What maize maze operators can learn from their booking data

Post SEO title

What maize maze operators can learn from their booking data

Meta description

Discover key maize maze booking trends and visitor behaviour insights shared at the 2026 Maize Maze Association Conference, including mobile booking data, marketing attribution and lead time benchmarks.

What maize maze operators can learn from their booking data

The data and benchmarks behind maize mazes.

What we learned at the Maize Maze Association Conference

At the 2026 Maize Maze Association Conference, our Director of Product, Jed Woodcock, shared insights from analysing booking and visitor data across maize maze operators using Beyonk.

Jed spends most of his time looking at data. As he put it during the talk, he’s a little obsessed with it - because good data helps us make better decisions. At Beyonk, it informs how we improve our platform. But it also helps attraction operators understand what’s actually working and where there are opportunities to improve.

To make the insights as relevant as possible, we analysed booking behaviour specifically from members of the Maize Maze Association using Beyonk. Around 38% of Maize Maze Association members currently use Beyonk, and all but one of these have been using the platform for over a year. That gives us a meaningful dataset to explore real visitor behaviour.

We looked at the full customer journey - from discovery to booking to the visit itself - and identified patterns that consistently influence performance.

In the talk, we explored:

How visitors actually book maize maze tickets

The marketing channels that drive the most discovery

What the data says about lead times, returning visitors and local audiences

Practical actions operators can take to boost bookings and optimise their season

Mobile booking behaviour is now the norm

One of the clearest patterns in the data is just how dominant mobile booking has become.

Across all operators on Beyonk in 2025:

86% of bookings happen on mobile

Around 40% of payments use Apple Pay or Google Pay

Visitors are typically booking while browsing on their phone - often while discussing plans with family or friends. This means the booking experience must be fast and frictionless.

However, a website survey from Rubber Cheese found that only around 32% had tested their site on mobile devices. Considering that the vast majority of visitors now book on mobile, this presents a clear opportunity - even small improvements to the mobile experience can significantly improve conversion rates.

Website speed directly impacts conversions

Because mobile dominates, website speed matters more than ever.

We tested the homepage of every Maize Maze Association member using Google PageSpeed Insights - a free tool that you can also use. We focused on a key mobile performance metric: First Contentful Paint, which measures how long it takes for the first visible part of the page to load. You should be aiming for under 3 seconds.

The results were revealing:

Average mobile load time: 3.4 seconds

Fast (0-1.8 seconds): 39% of websites

Average (1.8-3 seconds): 16% of websites

Slow (Over 3 seconds): 45% of websites

Performance varied significantly between sites. Some loaded in under a second, while others took more than 10 seconds. One standout example was Lakeland Maze Farm Park, (who have recently made some improvements to their website) which recorded a very fast 0.7 seconds.

Anything above three seconds is slow and will impact conversions. Visitors simply won’t wait long if a page doesn’t load quickly.

Top tip:

Run a free PageSpeed test on both your homepage and ticketing page. Improving load times is one of the simplest ways to improve booking conversion.

Understanding when customers actually book

Knowing when visitors are most likely to book tickets can make a big difference to your marketing performance.

If you understand when your customers are booking, you can align your marketing activity with those times. Emails, social posts and paid ads are far more effective when they appear at the same time people are already thinking about booking.

For maize maze operators, the busiest booking periods occur at very specific times:

Saturday and Sunday mornings (9am–12pm) are the peak booking window - accounting for 11% of all bookings

Weekday booking activity tends to be quieter during school drop-off and pick-up times

This makes sense when you consider how families plan activities. Weekend mornings are often when people look for things to do with children and decide how they’ll spend the day.

If your marketing messages appear during these moments, you’re far more likely to capture attention. While the exact timing will vary by attraction, analysing your own booking data can reveal clear patterns.

Top tip:

Schedule emails, social posts and paid ads to run when your visitors are most likely to book.

Lead time: an opportunity to secure bookings earlier

Another useful insight from the data is how far in advance visitors book maize maze tickets.

