same customer.

For future bookings, you can change your policy in your manager portal under Site info tab / Payments.

For past bookings, the cancellation policy in force at time of booking is shown in the email confirmation or in your Bookings tab. You cannot tighten this cancellation policy retrospectively, but can offer to make it more favourable. For example, if a customer decides to cancel, you may want to offer a postponement if your normal policy is to retain the balance.

a) Your listing does not use API integration

• Go to the 'Site Info' tab on the manager portal
• Select the 'General info' sub-section
• Enter the value in the 'Maximum stay' field

b) Your listing uses API integration

A maximum stay rule can be set via API on every single day (now available in version 2023-08-25 of the Pitchup API).

Did you know that 7% of Pitchup bookings are now made on the same day, and 8% the day before arrival?

To help make the most of last-minute bookings without the hassle, you can now disable bookings within a different time period for each pitch type*.

For example, you might choose:

• 4 hours for non-electric grass pitches
• 1 day for hardstanding pitches
• 1 day for lodges

To set your limits:

• Visit the 'Pitch types & extras' tab
• Click 'Edit' on a pitch type
• Choose from the 'Prevent last-minute bookings' menu
• Click 'Save your pitch type'

*Customers are also prevented from booking on the arrival day after your last arrival time listed in Site Info > General Info under 'Arrival & departure times'

First, activate the calendar functionality on your listing.

Important: your booking system or calendar must offer a calendar feed of bookings for us to turn on this feature. A calendar feed is a web link starting with http or https.

1. Visit the allocation tab in your manager portal

2. Click the button "Add external calendar feed" at the top right of the page. Pitchup will email you automatically to confirm your listing has been enabled.

3. Click the arrow underneath each pitch type on the left

4. Click "Create pitch/accommodation unit " to create the correct number of physical units (currently there may be none, even though the counts for each pitch type may be visible).

Please note: This is the total number of units and can be more than the vacancies you have, or the allocation you want to make to Pitchup.com. Adding the calendar feeds will prevent bookings on a unit it has been added to, and there is a setting to exclude a specific unit from Pitchup.com bookings altogether.

5. Once you have created the units, click the name of the unit to open a pop-up window

A) How to add inbound calendar feeds (from your booking system to Pitchup)

See our step-by-step tutorial

6. If you already have future Pitchup bookings, ensure they are on the unit that matches the calendar feed being used, by dragging them up or down using the mouse. If you need to change the dates or pitch type of a Pitchup booking, use the flagging system.

7. Paste the calendar feed link (beginning https or http) into the pop-up. Add more links just below, in the 'Additional calendar feeds' box, making sure to add one per line. Be careful to use the link corresponding to the right unit - you also have the option to specify a name/number for each unit at the top of the same pop-up.

Watch the video tutorial

8. Now click the Update button. The pop-up window will close.

9. Click the "Reset allocation" button for each pitch type to set "Allocation left to sell" to the number of units left over, taking into account units available to book and any external bookings for each unit's calendar feed.

B) How to obtain outbound calendar feeds (from Pitchup to your booking system)

10. Copy the calendar feed link (beginning with https) from the pop-up and paste it into the relevant section of your booking system, and click the Update button to close the window.

Note: you will normally only need the first calendar link ("Calendar feed of all Pitchup.com bookings for this unit"). The second link ("Feed of all bookings") contains any external bookings you have added manually, including any external bookings imported via an inbound calendar above.

Hints on maintaining allocation when working with individual units

Using the reset allocation button, rather than setting allocation manually, ensures allocation is limited to the number of units.

If, instead of using the reset allocation button, you set allocation to be more than the number of available units, the system will create a new unit in order to accept the booking on that day. A new unit does not inherit another unit's calendar.

If you wish to restore allocation due to cancelation of a Pitchup booking, you can use the mouse to 'drag' the canceled booking to any units marked unavailable for Pitchup bookings. Then use the reset allocation button to make the original unit available again during the canceled stay.

You can add to our allocation page a calendar feed of each unit of accommodation's availability. We refresh every 10 minutes.

Important: your booking system must offer a calendar feed of bookings for us to turn on this feature. A calendar feed is a web link starting with http or https.

To add an external calendar feed:

1. Visit the allocation tab in your manager portal

2. Click the button "Add external calendar feed" at the top right of the page. Pitchup will contact you when your listing has been enabled

3. Click the arrow underneath each pitch type on the left

4. Click "Add more units" to create the correct number of physical units (currently there may be none, even though the counts for each pitch type may be visible).

Please note: This is the total number of units and can be more than the vacancies you have, or the allocation you want to make to Pitchup.com. Adding the calendar feeds will prevent bookings on a unit it has been added to, and there is a setting to exclude a specific unit from Pitchup.com bookings altogether.

5. Once you have created the units, click the name of the unit to open a pop-up window.

6. Copy the calendar feed link (beginning with https) from the pop-up and paste it into the relevant section of your booking system.

We've launched a brand-new page letting you update allocation on your smartphone.

To use the new tool:

• Visit Pitchup.com on your mobile device. You should be redirected to our mobile site. (If not, scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Mobile site'.)
• Tap the green square at the top left to open the side menu
• Tap 'Account sign up & login' under 'Account access'
• Log in to your Pitchup account
• From the portal homepage, click the red link: "Managers: you can now update your allocation on mobile".
• You will be taken to the new page, where you can add/remove allocation for all your live sites and pitch types.
• Once you've logged in to Pitchup.com on your smartphone, you'll find a link to the new page from the homepage of our mobile site https://www.pitchup.com.

You can also download the mobile site as an app by using the Chrome browser (on Apple, Android or other mobile platforms):

• Visit https://www.pitchup.com in Chrome (iPhone users can download Chrome first in iTunes)
• A button will prompt you to 'Add to home'. If the button fails to appear, open the Chrome menu (at the top right of the screen), and choose 'Add to Home Screen'

If you receive an external booking, you can manually block out that booking in the grid.

Step 1: Go to the manager portal and select the Allocation tab
Step 2: Find the pitch type in the grid that you need to remove allocation for
Step 3: Tap the pitch type name on the left to expand the grid of pitches/units
Step 4: Tap the grid on the date and pitch/unit you wish to reserve and complete the popup form to block the dates

Even if you have calendar feeds set up on a pitch/unit, you can still add external bookings manually.

View our usual guidance. For bookings made before March 1, 2022, Pitchup is allowing deposits for bookings cancelled during this period to be credited against a new booking for any site made 3 months from the original arrival date.

If you issue a credit note and include the Pitchup deposit, please flag the booking so that we are aware of this.

We would urge you to encourage customers to postpone, not cancel.

Should you unfortunately need to cancel any bookings, please flag them as 'Site cancelled due to COVID-19' if that is the case. 

See also How do I close or remove allocation over a longer period?

Link your booking system with Pitchup.com via our existing integrations, add a calendar feed or develop a new integration with our API. Visit our integration page for more information.

To request that customers provide their type and size of unit when booking a camping pitch, tick the 'Require type and size of unit' box under 'Rules' on the pitch type page.

Bear in mind that each additional item of information requested increases booking abandonment rates. We therefore recommend not requesting this information unless it is essential.

Pitchup.com booking confirmation emails are immediately sent to the customer AND to the email address specified for your site (not the Manager's email address). Please check email regularly to ensure that last-minute bookings aren't a surprise! To find out how to copy other email addresses into your booking notification emails, click here. 

We show all bookings in a 'Bookings' tab within your manager portal, and we automatically reduce your allocation - so you have full visibility of the remaining allocation.

You can download a spreadsheet of all your bookings over any date range, and they are also available as a live calendar feed.

It is your responsibility to contact both the customer and Pitchup.com if you receive a double booking. 

The quickest and easiest way to inform Pitchup.com of any booking problems or double bookings, especially in our busiest season, is to use our flagging system. This should be your first and foremost way to contact us about these issues, rather than by phone, so that the Pitchup.com team are notified and can assist you in resolving the matter if required. Find out how to flag a booking here.

Please note: The summer months are our busiest season with over 155,000 daily visitors on Pitchup.com and thousands of bookings. If you do not flag a double booking via the portal your listing may be switched off to stop you receiving further bookings via Pitchup.com during this busy time.

To resolve the matter for the customer, you can take the following actions:

• Relocate the guest to another campsite or park if the customer is happy with the alternate location and will not incur any costs.
• Offer alternate dates or alternate onsite accommodation if the customer is happy to do so and will not incur any costs. Remember to deduct the customer's 15% deposit paid to Pitchup.com from any new booking made for the customer.
• Refund the customer: If you cannot honour a booking you must refund the customer's 15% deposit paid to Pitchup.com. We enforce this rule vigorously.

