Pitchup cost breakdown 2026

The short version

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.

1. The base commission

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.

2. Featured listings and visibility upgrades

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.

3. Payment processing and refundable bookings

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.

What this looks like at different revenue levels

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.

What most campsite owners do about it

Three patterns we see:

• •Stay on Pitchup, no direct alternative. Some campsites take all their bookings through Pitchup and by phone. Phone bookings are commission-free but operationally expensive: someone is in the office, taking notes, double-checking the diary. The hidden cost of phone bookings is real (typically £4-£8 per booking in admin time) but invisible on the P&L.
• •Reduce dependence over time. Stay on Pitchup for new-guest discovery and add a direct booking channel on your own website so returning guests, Google traffic, and word-of-mouth bookings go direct. Most of our campsite customers shift from ~80% Pitchup / 20% direct to closer to 50/50 over a season.
• •Leave Pitchup. A small number of well-established campsites with strong brand pull leave Pitchup entirely. This works only if your direct pipeline is genuinely strong and you can afford the discovery hit on new guests. Most campsites shouldn't do this suddenly.

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.

Work out what you're actually paying

15 minutes with Hannah. She'll work through your numbers with you and tell you whether reducing your Pitchup dependence would meaningfully change the maths. If not, she'll say so.