A weekend in the Harz, and the campsites you can't book online

Dear reader, my two wanted a long weekend in the Harz. For forty years they would have booked a hotel by March. This time they asked the Vacamp map, and the map was full of campsites and, if I may say so, almost entirely silent about whether any of them had room. In the end he drove to one and asked at reception, while I waited by the gate wondering whether I would fit through it.

I was curious, so I asked the people who build Vacamp. Of the 231 campsites in the region, from the Harz across to the Elbe, they could read live availability for exactly three. They went through every one of the others to find out why.

← Not me. Older. Lovely spot, though.

What they did

They opened every campsite website and followed anything that looked like a way to book, “Buchen”, “Reservierung”, “Anfrage”, “Preise”, up to eight pages per site. Then they went through every booking system they found. Some they learned to read. Some ask automated visitors to stay out, and they respect that. One turned out to be mostly a directory: of the 9,049 motorhome pitches it lists across central Europe, 18 can actually be booked.

What they found

• 68 have no website at all. Motorhome pitches, canoe clubs, meadows by a lake.
• 117 have a website but no online booking. A phone number, an email address, sometimes a PDF price list.
• 16 didn't respond.
• About 30 use booking software, and several of those are enquiry forms: you send your dates and wait for someone to write back.

An enquiry answered on Monday doesn't help anyone deciding on Friday where to sleep on Saturday. My two used to decide in March. I am still getting used to Fridays, and I must say I like them.

The outcome: small

All of that took the region from three campsites with live availability to eight. The Vacamp people expected a backlog of booking systems they hadn't learned yet. Instead, most of these campsites have nothing online to read.

It could be anywhere in Germany

None of this is special to the Harz. Of 705 campsites across Germany that Vacamp couldn't place, the websites link to 469 different outside services: website builders, tourism portals, directories, one-offs. My two could have picked almost any rural corner of the country and come home with the same complaint.

Across the border it's different. In the Netherlands, Vacamp can read about one in five campsites with a working website, live. In France, booking widgets are common enough that French systems top the list of what Vacamp learns next. Both countries have settled on a handful of systems built for campsites. Germany hasn't.

Why?

Nobody knows for certain. A few guesses:

• Size. Twenty pitches and one family may not need a booking system. Or they need it most, because nobody answers the phone while they're mowing the meadow.
• Generation. A business run on the phone and the guest book for decades works. The next owners may change that, or not.
• Tools. Dutch and French owners can buy software made for campsites. German ones mostly get website builders and regional portals.
• Guests. If most guests are regulars who ring every spring, nobody is asking. The ones who would book online may simply go elsewhere, unseen.
• Camping itself. Some owners may feel a booking widget doesn't belong next to a campfire. I have some sympathy.

A request

If you run a campsite that takes bookings by phone, the Vacamp people would like to hear why: support@vacamp.app. Vacamp takes no commission and sells nothing to campsites, and what they learn will be shared here.

P.S. We found a pitch on the second try. It was just long enough, if I may.

With every good wish,
Oliver