Find out how to avoid double bookings here.

Sometimes, a customer may change their booking causing the total price to reduce. Although deposits are non-refundable, this does not mean you need to lose out on the new booking. The customer is aware of the deposit policy, as it's shown throughout the booking process and on the confirmation email.

So how do you deal with changes that reduce the cost?

• Calculate the new total
• Calculate the new balance by discounting 15% from the new total. For example, if the original total is £150 and the new total is £100, the customer's new balance would be £85 (100 * 85%)

Remember to flag the booking. Check your terms on booking changes are correct in the 'Terms and conditions' section under Site info in the manager portal.

Note: If the customer has a pending payment, this should be cancelled and you will need to take a new payment manually from the customer.

Please use the flagging system in the 'Bookings' tab of your manager portal to inform Pitchup.com of any booking problems as soon as they occur.

Use the flagging system to notify Pitchup.com of double bookings, any bookings that break your booking conditions, a booking that has been processed at the incorrect price, or if a customer has cancelled or amended their booking with you. By using the flagging system effectively, it will ensure you receive daily booking reminder emails that are completely accurate and up to date.

This is the quickest and most straight forward way to inform Pitchup.com of any booking problems or double bookings, especially in our busiest season. This should be your first and foremost way to contact us about these issues, rather than by phone.

The flagging system is easy to use:

• go to your ‘Bookings’ tab in the manager portal
• click on the flag to the left-hand side of the booking you wish you contact us about
• a form will pop up for you to fill in and submit to Pitchup.com

You determine your own policy regarding when you would like to receive the balance payment. This policy is displayed prominently for customers on the 'Policies' tab on your listing, on the booking form, and on the customer’s booking confirmation email. We take our commission as a 'deposit' on booking, so we do not allow campsites/parks to take a second deposit because this confuses users and they may decide it's not worth the hassle.

If you normally take a deposit at some point after the Pitchup.com booking, we advise you to take the full balance, since customers have already paid a deposit to Pitchup.com. Some of our sites take the balance on arrival - please bear in mind the risk of customers cancelling or not turning up.

To avoid chasing payments and losing money from no-shows, listings in countries where Stripe is supported which are going live for bookings will need to sign up to Payup, our automated payment system, if they wish to collect the balance payment before arrival. Payup will trigger the balance payment from the customer’s card (on the date specified by the campsite/park) and send it direct to your bank account. Find out more about Payup here.

You may need to modify your cancellation policy to take account of the fact that Pitchup.com's deposit is non-refundable (check the circumstances under which you need to refund the Pitchup.com deposit here). Please inform Pitchup.com if a customer cancels their booking with you using our flagging system in the 'Bookings' tab of the manager portal. This will ensure you receive daily booking reminder emails that are completely accurate and up to date.

If you are signed up to Payup, the payment date settings you have set in the portal will affect how you deal with a cancellation. Click here for more information about cancellations using Payup.

The Pitchup.com 15% deposit is non-refundable unless a booking needs to be cancelled or amended for reasons outside the control of the customer. These may include:

• Incorrect allocation resulting in a double booking

• Where the holiday has been misrepresented as a result of information added to or omitted from the listing, for example closure of advertised facilities, inaccurate pitch information or rules (size, facilities, description, one unit per pitch, etc.)

• Incorrect pricing where the site/park will not honour the customer’s booking at the rate reserved

• Closure during the period booked

If a customer is forced to cancel their booking for the above reasons, you must refund the 15% Pitchup.com deposit (pro-rated in the case of a partial refund), as outlined in your agreement with Pitchup.com. A refund should be arranged directly with the customer via bank transfer, card or cheque as agreed with the customer. If you use our Payup system, you can find out how to refund a payment via Payup here.

We urge you to keep allocation accurate at all times, check your listing information thoroughly, and ensure all rates and pricing rules are correctly specified.

Manager details are for internal Pitchup.com use only and under no circumstances will be made public. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

We’ll only send you marketing communications if you’ve selected ‘Yes’ in your ‘Notifications settings’ in the manager portal.

To check or amend your settings, log in to your manager portal and click the ‘Me’ button to the top right of the screen. Select ‘My details’. In the ‘Notifications settings’ box, select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ next to ‘I’d be happy to receive occasional marketing communications from Pitchup.com.

We’ll display the campsite/holiday park (not manager) name, contact details, and location for your campsite/park for when users want to find out more. Telling us about your facilities means that your campsite or holiday park will come up when users search for those facilities. Descriptions, directions and photos will be added to your listing page on our site to give users maximum information. Lastly, telling us the campsite/holiday park email address means that we can forward any enquiries from our users straight to you.

Any details that you change will be amended on the site immediately.

If you have used the ‘Request change’ button in the manager portal to update any information that you are unable to edit directly on your Pitchup.com listing, we will aim to have these changes made within a working day of being flagged to us.

You can choose for more than one email address to receive booking notifications, so staff who deal with bookings at your campsite or holiday park can be notified of bookings made through Pitchup.com. To add email addresses:

• click on 'Me' at the top right-hand corner of your manager portal

• click on 'My details'

• scroll down to 'Notification settings'

• add email address(es) for other recipients in the bcc section

Note that if you manage multiple sites within one Pitchup.com account, this setting will affect bookings for those sites.

Yes - please feel free to link your Pitchup.com listing to/from your website. To visit the Pitchup.com's badge factory click on "promote your page" at the top right hand side of your manager portal and use the drop-down menu to find your favourite option.

a) Your listing does not use API integration

• Go to the 'Site Info' tab on the manager portal
• Select the 'General info' sub-section
• Enter the value in the 'Maximum stay' field

b) Your listing uses API integration

A maximum stay rule can be set via API on every single day (now available in version 2023-08-25 of the Pitchup API).

You can now grant separate access to your 'Bookings' tab to other email addresses.

This means you can, for example, give staff dealing with arrivals access to a searchable list of bookings, but hide the rates and allocation tabs. The additional user can also use the 'flag' system to report any booking issues.

To set up a new user:

• Choose the listing you want to give access to from the "All sites" drop down menu at the top of the portal
• On the 'Home' tab, find the 'Additional Users' panel at the bottom:

• Enter the email address of the additional user
• The new user will receive a password by email to log in and view the listing's booking tab

Please note: if you manage multiple listings, the steps above must be followed for each.

We recommend setting up electric pitches as a separate pitch type. This way you have control over the allocation.

The downside of using a general pitch type with an optional extra for electric hook-up is that you have no way of knowing how many customers will choose the electric extra. If all customers choose the extra, you may find that you sell out of electric pitches. You could also lose out on the chance to sell more non-electric pitches if you set a low allocation in case all users choose electric.

At present we show official grading, AA rating and David Bellamy award. Please use our feedback tool to request any additional award schemes. 

Unfortunately we are unable to accept sites charging a compulsory membership fee - such as CLs (Certified Locations) or CSs (Certificated Sites) - as bookable listings.

Following new rules issued by the Camping and Caravanning Club, Certificated Sites (CSs) are also unable to advertise on third-party websites.

If you accept non-members separate from a members-only area (e.g. CL/CS), then you can let pitches in this area via Pitchup.com. This might be in a separate area of your land with planning permission, or on an area where you take advantage of '28-day' camping rights.

If your site is members-only but the customer is not charged a membership fee (e.g. Freedom Camping), you are also welcome to take bookings on Pitchup.com.

For advice on seeking planning permission for your site or how to use 28-day rights (instead of operating as a CL/CS), please see our article How to start a campsite or caravan park.

Sign up to feature any campsite or holiday park vacancies open to non members and we will be delighted to help you set up your bookable listing.

Visit the 'Pitch types and extras' tab in your manager portal and follow the page tour or the information at the top of the page.

If you're a bookable site and would like to change the text in any of the text boxes in your manager portal e.g. description / nearby attractions and activities / directions, balance payment, cancellation policy, terms, notices, pitch type description, photo captions etc., please use the grey 'Request change' button next to the appropriate text box to let us know. We aim to have specific changes and updates made within a working day of these being flagged to us.

Amendments to text must be submitted via this system only, requests made by email or phone to Pitchup.com cannot be actioned.

The performance of your listing is mainly determined by (1) your ranking within search results and (2) the information provided on your page.

