Spotlight: How Populate Anything Makes Booking Forms Flow

Booking forms become complex out of necessity. If you’re a developer or agency, your client needs the booking process to handle all the possible options and quirky edge cases, often without an understanding of how much work that really requires to make it happen.

But making it happen is our job, right? Or in this case, it’s Chris McBride of Devonto Web Design‘s job, who was working on a total rebuild of a booking form for a Scottish-based children’s camp provider with a situation not unlike the above.

Chris delivered. The result? A sophisticated booking system that adapts to changing offerings, streamlines data handling, and automates pricing — while slashing the backend busywork. Let’s take a closer look.

The Problem

Summer In The City Kids Camp has been growing. As its business evolved from offering a single children’s camp to specialized camp themes (gymnastics, drama, art, football), so did the complexity of their booking process.

Previously, each time a new camp theme or offering was added, it required a total overhaul of the form and database from Chris. Enchanting? Not quite.

In addition, Chris needed to update the booking system to handle a maze of interdependent options for customers:

• Multiple holiday periods
• Several venues
• Camp types (drama, art, etc)
• Flexible booking durations and packages

Chris’ mission began taking shape: rebuild the form to cut down the time spent managing admin updates while creating a form that accommodates every twist in the booking process. 

Goal #1: Save Time with Smarter Databases

Chris started by rethinking the form from the ground up. His first priority was to eliminate the constant updates across multiple forms by pulling this data from a custom database. As a result, GP Populate Anything became the heartbeat of this rebuild.

Through GP Populate Anything, the form now pulls real-time data from a custom database of holidays, venues, and camps, without manual form updates required.

Plus, now, when a parent starts booking, they only see current and relevant options: active venues, available camps, and valid booking dates, all filtered automatically.

Goal #2: Make Complex Booking Feel Simple

With this database streamlined, Chris tapped into additional perks to tackle the many moving parts of this booking form.

• GP Nested Forms — Lets parents book multiple children in one go, capturing key details like age and medical info per child.
• GP Limit Dates — Ensures the datepicker respects camp availability, closures, and weekends.
• GP Copy Cat & GP eCommerce Fields – Handle dynamic price calculations for various booking packages.
• GP Page Transitions, GP Read Only, and GP Preview Submission — Improve usability and clarity throughout the process.

Everything else is probably features that I could have written code to handle, but with the full perks available — and backed with expert support — a quick enabling of a pre-made, thoroughly tested plugin has meant this development has many more features that the client requires, without having to pay development time to achieve independently.

Lastly, Chris utilized GF Code Chest for adding custom code. As he told us, “with all of the little edge-case setups in this site, it has been great to have a simple way to add these within WP, without having to worry about custom plugins or functions.php additions.”

With the amazing Snippet Library and equally vital Code Chest, the hooks and filters made available to a developer like me means each perk can be dialed-in for an even more useful implementation.

The Result?

1. Parents can now book exactly what they want — no guessing, no mismatches, and no follow-up required. The form dynamically updates as camps are added or expire, without requiring a single change to the form itself.
2. As a result of overhauling his database, Chris saves massively on admin time.

So? Goal accomplished. Time spent is down, user experience is up, and camp bookings run smoother than ever.

Here’s a speedrun through how Chris handled the many booking possibilities:

Feel free to check out the form yourself, and here’s a little parting gift from Chris. 

Since purchasing Gravity Perks Pro in January 2021, it has become an invaluable toolkit for websites I develop for small businesses. The simplicity of activating a perk and new features working immediately allows me to provide greater value to my customers – and richer functionality to the end user.

What tops it all off, though, is the unprecedented support and willingness to help. I often have to communicate with plugin developers to report on bugs or discuss feature expansion – most of the time the responses are unhelpful and short. I’ve yet to have any request to Gravity Wiz declined – often with responses of intrigue to find out how their perks are being used in the wild.

I now actively look for perks that can fulfill the requirements set by my clients, allowing me to concentrate on other parts of website development.