A fair comparison for UK accommodation owners
Last updated: May 2026
If you're running a campsite, holiday park, glamping site or B&B in the UK and you're looking at booking software, two names probably come up a lot: Anytime Booking and HolidayFox.
I run HolidayFox, so this isn't a neutral page. But I'm going to try to be honest about it, because if you read this and decide Anytime Booking is the better fit for you, that's a perfectly reasonable outcome, and you'll have made an informed decision either way.
Here's what we're going to cover:
Anytime Booking is a UK-based cloud booking and property management system. They've been in the market since around 2009, they're based in Cornwall, and their customers are mostly holiday parks, campsites, glamping operators and self-catering owners.
They're a hosted SaaS platform. You log in, you manage your bookings and your guests, and you push availability out to OTAs (Booking.com, Airbnb, Pitchup, etc.) through their channel manager.
Things Anytime Booking genuinely does well:
If your priority is "I want a hosted system that runs my whole property management with a strong channel manager," Anytime Booking is a credible choice and you should consider it.
HolidayFox is a WordPress-native booking widget plus a booking management back-office. Where Anytime Booking is a platform you log into, HolidayFox lives inside your own website.
That's the headline difference, and it cascades through almost every other decision.
When you use HolidayFox, your booking engine is a WordPress plugin running on your own site. Your guests book through your domain, on your design, with your branding, paying you directly through Stripe or whichever payment processor you choose. The data sits with you. The customer relationship sits with you. If you ever decide to leave HolidayFox, your website still exists, your guests still know where to find you, and the only thing you lose is our software.
Compare that to a hosted platform: if you stop paying, the booking page disappears, and you have to rebuild that part of your guest journey from scratch.
The second meaningful difference is what we lead with. HolidayFox's pitch is direct bookings on your own site, away from OTA commission. Anytime Booking's pitch is manage all your OTA channels in one place. Same software category, but very different worldviews.
We think the better long-term strategy for an independent UK accommodation business is to reduce OTA dependence over time and build direct booking volume on your own site. We're built around that.
| Capability | HolidayFox | Anytime Booking |
|---|---|---|
| Where the booking engine lives | Your WordPress site (plugin) | Anytime Booking's hosted platform |
| Who owns the guest data | You | You, hosted on their platform |
| Direct-booking widget on your site | Yes, native | Embeddable widget |
| Channel manager (Booking.com, Airbnb, Pitchup) | Available; not the focus | Yes, a core strength |
| Pitch / unit management | Yes | Yes |
| Deposit + balance payments | Yes | Yes |
| Group bookings | Yes | Yes |
| Guest comms automation | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic pricing | Yes | Yes |
| VAT handling | Yes | Yes |
| Onboarding | White-glove: Candice on our team sets you up within 5 working days | Standard remote onboarding |
| Mobile app for owners | Roadmap | Yes |
| Reporting + analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe-native payments | Yes | Yes |
| Switch-out risk | Your WordPress site stays; you keep your domain, design, SEO | You lose the booking page when you stop paying |
The two products do most of the same things. The two real differences are where the software lives and what the company is trying to help you do strategically.
Both products are subscription-based. Both price roughly by number of units / pitches. Both will quote you directly rather than publishing rate cards.
HolidayFox is generally cheaper than Anytime Booking at the smaller end of the market, single-site owners with under 30 units or pitches. We're closer on price at the upper end.
I won't quote Anytime Booking's pricing here because it changes, and I'd rather you check directly with them. We'll quote you on a 15-minute call and tell you straight away whether the price works for your business.
Hannah will confirm your business size, your current setup, and book Candice in for the setup session. No hard sell. If we wouldn't help you, she'll say so.
Installs HolidayFox on your WordPress site, migrates your unit/pitch structure, sets up your pricing and deposit rules, configures Stripe, and walks you through the back-office.
We strongly recommend running both systems in parallel so you can validate everything before switching off Anytime Booking. We've never had a customer regret doing this.
Once you're confident, you turn off Anytime Booking and your direct-booking engine on your own site is now your front door.
Total of your time investment, in our experience, is around 4–6 hours of your active involvement spread across the first month. Candice does the rest.
If you're curious whether HolidayFox is the right fit, the best next step is 15 minutes with Hannah. She'll ask three or four questions and give you a straight answer about whether we'd help you or not.
Book 15 minutes with Hannah →