You will only appear in search results for searches matching your accommodation types, location and features, so ensuring that all relevant accommodation types and features are ticked is crucially important. If the user ticks the "check availability" box when searching, only bookable/available sites appear in results.

By improving your ranking on Pitchup.com you will improve your overall performance and likelihood of receiving bookings through us.

(1) The following factors will influence your ranking in search results:

• Whether your site is a bookable listing (bookable/available sites rank ahead of free listings in all search results). On average, bookable listings receive 40x more traffic than free listings.
• The sales performance of your listing. Generally, sites with a consistent allocation level throughout the season will perform better.
• The average customer rating for your site on Pitchup.com and the number of reviews your listing has attracted.
• For bookable listings, the number of cancellations due to incorrect data in our system
• In an availability search, whether you have allocation you have added for the dates, accommodation category/ies and party size searched for. If customers choose to search by a specific location, we will order the results with the closest site appearing at the top of the page. We will also display the prices for each site - so it's worth checking out your nearest competitors' rates to ensure your potential customers aren't put off by expensive prices.
• Although using Payup, our automated payment system, does not directly affect your ranking, your listing is likely to perform better compared to other listings taking payment on arrival. This will feed back into a better ranking.

(2) Once users reach your listing page, you can maximise the likelihood of users booking (rather than carrying on another listing page) by ensuring that complete and accurate information is displayed, including:

• Good-quality photos. Research shows that listings with 25-30 photos attract up to 150% more viewers. If you have a bookable listing ensure you have pitch type photos, which appear next to each type of unit bookable
• Appealing descriptive information about your site in the Site information and Nearby attractions and activities
• Directions and location
• Opening times
• Accommodation types and number of units of each type
• YouTube video
• Features
• Awards and memberships - David Bellamy Conservation Award, official tourist board rating, AA pennants, membership of Caravan Club and Camping and Caravanning Club
• Payup - because our automated payment process makes things easy for both you and the customer, if you're signed up to Payup, customers will be more likely to complete a booking with you

(3) Any discounted offers you add will be highlighted in search results and on your listing, and the offers with the best discounts appear on our homepage.

(4) You can also promote your Pitchup listing by adding badges to your website. Log in to your portal at https://www.pitchup.com/supplier2/login/ and click on 'Promote your page'.

You can now add accessibility information about your site in the Manager Portal, both in the 'Site Info' and 'Unit-specific features' areas. Simply select the features your site has, such as large spacious bathrooms, or smooth hard terrain, add more information in the box provided, and where possible upload photos too. 

For more information about what each of the filters mean, advice on what details to add and examples of good photography read our detailed guide to adding accessibility information. 

1. Log in to your portal at https://www.pitchup.com/supplier2/

2. Go to the ‘Rates’ tab

3. You now have three options:

a. If your minimum night stay conditions are straightforward, for example, they do not vary throughout the year and/or you only have one unit (e.g. a camping pitch) to update, click on the blue ‘Batch update rates’ button to the right-hand side of your screen and use the pop-up window to add them via the following steps:

Step 1: Select arrival days if you require arrivals on specific days or click 'All days' to allow greater flexibility.

Step 2: Click on 'First arrival day' and 'Last arrival day' and use the calendar to define which dates you wish to add.

Step 3: Tick the pitch type you wish to add rates for (please note: you can only update one pitch or unit type at a time).

Step 4: Add the basic price for this pitch or rental unit and set how many nights are included for this price (e.g. 1 night for a nightly rate, 7 nights for a weekly rate).

Step 5: If you have per-person charges, don't forget to add the price per extra adult, child and infant. Make sure that the extra people rates relate to the 'pricing period' for this pitch type.

Step 6: Set the minimum-night stay if applicable. Please note, this will be updated automatically if you have entered a price for more than one night.

OR

b. If your minimum night stay conditions vary significantly during the season, you have different types of tariffs, you are advertising different types of units, and/or particularly if you are updating rates for statics or lodges, click the ‘Batch tariff’ button. This can be found under the ‘Rates’ tab, between ‘Weekly view’ and ‘Offers’. Here, you can follow three easy steps to add all your rates for all your pitches/units at once:

Step 1: Create a tariff via the ‘Add a tariff’ button. Use the pop-up window to specify which days of the week guests should arrive for each tariff and name it clearly (e.g. Nightly tariff, Weekly tariff, Three-night midweek etc.), and add the minimum stay conditions required. Repeat until all tariffs are added.

Step 2: In the table that appears below, use the ‘Start date’ and ‘End date’ fields to define a rate period. Use the columns to enter the rate for each tariff within the selected date range, don’t forget to add any extra adult, children and infant rates. Click the green ‘Save date range and prices’ to save your prices.

Step 3: Repeat step 2 until all dates ranges and tariffs are added and saved. Then click the blue ‘Apply date ranges and prices’ to update your rates.

OR

c. To modify individual dates, for example to add a minimum stay over bank holiday weekends, do it directly on the ‘Weekly view’ grid. Please note that you will need to have added rates for those dates before anything will be visible. 

Adding minimum night stay conditions for bank holidays

Depending on the scenario, to add minimum night stay conditions for bank holidays, do the following:

1) Customers can arrive on the Friday, Saturday or Sunday but must stay until at least the Monday: in this case, pricing period should be 1 night but the Friday should have a three-night minimum stay and the Saturday should have a two-night minimum stay.

2) Customers can only arrive up to the Friday and must stay until at least Monday (no arrivals permitted on Saturday or Sunday): the Friday should have a pricing period of three and the equivalent price for the three nights together, the Saturday and Sunday should not have any prices at all.

Make sure that you multiply the nightly price of the pitch and extra persons by the number of nights in the pricing period e.g. if the pitch price is 30 per night and additional persons are 10 per night, that you put in 90 as the pitch price for the three nights and 30 as the additional persons price for the three nights.

For help adding prices, please consult this FAQ.

For nightly rates with restricted arrival/departure days

If you have nightly rates applied but want to prevent arrivals and/or departures on certain days, rather than creating multiple charge types, you can just add closed to arrival (CTA) and/or closed to departure (CTD) to specific days using the batch update rates form:

1) Click 'Batch update rates'
2) Select the days you wish to prevent arrivals/departures
3) Enter the date range
4) Select the relevant pitch/charge type(s)
5) Select 'Yes' on ‘Closed to Arrival’/’Closed to Departure’ as applicable.
6) Click ‘Apply Updates’.

This will then be visible on the rates weekly view.

We accept all common image formats (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png), except .tif, .tiff and RGB. up to 20MB.

Visit the 'Photos' tab in your manager portal and follow the page tour or the information at the top of the page.

First, remove allocation during the period affected (please note that this feature is not available on our mobile-friendly allocation page):

A. If you don't have a booking system, or don't use any integrations/calendar feeds

1. Visit your Allocation tab

2. Click the blue Batch update allocation button at the top right

3. Set allocation to 0 for each pitch type

4. Back on the allocation tab, change your opening date at the top

More detailed instructions

B. If your booking system has a calendar feed integration

1. Visit your Allocation tab

2. Check whether allocation has already reduced to zero. Your booking system may automatically sync over the closed dates (we refresh the feed every 10 minutes). If not, following steps 3 and 4

3. Click the blue Batch update allocation button at the top right

4. Set allocation to 0 for each pitch type

5. Back on the allocation tab, change your opening date at the top

More detailed instructions

C. If your booking system is integrated with Pitchup

Make the changes in your booking system and they will sync over. Manual changes made to our allocation are likely to be overwritten by your booking system the next time it syncs. If the changes fail to appear in Pitchup, please contact your booking system.

In addition, on the Allocation tab, change your opening date at the top.

Next you'll need to:

• Inform customers - a useful template can be found here. Please note our policy on refunding our Pitchup deposit - feel free to share this with customers. We would urge you to encourage customers to postpone, not cancel.

• Flag bookings affected in the manager portal, cancelling any pending balance payments if appropriate. Flag as 'Customer amended' if the customer is being moved to a new date or flag as 'Site cancelled due to COVID-19' if you have had to cancel the booking.

You're in charge of all of your information and you can add or remove allocation from the site at any time. Need to remove allocation from the site because you've nearly sold out? No problem - you can take it off the site in seconds. Just remember to keep a reasonable amount of allocation on your Pitchup.com listing to remain a bookable site.

