The enquiry a Pembrokeshire caravan park answers twice

A family in the Midlands finds the site in February. They want to know whether a touring pitch is free in the first week of August, whether the dog can come, and what the electric hook-up will run. That question arrives by phone. Someone on site answers it from memory and writes it in the book.

An hour later the same family asks the same thing on the site's Facebook page, because that is where they found the phone number. A different person replies, from memory again, and the answer is slightly different. By the evening the question has come back by email from the same family, with a spelling mistake in the address.

It runs the same way at a site near Narberth and at one outside Pembroke Dock. A small farm site past Fishguard will know it too. Tenby and Saundersfoot sites feel it hardest in the weeks either side of the school holidays, when the phone does not stop and nobody has time to write anything down.

The maths (a sketch, not a client figure)

Put a rough number on the repetition. The assumptions here are yours to change: 15 minutes to answer a booking question properly, and 40 of those questions in a busy week. The hourly figure of £30 is a placeholder, not a wage.

• × 40 enquiries a week = the questions
• × 15 minutes each = 10 hours a week
• × £30 an hour = £300 a week
• × 20 weeks of season = £6,000 a season

With a facts page and drafted replies, the software finds the question and writes the answer, and a person approves it in a minute or two. The assumption changes, the season does not.

Score it: the three checks

• Hours. Ten hours a week in season, on questions that have the same answers. That clears most bars on its own, and it lands in the weeks when the park is fullest.
• Repeat. The questions come round word for word. Is the pitch free, can the dog come, what does the hook-up take, can we arrive on a Friday. A new starter could answer all of them from one written page.
• Risk-if-wrong. A date quoted wrongly is a lost booking and an awkward phone call. A promise about a pitch that does not exist is worse, because the family may have paid a deposit before they arrive. That is why anything confirming a date, a price or a booking is checked by a named person.

Try one thing this week (free)

Write one page of the questions you answered most last season, with the answer you would want a new starter to give, in your own words. By Friday you will know if the page is enough, because you can hold it against every enquiry that arrives this week. No purchase and no software needed.

Where a person stays

Software holds the facts and spots the same question in a new message. It puts a draft reply in front of someone. A named person decides what goes out. Availability, dates, prices, deposits and anything that ties the park to a promise stay human. Financial, compliance and legal replies stay approval-only, always. Nothing sends unchecked.

FAQ