Accommodation availability the booking sites don’t show you
Accommodation availability online is only half the picture. Plenty of caravan parks, country motels, pubs with rooms and farm stays are not on the booking sites at all, and some that are will show full while holding a few rooms for people who ring.
Ringing them one by one is slow work. Give us your dates and a list of places, or just the town. A real person rings around, asks who has room, and texts you who said yes, for which nights, and the rate they quoted.
The problem
Why finding a room by phone is such a chore
The good little places aren’t online
The pub with six rooms upstairs and the family caravan park by the river often take bookings the old way, with a phone and a paper diary. If you only search the big sites, you never see them.
Online says full when it isn’t
Booking sites only show the rooms a place has chosen to list there. The site says nothing is left, you move on, and the motel still has a room it would happily have given to anyone who rang.
Long weekends mean ten calls
Finding a powered site for Easter or a long weekend can mean ringing every park within an hour’s drive. Each call is the same conversation: dates, van length, how many people, sorry, try down the road.
The office is only staffed sometimes
Small places answer the phone between cleaning rooms and checking guests in. You ring at lunch and it rings out. They ring back while you are driving. Meanwhile the last site goes to someone else.
The fix
What you get when we ring around
One list instead of ten calls
We work through the places and bring back a simple summary: who has room, for which nights, what kind of room or site, and the rate they quoted. You compare them from your couch.
We ask your questions
Dogs allowed, drive-through sites, a ground floor room, late check-in, minimum stays over the long weekend. Tell us what matters and we ask every place the same thing, so the answers line up.
We keep trying the quiet ones
If the office does not pick up, we try again later instead of crossing them off. The place that is hard to reach is often the one that still has space.
An example
What it looks like
You tell us
Looking for a powered site for a 6 metre caravan, two adults and a dog, Friday to Monday of the June long weekend, anywhere around Pelican Bay. Can you ring the parks and see who has room?
We text you back
Rang four parks near Pelican Bay. Pelican Bay Tourist Park is full. Riverbend Caravan Park has one powered site Friday to Monday, dogs fine, and will hold it until tomorrow lunchtime. Jetty Road Holiday Park has Saturday and Sunday only. Still trying the fourth, no answer yet. Rates are in the next text.
An example only, with made-up names, to show the kind of answer you get.
Three steps
How it works
- 1
Tell us who to call
The business or person, and what you want to ask, book or find out. Thirty seconds on the form below.
- 2
We ring them
A real person makes the call and says they are ringing on your behalf. No answer? We try again until there is one.
- 3
We text you the result
What they said, in plain words, sent to your mobile. The recording and a written transcript too, if you asked for them.
Good to know
We find out who has room and what they quoted. We don’t pay deposits or give card details, so when a place wants payment to hold the booking, we tell you and you finish it with them directly. Rooms can go between our call and yours, especially before a long weekend. We pass on exactly what we were told and when.
Free while we’re getting started
Who do you want us to ring?
Give us the who and the what. We make the call, keep trying if nobody answers, and text you what they said.
- A real person makes the call, not a robot
- We say we’re ringing on your behalf
- No answer? We try again, and again
- The answer lands on your phone as a text
Leave it with us.
We’ll make the call and text you what they said. Now go and do something better with your day.
Questions people ask
Can you book it for me?
If the place will hold a room or site under your first name without payment, yes, we can ask them to. Most want a deposit or card to confirm. We don’t handle payments, so we tell you who to ring and what they are holding.
Do I need to give you a list of places?
It helps, but it is not essential. If you only know the town or the stretch of coast, tell us that along with your dates and what you are after. More detail from you means better questions from us.
Why not just use a booking site?
Use one if it has what you want. This is for when the sites come up empty, when the places you like are not listed, or when you would rather not spend an evening ringing every park on the map.