How to Run a Holiday Camp or Holiday Club: 10 Tips

A great activity programme is only one part of running a successful holiday camp. From planning and bookings to staffing and parent communication, here's how to create a better experience for children, families and your team.

School holidays are a valuable opportunity for children's activity providers.

Children have more free time, while working parents are looking for engaging, reliable holiday camps and holiday clubs that fit around family life. For sports clubs, academies and holiday activity providers, school holiday camps are also a great way to introduce new families to their programmes.

But organising a successful holiday camp involves much more than choosing a few activities and opening bookings.

You need to coordinate staff, prepare venues, manage payments, organise groups, keep parents informed and plan for the unexpected.

So how do you organise a holiday camp that works for children, parents and the people running it?

Here are 10 practical tips to help you plan your next holiday camp, from the first idea to the final review.

1. Define your goals before planning activities

Before booking a venue or designing your programme, take some time to decide what you want your holiday camp to achieve.

What should it bring to your organisation?

Perhaps you want to attract new members to your club, introduce children to different sports, grow your offering during the school holidays or give working parents a convenient option for the weeks they can't cover.

A multi-sports holiday camp designed to introduce children to different disciplines needs a different approach from an intensive tennis camp.

Your audience matters just as much. Ask yourself a few key questions:

Age groups: Are you welcoming children starting school, older primary pupils or teenagers?
Experience levels: Is your programme suitable for beginners, or will you need separate groups for different abilities?
Family needs: Are parents looking for full days, half days, early drop-off and late pick-up, or flexible day-by-day bookings?
Capacity: How many children can you welcome while maintaining a high standard of supervision?

Clear objectives will help you build a more coherent programme, explain its value to families and evaluate its success afterwards.

2. Create a programme children will look forward to

Activities are at the heart of every successful holiday camp.

Parents want to know their children will be well looked after. Children, however, usually have a much simpler question:

Will I have fun?

A strong holiday camp programme combines enjoyment, variety and structure.

Depending on your organisation, you might offer sports sessions, creative workshops, team games, outdoor adventures or themed activity days.

You don't need to reinvent the entire programme every morning. What matters is keeping children engaged while creating a timetable your staff can realistically deliver.

Balance energetic activities with quieter moments. Allow enough time for breaks and transitions, and build flexibility into your schedule for bad weather, unexpected delays or activities that run longer than planned.

Remember that children have different abilities, interests and levels of confidence. A well-designed programme gives everyone the opportunity to take part and enjoy themselves.

The best holiday camp isn't necessarily the one with the most activities. It's the one that provides an enjoyable, well-organised experience from drop-off to pick-up.

3. Start preparing well before bookings open

A successful holiday camp begins long before the first child arrives.

Venues need to be booked, activities planned, equipment prepared and responsibilities assigned. A clear preparation schedule will help you stay on top of it all:

Venues: Check availability, capacity and suitability for your activities.
Equipment: List the materials and resources required for each session.
Timetables: Plan activity times, breaks, transitions and wet-weather alternatives.
Staff: Assign clear responsibilities and plan for potential absences.
Bookings: Set realistic capacity limits and decide when bookings open and close.

Popular holiday clubs can fill up within days of bookings opening, especially for the summer holidays and half term. Having your dates, prices and capacity confirmed early gives families time to plan, and gives you a clearer picture of demand.

A shared preparation schedule makes it easier for everyone to understand what needs to happen, who's responsible and when each task should be completed.

Good planning reduces the number of unexpected problems. More importantly, it makes those problems easier to manage when they do arise.

4. Make booking and paying easy for parents

Imagine a parent discovering your holiday camp online. The activities look exciting, the dates work for their family and their child wants to join.

But completing the booking means sending an email, filling in a separate form, waiting for confirmation and making a payment through another system.

The booking experience is often a family's first real interaction with your organisation. It should be as simple and straightforward as possible.

Ideally, parents should be able to find the information they need, choose their dates or activities and complete their booking in one place.

Make sure you clearly communicate:

Camp dates, opening hours and locations.
Age groups and any participation conditions.
Prices, payment options and cancellation policies, including whether you accept Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers.
Essential information for the first day.

Behind the scenes, you also need a clear overview. How many places have been booked? Which payments are outstanding? Are there spaces left? Who's on the waiting list? When you're managing several groups, locations or camp weeks, centralising online bookings and waiting lists can make a real difference.

A smoother booking experience helps parents feel confident and reduces the admin your team has to deal with.

5. Build a confident, well-prepared team

Even the most exciting programme depends on the people delivering it.

Activity leaders, coaches and other staff need more than a list of scheduled activities. They should understand their responsibilities, know how the day runs and feel prepared to handle unexpected situations.

Before the camp begins, organise a staff briefing to clarify who does what.

Who welcomes families in the morning? Who takes the register? Who manages group changes? Who contacts parents if something goes wrong?

These arrangements might seem obvious when you're running a small camp. They become much more important when several groups, activities or locations are operating at the same time.

You should also have a simple process for staff absences, timetable changes and sharing essential information. Some organisations use a dedicated staff app so activity leaders can see their groups, schedules and registers in one place.

Safeguarding should be a central part of staff preparation. Make sure your safer recruitment procedures, staff training, code of conduct and reporting arrangements meet the requirements that apply to your organisation, and that everyone knows who to go to with a concern.

A well-prepared team doesn't simply follow a timetable. It knows how to respond when things don't go according to plan.

