Online marketplaces are an important discovery channel for campgrounds, and Campspot continues to make it easy for customers to market themselves on the travel sites that are most important to their parks. Campspot’s latest integration with two of the top travel OTAs expands those opportunities.

Campspot customers now have a variety of options when it comes to choosing an online travel agency (OTA) as part of their larger business and marketing strategy. In addition to exposure on our own camping-specific OTA, Campspot Marketplace, customers can choose from three of the most highly trafficked traditional travel marketplaces—Booking.com, Airbnb, and Vrbo—to list their lodging inventory.

“Online marketplaces are an important piece of the pie when it comes to marketing your campground,” says Campspot CEO Michael Scheinman. “Having a presence on OTAs can help you reach new customers that you wouldn’t find elsewhere. But, we know the real pain for a campground comes from the time and effort required to learn each platform and manage inventory from different places. Our goal at Campspot is not only to help campgrounds sell more site nights, but to also enable parks to manage their distribution channels with ease.”

As with all things, the right strategy is a balance of choosing the right marketing channels for your brand and aiming for a certain percentage of traffic to come from each one, without any one of them carrying too much of the weight.

How are the Airbnb and Vrbo Integrations Different From Booking.com?

Booking.com is a self-service integration where all reservations and communication with guests is handled by the campground. The Airbnb and Vrbo connections are managed by BnBerry—a concierge service that handles the listings for you, from content updates and optimizations to guest inquiries. They manage communication with the guest up until they arrive on-site.

How are Travel OTAs Different From Campspot.com?

Campspot.com is the largest camping-specific OTA with users who are intentional about finding and booking a campground. Marketplace listings are a direct reflection of what’s on the campground listings and can be managed within Campspot.

Travel OTAs will list your lodging sites alongside other more traditional lodging options and therefore can give you access to new campers who might not have specifically been looking for a campground but are open to new and unique travel experiences. In fact, Booking.com notes that “42% of nights booked are for properties other than hotels.”

Searchers are looking for unique experiences, or even just a place to stay near their preferred destination, but they might not have had a campground in mind when they started their research. Appearing on one of these OTAs can open up your campground to a new segment of guests.

Whether it’s a camping-specific or travel-focused, OTAs can help campgrounds reach new customers where they are already looking and planning their trips

How to Choose an OTA

Business strategy, marketing opportunity, and brand alignment are some of the things to consider when choosing an OTA. Think about which platform attracts the type of customer you are looking for, and how you want to leverage OTAs for your business. Are you looking to fill last-minute vacancies? Are you hoping to attract a new kind of guest?

In the end, however, the OTA should be a reflection of your brand, regardless of marketing channel. This includes the listing itself but also all the backend rules you have in place on your own website.

You can learn more about this in our blog titled How to Make OTAs a Part of Your Business Strategy.

And if you’d like to learn more about this latest travel OTAs integration, visit our support center where you can find answers to frequently asked questions and information about how to get started. Or contact our sales team directly to discuss this, along with other revenue-generating integrations.