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MANAGEMENT > CORONAVIRUS

How does the coronavirus affect bookings?

Last updated: 10:33 Tuesday 10th July 2021.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected every aspect of life and tourism and we’ve been busy throughout 2020 and 2021 communicating by phone and email about the challenges our close-knit network of businesses is facing.

Although our staff are now home-based, we are still open for your calls and support queries. In order to help you more quickly, however, we have listed some of the most frequently asked questions below:

Am I allowed to open my site/holiday accommodation?

Remember, measures and guidelines could still change and are all conditional on the state of the coronavirus pandemic.

England: Yes, all holiday accommodation in England is now permitted to open, including the use of shared facilities and hospitality venues like cafés and bars, provided the relevant guidance is followed. More information can be found here.

Wales: Yes, all holiday accommodation in Wales is now permitted to open, including the use of shared facilities and hospitality venues like cafés and bars, provided the relevant guidance is followed. More information can be found here.

Scotland: Yes, all holiday accommodation in Scotland is now permitted to open, including the use of shared facilities and hospitality venues like cafés and bars, provided the relevant guidance is followed. You can search to find out the restrictions that apply in your local area here.


What guidance must I follow when my site/holiday accommodation re-opens?

Remember, measures and guidelines could still change and are all conditional on the state of the coronavirus pandemic.

England: Government guidance for hotels and other guest accommodation, which includes campsites, can be found here, along with associated guidance for the Visitor Economy.

Wales: Government guidance for tourism and hospitality businesses can be found here. And there is a handy breakdown document from UK Hospitality here.

Scotland: Government tourism and hospitality sector guidance can be found here, along with the sector checklist and a guidance breakdown for different types of hospitality business from UK Hospitality (‘Holiday and Touring Parks’ are covered from page 78).

Northern Ireland: Government guidance for working safely in tourism and hospitality can be found here, along with specific guidance documents for hotels and accommodation here.


What advice can you give about implementing the guidance?

While we've worked hard to talk to journalists and lobby the government to ensure the voice of smaller, independent businesses are heard, ultimately, we have access to the same documentation as everyone else and it is up to you to interpret the guidance. There's a wide array of camping and glamping experiences available in the UK and you will be best placed to understand how the guidance applies to what your business offers. While we're always pleased to promote the camping and glamping sites we work with, we are not an official industry body or trade association and we cannot make recommendations or provide legal advice on how the guidance applies to your business.

Once you have met the guidance, we do recommend applying for Visit Britain's "We're Good To Go" certification. (See: what can I do to encourage future bookings?) and we also advise that you make particular efforts to make your refund policy for coronavirus-related cancellations as clear as possible (see our example terms) – for maximum clarity, we recommend joining our Coronavirus Booking Guarantee.


How do I stop all bookings over a long period?

On 24th March 2020 we added a new Pause Bookings function. This allows you to suspend bookings for the immediate future and set a new temporary ‘opening date’ for your site. Once set, no bookings will be accepted that begin before your new ‘opening date’. Bookings that begin after that date will be accepted as usual. With this tool, you determine when your site re-opens and all bookings before that date will be prevented, though you will still be able to add bookings manually via your dashboard.

To set your new opening date, go to your site setup and then click on the new ‘COVID-19’ tab. Here you can set the date you would like to pause your bookings until. You can edit and reset this at any time.


How do I invite customers to re-book their dates?

On 29th June 2020 we launched a new Rebooking function. There is a new ‘Customer Rebooking Link’ on the ‘Admin’ tab of each booking. Use this to send customers a link to choose and book new dates themselves, and pay the difference if the new dates cost more. This feature will save you time and is available for bookings made on your own website, the Bedful dashboard and with Cool Camping. Bookings from other third-party sales channels like Airbnb should continue to be amended on the original sales channel in the usual way.

The rebooking link can be used on active bookings or cancelled ones. If you prefer to leave the booking active but don't want to block the dates, you can just move it to the next year and send the rebooking link for the customer to choose new dates.