To add/update/remove your allocation:

1. Log in to your portal at https://www.pitchup.com/supplier2/login/

2. Go to the ‘Allocation’ tab

3. You now have two options:

a. To add/update/remove allocation for longer periods:

See our step-by-step tutorial

Step 1: Click on the ‘Batch update allocation’ button and complete the form. You can update numerous pitch and unit types at the same time by adding new values for all options. Alternatively, update specific pitches or unit types by selecting and entering a new value for the required option.

Step 2: Click the ‘Update allocation’ button.

Please note: batch updating does not take into consideration pitches or units you have already sold on Pitchup.com. Make sure you check how many units or pitches are already sold via the allocation calendar before batch updating for a period.

OR

b. To add/update/remove availability for individual dates:

Step 1: Go to the ‘Allocation’ tab and select the month.

Step 2: Use your mouse to hover over the date you would like to change.

Step 3: Enter the new allocation (or zero if you need to remove all allocation), move your mouse away, and click outside the grid to save.

Sites using calendar feeds

If you are integrated using calendar feeds, you should ensure you click the 'reset allocation' button in your allocation tab, to push through allocation for future dates. This is not done automatically, so it is important you ensure this is done to stay active:

• Go to your allocation tab, and click the arrow underneath each pitch type on the left.
• Click the "Reset allocation" button for each pitch type to set "Allocation left to sell" to the number of units left over, taking into account units available to book and any external bookings for each unit's calendar feed.
• When the pop up box asks you when to reset from and to, ensure you cover the future opening period, for example, the next 12 months, and then click 'reset'.

To add/update your rates:

1. Log in to your portal at https://www.pitchup.com/supplier2/

2. Go to the ‘Rates’ tab

3. You now have three options:

a. If your rates are straightforward, for example they do not vary throughout the year and/or you only have one unit (e.g. a camping pitch) to update, click on the blue ‘Batch update rates’ button to the right-hand side of your screen and use the pop-up window to add your new rates via the following steps:

Step 1: Select arrival days if you require arrivals on specific days or click 'All days' to allow greater flexibility.

Step 2: Click on 'Start date' and 'End date' and use the calendar to define which dates you wish to add.

Step 3: Tick the pitch type or unit type you wish to add rates for (please note: you can only update one pitch or unit type at a time).

Step 4: Add the basic price for this pitch or unit and set how many nights are included for this price (e.g. 1 night for a nightly rate, 7 nights for a weekly rate).

Step 5: If you have per-person charges, don't forget to add the price per extra adult, child and infant. Make sure that the extra people rates relate to the 'pricing period' for this pitch type.

Step 6: Set the minimum-night stay if applicable. Please note, this will be updated automatically if you have entered a price for more than one night.

OR

b. If you have seasonal pricing, multiple pitch/unit types, and/or particularly if you are updating rates for statics or lodges, click the green ‘Update via pricing grid’ button. This can be found on the ‘Rates’ tab.

Here, you can follow three easy steps to add all your rates for all your pitches/units at once:

Watch the tutorial video

Step 1: 

Create your pricing rules.

Pricing rules are the templates for each of your different rate types (eg. weekend, weekday, short breaks, weekly). Click ‘Add a pricing rule’ to get started:

Name your rule for internal reference, for example, ‘Standard’, ‘Weekday’, ‘Fri to Mon’.
If setting up a rule for nightly pricing, tick all of the days that people can stay over, and then, if applicable, set the ‘Closed to arrival’ days at the bottom of the form. If setting up a rule for a fixed length stay (eg. short breaks, weekly), then only tick the permitted arrival days.

If a pricing rule doesn’t apply to a pitch/unit, make sure to select ‘Not applicable’. Where relevant, select the same charge type for multiple rules, eg. weekday and weekend pricing rules can both be linked to the ‘Standard’ charge type, to create a full week of rates. This allows customers to book a continuous stay.

Pricing period is how many days are included in the base price; for example, fixed-length weekly stays would be ‘1 week’, whereas nightly pricing will be ‘1 night’. Where a fixed-length pricing period is chosen, the minimum stay will automatically match. The minimum stay can be set separately for nightly pricing.

The maximum stay can be set here if relevant for particular pitches/units, otherwise this can be set for the whole campsite in the General Info section under the ‘Site Info’ tab.

Step 2: Add your rates.

Enter the date range for each of your pricing periods or seasons, and add the appropriate rate into each box. The ‘Price’ field is the base pitch/unit price, and if relevant, you will also see the fields for extra people. Enter ‘0’ if there is no charge for a particular age group. Leave all fields blank if the pricing rule doesn’t apply for a particular date range.

When one pricing period or season is completed, click ‘Save date range & prices’ to start the next row. Repeat until all rates have been saved.

Step 3: Apply your rates.

Rates are saved as a draft until applied. Select the correct pricing strategy if you have fixed-length pricing rules, and then click ‘Apply date ranges & prices’. Pricing strategies do not affect nightly pricing.

Arrival date pricing (default): If the end of a fixed-length stay overlaps into your next pricing period, it will use the rates from the pricing period of the arrival date.

Stay date pricing: Select this if both the arrival and departure dates of fixed-length stays will be contained within a pricing period. Rates will not be applied for any overlapping stays, this can leave gaps in rates if the pricing periods are not set correctly.

Editing rates: Use the ‘Edit’ button to amend rates or date ranges after saving. If already applied, make sure to reapply the rates once amended. 

Watch the tutorial video

OR

c. To modify individual dates, for example to add a minimum stay over bank holiday weekends, do it directly on the ‘Weekly view’ grid. Please note that you will need to have added rates for those dates via one of the methods above before anything will be visible.

For a step-by-step guide about how to add/update/remove your allocation, click here.

Watch the video tutorial

For each pitch type you can set up:

• a maximum number or people
• a minimum and maximum number of children/infants, adults and people
• alternative rules, for example maximum 3 adults OR maximum 2 adults and 3 children

For example, this means you can set capacities on the same pitch type for an adult-only party or a larger family party.

To add capacity rules, please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Visit the ‘Pitch types & extras’ tab in the manager portal

Step 2: Select the pitch type you wish to edit

Step 3: Scroll to the ‘Capacity’ section

Step 4: First set the maximum number of people per pitch/unit using the dropdown menu - we will never exceed this number

Step 5: To set more restrictions, click Add an alternative capacity rule button under ‘Alternative capacity (optional)’. This will create a rule group

Step 6: Now click Add a rule. You can now specify, for example:

• Minimum adults
• Maximum adults
• Maximum infants

Step 7: Within the same rule group, select Add another rule from the dropdown menu to pick as many of these rules as you want. The maximum potential number of people will show at Total persons on the right-hand side, but will never exceed the maximum number at the top.

Important: if you’ve ticked Alternative capacity, each rule group must contain all the types of people you wish to accept within that rule group, otherwise we won’t show the pitch type in searches for that person type. For example, if you don’t specify rules for children, and there are no other rule groups that allow children or infants, the pitch type won’t appear in searches containing people in the age range you have set up for children (e.g. ages 3 - 17). If Alternative capacity is unticked, we will automatically accept all types of person, taking into account the adult-only feature if you have selected it in Site info / Features.

Step 8: If you want to add an alternative capacity, click the button Add an alternative capacity rule. This creates a new rule group, which will be an alternative to the first group.

Example: if you want to limit capacity to either 3 adults or 2 adults and 3 children/infants, your rule groups would be:

• Rule group 1: adults maximum 3
• Rule group 2: adults maximum 2, children or infants maximum 3

Step 9: Again select as many rules from the dropdown menu as you want

Step 10: If you make a mistake, use the ‘x’ to delete a rule, or the dustbin icon on the right to delete a rule group

Step 11: Remember to save the form at the bottom

There are a couple of ways to set up a special offer:

1. Visit the Offers page in your 'Rates' tab. Here you can apply a percentage discount to your existing prices, which we'll highlight around the site and via our marketing channels.

2. To add additional prices alongside your existing prices (for example, an offer for a weekly stay if you offer nightly stays in your existing charge type), set up a new charge type. We will show the cheapest charge type for the user's search - so for example, if a user searches for seven-night stay we will show the cheaper seven-night stay option only. Read more information about setting up additional charge types for a single pitch type at the FAQ 'My tariff involves short breaks and weekly stays - how do I set this up?'.

If you have taken photos with your mobile phone, please log into the manager portal from the same device. Go to the “Photos” section of your listing, click on “Upload a photo” and select the photos you wish to upload.

Please make sure you upload the original photo files. Our minimum required size is 1800 x 1350 pixels.

