That empty Tuesday sitting between two fully-booked weekends isn’t a fluke—it’s the new normal. Guests are now reserving less than 60 days out, leaving you with surprise one-night gaps that bleed revenue and mess with staff schedules.
What if every time one of those gaps appeared, your PMS fired off a quick text—“Want Wednesday for 25% off? Reply YES.”—and the site filled itself before you could finish your coffee? No paid ads, no race-to-the-bottom pricing, just automated cash.
Stick around to learn the exact triggers, templates, and compliance tricks that turn last-minute cancellations into found money—plus the metrics that prove it’s working.
Key Takeaways
The strategy you’re about to read isn’t a marketing side show; it’s a revenue engine that can save otherwise lost nights and the labor costs that come with them. Before diving into the deeper tactics, ground yourself in the high-impact points that drive real results and keep your texts both profitable and compliant.
– Empty nights hurt profits and create extra work for staff
– Most campers book less than 60 days ahead, so gaps show up often
– Texting works fast: almost every guest reads a text within minutes
– Always ask guests to reply YES first so your messages stay legal
– Set your PMS to spot a gap and send a small (10–15%) discount right away
– Limit each offer to a short time window to keep rates strong
– Track reads, bookings, and opt-outs to prove the texts make money
– A 90-site resort filled 62% of gaps and earned $5,400 in two months.
The Hidden Cost of Mid-Week Holes
Flat occupancy isn’t just a headline; it’s showing up in your night audit. Campspot’s 2025 numbers, reported by RV Business data, confirm that most campers now book inside a 60-day window. That jittery lead time inflates the odds that a single cancellation snowballs into an unsold night, forcing housekeeping to clean a site twice and leaving your ADR looking anemic.
Staff schedules feel the sting, too. When Site #14 sits empty, housekeeping either races to fill hours with odd jobs or heads home early. Meanwhile, maintenance loses the predictable rhythm that keeps grounds pristine. Those micro-disruptions chip away at guest satisfaction scores and bump your cost per occupied site higher than it needs to be.
SMS Beats Email When Speed Matters
When you have less than 24 hours to save a night, a 20 percent email open rate is a gamble. Text messages, by contrast, boast a 98 percent read rate within three minutes—exactly the sprint you need to plug a gap before the next coffee refill. A May 2025 study from Insider Perks case showed multilingual, automated texts lifting guest satisfaction by up to 15 percent while slashing no-shows by a third. The same infrastructure can nudge booked guests to extend their stay, transforming unsold real estate into pure incremental revenue.
Skip the OTA commissions, the PPC bidding wars, and the wait for fickle social algorithms. You’re leveraging a list of people who already trust your brand enough to camp on it, so conversion rates climb without cutting room rates across the board. Internal data from several parks shows these direct-text extensions convert at roughly double the rate of retargeted email, proving speed is money.
Permission-Based Lists That Keep Fines Away
Compliance isn’t a buzzkill; it’s the gatekeeper that lets you text at scale without inviting lawsuits. Ask for permission at every touchpoint—online booking, confirmation email, front-desk signage, and even your Wi-Fi splash page. A short disclosure covering frequency, carrier fees, and opt-out instructions gets the nod from regulators and builds guest trust.
Store each consent timestamp in your PMS or CRM. If a guest replies STOP, suppress marketing texts automatically while still allowing emergency alerts like weather notices. Refresh the list every season; an audience that reconfirms willingly is more likely to snap up flash offers and less likely to flag you as spam.
Automating the Flash Sale From Gap Detection to Confirmation
Your PMS already knows when a gap appears; the trick is turning that data into an irresistible text. Pull a daily report of one-night holes, then set an automated trigger such as “ten days after booking if an adjoining night is empty.” The ready-made OwnerRez template is a solid starting point, but any PMS with webhook or API support can fire off similar logic.
