{"id":4169,"date":"2019-05-28T14:56:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T12:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francevisiting.com\/?p=4169"},"modified":"2020-06-23T23:50:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T21:50:39","slug":"pitchup-the-camping-booking-platform-is-now-available-in-france-interview-with-its-founder-dan-yates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francevisiting.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/pitchup-the-camping-booking-platform-is-now-available-in-france-interview-with-its-founder-dan-yates\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitchup, the camping booking platform is now available in France! Interview with its founder Dan Yates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Born in 2009, the Pitchup camping reservation platform is riding on the rise of this resort mode throughout the world and on the multiplication of rental accommodation types (yurts, tipis, tents, caravans, mobile homes, etc.). Similarly, there is a rise in the range of establishments, giving birth to the concept of “glamping”, a mixture of glamor and camping. This enthusiasm has reached\u00a0for a long time the French tourists, thanks in particular to more than 100 million overnight stays in 2017. This Pitchup offers the opportunity to book in a few minutes, thanks to a discount, your next holiday vacation, among 80 research filters between more than 4,200 outdoor accommodations, and 1,108 in France. In order to better understand this success-story, we met Dan Yates, the british founder.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) What made you decide to create this reservation platform of Pitchup in 2009?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"I was born and brought up on a holiday park in Devon, so it was probably inevitable I wouldn\u2019t stray far! Each of us helped out in different areas of the business: when the internet began to take off in the late \u201890s, I jumped at the chance to create the company\u2019s first website. Working with local web designers and skipping lectures at university to work on the project, I knew there was an opportunity for something bigger after we achieved number-one rankings in Google UK and received half of the bookings online by 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the business was sold, I kept wondering why such a large part of the travel market – the biggest type of domestic holiday by nights in the UK \u00a0– was still so neglected online. High-profile online travel agents targeting all the other categories of accommodation were growing fast: campsites were losing out as customers moved online to find their holidays. Arguably campsites were in greatest need of all, as the market is so fragmented, with limited or non-existent marketing and technology budgets.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was only a matter of time before someone else spotted the opportunity. By 2008 I was working at lastminute.com and, witnessing the new world of online travel at first hand, realized that failing to act would be something I\u2019d regret. In the other hand, something you wouldn’t regret would be your night at Les Cabanes de Fontaine-Ch\u00e2tel, in Seine-Maritime (France) in one of the charming eco-friendly treehouses in a peaceful woodland! Cherry on the cake, the breakfast hampers included…\u00a0(photo credits: Pitchup).<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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2) All kinds of holiday parks are eligible to be part of the offer listing? Which services and facilities offers Pitchup, considering the customer’s reservation (the added value of Pitchup in fact).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Pitchup.com<\/a> <\/strong>operates with a simple commission-based business model with immediate confirmation (no \u2018on request\u2019), charging no booking fees.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment Pitchup.com offers <\/span>more than 4,200 outdoor accommodations available in 65 countries around the world (yurts, geodesic domes, teepees, lodges, cabins, cottages, campsites and wild sites for tents) and it is available in 17 languages, thanks to a team of 30 native translators. Easier if you wish to spend your honeymoon in a Bolivian tipi,\u00a0located in a scenic mountainside site above the Valley of the Flowers, only half an hour from La Paz\u00a0<\/strong>(photo credits: Pitchup).<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pitchup.com has developed an award-winning mobile site so customers can book in a couple of minutes even when they are already travelling (in fact, bookings made via mobile on the dedicated website<\/strong><\/a> increased from 37% to 44% between 2017 and 2018).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Other advantages of using Pitchup include fully-automated payments – we automatically bill the customer\u2019s card on the balance due date – as well as the ability to save your card. Other details, such as the type and size of your size, names of your party members, address and telephone number, can also be saved, making new bookings a breeze.<\/span><\/p>\n

A simple, one-page booking process makes for a seamless \u201cfind and book\u201d experience, which can take as little as a few minutes from start to finish. Once the booking has been made, we help with direction finders and automatically updating the customer\u2019s online calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because Pitchup.com aggregates an eclectic range of listings, we adopted the tagline \u2018Make your great escape\u2019. This reflects each customer\u2019s ability to craft their perfect holiday from billions of combinations, filtering results using more than 80 filters from electric pitch and dog friendly to waterslide and nearby sailing. For example, having rest in one of those cosy pods on the banks of the Savinja river in Slovenia, would be for sure a great combination!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"We have even imported EU bathing water data for 20,000 EU beaches, enabling customers to see the last four years\u2019 water quality at the beaches near their campsite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Awards and recognitions:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Financial Times listed Pitchup in its <\/span>FT1000<\/span><\/a> ranking of Europe’s 1,000 fastest growing companies in 2019 (for the second year running). Previous awards have included Deloitte \u2018Fast 50\u2019 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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3) How many nights are booked through your services? How stands the French market?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"8 million nights away<\/span> have been booked through Pitchup.com since its launch. <\/span>2.5 million nights <\/span>were booked last year only.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, Pitchup.com recorded \u00a325 million euros in business volumes, as well as 19 million visits to the site (up to 155,000 site visits per day), among them 84,157 people who went to France via Pitchup in 2018 and 29,116 French having booked their vacation with Pitchup in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the last 12 months( May 22 2018 – May 21 2019 compared to SPLY), <\/span>France has been the second most important market in terms of bookings per country of origin<\/span>. In the last 12 months<\/span> bookings made by French customers <\/span>– all destinations combined –<\/span> have increased by 63%. This country offers a large choice of nearby activities in the club, such as yoga in La Parenth\u00e8se – Camping Les Ormes in the P\u00e9rigord natural region\u00a0<\/strong>(photo credits: Pitchup).<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Growth of our international markets by bookings by origin (in the last 12 months):<\/span><\/p>\n