If you have any questions or are struggling to upload your images, please contact enquiries@pitchup.com

The large blue Overall rating number that appears at the top of the Reviews tab on your listing is worked out from the average of all the Overall scores which guests have left in their reviews. When you have five or more reviews, this number will also appear next to your listing on the Pitchup.com results page.

The Overall rating is the guest’s chance to share how they think your site/park performed on the whole, independently of the other scores they may have already set. The other rating fields are not compulsory to fill in when leaving a review, whereas the Overall score is, and this is the score that will average your blue Overall rating number.

The Overall score a guest leaves for your campsite or holiday park in their review is not worked out as an average from the other scores they have chosen (Location, Value for money, Facilities/amenities etc).

To transfer your Pitchup listing to a new user, visit My details to change the manager (login) email address if necessary. We also recommend the new user requests a new password.

Typically, if you are selling the assets of the business we would provide a new online agreement for the buyers to accept - please contact us to let us know when the sale completes and to confirm whether the personal data contained in previous bookings are the property of the new owners or not. If the data is not, they would need to create a new listing at https://www.pitchup.com/supplier2/signup/.

If you are selling the company and existing agreements roll over to the new owners, there is no need to amend the agreement.

If you use Stripe, there are two options:

• assign the existing account including its current balance by visiting the Team members page (you can also change the receiving bank account or update company information if needed); or

• contact us to disconnect the existing Stripe account on the completion date. The new owner will be able to set up a new account and link it to the manager portal. Any pending balance payments should be credited to the new Stripe account on the due date automatically 

It shouldn't be necessary to contact customers about the sale unless the holiday (as described when bought) will change due to the sale, or you need to provide new contact details.

If you need to change the email address used for new bookings and arrival reminders, or your telephone numbers, please visit Site info / General information in your manager portal.

Accounting information, including links to invoices for Pitchup's commission and Stripe's fees, are available on the Bookings tab in the 'Payup accounting' and 'Downloads' sections.

Please also let us know the new owner's name and contact details so that we can train any new staff in good time for the sale completion, and feel free to get in touch if you have any other questions.

If you need to set up your site as an adults-only campsite, you’ll need to follow three steps:

1) You must tick the ‘Adults only’ box under ‘Rules’ in the ‘Features’ section of the manager portal so an indication will appear on your listing page for all pitch types that the site/park is ‘Adult only’. By doing this, Pitchup.com will not show your adult-only site on the search results page if any child (up to the limit you have specified in step 2) is included in a search by a user.

2) To specify your minimum ‘adult’ age, go to the ‘Site info’ tab in the manager portal. Under the ‘General info’ section, scroll to ‘Age ranges’. Set the maximum child and infant age to the maximum child age you do not allow. For example, if you only want to accept guests aged 18 years and over, set the ‘Max. child age’ and ‘Max. infant age’ to 17.

3) You then need to go to 'Terms and conditions' and click on 'Select terms and conditions'. From the pop-up, select the term 'Guests under the age of [Age] are not allowed on site.' under 'Admissions', selecting the minimum age required for guests.

If a user lands directly on your listing on Pitchup.com or comes to your listing from another campsite or holiday park they have been viewing, i.e. they haven’t gone through the home page or general search options, and you have specified the ‘Max. child/infant age’ correctly in the portal, we will be able to prevent the user from booking if they get as far as the booking page and the guests included in their party are below the permitted ages you have set.

We also advise that you add a line to the ‘Notices’ section to your listing stating that you do not accept guests under a certain age (please specify).

You can request a new password using the "Forgotten your password?" link at the login page. Please ensure that you use the email address registered to your listing account.

A message should arrive within a couple of minutes with a new password. If not, please check your junk mail and if you find the message, designate it as "not spam" so that future messages get through.

If the password reset email hasn't arrived at all and the email is used is the correct one, please contact us.

This is a concern that we often encounter and one that hotel, chalet and B&B owners also raised before online bookings took hold in those sectors. Within our Manager Portal, Managers can add features to their sites, for example 'adults only', 'student groups welcome' or 'single-sex groups welcome'. This determines whether sites appear in search results for those features.

For bookable listings, we offer extra protection. Managers can add prominent rules and warnings in the booking page which users must agree to before making the booking. These messages are reiterated in our confirmation page and email, offering protection for holidaymakers and managers and ensuring that sites rules are complied with.

There are three ways that we protect you in these circumstances:

1. You can add your own prominent warning to your campsite’s page and to the booking page

2. You must add your rules to your terms and conditions either by selecting any restrictions from our large list of preset terms or, if you can't see the term you want for your site, use 'request change' button and we will add this

3. You can 'tag' your site with any restrictions using Pitchup.com’s 'facilities' page – these appear in your site's page and in the search 'filters' on the search results page

Broadband speeds can vary dramatically but there are a few things you can do to improve speeds.

First, check your broadband speed using this speed test.

If your connection is really slow (0 - 2Mb)

1. If your upstream is only 288Kb (0.288Mb), then you are on a very old package, and thus should upgrade and possibly get better speeds.

2. If you are on 0.576Mb or 1.152Mb or 2.272Mb, again consider changing package to improve speeds.

3. If you have an alarm fitted or a Sky box or external ringer (bell so you can hear phone across site when out of office), ensure that there's added a microfilter to each socket so that it doesn't interfere with your broadband.

It is not uncommon to see people on old slow packages jump from 0.5Mb to 2Mb or 3Mb, or with 10 minutes of testing, realise that they can go faster by adding a device called the i-Plate.

To find out whether or not you'll be able to get superfast fibre broadband for a specific property, use the line checker on your preferred supplier's website. Here's a list of communication providers currently offering or trialling superfast broadband for home or business.

Where to find information about your council's local broadband project

Nearly all local councils have broadband projects:

• Information about local broadband projects for local councils in England
   
• Information about local broadband projects for local councils in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

• In Cornwall, there is a plan for 95% of premises in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to have superfast broadband by 2014. South Yorkshire and Worcestershire also have separate schemes.

Once your exchange has been upgraded, you will still need to sign up for superfast broadband through a service providers. You will be able to see which service providers operate in your area at the links above.

Grant schemes for hard-to-reach areas

In England, For the 10% of hard-to-reach premises which will only get 2Mb broadband by 2015, the government's Rural Community Broadband Fund is available. Funding of £20m has been allocated for grants to communities.

If you're based in Wales, investigate the Welsh Assembly broadband support scheme, which provides grants of up to £1,000 for premises in broadband slowspots.

Other ideas for improvement and alternatives

• As the demands on wifi increase, it may be worthwhile having two lines: one that is used for the site wifi, and another just for the office.

• Trying different routers is a good idea: routers stocked by the big chain stores are often not up to the job

• If you broadband speed is still low, you might want to investigate satellite access which may provide a more reliable system.
• A leased line may be an option if your budget stretches to it

With thanks to thinkbroadband.com

Please indicate the opening times of the accommodation type that's open longest. If your opening times change significantly, please show your expected opening dates, or actual dates for the previous season if they're not available yet. Add these dates to the 'Site info', then 'General info' tab in your manager portal.

If you have different price options, there are two ways to do this. For each pitch type:

• If your alternative tariffs apply to different arrival days (for example, a typical static caravan tariff of Sat - Sat OR Mon - Fri OR Fri - Mon), then you can add this information to a single charge type*.

• If your alternative tariffs apply to the same arrival days (for example, different rates for different stay lengths on the same arrival day), then you'll need to set up a charge type for each extra pricing option. A 'standard' charge type is automatically created, so you can use that for one price and set up another for each additional one. For example, if you offer nightly, weekly, or short break pricing starting on the same arrival day, you'll need three charge types in total so you'll need to set up two more.

* When you set up a pitch type in the 'Pitch types & extras' page, a 'charge type' (set of prices for each arrival day) called 'Standard' is created beneath

Adding or updating complex pricing

If your prices change regularly, it will be faster to use the 'Batch tariffs' page in the 'Rates' tab to update your prices. Once you've entered your prices, click 'Apply changes' to apply rates, and revisit the main 'Rates' tab to check.

Add allocation by using the blue 'Batch update allocation' button on the right of the 'Allocation' page, and make any detailed changes using the daily calendar on the 'Allocation' page.

Some holiday parks and campsites are accredited with star ratings from the local tourist board - these ratings are marked as "official rating" in the campsite page. The Customer rating is the average overall rating awarded to the site in reviews submitted by Pitchup.com users.

A charge type is a daily set of prices (which can vary by day) that you enter into the system. A charge type called 'Standard' is automatically created when you add a pitch type, so that you can add availability and pricing using the 'Rates' tab.