When the customer uses the rebooking link to select dates, the booking will automatically change back to Confirmed status from whatever status it had before.


How do I edit a booking?

If you need to amend the dates on a booking, you should not click to cancel it. When you cancel a booking, the customer receives an automated email notification that their booking has been cancelled. To amend a booking or change the dates, simply click on the booking you wish to amend then select the Edit Booking button on the Booking Confirmed page. Alternatively, you can edit your bookings via the Availability grid by clicking on the dates marked as 'C' or 'U'. From the 'Details for booking on...' menu, you can amend the dates, reallocate the booking to a different unit, or change the party size by using the grey Details, Units, Extras and Discounts tabs. You can find more information on our Sharing Availability guide.


Can I change my cancellation policy?

For future bookings, you can change your policy on Bedful by following the tabs Setup > Site > Terms. We recommend adding a general force majeure clause to your terms if you do not already have one, as well as special conditions for coronavirus specifically (sample terms can be found here).

For past bookings, the policies in force at the time of the booking apply. Customers have a record of the cancellation policy in their Booking Confirmation email. You cannot tighten cancellation policies retrospectively, though you 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).


What should I do if a customer wants to cancel their booking?

In circumstances where customers wish to cancel their stay, we would always urge you to talk with them, articulate your need for their support and encourage them to amend their dates to later this year or next. This is also the advice we are giving to customers on our channels, such as here on coolcamping.com. This shared sentiment has been widely embraced by journalists and media outlets across the UK and we’ve been encouraged by the many understanding customers we’ve spoken to.


Do you have an email template I can send to guests?

We have two email templates you can copy, paste and edit for your individual business. The first is a reply to customers contacting you about their booking, the second is a template you can send if your site/accommodation closure is extended and you need to reach out to your guests. These template emails can be found here. Please note, every business is unique and these templates may not be right for you.


I've not set up dates for 2022, can I still move a booking?

Yes, you can move an existing booking into next year even if you have not set up availability/rates for that year. Just change the dates on the booking in the Details tab. In most cases you will probably want to honour the original price, but if you need to change the price you can do so once the booking has been saved with the new dates. Go to the Payments tab of the booking, then change the 'Total price of booking'.

Our partner websites, including Cool Camping, Glampingly and Cool Places, are already seeing an increase in advanced bookings following the busy scenes last summer. If you have not already done so, we highly recommend making your 2022 summer dates available as soon as possible to capitalise on the high volumes of traffic and high levels of interest we are receiving. It couldn’t be easier to set up a new year; just go to Setup > Units > Seasons and click on the green ‘Add New Year’ button. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.


What is the VAT policy for your channels (Cool Camping & Glampingly)?

On 9th July 2020 the government announced that they would be cutting the VAT rate for the hospitality industry. The fees that we charge your business are for marketing services and are still subject to the full 20% rate of VAT.

The fees that you charge your customers may or may not be subject to VAT depending on the scale of your business and whether you are VAT registered. As always, you are best placed to determine your own pricing, discounts and refund policies and we will continue to do our utmost in supporting you.

We are making clear to Cool Camping customers that many small businesses we recommend are below the VAT threshold and, as a result, VAT is not applicable in many instances (and therefore refunds should not be expected). You can read the full Cool Camping statement on VAT refunds here.


What is the refund policy for your channels (Cool Camping & Glampingly)?

Any payments made by customers for bookings via our own sales channels are made to you rather than us, and you decide on your own refund policy for those bookings.

Any commission fees, charged to you for bookings via our channels, are non-refundable. Your own refund policy and terms should allow for that, ie you should retain at least some of the initial deposit in the event of cancellation, and make that clear in your terms on the Bedful platform. You may choose to not offer any refunds at all.

On our channels, we have made it clear to customers that they may not be entitled to a refund from your business, but ultimately, that is a decision for you to make.