Segment your list so the right guest sees the right offer. Local drive-market visitors love a mid-week add-on to dodge Friday traffic, while snowbirds might appreciate an upgraded pull-through pad. Tag by unit type, party size, and pet preference so messages feel custom, not canned. Then keep your discount modest—start at 10–15 percent off and only sweeten the pot if pickup lags. Tie the offer to a two-hour clock to create urgency without eroding overall ADR.
Operationally, success hinges on readiness. The instant a guest texts YES, housekeeping gets an auto task, gate codes extend, and the PMS generates an updated confirmation. Keep spare linens, propane, and firewood on hand; a “sorry, we’re out” moment erases the goodwill you just earned.
Copy That Converts Browsers Into Bookers
Plain, benefit-first language outperforms flowery prose. “Add Wednesday for $18 to skip Friday traffic. Reply YES.” spells out the value, the price, and the action in under 20 words. Sprinkle in light personalization—emoji for family campers, pet-friendly nods for dog owners—to keep messages fresh without crossing into gimmick territory.
Avoid discounting your premium segments. Long-term monthlies, holiday campers, and contracted groups stay full price to protect rate integrity. Rotate subject lines and sprinkle in an occasional non-discount perk, like early check-in, to stave off list fatigue.
Keep Score Like a Revenue Manager
Metrics turn hunches into strategy. Track send volume, read rate, pickup rate (nights sold divided by nights offered), and the incremental revenue those nights generate. Compare the flash-sale ADR to similar nights that sold at rack rate; the delta tells you if the campaign lifted yield or just shuffled dollars.
Every few weeks, create a control group—skip the offer for 10 percent of eligible reservations. If those nights stay empty, you’ve proven the campaign is truly incremental. Spike in opt-outs? Dial back frequency or test new copy before regulators—or guests—knock on your door.
Mini Case: 90-Site Glamping Resort
A 90-site glamping resort in the Pacific Northwest was leaking seven percent of its inventory to one-night gaps. Management connected their PMS to an SMS gateway, mirrored the OwnerRez logic, and offered a 12 percent discount in both English and Spanish. Over 60 days they achieved a 62 percent pickup rate on offered nights, pulled in $5,400 in incremental revenue, and saw no uptick in opt-outs.
The story underscores two truths: guests love the convenience of a quick text, and staff appreciate a smoother, more predictable schedule. Even modest discounts add up when the campaign runs automatically across a season. The lesson: automation scales where manual comps never could.
Launch Checklist You Can Use Today
Export the last six months of reservations and highlight every one-night hole to spot patterns. Connect a Unicode-capable SMS gateway that respects quiet hours and supports double opt-in workflow. Draft two templates—one for the night before, one for the night after—and send test messages to internal numbers. Once triggers fire reliably, launch on a single unit type, monitor results for 30 days, then scale park-wide.
Throughout the rollout, document each step in your SOP binder. Future seasonal staff can pick up where you leave off, and new properties slipstream into the same playbook with minimal friction. This living record also speeds up onboarding when turnover inevitably occurs.
Avoid the Common Pitfalls
Over-discounting is the quickest way to train campers to wait for deals. Guard against it by linking the trigger to live occupancy, not a fixed calendar, and by capping promotional texts at two per reservation. Message creep feels like spam; urgency should be a privilege, not a habit.
Operational choke points lurk in the mundane. A last-minute extension means extra towels, more propane, and an updated parking pass. Keep inventory buffers and train at least one staffer per shift to modify stays and process payments within five minutes. Fumbling the handoff erodes the frictionless experience that SMS promises.
Mid-week vacancies aren’t a scheduling nuisance; they’re a standing invitation to print margin on demand. If your PMS can spot the hole, Insider Perks can build the AI-driven, fully compliant text workflow that fills it—complete with multilingual copy, automated tasking, and revenue dashboards your accountant will high-five. Ready to watch gaps disappear while you sip that coffee? Schedule a quick strategy session with our team and see how our marketing, advertising, and automation tools turn empty Tuesday into found money.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I legally collect phone numbers for marketing texts?
