Holiday Park Cabin Pricing: Weekends, Sites, Room Types

RevPARGenius methodology and owner guides

Reviewed by Mark Joefer, Hotel Market Intelligence Researcher · 13 October 2026 · 11 min read

A holiday park that runs at 93% occupancy can still price its cabins as if every night were a Tuesday. In our worked example the weekend rate sits only 3.4% above the weekday rate.

This guide is for park owners and managers in New Zealand and Australia who set cabin and site rates themselves. It covers the weekend step, how far apart cabin types should sit, when minimum stays help, and how to test a higher rate with break-even occupancy instead of a guess.

How should a holiday park price cabins differently from sites?

Cabins and sites sell to different trips. A powered site is booked by a guest who brings their own bed, often plans the route a few days out and compares parks on location and facilities. A cabin guest is closer to a motel guest: they compare your cabin with the nearest hotel room and holiday rental, and they read the room type, bed set-up and bathroom before the price. That is why cabins usually carry the pricing work in a holiday park, and why sites can often run on a simpler seasonal grid.

The practical split most parks use:

• Sites: a seasonal base, a peak-period step and a minimum stay on the busiest dates. Move them a few times a year, not every week.
• Cabins: a base rate per cabin type, a weekend step, event-night steps and a weekly look at the next 90 nights. These are the units guests compare against hotels.
• Both: one clear rule for school-holiday and long-weekend dates, written down so front desk and the website say the same thing.

The rest of this guide uses a worked example (synthetic data) for a fictional 40-cabin NZ holiday park, 90 nights from 14 October 2026. It is not a real property. Its "market middle" column is an illustrative assumption, not market data, and it is there to show the arithmetic.

How big should the weekend step be for holiday park cabins?

In the worked example the park sells cabins at NZ$118 a night on weekdays (Sun–Thu nights) and NZ$122 on weekends (Fri–Sat nights). Its own weekend premium is 122 ÷ 118 − 1, which is 3.4%. Occupancy is 92.8% on weekday nights and 94.2% on weekend nights, so weekends fill a little better and earn only a little more.

Now put the illustrative middle beside it, on the same nights. The middle sits at NZ$141 on a typical weekday night and NZ$167 on a typical weekend night (medians of the nightly figures). That gives two rate gaps:

Rate gap = (park − middle) ÷ middle. Worked example only; the middle column is an assumption.

The weekend gap is 10.6 percentage points wider than the weekday gap. That pattern gap is the useful part: the park prices its weekends almost like its weekdays, while the comparison set steps up on Friday and Saturday. It says nothing about how much money is involved; it only tells you where to look first.

For context from real searches: in our Market Pulse Friday-to-Tuesday comparison, captured four days apart (preview basis), Friday 6 November (captured 7 October) sat more than 2% above Tuesday 10 November (captured 11 October) for 733 of 1,707 hotels across 27 markets, which is 42.9%. Plenty of hotels lift Friday. Plenty do not. Your cabins should follow your own weekend occupancy, not a rule of thumb.

How far apart should studio, family and deluxe cabin rates sit?

Room-type spacing is where many parks lose sight of what guests are comparing. In the worked example (synthetic data), the realised rates per room night from the booking sample are:

Worked example (synthetic data). Room-type figures come from a separate booking sample and do not reconcile exactly to the daily totals.

Each type sells a similar share of room nights, between 22.8% and 26.6%. When every type fills at about the same pace, the spacing between them is probably not doing much work. Two questions are worth asking. Does the family cabin, which sleeps more people, fill first in school holidays? If so, NZ$28 above the 1BR may be a narrow step on those dates. And does the studio fill last on quiet weekdays? If so, its lower rate is doing its job there and need not move.

A simple rule keeps the ladder tidy: set the base for one cabin type and express every other type as a fixed dollar offset. When the base moves for a weekend or event, every type moves with it, and you only review the offsets once a season. The studio vs family cabin worked example goes through the spacing in more detail.

When do minimum stays help a holiday park, and when do they cost nights?

A minimum stay protects the peak dates from one-night bookings that leave a gap on either side. It also hides you from guests searching for one night, because on most booking sites a cabin with a two-night minimum does not appear for a one-night search. That is the trade.

• Use a two- or three-night minimum on the dates that fill early every year, such as the Labour Day long weekend (Sat 24 to Mon 26 October 2026) and the nights around Christmas Day (Fri 25 December) and New Year’s Eve (Thu 31 December).
• Lift the minimum stay 7 to 14 days out if the dates still have open cabins. In the worked example the median lead time is 14.5 days, so a restriction left on into the last fortnight blocks the bookings that usually arrive then.
• Keep sites and cabins on separate restrictions. A full site field and an empty cabin row on the same night is a common result of one blanket rule.

