“I see it as a sport, getting the most out of our capacity,” he said. “I’m always testing monitors, checking price proposals, and then throwing my own vision on top. That’s what keeps us sharp.”

It’s this hands-on, data-driven approach that has helped Estivotravel, a glamping operator, grow from a few pitches in Italy in 2019 to more than 425 luxury units across 16 campsites in Europe, and counting. The model is simple: Estivotravel owns the accommodations, premium mobile homes and safari tents, and rents the pitches from local campsites. The more nights sold, the more everyone earns.

Their guests are mostly German and Dutch families who come back year after year. To meet that demand, Estivotravel invests in quality: generous layouts, comfortable mattresses, fully equipped kitchens, spacious covered verandas and private Wi-Fi. “Quality and comfort should feel like home: not standard plastic bucket chairs, but luxury reclining chairs with comfortable cushions,” says Marcel.

We sat down with Marcel to learn how he balances growth with occupancy, why flexibility is the deciding factor in choosing a PMS, and how Estivotravel scales without an IT team.

The challenge

That focus helped Estivotravel achieve an occupancy rate of nearly 100 per cent in the high season. Only last-minute cancellations left the occasional empty day, but the pressure kept mounting. 

“We used to optimise our planning boards by hand, which took a lot of time,” says Marcel. “Destinations in the Netherlands generally work with weekend and midweek arrangements. That doesn’t suit us. If I have ten open nights in Tuscany in July, I only want to sell ten nights. Not seven nights with three left over, nobody is going to drive from Germany for three nights.”

Growth brought more pressure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Estivotravel opened sites in Luxembourg and the Netherlands to serve Dutch and German guests. At the same time, their old provider announced it was shutting down. They faced a hard deadline.

“We don’t have an IT department,” Marcel said. “If you lose days on migration, you lose sales. We needed software that could keep up.”

Marcel Janssen, Director, Estivotravel

Why Maxxton

After reviewing several providers, Estivotravel chose Maxxton for flexibility and scalability. 

“Flexibility was the most important thing,” Marcel explained. “With Maxxton we can set our profitability rules the way we want, not the way the system dictates. And adding a new location now costs us an hour, whereas with our previous provider it took much longer.”

For Estivotravel, that flexibility translates into very practical advantages:

• Rentability rules let Estivotravel define minimum stays, booking horizons, and gap rules to fit their strategy.
• Smart reallocation and dynamic pricing uses AI to adjust availability and pricing, keeping occupancy high.
• Scalability means adding a new campsite or rentability set now takes an hour instead of days.
• Notification Manager automates multilingual guest communication with simple triggers, reducing errors and saving staff time.

It also supports their rapid expansion. In one year alone, Estivotravel added 112 new accommodations, a pace only possible with a system that scales.

The solution

Estivotravel migrated more than a thousand active bookings into Maxxton, far more than the 700 they had expected, and launched a new website integrated with the Maxxton booking engine. The change was needed because their old website was tied to their previous PMS, so switching systems meant building a new booking environment from the ground up.

“I wanted to make sure we didn’t lose who we are in the process,” Marcel said. “That meant being hands-on with the migration, even if it took a lot of time. It was worth it.”

With the system live, Estivotravel now uses Maxxton across key functions:

Revenue Manager

Marcel describes himself as “data-driven” and uses monitors, reports, and scenarios to test pricing strategies. He hasn’t turned on full autopilot yet, preferring to combine system suggestions with his own judgment. “I see it as a sport, getting the most out of our capacity. I like testing different monitors, watching price proposals, and then adjusting based on my own vision. It keeps us sharp.”

Reallocation and preference booking

Guests can choose their favourite spot, while the reallocation engine keeps occupancy optimised. “Around 25% of our bookings come from returning customers,” Marcel noted. “And most of them pick a preferred location. For us, preference booking is critical to loyalty.”

Ease of use and training

Without an IT team, Estivotravel relies on Maxxton’s usability and support. “That’s why ease of use is so important,” Marcel said. “Our sales team, back office, and operations staff could all adopt the system quickly. It makes their lives easier.”

To support growth, Estivotravel is even building its own e-learning tools to train new hires and sales staff.

Notification Manager

Maxxton's Notification Manager automates guest communication. “It saves us a huge amount of manual work,” Marcel said. “Setting triggers and automatically sending transactional emails in six languages makes us look more professional and frees up staff time.”

Results

Since moving to Maxxton, Estivotravel has seen measurable improvements:

• New campsites and units can be set up in hours, not days.
• Rentability rules and reallocation keep units full, even outside peak season.
• Guests receive timely, multilingual updates without staff needing to step in.
• Estivotravel has expanded to more than 425 units across 16 campsites, with plans for further growth.
  
  

Direct bookings have also grown, climbing from around 60% to 75%, supported by the new online booking flow and tighter channel management. Repeat guests remain the backbone of the business, with three out of four bookings coming from returning families.

As part of its expansion, Estivotravel also launched a Polish website, complete with Polish-speaking staff, to better serve a fast-growing audience in that market.

Marcel summarises: “Occupancy is everything for us. With Maxxton, we can keep our campsites full, scale faster, and give our guests the service they expect.”

Looking ahead

Marcel is already looking at new ways to grow. Flexible rate types, like cancellable bookings at a higher price, came up at a Maxxton event and caught his attention. He’s also exploring packages such as cycling holidays and local activities, with partners whose stock can be managed through Maxxton.

“We’re always looking for the next step,” he said. “With Maxxton, we know the system won’t hold us back. That gives us the freedom to focus on what really matters: keeping occupancy high and guests happy.”