A: Ask for permission at every guest touchpoint—online booking forms, confirmation emails, front-desk signage, and Wi-Fi splash pages—then follow up with a double-opt-in text that records the timestamp inside your PMS or CRM; this satisfies TCPA and carrier rules while proving consent if a guest ever challenges you.
Q: Which property-management systems can automate gap detection and SMS triggers?
A: Any modern PMS that supports webhooks or an open API—such as Campspot, NewBook, RMS, or OwnerRez—can push a “gap night” event to an SMS gateway like Twilio, SimpleTexting, or RezStream, allowing you to fire the discount text the moment the empty slot appears.
Q: What size discount should I start with to fill the gap without hurting ADR?
A: Begin at 10–15 percent below your public rate, monitor pickup over the first 30 days, and only sweeten the offer if fewer than half the gaps sell, because modest savings paired with urgency usually converts drive-market campers without eroding rate integrity.
Q: Won’t frequent flash sales train guests to wait for deals?
A: Not if you cap promotional texts at two per reservation, link the trigger to live occupancy rather than a fixed calendar, and occasionally rotate in non-discount perks like early check-in so guests perceive the messages as limited-time opportunities, not predictable markdowns.
Q: What if a guest on my list has a landline or is traveling internationally?
A: Your SMS platform can automatically suppress numbers that fail mobile validation, and for international travelers you can add a fallback email offer so you avoid carrier surcharges while still giving them a chance to extend their stay.
Q: How soon should the offer expire once the text is sent?
A: Two hours is the sweet spot for urgency—long enough for the guest to discuss plans with their travel party but short enough that the site returns to inventory quickly if they pass, minimizing overlap with other marketing channels.
Q: Can I send flash-sale texts to OTA guests who originally booked through Expedia or Booking.com?
A: Yes, as long as you have a direct permission record—collect the opt-in at check-in or via Wi-Fi login—then treat them like any other subscriber, which also nudges them toward booking direct next time.
Q: How do I keep housekeeping and maintenance from being blindsided by last-minute extensions?
A: Configure your PMS to trigger automatic task assignments the moment a guest replies YES, and maintain small inventory buffers of linens, propane, and consumables so staff can service the site without scrambling.
Q: What kind of ROI should a park expect in the first season?
A: Parks typically recover 50-70 percent of otherwise unsold gap nights, translating to a five-to-ten-times return on the SMS platform fee, because every filled hole adds near-pure incremental revenue with no OTA commission drag.
Q: How often is too often for sending these texts?
A: Aim for no more than one promotional text per guest stay and never more than two per week across your entire list; spiking opt-out rates or declining read rates are your signals to dial back frequency or refresh copy.
Q: Are there legal quiet hours for marketing texts?
A: U.S. carriers and most international regulators expect promotional messages to land between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time, so set your gateway’s time-zone filter to honor those hours and avoid fines or guest annoyance.
Q: How do I prove the campaign is incremental and not just shifting revenue around?
A: Hold back about 10 percent of eligible gaps as a control group each month, compare their final occupancy and ADR to the nights that received offers, and track pickup rate, opt-outs, and net revenue in your PMS dashboard to confirm genuine lift.
Q: What if a guest replies with a question instead of “YES”?
A: Route any non-standard reply to a monitored inbox—many SMS gateways integrate with email or Slack—so a staff member can answer quickly, convert the booking manually if needed, and still mark the site as filled in the PMS.
Q: Do bilingual or emoji-enhanced messages hurt deliverability?
A: Modern Unicode-capable gateways deliver multilingual text and simple emojis without issue, and Insider Perks testing shows that localized content actually boosts engagement by up to 15 percent when used sparingly and paired with clear opt-out instructions.
Q: How should I handle gaps longer than one night?
A: Set a separate trigger that bundles two- or three-night holes into a single offer with a slightly larger percentage off or an added perk like free firewood, ensuring the promotion still feels exclusive while recovering more stranded inventory.