One programme, many weeks
The programme holds your price and settings. Each camp is a class inside it, with its own dates, venue, instructor and capacity. Summer week 1 and week 2 are two classes, set up once.
A camp is a block, not a weekly class.
Each camp week is its own thing: fixed start, fixed end, families buy the whole block rather than a recurring commitment. Zooza is built that way — one programme holds your pricing and rules, each camp is a class inside it, and you add a new one for every week you run. Deposits, sibling pricing, consents and waiting lists come with it.
What camps actually need that courses do not
A weekly class runs on indefinitely and a client enrols into the habit. A camp is a self-contained block that either fills before it starts or does not. Almost everything below follows from that one difference.
Booked for the full duration
The programme type is booking for the whole programme, so families enrol into the block rather than picking individual days. That is the setting that makes a camp behave like a camp.
One-off, or deposit and balance
Most camps take the full price at booking. For a higher-priced week, a small deposit secures the place and the balance is collected closer to the start.
Automatic sibling pricing
Register a second child and the discount applies at booking, with no code to remember. Tiers run from the 2nd to the 5th child, as a percentage or a fixed amount.
Waiting lists you approve
A full camp still takes bookings, and they queue. You get notified and decide — approve, move the family to a week with room, or offer an alternative. Nothing enrols itself.
Make-ups switched off
A missed Wednesday in a camp week cannot be made up the way a missed weekly class can. Camps are the one case where you deliberately turn the make-up settings off.
The child, not the payer
Mark the programme as being for children and the booking form asks for the parent’s name, with the child’s details, allergies and consents as extra fields on the booking.
A full camp is information
A camp that fills and keeps queueing tells you how many more families wanted in — which is the number you use to decide whether to open another week.
Setting up a season
Once per brand, then one class per camp you run. The order matters, because the programme decides what every camp inside it can do.
- 1
1. Create the programme
Programmes → New Programme. Choose <strong>booking for the full programme duration</strong> and name it after the camp brand, because that name is what families see on the booking form. Most camps leave the registration fee at zero — the camp price is the price.
- 2
2. Add a class per camp
One class per week or per theme, each with its own dates, venue, instructor and capacity. You can create several at once and fill in sessions afterwards; a class with no dates yet still works as a lead-collection class.
- 3
3. Set the price and the payment shape
A one-off payment is the usual choice. If the week is expensive enough that parents hesitate, collect a deposit at booking and the balance later. Instalments and sibling pricing both run off payment templates, so create the template first and then switch it on for the programme.
- 4
4. Decide what you need to know about the child
Extra booking fields collect the child’s name, allergies, medication, pickup arrangements and any consent you need as a file upload. Marking the programme as for children renames the main name field to the parent’s name, so the two never get confused on a roster.
- 5
5. Turn the make-ups off, and decide about late bookings
Disable make-up sessions in the programme settings. Then choose whether a late booking is approved manually or automatically at an adjusted price — worth deciding before the week opens rather than in the middle of it.
What you can configure
- Programme type: booking for the full duration, so families take the whole block.
- A class per camp week or theme, with its own dates, venue, instructor and capacity.
- Capacity per class, plus extra places reachable only by trials and make-ups.
- Payments: one-off, deposit plus balance, or instalments via a payment template.
- Registration fee, usually zero for a camp.
- Sibling pricing: tiers from the 2nd to the 5th child, percentage or fixed, counted per programme, per billing period, or across everything you run.
- Discount codes: percentage or absolute, single-use or unlimited, limited to chosen programmes or venues.
- Extra booking fields: child’s name, allergies, medication, pickup notes, consents and file uploads.
- An age restriction on the programme, which also decides whose booking gets queued.
- Whether a full camp stays visible in the booking form and keeps collecting a queue.
- Whether late bookings are approved by hand or automatically at an adjusted price.
- Make-up sessions, which for camps you switch off.
Open registration, not a dozen tabs.