Normally a single charge type for each pitch type should be enough. However, you can set up multiple charge types if you want to show different pricing for the same period. For example, you may set up a charge type for Fri-Fri bookings for seven-night Fri-Fri bookings, and a separate charge type for Fri-Mon / Mon-Fri short breaks. The search will show all qualifying prices for the dates the customer has searched for.

Each charge type can apply to only one pitch type.

Pitch types allow you to show availability for different types of pitch. Each pitch type can be allocated to Pitchup.com accommodation category/ies - for example, you might want to set up a 'Majestic caravan' categorised as caravans for hire.

Alternatively, you might have an electric touring pitch that also accepts motorhomes and tents - in that case, you can set up an 'Electric touring pitch' and allocate it to touring pitches, motorhomes, and tent pitches.

To create a new pitch type, visit 'Pitch types & extras' and click the blue 'Add pitch type' button.

The accommodation categories determine which Pitchup.com searches your pitch types will show up in.

We love our four-legged friends here at Pitchup but we know that assistance dogs are not pets and thousands of people rely on them for independence and confidence.

In the UK, under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal to refuse access to a disabled person accompanied by an assistance dog even where sites may have a no pets or dogs policy, unless in exceptional circumstances* (more information available in The Pink Book, by Visit Britain).

We encourage all sites to welcome all assistance dogs even where their site rules may be “no dogs”, and assistance dogs should not incur additional charges.

Where possible we encourage sites to welcome assistance dogs with water stations, and if possible, to let their owners know where they can exercise their dogs on site.

*As mentioned in the guidance surrounding assistance dogs, It would be unlawful to refuse a service to a disabled person accompanied by an assistance dog except in the most exceptional circumstances. Ultimately only a court can determine whether a refusal of service is unlawful and such a determination would be highly dependent on the specific facts and circumstances of the particular case.

Please tell us about this error using the ‘Add or remove sites?’ button under 'All sites'.

Payup is a brand new service from Pitchup.com enabling you to link your bank account to our system so we can trigger payments from the customer automatically.

Payup is currently available for business located in these countries (except any marked 'private beta'). Unfortunately businesses based in a British Crown Dependency (Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man) or a British Overseas Territory such as the British Virgin Islands are not supported currently.

How does Payup work?

Payup is really good! So glad you integrated this as now it means we aren't continuously on the phone/trying to get hold of people to pay the outstanding balance, as it gets taken automatically - it goes straight into our account so we have more time to deal with other things, I even enabled the Stripe emails so I know when they have made the full payment 14 days before arrival too and it links in well with the dashboard as I can see paid/pending/cancelled next to their booking ID! So glad you got it as we were spending so long making phone calls every evening (as most were at work during the day too and unable to pay!). Thanks.

Daniel Yallop, Manager, King's Lynn Caravan and Camping Park

We started using Payup as soon as it launched and have never looked back. Previously had to chase balance payments which was very time consuming and involved another process for the customer. Whilst no business likes to pay fees of any description we believe the cost is worth it and business has increased as the booking process is easy for the customer.

Sarah Wherry, Owner, The Pig Place

Stripe allows you to both change the receiving bank account and update company information.

It is not possible to add a surcharge to Stripe payments and only the balance payment will be deducted from a client's card. Please note: even if a charge is specified in the text box in your portal, it will be not be included in the Stripe transaction when the outstanding balance is taken and will not be billed to the customer.

Don't forget that as a Pitchup.com campsite you are automatically benefitting from a lower transaction rate with Stripe payments than the rates you would be offered as a stand-alone campsite/park. This saving, combined with higher customer bookings anticipated through the new direct payment option, should more than compensate for any lost supplement.

Users of our Payup system can take the balance automatically. Otherwise, we only take a deposit from the customer amounting to our commission, and Payment Card Industry (PCI) rules make it difficult for us to pass card details to third parties.

There is no way to amend the balance payment to take into account modifications or partial payments. If a customer contacts you to carry this out, you will need to void/cancel the Payup payment manually using the steps stated in our FAQ on cancellation.

If your payment settings do allow customers to pay the balance immediately and they want to change the card details* for a pending Payup payment or move the Payup balance payment forward, balance payment links are available and customers can find them :

• in the payment reminder email sent the day before the balance payment due date
• in the customer portal
• in their booking confirmation email

The payment link is also included in the payment failure notification email and all confirmations sent to campsite/holiday parks, as well as in the booking pop-up in the Bookings tab, allowing you to resend the link directly to the customer if necessary so that they can pay early or via a different method.

*Note that if a customer has a new card (e.g. a replacement card) from the same bank account used, the payment should still automatically go through on the replacement card.

If your payment settings do not allow customers to pay the balance immediately, the customer will then need to pay the balance/remaining amount to you manually. If you do not have card processing facilities on site, you will need to arrange another payment method with the customer, for example bank transfer, cheque or payment on arrival. Please note that you can specify payment methods accepted in the ‘Payments’ section of the ‘Campground info’ tab of the manager portal.

For information about how to contact Stripe, click here.

Pitchup.com have chosen Stripe as a partner to help facilitate your Payup payment management. However, it is important to remember that this is a third-party service and, as a Stripe account holder, any issues you may encounter with Stripe's service should be taken up directly with them. Pitchup.com does not have access to their internal systems and will be unable to provide support on these matters

Payouts from your Stripe account to your bank account are a "sweep" of the existing balance, which will be determined by balance receipts, refunds, commissions and fees.

To view the components of each payout, visit the 'Bookings' tab in your manager portal. Above the 'Price' column you will see a 'Download Stripe payout details' button. Click this button to generate a report in spreadsheet format of payouts from Stripe to your bank account.

The report will include details of each Stripe payout, including what date it's due or was paid, and which booking balances are included in the payout. There are also details of the bookings including Booking ID, customer name, total amount net and gross, Stripe fee and - for immediate payment bookings - commission paid to Pitchup.com. If you have a Stripe account that is set up to take payment for multiple locations, this report will also specify which campsite or holiday park each payment was taken for in the 'Campsite' column. Find out how to set up payments for multiple locations here.

There is also a link to 'Stripe monthly report' which is a report available on Stripe's website setting out the overall changes in your balance on a monthly basis. Please note that this report does not contain transaction-level detail.

For a booking with immediate payment, there is a single transaction and the business name set in your Stripe account will appear on the customer's statement. Our commission is deducted from the payment as a 'fee' by Stripe. (Where the booking is payable 'as soon as possible', or where your payment settings mean that a customer's payment is due immediately, the balance payment is taken at the time of booking.) These transactions are marked as 'Pitchup.com full payment' in the description of the transaction in your Stripe account.

For a booking with the balance payable later, the payee for the deposit will appear as 'Pitchup.com Ltd' and the payee for the balance will be the business name set in your Stripe account.

We are working with a payment company called Stripe. Their system powers Payup to bill the customer’s card and send the deposit to Pitchup.com and the balance directly to you.

The balance will be billed to the customer on the 'due date' which already appears in confirmations for most sites. We calculate this based on the settings in the payment section of your portal.

Payup payments can be viewed in the ‘Bookings’ tab in the manager portal.

You will notice a ‘Balance status’ column next to the flagging system: this column summarises the balance payment status for all your bookings, such as 'Paid' or 'Pending'.

For an explanation of payment status, click on the "i" at the top of the column.

To prevent a balance payment happening on the due date, click 'Pending' and then 'Cancel balance payment'.

1. Visit the ‘Site info’ tab of your manager portal, and then the ‘Payments’ section

2. Under 'Balance payment timing', select 'Payment in advance by' and choose how many days in advance you want customers to pay.

3. Under 'Cancellation before arrival policy' select your cancellation policy.

4. Click on the blue 'Connect with Stripe' button to create/link your Stripe account

5a. If you already have a Stripe account, you can sign in here

5b. If you do not yet have a Stripe account, the form should take a couple of minutes to fill out (please have your bank details ready)

The processing costs for Payup payments depend on where your bank account is located:

1. Businesses with Stripe accounts linked to banks in the EEA (except Norway)

A per-transaction fee of 20p or €0.25 or 1.8kr, plus:

- if your bank account is in the UK, 0.3% for domestic debit cards and 1.5% for all other cards issued in the EEA (including domestic credit cards)

- if your bank account is elsewhere in the EEA, 2.5% for all cards issued in the UK and 1.5% for all cards issued in the EEA (including domestic cards)

- 2.9% for international (non-EEA) cards

There are no additional interchange or gateway fees (such as SagePay costs), and Pitchup.com itself does not charge extra for Payup.

