When customers are ready to book a holiday, they have questions — about availability, pet policies, which sites have the best sea views. For Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park in Taranaki, New Zealand, answering those questions fast enough to convert visitors into bookings was the challenge.
Park owners Anna and Peter Crawford knew that responsive, always-on support would drive more bookings. But their existing systems — phone, email, and templated front desk emails — were only available during office hours.
"We assumed that our customers just weren't the type to chat, but it turned out, it was just that the product we were using wasn't right."
Their website attracted solid traffic, but the off-the-shelf live chat tool sat largely unused, averaging just one chat per month.
Within one week of replacing their old tool with Yonder's AI chatbot — which integrates with holiday park booking and property management systems — Belt Road received 23 chats, an average of 3.3 per day. One year on, they regularly achieve 40–60 conversations per month, with the chatbot facilitating a booking every couple of days in peak season.
Key outcomes:
"Yonder has exceeded our expectations in terms of increased chat, and is one of the tools we use to help drive direct bookings. We are converting some of those bookings where they might not have been able to find the answer on our website." — Anna Crawford
Belt Road started with live chat before rolling out automated responses for the most common questions: best views, pet policies, site availability, and more. The chatbot handles these using natural language — just like a staff member would.
When a question can't be resolved automatically, it's seamlessly routed to a team member if someone is online, or the visitor can leave their email for follow-up.
"Before we started this, I didn't know what automated chat could provide, or how it worked. We can see now how adding automation to respond live to guests is as good as if we were responding ourselves."
Anna's team also uses Yonder's hybrid feature — switching between automated and live chat mid-conversation.
"If an automated chat ends without a booking, one of us will jump on and ask if they've got any more questions. It's quick and easy, and one more way to help move people toward making a booking."
Photographs in responses. Questions about the best-view sites are common, and Belt Road includes photos in their automated responses — generating strong engagement and helping customers visualise before they book.
Pop-up website messages. Anna rates this as one of her favourite features.
"I think the pop-up messages 'How can we help?' or 'What can we help with?' that come up after 10 seconds trigger a lot more website chat. More eyes are drawn to it."
Dashboard reporting. At a glance, Anna can see conversation volumes, staff hours saved, and click-throughs to the booking system.
In-park chat. Belt Road extended their chatbot beyond pre-booking — trialling QR code-activated chat for on-site guests, letting visitors request towels, report issues, or ask questions mid-stay.
Belt Road also use Yonder Reviews to automatically gather guest feedback and grow their online reputation after every stay.
Exponential growth in chats
Within a week of removing the old chat tool and installing Yonder's chatbot, Belt Road received 23 chats, an average of 3.3 a day, which was a massive improvement on the one chat a month they had experienced previously.
One year on from deploying Yonder, Belt Road continues to get excellent results and regularly achieves 40-60 chats per month. The chatbot facilitates one booking every couple of days in the lead-up to the busy summer period, and a small handful of bookings are facilitated by the digital assistant each month over the less busy winter period.
More bookings
“Yonder has exceeded our expectations in terms of increased chat, and is one of the tools we use to help drive direct bookings.
“We are converting some of those bookings where they might not have been able to find the answer on our website,” says Anna.
Getting Yonder live didn't require technical expertise. Automated responses were set up by answering common questions in a form, and the Yonder team handled the rest.
"I like that the solution is developed in New Zealand, and that answers to our questions are only a phone call away." — Anna Crawford
Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park is a cliff-top retreat in Taranaki with breathtaking Tasman Sea views, modern cabins, motel units, powered and tent sites, and conference facilities. Belt Road consistently receives outstanding reviews and was awarded the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Visitor Industry Excellence Award in 2018.
“We assumed that our customers just weren’t the type to chat, but it turned out, it was just that the product we were using wasn’t right.”