Summer Holiday Camp Pricing Per Day: Full Week, Single Day and Half-Day Rates

A parent at the desk asks whether their kid can just do Tuesday and Thursday of the January camp, and what that would cost. If your holiday camp pricing per day isn't settled before that conversation, you'll invent a number on the spot, and every family after them will expect the same deal.

This post gives you a worked method. Work out what one camp day costs you, set a single-day rate, then build a full-week rate and a half-day rate around it so the full week stays the obvious choice. You'll finish with a price table you can publish before summer bookings open.

If you're still deciding what kind of camp to run at all, our guide on how to price sports coaching programs and camps covers the bigger picture. This one is narrower: the numbers on the camp page.

Start with your cost per camp day

Every rate you set later hangs off one figure: what it costs you to open the doors for one camp day. Not per child. Per day.

Here's a worked example. Assumptions: a 9am–3pm multi-sport camp, two coaches and one assistant, run on your own courts. Every dollar figure is a placeholder, so swap in your own.

Two lines people skip. First, court time: even if you own the venue, those courts could be earning hire income, so count them. Second, setup and pack-down: coaches don't arrive at 8:59 and leave at 3:01. If you need help working out how many staff a day actually needs, see our holiday camp staffing ratios and roster guide.

Now divide by the number of kids you plan to have, not the number you could have. Say capacity is 30 and you plan on 20. That's $1,200 ÷ 20 = $60 per child per day. That's your floor. Price below it and every booking loses money on an ordinary day.

Payment processing and platform fees are percentages, so handle them in your margin rather than this table. If you run camps on Sweepa, that's a transparent 2% platform fee on every plan. The details are on our pricing page.

Set a single-day rate you'd happily sell all week

The single-day rate is your full price. Set it as if nobody will buy the week, because some weeks, half the camp won't.

Start from the $60 floor and add the margin you need for the camp to be worth running: admin time, marketing, the slow week in late January when numbers dip. Then check what comparable camps nearby charge for a day. You're not trying to match them, just making sure you're not wildly out.

In our example, we'll set the single day at $85.

Quick test: if 20 kids booked single days every day, you'd take $1,700 a day against $1,200 in costs. Good. If you'd be unhappy with that result, your single-day rate is too low. Don't fix it by discounting the week harder.

One rule: never set the single-day rate low to get people in the door and plan to make it back on the week. Single-day bookings are the most work per dollar you'll take all summer. They should pay accordingly.

Holiday camp pricing per day vs the full-week rate

This is where most camps either leave money on the table or make the week pointless. The aim is a full-week price that's clearly better value than buying days, without cutting so deep that a full camp of week-bookers barely breaks even.

The band we'd start in: price the full week at roughly 4 to 4.5 single days. Below four and you're giving away a day for nothing you can't already get. Above 4.5 and parents don't feel the saving, so they book days and keep their options open.

Here's the example camp's price table:

Check the worst case: every kid books the full week. At 20 kids, that's 20 × $75 = $1,500 a day against $1,200 in costs. Still comfortably above the floor.

The three-day pack is optional. It fills the gap for families juggling work rosters and gives you a step between "one day" and "all in". If you don't offer it, expect more Tuesday-and-Thursday conversations at the desk.

Don't forget short weeks. Summer camps often run across Australia Day, and autumn camps can catch Easter. Price a four-day week pro-rata from the week rate, not the single-day rate, so week families aren't punished for a public holiday.

And show the saving in dollars. "Save $50 on the full week" lands harder than "$75 per day".

Why half-day rates aren't half the price

It's tempting to make a half day $42.50. Don't. Your costs don't halve.

Coaches usually need a minimum shift. Setup still happens. The court is still blocked out for the day unless you can genuinely hire out the other half. And the noon pickup lands right on top of lunch supervision.

In our example, a 9am–12pm half day is $55 against the $85 single day. That's about 65%, well above half. Treat it as an assumption and work out your own from your costs.

Then check nobody can game it: two half days cost $110, well above the $85 full day. Nobody saves money by splitting.

Only offer half days if one of these is true:

• You can run a separate afternoon group that fills the other half.
• You can release the court for hire after lunch.
• Your local market really is younger kids who flag by midday.

If none apply, half days are a convenience you're subsidising. Leave them off the menu.

What mixed bookings do to the camp floor

A setup we see a lot: Monday at 8:45 runs smoothly. Twenty kids, all names on the sheet, groups sorted, briefing done. Tuesday, six of them are gone and seven new single-day kids arrive. Each one needs a name tag, a check of their medical notes and someone to explain where the toilets are. The groups you balanced on Monday no longer work. Your coach-to-child ratio has shifted. At noon, three half-day parents arrive mid-lunch and someone has to leave the group to sign them out.

None of that is a disaster. But it's why the week discount isn't just about revenue. A camp full of week-bookers is calmer, safer and easier to staff. That certainty is worth the $50.

Two practical controls:

1. Cap single-day places. For example, hold two-thirds of places for full-week and three-day bookings until a set date.
2. Release unsold places as singles late. Two weeks out, open the remaining spots to single days. Late singles fill gaps instead of displacing week families.

And decide your swap rules before January, not at the desk. Our holiday camp transfer policy guide covers what to do when a child can't make their booked day.

Stacking sibling and early-bird discounts without giving the camp away

Sibling and early-bird discounts are useful. Stacked on top of a week discount, they can quietly wipe out your margin.

Run the numbers with some assumptions. Say the full week is $375, as in our example, and you offer 10% off for a second child and 10% off for early-bird bookings. If both apply, that's 20% off. A second sibling booking the week early pays $375 less 20%, which is $300, or $60 a day. That matches the $60 per-child cost we worked out earlier, so you break even at planned headcount. Every family who finds that combination is camping at cost.

Pick a rule and publish it:

• One discount per booking, the larger applies. Simple and easy to explain at the desk.
• Discounts apply to the week rate only. Pushes families toward the booking you want.
• A floor price. No combination goes below a set per-day figure, say $65 in this example.

Our post on what early-bird deadlines actually do to registrations covers timing, and the waitlist, trials and sibling discount playbook covers sibling rules in more detail.

This is the admin Sweepa takes off your plate. Our program and camp registration handles sibling discounts and waitlists at checkout, so the rule you set is the rule every family gets.

Common camp pricing mistakes

• Dividing by capacity. Pricing as if every camp sells out means every normal week loses money.
• A week discount that's too deep. Selling the week for three days' money trains families to expect it.
• Half day at half price. Your costs don't halve, so your price shouldn't.
• Forgetting public holiday weeks. Decide the four-day price now, not when the first parent asks.
• Changing prices after bookings open. Families compare notes at pickup. Set it once for the season.
• Hiding the saving. If parents have to do the maths, many won't.

Your Monday checklist for camp rates

1. Fill in the cost-per-camp-day table with your real wages, on-costs and court value.
2. Divide by planned headcount, not capacity, to find your per-child floor.
3. Set a single-day rate you'd be happy with if nobody booked the week.
4. Price the full week at 4 to 4.5 single days and check the all-week-bookers case still clears your costs.
5. Decide whether you need a three-day pack and a half-day option, and price half days well above half a day, as in the $55 example.
6. Set your four-day week price for public holiday weeks.
7. Write one stacking rule for sibling and early-bird discounts, with a floor.
8. Cap single-day places and pick the date you'll release the rest.

Do steps one and two this week. Once you know your floor, the rest of the table takes about half an hour.