Campsite & Touring Park
Booking Management System

Hi, I’m Leon, founder and sole developer of Gatekeeper Bookings.

In 2011, I took a break from a web development career to manage a growing campsite for a season. With no proper booking system controlling availability, I improvised paper and contact-form solutions to manage bookings and arrivals — but it quickly became apparent that a purpose-built system would be a game-changer.

So in 2012 I started building Gatekeeper, going live at the original campsite in early 2013.

For the next ten years I stepped away from being physically present on the campsite, but continued managing the campsite’s online presence, bookings, and customer correspondence myself, while continuing to sit on the campsite's executive team.

That hands-on experience was instrumental in the evolution of Gatekeeper, as many improvements came directly from the day-to-day tasks I was handling.

Regular communication with campers through email helped shape the customer-facing parts of the system, while working with campsite owners, staff, and bookkeepers drove continuous improvements to the administration system.

Gatekeeper has now been managing campsite bookings for more than a decade, with the original campsite still proudly powered by Gatekeeper, along with a small number of others.

If you’d like to see whether Gatekeeper could work for your campsite, I’d be very happy to talk it through.

Gatekeeper pricing is simple: 2.5% of your total booking revenue, with no per-unit charges or other standing fees.

Importantly, this fee also includes the payment processing costs for transactions made through the online booking service, which are handled directly through Gatekeeper’s fully integrated payment gateway.

The only additional cost is the standard merchant bank charge on payments received. We recommend a suitable merchant bank where this is limited to 1% of the revenue passing through the account.

There are no other charges connected with any aspect of employing the Gatekeeper system. Ongoing advice and support on working with the system is unlimited and free, as is input on optimizing your online presence.

We do offer further related paid services to Gatekeeper clients, however, at very friendly rates. These include: park website creation (select scenarios only), park website hosting/administration, vector-based park map production, customer correspondence solutions, the running of online advertising campaigns through Google and social media providers.

Gatekeeper gives you complete control over how your campsite operates, covering everything from pricing and availability through to bookings, policies, payments, customer management, and detailed analytical, statistical, and financial reporting.

Despite this depth, the system has been designed from the ground up to remain intuitive and easy to work with in day-to-day use.

At the outset, we work closely with you to establish the right setup for your site — whether that means implementing an existing approach, or designing something new, perhaps with input based on our extensive experience. Booking categories, availability, minimum stays, pricing structures, payment policies, and other key considerations are all set up in collaboration with you.

Once live, you can continue to rely on us for support with any necessary changes. At the same time, availability, minimum stays, discounts, and other configurable elements can be updated directly by you and your staff through the system as needed.

Running in your browser, a desktop version provides full functionality, while a streamlined mobile version allows staff to move around the site free to check in arrivals, view occupancy, or look up and edit any particular guest's booking. Tiered user accounts with fine-grained controls ensure that access to sensitive information remains properly controlled.

Financial oversight is comprehensive, with reporting suitable for both internal use and external accounting.

Payment processing is monitored directly within the system, providing clear visibility of failed or incomplete transactions — often giving a more accurate picture than relying on customer feedback alone.

Gatekeeper provides integrated analytics, allowing you to track where visitors arrive to your service from, and how they interact with it. Depending on your setup, this can extend to include referrals, page views and events from your main website.

This insight is invaluable where it informs the effectiveness of search advertising, social media campaigns, and directory or OTA listings.

Among many other applications not yet mentioned are group booking controls, invoicing options, a customer credit scheme (replacing refunds), customer no-rebook lists and controls,and direct system-to-customer email messaging, including the ability to mass email all guests on site for a specific set of dates.

For peace of mind, an encrypted backup of your entire database is sent to you daily by email. This data can be imported into other systems (where supported), ensuring you are never locked in.

In terms of integrations, Gatekeeper does not connect to every OTA (online travel agency). This is in part a deliberate choice, as taking bookings through third-party platforms is not always the most effective approach for operators with their own booking system. However, integration with campsites.co.uk is available.

Overall, Gatekeeper brings together the control, visibility, and support needed to run a campsite effectively — both in day-to-day operation and as your business develops over time.

With any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.