Payup should be cheaper than your existing payment service. A common misconception is that payment costs consist solely of the 'acquirer' fee, the amount paid to the company receiving the payment on behalf of the site owner (e.g. Streamline/Global Payments/Barclaycard). However, there are two other types of payment cost. The 'interchange' fee can be as much again, and - for online payments - a third fee (the 'gateway' cost/'payment service provider' cost) is also payable, normally 5-10p per transaction.

Many site owners will be comparing Payup to telephone-based card payments. However the acquirer and interchange fees for payments over the telephone, known as "MOTO" payments, can be even higher.

If you enjoy cheaper interchange rates by using 3D Secure, please note that many merchants report that 3D Secure causes conversion rates to fall by more than the saving in interchange rate.

2. Businesses with Stripe accounts linked to banks in the USA

Please visit www.stripe.com/pricing/ to view pricing.

American Expresss

UK bank accounts: 2.9% + £0.20

EEA bank accounts: 2.9% + €0.25

US bank accounts: 3.5%

iDEAL

Customers in the Netherlands can now also pay using iDEAL when booking campsites who:

1) have the currency set to Euros (€)

2) either take payment on arrival or full payment at time of booking

Unfortunately payment via iDEAL is not yet available for bookings where the balance would be taken at a later date.

The cost per transaction is €0.29.

Refunds

Starting on April 1st 2020, Stripe will no longer refund their fees, however they may consider this if you ask them directly.

Note: if a booking is for immediate payment, only one transaction will occur with the name of your site as the payee. In this scenario, you will bear the full transaction fee.

You can view the status of your balance payments at any time via your Stripe account:

1. Go to the Payouts section of the Stripe dashboard.

2. You will see all your payments here. Upcoming payments will be displayed with a light blue ‘In transit’ status alongside. You can also click 'Export' to download your payments as a CSV file which can be opened in Excel for your own records.

You can also sign up for email alerts when a balance payment is made. To receive email notifications:

1. Go to the Stripe 'Communication preferences' page

2. Tick the 'Successful payments' button to toggle them on

For customers who make payments towards their balance via a Stripe payment link, you will receive an email notification of this from Pitchup.

More information on how to check when you will receive payments is available here.

• Automatic payment transaction - no need to chase customers

• Reduce losses from no-shows

• No need to copy down card details from customers or worry about storing them in a way that complies with PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards

• Get found more easily using 'automatic payment' filters

• More bookings - it’s so much easier for customers to arrange their holiday

• No intermediary - payments pass directly into your payment account

• Reduced paperwork - Pitchup.com’s booking confirmation sets out both transactions

• Full reporting via your Stripe and Pitchup.com accounts

• Benefit from low commission rates versus setting up your own merchant account

Where your payment settings mean that a customer's payment is due immediately, the full payment is taken at the time of booking in a single transaction.

Payment will be sent directly to your Stripe account, with Pitchup.com's deposit billed as a fee, and the business name set in Stripe will appear on the customer's statement. These transactions are marked as 'Pitchup.com full payment' in the description of the transaction in your Stripe account.

Find out about how much Payup costs.

For more information about how Payup will take payments automatically in accordance to your current payment date settings, clicking here.

We will send an email to remind the customer that their balance will be taken one day before it is due.

1. Visit the 'Bookings' tab in your manager portal

2. Find the booking concerned

3. Click 'Pending' or 'Due soon (reminder email sent)'

4. In the pop-up window that appears, click the red 'Cancel balance payment' button

5. Don’t forget to notify Pitchup.com using the flagging system to report a problem with a booking.

Payup will take payments automatically in accordance to your current payment date settings: check this is set up correctly in your ‘Payment’ section of the manager portal.

For example, Willow Holidays' payment terms are set to payment in advance four weeks before the arrival date. If Willow Holidays receives a £100 booking made on 15 July for arrival on 30 August, £15 will be taken immediately for Pitchup.com and £85 will be taken on 2 August and transferred directly to Willow Holidays by Stripe. The payment timeline will work like this:

Willow Holidays' payment terms also specify that if a booking is made after 4 weeks before arrival, then payment is to be taken as soon as possible. So, if a £100 booking is made on 15 July for arrival on 18 July, £15 will be taken now for Pitchup.com and £85 will be taken now and transferred directly to Willow Holidays' Stripe account. In this scenario, the payment timeline will look like this:

How to manage Payup.

Pitchup.com acts as your agent (that is, the contract is between you and the customer). For businesses based outside the UK, the commission ('deposit') excludes VAT and you would be unable to reclaim sales tax on our commission. You can download an invoice for our commission from the 'Bookings' tab at the top of the manager portal. Click 'VAT invoice' and select any date period for each invoice, based on arrival date or booking date.

If you are signed up to Payup, you can download a tax invoice for your Stripe fees at https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/documents or by clicking on your username at the top right-hand corner of your Stripe account and then 'Account Settings', and visiting the 'Documents' tab. 

Please consult your accountant for further advice on accounting for bookings through Pitchup.com.

The 'balance status' column in the Bookings’ tab contains the payment status of each booking. Here is a summary of the different settings and what to do for each:

• Pending: the payment is still due, look to the left of this column to see the exact due date.

• Due soon (reminder email sent): the payment date is approaching and the automated reminder email has been sent to the customer.

• Paid: Automated payment has been successfully taken on the payment due date and you should expect the payment in your nominated account in approximately 3 days (or 7 days if your listing is not located in the UK).
  
  
• Paid*: Immediate payment was successfully taken at the time of booking and you should expect the payment in your nominated account in approximately 3 days (or 7 days if your listing is not located in the UK).

• Payment error: the customer’s card has been declined. An email will be sent to notify the customer of this payment failure on the same day and you will receive a copy to your registered email address. Wait until you receive this email before taking further action.

• Payment error (email sent): the customer's card has been declined and an automated ‘payment failed’ email has been sent. Unfortunately we do not have access to the customer's card details for security reasons and we are unable to re-attempt the payment. In this situation, customers are asked to contact the campsite to arrange alternate payment. If no customer contact or alternate payment is made then you can implement your cancellation policy. Don’t forget to use the flagging system to notify Pitchup.com when you have cancelled a booking.

• Payment cancelled: this status indicates that you have cancelled the booking due to lack of payment or for any other cancellation reason that you have agreed with the customer. No further payments will be taken. Make sure you have flagged the booking in the system.

If you are signed up to Payup, the payment date settings you have set in the portal will affect how you deal with a cancellation:

1) Cancellation before payment date: You will need to stop the rest of the balance payment being automatically processed on the ‘due date’, which will appear on most confirmations. Pitchup.com calculates this based on the existing advance payment settings in your portal. To cancel:

a. Visit the 'Bookings' tab in the manager portal.

b. Click 'Pending' or 'Due soon (reminder email sent)' in the 'Balance status' column on the row corresponding with the booking.

c. This will open a pop-up window where you can click the red 'Cancel automatic balance payment' button to stop the pending payment.

d. Don't forget to also notify Pitchup.com using the flagging system if you cancel a booking.

2) Cancellation after payment date / cancellation for 'immediate' payment setup: In these situations full payment will already have been taken and you will need to refund the customer in accordance with your refund policy. If a refund is required, you can refund a customer via your Stripe account. If your available Stripe balance from recent charges is not enough to refund the customer, you’ll end up with a negative balance. Depending on where your business account is located, one of two options will occur in order to pay back any negative balance. Please read this information to find out which will apply to your account.

To make a refund via Stripe:

a. Go to your Stripe dashboard

b. Click on ‘Payments’ on the left-hand side

c. Click on ‘View all payments’ if it is not a recent payment

d. Use the ‘Filter’ option in the top left to search by date, amount etc., to find the relevant payment. You can also click 'Export' to download your payments as a CSV file which can be opened in Excel for your own records.

e. Click on the payment. All the details will be displayed and you will see the ‘Refund Payment’ option in the top right-hand side of your screen.

Where the full payment was taken on booking, ensure that you specify 'Partial refund' and exclude the 'Fee' (Pitchup.com's deposit) from the amount. Otherwise the full amount will be refunded from your Stripe account. Please note that as of 1 April 2020, Stripe will no longer refund their fee, however, please refund the full balance including the transaction fee (minus the Pitchup.com deposit).

