What UK campsite owners actually pay
Pitchup's standard commission for UK campsites in 2026 is 10-12%. The real number most campsite owners pay sits between 12% and 15% once Featured listings, payment processing, and refundable booking guarantees are added in.
For a typical UK campsite turning over £60,000 a year through Pitchup, that's £7,200 to £9,000 going to Pitchup annually.
Pitchup is cheaper than Booking.com or Sykes in percentage terms, but on the kind of volume an established UK campsite does, it's still a meaningful four-figure number every season.
HolidayFox direct bookings are 5% commission. You keep Pitchup (and every other channel) for discovery and add direct on your own site, all calendars synced via iCal, no either/or.
Pitchup's standard commission rate for UK campsites is typically 10-12% on the total booking value including any extras the guest pays at booking (electric hookup, dog fee, etc.). New campsites joining Pitchup are usually quoted within this range.
This 10-12% is lower than Booking.com (15%) and substantially lower than Sykes-style holiday-let aggregators (20%+). On the spectrum of UK accommodation OTAs, Pitchup is one of the more reasonably-priced options. That doesn't mean it's free, and the percentage isn't the only number that matters.
Pitchup offers Featured listings: paid visibility slots that put your campsite higher in search results in your region or category. Pricing is bespoke and not publicly listed, but in practice it usually amounts to 1-2 additional percentage points of effective commission when amortised across bookings the Featured listing drives.
As with all marketplace visibility upgrades: the ROI is variable. Some campsites see a real lift; others pay for the Featured slot and see flat performance. Look at the booking data before and after enrolling rather than taking it on faith.
Featured slots are particularly competitive in well-trafficked regions (Cornwall, Lake District, Pembrokeshire). In quieter regions they're often unnecessary.
Pitchup processes guest payments and remits to you, taking payment processing into account in their net payout. Typical processing fee is 1.5-2% of transaction value, built into what they keep.
Pitchup also offers refundable bookings (where the guest pays a fee for cancellation flexibility). This is usually neutral for you commercially, but worth being aware of, because the guest sees the property price including this optional fee, which can shift price perception in either direction.
Combined, the payment side adds another 1.5-2 percentage points to your effective cost.
| Annual Pitchup revenue | At 12% (base + light Featured) | At 15% (full stack) |
|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £2,400 | £3,000 |
| £40,000 | £4,800 | £6,000 |
| £60,000 | £7,200 | £9,000 |
| £100,000 | £12,000 | £15,000 |
| £180,000 | £21,600 | £27,000 |
For a mid-sized campsite, the Pitchup bill is rarely the biggest line item on the P&L, but it's usually bigger than the broadband, energy or insurance line, and that's worth looking at.
Pitchup charges 12-15% commission on bookings that go through their platform. HolidayFox charges 5% commission on direct bookings through your own website — no optional marketplace uplifts or visibility fees stacked on top.
That gap is the whole point. On a £400 booking, Pitchup at a typical effective rate can cost you £60–£80 in commission. The same booking direct through HolidayFox costs £20. The saving lands on your first direct booking, not after a year of migration.
The real benefit isn't replacing Pitchup. It's running all your channels side by side: keep Pitchup (and Airbnb, Pitchup, Sykes — whatever you use today) for discovery, and add HolidayFox so guests who already know you book direct at 5% instead of paying OTA rates again.
Most campsite owners we speak to don't want to pick a winner between Pitchup and direct. They want both: OTA reach for new guests, plus a direct channel that doesn't cost 12-15% every time someone comes back.
HolidayFox is built for exactly that. You stay listed on Pitchup. You add a booking widget on your own site at 5% commission. Availability stays in sync via bidirectional iCal — a booking on your website blocks Pitchup; a booking on Pitchup blocks your direct widget. One diary, no double bookings, no either/or.
See our iCal integration guide and widget integration for how the side-by-side setup works in practice. For more savings maths, see Pitchup vs direct bookings: the savings.
If that revenue were taken direct through HolidayFox instead of via Pitchup at 15%:
| Annual revenue (direct) | Pitchup at 15% | HolidayFox at 5% | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £3,000 | £1,000 | £2,000 |
| £40,000 | £6,000 | £2,000 | £4,000 |
| £60,000 | £9,000 | £3,000 | £6,000 |
| £100,000 | £15,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 |
| £180,000 | £27,000 | £9,000 | £18,000 |
Stripe / card-processor fees apply on both sides and are excluded here because they're payable either way. These figures assume revenue shifted to direct; in practice you keep Pitchup and add HolidayFox alongside it.
One direct booking a month at £400 saves roughly £50–£75 vs Pitchup at typical rates — often enough to justify the channel on its own, before you count repeat guests or Google traffic you're currently losing to OTA commission.
Three patterns we see:
Pattern (2) is what we help with at HolidayFox: 5% commission on direct bookings, Pitchup unchanged for discovery, calendars kept in sync. Shift even a slice of repeat and Google traffic off Pitchup and the margin difference is immediate.