Building a Summer Camp Marketplace for Parents and Providers

The Challenge

Camps Rock is a summer camp directory on Brilliant Directories, but the default platform was built for generic business listings. Parents needed to search camps by location, dates, age, and theme. Camp providers needed to publish multi-session listings without incomplete profiles going live. The homepage also had to speak to parents first while still recruiting camp organizations on separate paid tiers.

The Solution

We turned Camps Rock into a camp marketplace with custom search, listing tools, and plan-based limits for parents and providers:

1. Parent-First Homepage

   We added parent-focused sections with a Start Searching Camps button to /camps, a separate Market Your Summer Camps block for providers, and dual newsletter signups so each audience gets the right message.

2. Camp Search and Results

   We built a custom search engine with location radius, themes, age, grade, camp type, special needs, and multi-session date filters. Results show as camp cards with session dates, pricing, ratings, and favorites instead of the default BD list layout.

3. Camp Detail Pages

   We redesigned camp pages with galleries, video embeds, pricing tiers, special needs labels, maps, and Get Directions from the user's search location. Provider profiles respect plan limits on photos, descriptions, and contact features.

4. Eight-Step Listing Wizard

   Providers manage camps through an eight-step form covering description, location, themes, amenities, pricing, dates, and contact info. Publish is blocked until required fields are complete, with clear feedback on what is still missing.

5. Membership Tier Limits

   Free, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans control camp counts, description length, photo uploads, and social sharing. Silver and Free members see upgrade prompts instead of hitting dead ends on restricted features.

Technical Implementation Notes

Custom theme and widget work on Brilliant Directories, including homepage layout, camp search and results, listing forms, profile pages, membership-based feature limits, and Google Maps integration.