If you want your summer camp to grow and scale, you know the importance of adding new campers to your rosters each year. But, did you know that retaining campers year over year is just as, if not more, important — and costs significantly less than finding new families? It’s true!

Getting families in the door is the first step, but how do you turn them into loyal customers who return each camp season? A solid customer retention strategy is the answer. In this guide, we’ll outline customer retention tactics that you can use to celebrate your current campers and encourage them to book again.

What Is Customer Retention?

Customer retention refers to a business’ ability to keep customers returning over a period of time. For summer camps, customer retention typically means repeat campers who return to camp year over year. 

Why Is Customer Retention Important?

HubSpot estimates that it is 5–25x less expensive to entice customers to return than it is to find new customers and get them over the hump of signing up. Plus, repeat customers who are familiar with your camp and its benefits are more open to add-ons and additional purchases. Finally, families come back because they like what you offer and campers are more likely to bring friends and refer others, which will help you reach new campers as well.

Customer Retention Strategies for Camps

Now that you understand more about the importance of customer retention for your camp, it is time to start thinking about customer retention strategies that you should implement to celebrate your current campers and encourage them to book again.

Make Customers Feel Welcome

When families join your camp for the first time, make them feel warm and welcome. When you create an inviting environment for your new campers, you will encourage them to return so they can feel that way again. With camp management software, your counselors and staff can see automated rosters with all of the information for each of the campers. That way, you can greet each family and camper by their names when they arrive on the first day. Then, keep the warm feelings going when they come back for their second, third, and fourth day!

Give Customers a Reason to Come Back

One of the most successful customer retention strategies is offering families a gift if they return to your camp for another session or summer. This can be a discount on their next registration, early access to registration, a sibling discount, or even a small piece of swag like a t-shirt or hat. You can also offer early bird discounts if parents book the next camp while the current camp is still running, or you can reduce the price of your camp session if parents book more than one at a time.

Offer Additional Opportunities for Customers to Book

Don’t feel pigeonholed by the seasons! You can offer day off and school break camps to encourage your current campers to come back for more fun. Plus, this is a great way to find new families to bring into your camp community. You can even bundle these additional activities with your summer camp enrollment to encourage families to book multiple sessions at the same time.

Send Personalized Messages to Encourage More Signups

After campers attend your camp, send families an email to remind them about upcoming sessions and encourage them to sign up again. You can offer a discount or promotion to seal the deal. In your email, remind them about the value your camps provide to their children. If you have photos from the summer, include them as a visual reminder! You can also send messages to celebrate your campers’ birthdays, the start of the school year, or holidays to keep in touch throughout the year. Make sure every email includes a call to action (CTA) that encourages parents to book.

Create a Customer Loyalty Program

When you reward families for attending your camps, then they are more likely to come back! Create a customer loyalty program that gives your families a reason to return. The best loyalty programs are attainable and keep customers interested. For example, give a small reward when they sign up for another week of camp or give them two stamps for attending their first few days or weeks so they reach the reward faster.

Offer Free Trials

In our 2025 Children’s Activity Business Trend Report, we analyzed 10.9 million bookings made and found that 30 percent of families who utilized a free trial returned for a paid booking. Free trials give customers a chance to try before they buy and you get the opportunity to be your own best marketing asset. For camps, a free trial could be held on a day outside of your camp session where you can introduce families and campers to your activities, staff, and what to expect. 

Ask for Feedback . . . and Implement It!

Asking families for reviews is a great way to reach out to customers when they might not be thinking about camp. Once you make contact, get their feedback and then actually implement it! Then, after making those adjustments, let that customer know and they will feel more interested in returning to your camps.

Developing and implementing customer retention strategies can take time and effort, but they are imperative for successfully growing your camp. 

This article was sponsored by Sawyer. Sawyer is an all-in-one camp registration and management software that helps camp owners and children’s activity providers efficiently run their businesses so they can spend more time doing what they love. 

Lizzie is the senior manager of content marketing for Sawyer. She helps connect camp owners and educators with the resources they need so they can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time working with children. A lifelong lover of camp as both a camper and counselor, Lizzie is thrilled that she gets to spend her days helping providers discover and use Sawyer to make camp more accessible.

Periodically, the American Camp Association (ACA) makes timely and relevant information about products and services available to its members so they can make informed decisions for their camps. However, ACA does not endorse products, services, or companies.