Those businesses that have joined our Coronavirus Booking Guarantee should not be offering refunds to any customers who made a booking bound by the guarantee. We recommend you read our customer-facing coronavirus FAQ on coolcamping.com and on glampingly.co.uk for more information on our position.

Please note, our temporary policy of offering 'Goodwill Vouchers' to cover our portion of a refunded booking ended on 31st July 2020.


How do I issue a refund?

If the booking came via one of our channels (Cool Camping or Glampingly) first read our refund policy above.

If you need to refund a customer, you can do this using the following steps:

  • Find the booking you wish to refund in your bookings list and click on it.
  • Select the Edit Booking button.
  • On the next page, select the grey Payments tab.
  • Click the Refund button next to the payment you wish to refund.
  • From here, you can issue either a full or partial refund.
  • If you wish to fully refund a booking from one of our channels (Cool Camping or Glampingly) and would like to avail of the Coronavirus Goodwill Voucher to cover our percentage of the booking, you should only issue a partial refund with our fee subtracted (see refund policy above). Then let our customer service team know (and cc the customer) so that we can issue the remaining balance as a goodwill voucher.
  • Once the refund has been issued, remember to change the status of the booking to 'Cancelled' so that the cancelled booking is free to re-book.
  • More information can be found on our refunds page.

Will Stripe refund its fees when I make a refund?

As of 1st April 2020, Stripe no longer reimburse any of their fees when you give a refund. We have asked Stripe to consider refunding fees for all Connect accounts at this time and have been told Connected accounts should contact Stripe directly to request this.


Can I edit the date of balance payments?

Settings for balance payments are for new bookings only. If you change the balance payment to "[X] days prior to stay" this will not automatically be actioned against existing bookings and will only apply to any new bookings you receive.

If you would like your balance changes to apply to an existing booking, you should edit and re-save your existing booking.

All existing bookings that are edited (including changing the dates) will have your newest balance settings applied.

You can also suspend balance payments entirely (see below).


Can I suspend balance payment and security deposit emails?

Yes. You may want to suspend balance and deposit emails for customers who were due to arrive during the current 'lockdown' period.

You cannot suspend our default messages, but you can suspend your own custom messages and, where you have these, your messages over-ride our default ones. So, if you do not have them already, create your own custom security deposit message and your own custom balance payment message, then suspend those messages so that they are not sending.

To do this, go to custom messages and click on "Add Message". To create a security deposit email, just set the "due to send" option to "security deposit due". To create a balance payment email, just set the "due to send" option to "balance payment due". Then, importantly, set the status to "suspended" if you want to prevent them being sent.

If you need any help setting this up, just let us know.


What can I do to encourage future bookings?

Our bookings and consumer surveys indicate the following measures play a role in encouraging bookings:

Cool Camping Coronavirus Booking Guarantee: To provide certainty and clarity for both customers and accommodation providers, we launched the Coronavirus Booking Guarantee on 12th May 2020. This booking guarantee is now being extended, with amendments, until 31st September 2021 (though you can opt in or out at any time). Businesses that opt-in to this scheme agree to a 30% deposit rate on all new bookings, a balance payment date of no more than 30 days before a holiday and the opportunity to re-book until the end of 2021 for customers who are forced to cancel due to coronavirus. More information can be found here.

Highlighting social distancing measures to consumers: On 12th May 2020 we introduced a new “Social Distancing Measures” field which will appear on listings on all Bedful partner websites, including coolcamping.com and glampingly.co.uk. This field allows all businesses the opportunity to outline any new measures they will be taking to make customers feel safe during their stay. Just click on the new 'COVID-19' tab from your Bedful dashboard to add your text.

Low deposits: Our bookings indicate that those with very low deposits and late balance payments (thereby not forcing customers to tie up their money months in advance) are seeing the highest number of bookings for summer. On 24th March 2020 we reduced the minimum deposit restriction to just 10% and are allowing all partners the ability to use our balance payments feature until further notice.