The Pitchup.com commission would need to be rebated to your account by Pitchup.com, although please note that deposits are generally non-refundable. Use the flag button on the 'Bookings' tab to request an exceptional deposit refund, stating any reasons within the pop-up window. Check the circumstances under which you need to refund the Pitchup.com deposit here.

Depending on your customer's bank, the refund should appear 5-10 business days later. Stripe’s processing fees for the portion of the payment refunded will be rebated to your account.

Please note that if the customer amends their booking with you and the price of their stay increases or decreases, the amount they are billed via Payup will stay the same as the original price quoted when booking. You will need to liaise directly with the customer to refund or charge them the difference. If you choose to take payment from them directly, don’t forget to cancel the automated Payup payment by following the steps outlined in section one above.

In this case the system will bill the customer immediately.

If the automatic balance payment fails, we send an email alert to the customer and to you (to the same email addresses that you have set up for the booking confirmations). The booking affected will show a 'Payment error' status in the ‘Balance status’ column in your 'Bookings' tab in the portal.

We include a 'payment link' in the payment failure email so that the customer can pay your Stripe account using a different payment method. If the customer subsequently pays by that link, we will alert you via email. Unfortunately, we are unable to re-attempt the original balance payment automatically.

If your payment settings allow customers to pay the full amount immediately (before the balance would be due), the payment link is also shown:

• in the payment reminder email sent the day before the balance payment due date
• in the customer portal
• in their booking confirmation email

It is also shown in the booking confirmations sent to you and in the booking pop-up in the Bookings tab. You can send this link to the customer if necessary so that they can pay early or via a different method.

If payment is still not made after the balance failure email, you can implement your cancellation policy. 

Don’t forget to flag a booking if you cancel it on these grounds using the flag button in the last column of the 'Bookings' tab.

Who is responsible for my payments?

Please note that if a customer's card is declined, Stripe will not re-attempt the payment.

Customers can pay via credit or debit card only when booking via the Payup system. Customers will not be able use their PayPal account for a Payup balance payment.

Payments are made directly to your bank account and Stripe will pay these on a 7-day rolling basis.

More information

View all my future and pending transfers

If you need to change your Stripe bank account, find out how to do this here.

Stripe is an online payments company founded in 2010 by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison based in San Francisco. It was recently valued at $1.75bn and is backed by some of the leading investors in the online sector. Clients, who include Rackspace, The Guardian, Salesforce.com and Virgin, can accept payments in over 130 currencies.

Payup should be considered as a facilitator for your online payment management but - although only around 2% of balance payments fail - payment management ultimately remains your responsibility. Commercial decisions relating to failed payments are still yours to make provided they are in alignment with the terms you have outlined in your Pitchup.com listing. Failed payments for whatever reason will still require manual intervention on your part and must be managed by you.

We have, however, recently made available balance payment links accessible to customers that they can use to pay the balance before the scheduled balance payment date or if their balance payment fails.

The Pitchup commission shown against each booking in the Bookings tab represents the total amount (15% including VAT) paid to Pitchup, however, it shows in your Stripe payout report (Column K) only in instances when our commission has passed through your Stripe account.

This happens when there is a payment in full (marked Paid* in the Balance status column). 

The Pitchup commission for bookings made before the balance is due will not register in your Stripe account, however, because it is paid directly to us from the customer at the time of booking. 

Your Stripe balance report also provides you with a breakdown of the costs into Stripe commission and Pitchup commission.

At present, customers have to contact the campsite or holiday park direct to pay their balance, which can be an onerous process for customers and managers:

• Both parties can be hard to reach on the phone

• Customers may be at their desks and find it difficult to make a number of personal calls before getting through

• They’re usually passing the exact same card details to the campsite owner

• The balance payable can be only a few pounds

• The balance might be payable shortly after the booking, especially for last-minute trips

Where payment would be due immediately, the holiday cost is billed in full by your account, with the Pitchup.com commission deducted as an "Application Fee". Therefore, if a customer's card were declined at the time of booking the failure will show in your account, but the booking would not have been placed and will not appear in the 'Bookings' tab of your manager portal.

Unfortunately this is not currently possible and you would need to use the same payment terms for both to implement Payup. We suggest choosing a middle ground that will work for both options via Payup to benefit from its simplified payment system.

Stripe stopped refunding fees in 2017, except for older Stripe accounts, which continued to have fees refunded. Starting on April 1st 2020, these older accounts will lose this benefit. This was communicated on 2nd March to accounts concerned.

We have asked Stripe to consider refunding fees for all Connect accounts at this time, and been told Connected accounts should contact Stripe directly to request this.

No, only new bookings made after you sign up for Payup will have the balance billed automatically.

The large blue Overall rating number that appears at the top of the Reviews tab on your listing is worked out from the average of all the Overall scores which guests have left in their reviews. When you have five or more reviews, this number will also appear next to your listing on the Pitchup.com results page.

The Overall rating is the guest’s chance to share how they think your site/park performed on the whole, independently of the other scores they may have already set. The other rating fields are not compulsory to fill in when leaving a review, whereas the Overall score is, and this is the score that will average your blue Overall rating number.

The Overall score a guest leaves for your campsite or holiday park in their review is not worked out as an average from the other scores they have chosen (Location, Value for money, Facilities/amenities etc).

It's usually better to reply to your customers rather than disputing their reviews. Try and turn things into a positive... To keep things clean, please follow the guidelines below - Pitchup.com's review system is an open forum and we reserve the right to remove content in violation of these guidelines.

• Try not to be defensive - address any problems in a courteous and factual way
• Avoid personal insults and naming of individuals
• Don't include your contact details, invite users to contact you direct, offer discounts or special offers, make reference to your own website, or direct guests to your website for information about your site/park. Everything they need to know should be on your Pitchup.com listing!
• Avoid unnecessary CAPS, swear words, vulgar comments or sexually explicit language and keep an eye out for typos!

Please note that your comments are not automatically emailed to customers.

We only show an overall rating score at the top of your listing and in search results once you have five reviews. This is to ensure that the overall rating is representative of your site.

Please note that only the overall scores of each individual review contribute to the overall rating, not the ratings for cleanliness, facilities, etc.

Our user reviews are intended to provide another perspective on our listed sites. Negative feedback is inevitable in any worthwhile reviews system and we hope that managers will treat constructive criticism as just that.

Although we don't remove reviews simply because they are negative, we recognise that not all reviews are genuine or accurate. To respond to a review you can:

1. Add a comment (recommended). In the 'Reviews' tab of our Manager Portal you can add a 'manager comment' to any review and this will be published beneath the live review. Please note that users do not automatically receive a copy of your comment. For guidelines on how best to comment on a review, see How should I respond to a review for my site/park?

2. Use our dispute process. You can ask us to remove a review that is from a fictitious guest, contains serious personal insults, or contains substantial false information by clicking 'dispute' next to the review in your Manager Portal. Reasons must be provided in the dispute form. A disputed review will be removed from Pitchup.com pending our investigation of your complaint. Please note that we will only remove reviews in exceptional circumstances. Customers' trust in Pitchup.com is based on the fact that we publish their reviews, albeit some of them may appear to be unfair feedback. In the majority of cases we will please ask that you use the manager comment section to set the record straight and this will appear directly below the review on your listing page.

To add a comment or dispute a review, log in to your Manager Portal, click the 'Reviews' tab and find the review you would like to address.

As an additional service, Managers can opt to receive alerts of new reviews in the Manager Portal. If you have not claimed a Manager Portal for your site and registered your email with us, please follow the instructions to do so on the sign up form.

Please note that Pitchup.com operates as an open forum and takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted, stored or uploaded by any third party, or for any loss or damage thereto, nor is Pitchup.com liable for any mistakes, defamation, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography or profanity you may encounter.

For more information on our content policies please visit our terms and conditions.

If your campsite or holiday park has undergone a major development, i.e. refurbishment or renovation, Pitchup.com will consider removing the reviews (good and bad) that have been left prior to this date, in order to offer your business a fresh start.

Certified written proof of the substantial refurbishment/renovations at your site/park can be submitted to Pitchup.com (enquiries@pitchup.com), in the form of one of the following:

- Copies of the building/work permits

- Copies of the traders’ receipts for material and labour

The Pitchup.com team will assess the documents submitted and if they meet the criteria required, the reviews will be removed. Pitchup.com will handle such requests on a case-by-case basis.

Please note that the redecoration of old facilities or a handover in ownership or management do not constitute legitimate grounds on which you can request to have your site/park’s past reviews removed.