Case Study: How Ziggucamp uses zkipster to manage luxury glamping near Glastonbury Festival

Ziggucamp is proud to be the largest offsite glamping provider catering to the UK’s iconic Glastonbury Festival.

“Glasto” has taken place most summers since 1970 and celebrates contemporary performing arts, with recent headliners including Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses and Kendrick Lamar. 

Ziggucamp first pitched its tents at the festival in 2016, with approximately 100 units of simple pre-pitched accommodation and 300 guests. By 2024 the Ziggu campsite had grown tenfold, encompassing more than 900 units of luxury glamping accommodation and hosting close to 3,000 guests. 

With a mission to enhance guests’ Glastonbury experience, in addition to luxury glamping Ziggucamp offers parking, beauty and wellbeing treatments, a street food market and bar, 24 hour security and shuttles. It is a family-friendly site offering a relaxing and restful oasis away from the sounds and smells of Glastonbury, with a guest profile as diverse and eclectic as the festival itself. Guests pay for a premium experience at Ziggucamp, so have high standards and expect a professional operation.

By 2023 the Ziggucamp team had outgrown its existing paper system and processes, site capacity had increased and check-in lines needed to be kept to a minimum. Operations Manager Ian Siddall initially considered a hotel-style booking system, before he refined his search to focus on event check-in software and found zkipster online.

Our Case Study with GQ and the caliber of the events powered by our platform caught Ian’s attention; the free Test Drive account helped him understand the software; and a discovery call with a member of the zkipster team answered all of his questions.

The Ziggucamp challenge

• Source a full service guest and event management solution for their luxury glamping experience
• Transform event check-in, with access to live data and the ability to process simultaneous check-ins and group bookings
• Enhance site security with real-time capacity management

The zkipster solution

Event management software

By onboarding zkipster Ziggucamp was able to move away from its existing paper system, which was “cumbersome, time-consuming…and caused queues”. zkipster has provided the team with a “one stop shop for all booking information”.

From inception to final event delivery, zkipster has answered all our operational questions and offered opportunities for further efficiencies.

Ian Siddall | Operations Manager | Ziggucamp

Guest management and custom fields

• Ziggucamp uses zkipster to manage guests, and custom fields to organize booking information. Ziggucamp has multiple tent suppliers, specs and layouts (two single beds, one double bed, etc.), so their custom fields include Tent Number, Tent Supplier, Tent Product and Configuration.
• With zkipster the team has accurate data at their fingertips, and greater visibility via the zkipster app. Ian can “walk around the campsite and have this information on my phone should I need to help a specific booking or need a certain supplier to check a tent.”

• The Ziggucamp team uses zkipster to both enrich guest profiles with detailed booking data in advance of the festival, and update them with additional requests and notes in real time during the live event. 
• In 2024 the team started using zkipster’s Notes field as well, making more information about specific bookings available internally.

Check-in

• With zkipster, Ziggucamp was able to increase the number of check-in stations from one to three.
• The team moved from paper to the zkipster app on iPad, with access to real-time data for all check-in personnel, and no concerns about duplicated work.
• For groups, Ziggucamp needed visibility of not just the overall bookings, but which individuals had checked in, and when. zkipster provides live visibility of individual arrivals, ensuring that check-in data is accurate and the correct number of wristbands is distributed to guests as they arrive.

• zkipster has made the check-in process quicker “for all parties - us and guests”, reducing the time taken to locate bookings and limiting queues.
• The event makers who welcome guests to Ziggucamp are provided with a training document containing step-by-step instructions and zkipster screenshots. The check-in process is then discussed and role played before Glastonbury Festival gets underway.

zkipster transcends guest check in and provides an all round event communication solution, both internally for different departments and externally for guests directly.

Ian Siddall | Operations Manager | Ziggucamp

Capacity management

• Having live, accurate check-in data has enhanced event security at Ziggucamp, and provided peace of mind when it comes to capacity management.
• The team can feel confident that the correct number of guest wristbands has been provided for each booking, and that they have a live count of site capacity to refer to in case of any emergencies.
• Capacity and check-in information is also used to notify on-site vendors about expected demand for food, drink, and other services.
• This real-time data helps the car park management team on event day too, as they know how many guests and bookings have yet to arrive.

Reporting

• With zkipster’s event reporting feature, Ian and the Ziggucamp team were able to draw on 2023 data to predict high-demand check-in times for 2024. This meant that staffing levels could be planned accurately in advance.
• The reporting was also shared with the parking team, so they could also predict the busiest arrival times for cars.

Next steps

• zkipster usage continues to evolve at Ziggucamp. In addition to the reception team, the security and parking teams now have increased visibility and knowledge of zkipster. They’re aware that the event management software can help confirm people’s credentials on-site and predict peak arrival times.
• Ian is “very interested” to see how QR codes can help with car parking at Ziggucamp going forward. By using zkipster to issue QR codes to guests who purchase car parking, the team will be able to validate individual vehicles as they are driven onto the site. They will also be able to link cars to glamping bookings in case of any issues: if a car alarm goes off at night, for example.

Finally, with several devoted Glastonbury-goers on the zkipster team, we had to conclude the Case Study by asking Ian for his festival highlights:

I have been fortunate enough the last two years to enjoy Glastonbury in some capacity, despite working. Getting to see Arctic Monkeys live in 2023 evoked memories from university, having (been in) their hometown of Sheffield during their mid-2000s rise to fame. And Coldplay, despite headlining for a fifth time in 2024, still put on a fantastic show.

Ian Siddall | Operations Manager | Ziggucamp

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