Why Australians Are Still Booking Holidays (And How to Make Sure They Book Yours Directly)
In today's digital age, people expect to have a choice of payment methods, so it's important to keep up with the times and offer a variety of options. Read on to find out how accepting alternative payment methods like PlanPay could benefit your hotel and revolutionize the booking experience for your guests.
Right now, a lot of Australians are feeling the pinch. Prices are up, household budgets are stretched, and people are thinking twice before they spend. That mood has a name: consumer confidence. It is a measure of how optimistic Australians feel about their finances and the broader economy. When it is high, people spend freely. When it falls, they get careful.
And right now, it has fallen. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index sits at 77.1, down 11 points on the same time last year. A score below 100 means more Australians are pessimistic than optimistic about their financial situation. At 77.1, the gap is significant. Confidence has dropped across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, with only Western Australia recording a slight improvement.
For caravan park and holiday park operators, this is worth paying attention to. Not because travellers have stopped wanting a holiday, but because a financially cautious guest behaves differently at the point of booking. And that difference matters.
The caravan park sector is still performing strongly
Despite the dip in confidence, Australians have not stopped going on holiday. According to the Caravan Industry Association of Australia's February 2026 Visitor Economy Monitor, cabin occupancy hit 66% nationally, up five points year-on-year, powered site occupancy rose to 47%, and RevPAR for cabins lifted 14%. The sector is genuinely one of the bright spots in domestic tourism right now.
It makes sense. Caravan and holiday parks offer something that resonates deeply when budgets are tight: real value, flexibility, and the kind of experience that feels like a proper break without the price tag of international travel. Travellers are not abandoning holidays. They are choosing smarter ones. The demand is there. The challenge is converting it.
What financially cautious travellers actually do differently
When 45% of Australians say their finances are worse off than a year ago, and 37% expect further deterioration over the next 12 months, booking behaviour shifts in specific ways. Cautious travellers do not stop planning. They research more carefully, compare options, take longer to commit, and become far more sensitive to friction at checkout.
When guests are feeling the pinch, asking them to hand over a full payment at the point of booking is a significant ask. A checkout that redirects to an OTA, loads slowly on mobile, or presents unexpected fees at the final step will lose that booking entirely. And in a low-confidence environment, that traveller is unlikely to come back. Every friction point in your booking flow costs more when your guests are already hesitant.
Cautious travellers are not impossible to convert. They just need the right conditions to say yes. That is where payment flexibility becomes a genuine conversion tool rather than a nice extra.
Afterpay and PayPal Pay in 4: flexible payments built into your booking engine
RoomStay integrates with both Afterpay and PayPal Pay in 4, giving holiday park and caravan park operators two of the most trusted BNPL options in Australia, available directly at checkout on your own website. You can see the full list of RoomStay's payment integrations here.
Both options allow guests to split their booking into four interest-free instalments, both are well known to Australian travellers, and both reduce the friction that turns a near-booking into an abandonment. Afterpay has around 3.5 million active users in Australia. PayPal is the most recognised payment brand in the world. Offering these at checkout is not a gimmick. It is meeting your guests where they already are financially, and giving them one less reason to hesitate.
Flexible payments work harder when your checkout does too
BNPL at checkout only converts if guests can actually reach that point without dropping off first. RoomStay embeds a fully optimised caravan park booking engine directly on your property website, so guests search, select, and pay without ever leaving your site. There are no redirects to OTAs, no clunky handoffs, and no interruption to your brand experience mid-booking.
The checkout is also built mobile-first, which matters because most travel research and booking happens on a phone. A poor mobile experience is one of the most common causes of booking abandonment, and it hits hardest among younger travellers who are also the fastest-growing BNPL users. A friction-free checkout and flexible payment options work together to address both sides of the cautious-traveller problem: the experience barrier and the payment barrier. Fix both, and your conversion rate reflects it.
Direct bookings matter more when margins are under pressure
When guests are price-sensitive, they are also more likely to search OTAs looking for the best deal. If a cautious guest finds your park on an OTA first, that is where they will book, and you will pay commission for a booking that should have been yours. Every booking that goes through an OTA costs you margin you cannot get back. A direct booking engine that actually converts, backed by payment options guests want to use, is one of the most practical ways to protect revenue when conditions are tough. You keep the booking, the margin, and the guest relationship.
Parks using RoomStay have seen up to 434% growth in direct bookings and a 92% increase in revenue per session. That is not a result of more traffic. It is a result of converting the traffic that is already there.
The booking window is open. Make sure guests walk through it.
Australians are still travelling. Caravan parks are still filling up. The February numbers confirm it. But in a year where household budgets are stretched and confidence is soft, the margin between a booking and an abandonment is thinner than it has been in years. Operators who make it easy to say yes, with a checkout that works, pricing that is clear, and payment options that reduce the upfront pressure, will be the ones who capture the most of what is on the table. That is what RoomStay is built to do.
Frequently asked questions
Does Afterpay work for caravan park bookings?
Yes. RoomStay integrates Afterpay directly into your caravan park booking engine, so guests can split the cost of their stay into four interest-free fortnightly payments at checkout. The full amount is settled with the park upfront. See RoomStay's Afterpay integration for more details.
What is PayPal Pay in 4 and how does it work for accommodation?
PayPal Pay in 4 lets guests split a booking into four equal, interest-free payments made every two weeks. It works through PayPal's existing platform, so guests do not need to sign up for a new service. For parks using RoomStay, it is available as a payment option directly within the booking engine on your website.
Will offering BNPL increase my direct bookings?
It can. Research from PayPal found that 52% of shoppers are more likely to complete a purchase when BNPL is available, and accommodation providers offering BNPL have reported increases in both conversion rates and average booking values. The key is having BNPL embedded in a direct booking engine rather than an OTA, so the revenue stays with you.
How does buy now pay later affect my cash flow as a park operator?
With RoomStay's BNPL integrations, the park receives the full booking amount upfront. It is the BNPL provider (Afterpay or PayPal) that manages the installment payments with the guest. Your cash flow is not affected, and you are not exposed to any repayment risk.
Want to see how RoomStay's payment integrations work for your park? Book a demo at roomstay.io.
45% of Australians say they're worse off than last year. But caravan parks are still filling up. The difference between a booking and an abandonment? Giving cautious travellers a flexible way to pay. #caravanpark #directbookings #bnpl #holidaypark