One booking flow handles deposits, balances, consents, sibling pricing and the queue for a full week — so opening day is not a scramble.
Try for Free No credit card needed.
Book a live demo We’ll show you what’s possible.
FAQ — including what it will not do
-
How exactly does the sibling discount work?
When a parent books, Zooza counts the qualifying registrations already held under the same email address, and the current booking counts as the Nth child. It then applies the tier with the highest child threshold that is still at or below N. So with rules at 2nd child 10% and 4th child 20%, a third child gets 10% — because three is past the second-child rule but short of the fourth. You set the tiers from the 2nd to the 5th child, as a percentage between 1 and 100 or a fixed amount. It is part of the Loyalty Programme and currently a beta feature. -
A family has one child enrolled and one on the waiting list. Do they get the sibling discount?
Not yet. Only registrations with Registered status count towards the child number — waiting-list and trial bookings are excluded. So a family whose second child is still queued is counted as having one child, and the discount applies once that second booking is approved. This catches people out precisely because both mechanics are in play at the same time, which is normal for a popular camp week. -
What does "second child" mean if they are in different camps?
That is a setting, and it is worth getting right before the season opens. Counting can run per programme, where the count restarts in each one and two children in two different programmes are each a first child; per billing period, where they are counted together within a term; or across all programmes, where every child the family has with you counts wherever they are booked. You can also limit the discount to selected programmes rather than all of them. -
We deleted a duplicate booking and the discount is still applied. Why?
The count is taken once, at booking, and nothing recalculates afterwards. Deleting a registration does not re-run the discount on the ones that remain. It shows up most often on parent-and-child programmes, where a family creates two bookings — one for the adult, one for the child — and the second gets counted as a sibling. Put it right on the booking itself by opening the instalment and correcting the amount; left alone it usually surfaces as an overpayment. -
Does the system enrol people from the waiting list automatically?
No. When a camp is full, families can still submit the form and their booking queues. You are notified, and then every approval is a decision you make — even when a place has clearly opened. From Bookings you filter by the waitlist status and either approve, move the family to a week with room, or contact them with alternatives. If you were expecting a place to be offered round automatically, it is not. -
Is there a priority order, so whoever queued first gets the place?
No. The queue is not first-come-first-served; it is a list you work in whatever order you judge fair. Worth knowing before you tell a parent they are next in line. -
Our camp shows full but families cancelled. Why has no place opened?
Capacity counts active registrations, not attendance. Someone who cannot come any more is still enrolled until the booking itself changes, so the counter does not move. To release a place you cancel or delete the booking, or transfer the family to another camp. Marking a child absent does not do it. -
A booking queued even though the camp has space and the age is right.
Check the payment before the capacity. There are four reasons a booking goes to the waiting list and only the first is the obvious one: the camp is full; the date of birth falls outside an age restriction; a downpayment has not been paid; or an unpaid-booking automation moved it. That automation is tied to downpayments and will fire even if you do not collect them at all, so a camp showing free places is a red herring rather than a fault. -
Can I take a deposit now and the balance later?
Yes, and for a higher-priced week it is the recommended shape: a small deposit secures the place at booking, the remaining balance is charged closer to the start. Instalments work too, set up as a payment template and then enabled on the programme. -
Should we run make-up sessions for a camp?
No — switch them off in the programme settings. A missed day inside a camp week cannot be made up the way a missed weekly class can, because the block has already happened. This is the one programme type where disabling make-ups is the recommended setup rather than a restriction. -
A parent forgot the discount code at checkout. Do we have to fix it?
No. They can add the code themselves afterwards, from their own profile when they go in to pay an outstanding amount. For anything payment-related, sending a parent to their profile is usually faster than issuing something by hand. -
Does sibling pricing work with pay-as-you-go camps?
It is not recommended there. The sibling discount is designed for subscription, instalment and one-off payment plans; on pay-per-session programmes the counting logic may not behave as you expect. If that is your model and you want family pricing, talk to us about how it should work rather than assuming it will.
