Login / Sign Up
Customer paying for coffee with a mobile phone

Digital guidebook or guest app: which suits your park?

Digital guidebooks are quick and low cost to set up, and guest experience apps do more. Compare them on set-up, personalisation, updates and revenue to see which suits your park.

Dave Holidaymaker

HXP Admin

Event audience applauding

Printed guidebooks used to sit in every holiday home: a quick flip to the nearest restaurant or supermarket. Guests could look things up for themselves. But we are used to information that is up to date and instant, and a printed guide can’t keep up.

Two digital options have taken its place: digital guidebooks and guest experience apps. They are not the same thing, and the right one depends on your business.

Digital guidebooks

A digital guidebook puts the content of a traditional guide on the guest’s phone. It is an affordable first step into digital, and often quick to set up. You add your content into a basic CMS, much like your website, and launch.

A good notification helps the guest. Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash.

What to expect

  • Basic personalisation. Low-cost guidebooks tend to fall short on customisation, personalisation and real-time updates. They usually offer a fixed set of information and branding, so guests can end up scrolling through generic content.
  • Web app limits. Most run in a browser, like your website. They often feel less like a phone app in look and function than a native app, which guests download from the Apple or Google Play stores.
  • Static content. Guidebooks can go out of date quickly and often lack real-time updates, so guests may see old information.

Who they suit. Single holiday rentals, touring or camping-only sites, small businesses and B&Bs, with no need for integrations, push notifications or instant updates. They replace the printed welcome pack.

Cost and fit. Every provider is different, so check what each one includes. For our own app, contact us.

Guest experience apps

A guest experience app, like Holidaymaker, takes the guidebook idea further. It is a native app, built for Apple and Android phones, so it can use phone features such as push notifications. You can also link your website and app content, so you only have one place to update.

It is built to help guests before, during and after their stay. Guests can help themselves, which frees your team, and you increase engagement without adding to anyone’s workload. On park it works as a concierge app that shows attractions, activities and events, so guests can plan their stay. After they go home, you still have a direct way to reach them, whichever channel the booking came from.

Guidebook or guest app at a glance

A digital guidebook is a quick way to share information, while a native guest experience app adds personalisation, push notifications, integrations and ways to earn extra revenue.

  • Set-up
  • Personalisation
  • Updates
  • Revenue

Revenue

Target guests with personalised rebooking offers, extended stays, upsells, events and promotions to increase on-site spend and direct revenue. Show off the homes you have for sale to bring in more leads: Holidaymaker’s home sales tools include listing syndication to partner platforms. Replace printed brochures and flyers with your own app, and add Seeview smart surfaces in and around your site so you update once and publish everywhere.

Personal and up to date

Show different content to different groups, such as owners and holiday guests. Guests can log in with their booking, so events and messages are right for their stay. Notifications carry welcome messages, park information and site and safety notices such as closures and weather warnings, while your offers and events sit in the app’s own pages.

Who they suit. Holiday parks and other hospitality and leisure businesses that want a full guest experience under their own brand. See our case studies.

Cost and fit. Every Holidaymaker guest app includes a native iOS and Android app, informational push notifications, a CMS and advanced branding. For anything about your venue, contact us.

Update once and publish everywhere.

Holidaymaker

Seeview smart surfaces

Event networking crowd

Which one is right for you?

If you run a single let and just need your welcome pack online, a guidebook may be enough. If you want to personalise, send push notifications, connect your systems and earn from the app, look at a guest experience app.

Cover photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash

Your venue in every guest’s pocket. Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash.

Speaker presenting to a seated audience

Want to talk it through?

Tell us a little about your park and we will help you work out whether a guidebook or a guest app is the better fit.

Ask us a question