Our length-of-stay pricing guide covers the stay-pattern side; for the summer peak itself, see the Christmas and New Year holiday park worked example.

How do you test a higher cabin rate without guessing the occupancy cost?

Use break-even occupancy: current occupancy × current rate ÷ target rate. In the worked example (synthetic data), occupancy is 93.2%. A 5% higher rate keeps the same room revenue down to 88.8% occupancy, a 10% higher rate down to 84.7% and a 15% higher rate down to 81.0%. At +10%, that is about 3.4 cabins a night of room to lose before revenue falls.

The question for the manager is whether you would lose three or four cabins a night on the nights you test. On event nights the example park runs at 94.0% occupancy and NZ$120 while the illustrative middle on those nights is NZ$195. On Saturday 24 October, the Labour Day weekend, the park asks NZ$120 against an illustrative NZ$210. Full nights at a low rate are the classic sign that the last cabins sell early, which why high occupancy can hide a rate problem explains.

Because the occupancy here is stated as part of a worked example, a dollar illustration is allowed. Illustration, if the same share of rooms sold at the higher rate; rooms already booked are not repriced:

Worked example (synthetic data). A sensitivity, not a forecast; your own pickup decides.

The break-even for the weekend step is 94.2% × 122 ÷ 132, about 87.1%. For the weekday step it is 92.8% × 118 ÷ 123, about 89.0%. If your own occupancy sits well above those lines on the nights you test, the test is low-risk. If it sits close to them, test on fewer dates.

What to do this week

1. Pull your last 90 nights by cabin type and split them into weekday (Sun–Thu) and weekend (Fri–Sat). Write down your own weekend premium.
2. List the nights where one cabin type filled completely more than 14 days ahead. Those are the first candidates for a higher rate.
3. Write your cabin ladder as one base plus fixed offsets, and check the family-cabin step against school-holiday fill.
4. Put a two-night minimum on Labour Day weekend and Christmas to New Year dates, with a calendar reminder to review it 14 days out.
5. Pick four weekend nights and test a step that keeps break-even occupancy below your current fill. Review pickup the following week.

Frequently asked questions

Should holiday park sites and cabins use the same pricing rules?

Usually not. Sites suit a seasonal grid with a peak step and minimum stays on the busiest dates. Cabins are compared with hotel rooms and holiday rentals, so they benefit from a weekly look at the next 90 nights, a weekend step and event-night steps.

What is a normal weekend premium for holiday park cabins?

There is no single normal figure. Calculate your own: weekend rate divided by weekday rate, minus one. In the worked example the park’s own premium is 3.4%. Set your step from your own weekend occupancy and the nights you turn guests away.

How much more should a family cabin cost than a standard cabin?

Express it as a fixed dollar offset from your base cabin and check it against fill. In the worked example the 2BR Family Cabin sells at NZ$28 above the 1BR. If family cabins fill first in school holidays, that offset may be narrow on those dates.

Do minimum stays reduce holiday park bookings?

They can. A cabin with a two-night minimum often does not appear for one-night searches. Use minimums on dates that fill early every year and lift them 7 to 14 days out if cabins are still open.

Is the worked example in this guide a real holiday park?

No. It is synthetic data for a fictional 40-cabin NZ holiday park, used to show the arithmetic. Its market middle column is an illustrative assumption, not market data, so use your own figures for decisions.

The next step is to put your own dates beside the market middle for the same nights, with the capture date on every number.

Data sources: worked example (synthetic data) for a fictional 40-cabin NZ holiday park, 90 nights from 14 October 2026; RevPARGenius Market Pulse Basic, public OTA search (1 night, 2 adults, 1 room, cheapest offer; refund and board unknown), Friday 6 November captured 7 October 2026 and Tuesday 10 November captured 11 October 2026. Analysis run October 2026. Last reviewed October 2026. RevPARGenius is a hotel market intelligence platform. It is not affiliated with any online travel agency or hotel chain.

Research methodology and disclosures: Market figures in this article are calculated by RevPARGenius from room rates publicly displayed on online travel agency (OTA) channels, on one search basis (1 night, 2 adults, 1 room, cheapest offer shown). We publish a market figure only where at least 15 properties were priced. The figures are advertised asking prices. They do not show occupancy, bookings, negotiated corporate rates or revenue achieved. Worked examples marked as synthetic use invented data. This article is general information, not pricing advice: each hotel sets its own rates independently. RevPARGenius and CloseMode are commercially affiliated platforms.