'Good to Go' industry standard: Visit Britain have launched an all-new industry standard, titled ‘Good to Go’. This standard is free to all accommodation providers across Great Britain. Provided you meet the government’s guidelines, you will be eligible for ‘Good to Go’ and you will be issued with a registration number and the official logo for use on your website and in marketing materials. We recommend you participate in this scheme, not only to ensure safety by meeting the government’s regulations but also to instil confidence in your customers and boost your potential audience. Consumer testing of ‘Good to Go’ has shown positive results, with 78% of respondents who had been apprehensive about travelling saying they would feel more comfortable with the standard in place and 74% saying they would be more confident of visiting if a business has this standard displayed. You can take the assessment now on goodtogo.visitbritain.com, where there is also an FAQ with further information.


I’m reducing my site’s capacity. How can I easily reflect this on Bedful?

There are two easy ways you can limit your site’s booking capacity on Bedful.

The quickest way is to limit the number of people permitted on the site at any one time. No matter how many units you have, as soon as this limit is hit, you will appear as 'full' for those dates. You can do this by going to the Setup tab, then the Site tab and then clicking on Limits in the grey menu bar. Just find the heading that says “Would you like to restrict the number of people on the entire site across all bookings?” and then select the limit you wish to apply. Don’t forget to click the green Save Changes button.

If you need to limit capacity in specific areas of your site, such as in different meadows on a campsite or closing every other unit on a glamping site to ensure more space, then the above solution may not suit. In this case, you should suspend some of the specific units on your site to limit the number of units available. You can do this by going to Setup > Units and then clicking the Edit button on the unit you would like to suspend from the list. Change the unit status from Live to Suspended and save your changes.


What advice are you giving to customers?

On our own booking channels – Cool Camping, Glampingly and Cool Places – we are urging customers to support the industry and re-arrange dates rather than cancelling bookings. We are reminding customers about the coronavirus guidelines and providing them with links to relevant information, along with encouraging responsible behaviour.

  • Your can read our advice to Cool Camping customers here.
  • You can read our advice to Glampingly customers here.
  • You can read our advice to Cool Places customers here.

Will my insurance cover losses due to coronavirus?

Standard business insurance policies exclude pandemics and most businesses are unlikely to be covered. However, policies differ significantly and you should check with your insurer. Further guidance is available from the Association of British Insurers.


What UK government support is available for my business?

The UK government has announced extensive measures to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus, with more information available for businesses here. These include but are not limited to the following:

  • No business rates in 2020/21 for hospitality businesses (including camping and glamping sites), irrespective of their size, to be applied automatically.
  • Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with a Rateable Value between £15,000–£51,000 will be eligible for a government grant of £25,000.
  • A grant of £10,000 is available for all businesses eligible for Small or Rural Business Rate Relief.
  • The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whereby employers can get a grant of 80% of wages for staff not working (‘furloughed’), of up to £2,500 per month. This was initially back-dated until 1st March 2020 and ran in some form until the end of October 2020 (though with the government’s contribution gradually decreasing in scale). This scheme has now been extended to cover new November business restrictions. You can check eligibility here.
  • The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offers small and medium businesses loans of up to £5m, with an initial interest-free period of 12 months. You are eligible for this scheme if your business meets the British Business Bank eligibility criteria.
  • The Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan is an additional loan scheme for small and medium businesses, allowing them quicker and easier access to a loan of £2,000–£50,000 with an interest-free period for 12 months followed by a rate of 2.5%. There is no limit on the size of business that can apply. Further information can be found here.
  • HMRC’s Time to Pay scheme for businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, with outstanding tax liabilities.
  • Self-employed people will be able to access, in full, Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay for employees.
  • Statutory Sick Pay relief of two weeks per eligible employee absent for COVID-19, for SMEs only.

Visit gov.uk for more information and to apply for any measures that are not automatic. There are also further government information pages for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.