6. Make safety and safeguarding part of your planning

Safety shouldn't be something you address at the last minute. It needs to shape how you plan activities, choose venues and organise supervision.

Start by identifying the risks associated with your programme. A swimming session presents different challenges from a woodland adventure, a creative workshop or a multi-sports tournament, and each requires appropriate precautions.

Your preparations should cover:

Risks associated with venues, equipment and activities.
Emergency procedures and access to first aid.
Relevant medical information and additional support needs, collected and stored securely.
Allergies and dietary requirements.
Authorised collection arrangements and departure procedures.
How you'll communicate with parents in the event of an incident.

You should also prepare alternatives for heavy rain, hot weather or unexpected venue closures.

Requirements for registration, staff checks, insurance and supervision vary depending on the type of provision, the children's ages and where you operate: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own rules and regulators. Check what applies to your organisation and activities before you start taking bookings.

There is no single checklist that guarantees a safe holiday camp. What matters is identifying the risks relevant to your programme and making sure your team knows how to manage them.

7. Keep parents informed before, during and after camp

Good communication starts well before the first morning of camp.

Parents want to know what to expect, what their children need to bring and how to contact you if they have questions. The easier this information is to find, the less time your team will spend answering the same enquiries.

Before camp

Share essential information such as opening hours, drop-off and pick-up arrangements, what to bring, lunch arrangements and contact details.

During camp

Communicate important changes promptly and make sure families know how to reach the right person.

After camp

A thank-you message or a short parent feedback survey can help you understand what families appreciated and what could be improved.

Keeping information in one place and using clear communication channels prevents unnecessary confusion.

Remember to consider children's privacy and obtain any necessary permissions before taking or sharing photographs.

For parents, reliable communication is an important part of a positive holiday camp experience.

8. Track bookings, costs and profitability

A fully booked holiday camp isn't necessarily a profitable one.

Participant numbers matter, but they don't tell the whole story. You also need to consider running costs, payments, available capacity and the time spent organising your programme.

Start by identifying your main expenses: venue hire, staff wages, equipment, transport, food, insurance and admin.

Then estimate your break-even point: the number of bookings or the amount of revenue you need to cover your costs.

During the booking period, keep an eye on how quickly each week is filling, which payments are outstanding and where extra promotion might be needed.

After the camp, compare your actual results with your original projections. How many children attended? Which activities were most popular? Were any costs higher than expected? How many families are likely to come back?

These insights will help you make better decisions about pricing, capacity and programme design.

The goal isn't simply to fill every place. It's to build a sustainable holiday programme that you can repeat, improve and grow.

9. Choose software that supports the way you work

When you're running a small holiday camp, a booking form and a spreadsheet might be all you need.

But as your organisation grows, admin can quickly become more complicated. Bookings sit in one system, payments are tracked separately, staff rotas live in spreadsheets and last-minute changes arrive by email or WhatsApp.

The problem isn't necessarily the number of tools you're using.

It's the amount of work it takes to keep them all in sync.

Do you need to update the same information in several places? Can staff quickly find the right participant lists? Do you have an accurate overview of available places and outstanding payments?

If these questions are becoming part of your daily routine, dedicated holiday camp management software may be worth considering. The right platform can help you centralise bookings, manage groups, track payments and give staff access to the information they need.

Before choosing a solution, think about how well it fits your organisation: your booking volumes, payment requirements, staff workflows and the activities you offer. The software with the longest feature list isn't automatically the best choice.

The right software should make your organisation easier to run, not force you to change the way you work.

10. Review every camp to make the next one better

When a holiday camp finishes, it's tempting to move straight on to the next one. But taking time to review each camp can make a significant difference.

Start by collecting feedback from your staff. Activity leaders often know best what worked and what didn't: transitions that were too short, equipment that was hard to find, activities that overran or information that wasn't easy to access.

Ask parents for their feedback too and, where appropriate, give children the chance to share what they enjoyed most.

Finally, compare your operational and financial results with the goals you set at the beginning.

Some useful questions:

Which activities were the most popular?
When did things become difficult to organise?
Did parents receive the right information at the right time?
Were participant numbers right for our staffing levels?
Which admin tasks took longer than necessary?
What could we improve for the next camp?

You don't need to change everything after a single camp. Focus on recurring challenges and the improvements that will make the biggest difference.

Over time, these insights can become one of your organisation's greatest strengths.

Every holiday camp should help you prepare for the next one.

What really makes a holiday camp successful?

A successful holiday camp doesn't depend on one single element.

It's the result of several things working together: an engaging programme, a well-prepared team, strong safety and safeguarding procedures, reliable communication and an organisation that can handle the unexpected.

You don't need to automate everything from day one or introduce new software for every task.

But as your holiday camps or holiday clubs grow, it's worth checking whether your processes are keeping up.

Are bookings creating more and more admin? Do staff waste time searching for information? Is managing several locations or camp weeks becoming increasingly difficult? Do last-minute changes regularly disrupt your day?

If so, the problem might not be your activity programme.

Your organisation may simply have outgrown the systems and processes that once worked perfectly.

The next step is building an organisation that can support that growth, so you can spend less time on repetitive admin and more time delivering memorable experiences for children and families.

At Stageo, we believe management software should adapt to the way activity providers work, not the other way around.

Because in the end, it's not about the admin. It's about the experiences you create for the children and families you serve.