Summer camp prices climbed 23% in 2024 after a 25% jump the year before. Despite those increases, families keep signing up because they value what camps offer their kids. But interested parents don’t always become enrolled campers. When your registration process is confusing, your session options are unclear, or your payment system creates friction, those families find another camp that makes it easier. According to the American Camp Association’s 2025 booking trends report, 69% of parents book camps on their phones and 42% register outside business hours. If your enrollment process doesn’t meet them where they are, you’re handing campers to your competition.
What Session-Based Enrollment Looks Like Today
Session-based enrollment means dividing your summer programming into distinct time blocks that families choose based on their availability. One-week sessions remain the most common format, though plenty of camps now offer everything from single-day drop-ins to month-long programs. This flexibility matters because modern families have complicated schedules. Parents juggle work commitments, vacations, and activities for multiple kids. Giving them options to pick specific weeks makes camp possible for families who couldn’t commit to an entire summer.
According to the University of Michigan and American Camp Association, the youth camp industry contributes $70 billion annually to the U.S. economy while supporting nearly one million workers. Your camp plays a role in that larger picture, and filling your sessions means more kids getting valuable summer experiences.
Open Registration Early and Use Online Tools
Parents start researching camp options months before summer arrives, with many making decisions by early spring. If you wait until April to open registration, you’ve missed the window when motivated families are actively comparing programs. Aim to launch registration in January or February, and consider offering early bird pricing to encourage prompt commitments. A modest discount for families who register before a deadline creates urgency without cutting significantly into your revenue.
Your registration system should let parents complete the entire process on their phone without needing to call your office. Camp management software lets families browse available sessions, complete forms, and pay whenever they have time. When registration feels easy, more families finish it.
Set Clear Capacity Limits and Build Smart Waitlists
Capacity management requires balancing several factors at once. Your physical space, staffing ratios, licensing requirements, and the nature of specific activities all influence how many campers you can safely accommodate in each session. Once you establish those limits, you need real-time visibility into available spots so your team can give accurate information to inquiring families.
Waitlists deserve more attention than many camps give them. When a parent discovers their preferred session is sold out and you don’t offer a waitlist option, most will simply search for another camp that has availability. With a waitlist, you keep that family in your system and can notify them automatically when a cancellation opens a spot. The data from waitlists also tells you which sessions consistently generate more demand than you can meet, which might justify adding capacity or similar sessions in future years.
Provide Payment Flexibility and Communicate Consistently
Summer camp represents a significant expense for most households, especially when multiple children are enrolling or families want several sessions. Offering payment plans, deposits with balances due later, or buy-now-pay-later options can expand your enrollment pool meaningfully. The ACA trends report noted that 17% of camp bookings in 2024 used a buy-now-pay-later option. These choices make camp accessible to families who have the overall means but would struggle to pay everything at once.
Multi-session discounts and sibling discounts help families afford more camp while increasing your total enrollment per household. A family that might register one child for one week could become a two-child, three-week enrollment when the math works in their favor.
Communication with parents should start immediately after registration and continue through each session. Families need session-specific details about drop-off procedures, packing lists, required forms, and planned activities well before each start date. During camp, sharing photos and daily updates gives parents peace of mind and builds the kind of positive experience that leads to referrals and return enrollments.
Learn From Your Data Each Year
Every registration tells you something about what families want. Track which sessions fill first and which struggle to reach capacity. Look for patterns in the timing of registrations and the payment methods families choose. When the same sessions generate long waitlists year after year, that signals an opportunity to expand. When certain weeks consistently underperform, you might need to adjust your marketing, change the programming, or remove those sessions entirely.
Parent and camper surveys provide context that numbers alone can’t capture. Ask specific questions about the registration experience, communication quality, and likelihood of returning. The most valuable feedback often comes from families who started registration but didn’t finish. Reaching out to understand what stopped them can reveal friction points you can fix for next year.
Make Your Summer Camp One That Families Return To
Effective session-based enrollment connects all these pieces. When you open registration early, families have time to plan around their schedules. When your system works on mobile, parents can register during their lunch break or after the kids go to bed. Clear capacity limits protect your program quality while waitlists keep interested families from slipping away to competitors. Flexible payment options remove financial barriers that might otherwise stop a registration mid-checkout. Consistent communication builds trust that turns first-time campers into returning families. And reviewing your data each year helps you spot what’s working and fix what isn’t before the next enrollment cycle begins.
Running a summer camp takes serious effort, and managing enrollment across multiple sessions adds real complexity. Daily Connect helps camp operators handle registration, parent communication, waitlists, and billing in one platform designed for this work. If you want to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time creating great experiences for campers, try Daily Connect for free today.