Across the dataset, the average lead time is around 5.5 days (which has stayed consistent in 2024 & 2025). That means many visitors are booking within the same week they plan to visit.

While this is typical for outdoor family activities, it also highlights an opportunity. Increasing your lead time - even by a few days - can significantly improve how you plan your season and manage demand.

Longer lead times help you:

Understand demand earlier

Plan staffing and operations more accurately

Reduce reliance on last-minute bookings

We’ve also seen early signs in 2026 that lead times may be shortening slightly, likely influenced by weather uncertainty. Families often wait to see what the forecast looks like before committing to an outdoor activity like a maize maze.

Because of this behaviour, operators who actively encourage earlier bookings are in a stronger position. Securing bookings earlier in the week gives you better visibility on how busy upcoming days will be.

Top tip:

Use early bird incentives, limited-time discounts, or reminders to encourage visitors to book sooner and increase your average lead time.

Most maize maze visitors are highly local

Just as understanding when your customers book helps you decide when to market, understanding where they come from helps you decide where to focus your marketing - whether that’s geo-targeted paid ads, local partnerships, or even traditional methods like leaflets and posters.

Every online booking already gives you valuable location data through the visitor’s postcode or address. This is one of the most useful insights you have for understanding your audience - but most attractions don’t use this data.

At Beyonk, we analyse the 50th percentile travel distance - the distance that 50% of an attraction’s visitors travel from. In simple terms, this shows the core catchment area for an attraction.

For maize maze operators, the pattern is clear: half of visitors typically come from within around 9.7 miles of the attraction.

There is some variation between locations:

Some mazes attract visitors from within 3-4 miles

Others draw visitors from 20 miles or more

Catchment areas are naturally smaller in dense urban areas such as London, and larger in rural regions like Cornwall. But across the dataset, one trend is consistent: maize mazes are fundamentally local attractions.

Operators who focus their marketing on nearby communities tend to see the strongest results.

Top tip:

Use postcode data from your bookings to identify where visitors are travelling from, then prioritise those areas with geo-targeted advertising, local partnerships and community marketing.

Marketing attribution is getting harder to track - so ask your customers

Tracking where bookings come from has become increasingly difficult due to privacy changes and cookie restrictions.

Tools like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics can still provide valuable insights when set up correctly and connected to your ticketing system. However, due to privacy changes and cookie restrictions, attribution can now be only around 50-70% accurate for some attractions, making it harder to clearly understand which marketing channels are truly driving bookings.

That’s why many attractions are returning to a simple but effective approach: just ask your customers directly.

Adding an optional checkout question such as: “Where did you hear about us?” can provide some of the most valuable marketing insight you’ll collect.

At Beyonk, this question has generated over 500,000 responses in 2025 alone, with an impressive 68% response rate. This creates a powerful dataset that helps attractions understand what is actually influencing bookings.

The breakdown across Beyonk attractions looked like this:

Word of mouth - 32%

Personal recommendations remain incredibly powerful. People still trust experiences shared by friends and family more than any advert.

Facebook - 21%

Still a key platform for family audiences, particularly through local community groups.

Returning visitors - 16%

A strong reminder that delivering a great experience is one of the most effective marketing strategies.

Google - 11%

Search continues to perform well for visitors actively looking for things to do.

Instagram - 7%

Popular with younger families and millennials, and growing steadily year-on-year.

TikTok - 3%

A smaller share overall, but growing quickly. One maize maze in our dataset saw 26% of bookings attributed to TikTok, driven largely by visitors sharing their own videos.

Physical advertising - 2%

Less common, but still valuable for some attractions. Asking this question can help determine whether leaflets, posters or roadside signage are actually driving bookings.

Despite the growth of digital marketing, personal recommendations remain the most powerful driver of bookings. Facebook continues to perform strongly for local discovery, while Instagram and TikTok are becoming increasingly influential as visitors share their experiences online.

Top tip:

Add an optional “Where did you hear about us?” question at checkout and tailor the answer options to include your key marketing channels and any local promotion you run.

AI search is beginning to influence discovery

Search behaviour is starting to evolve as more people use AI tools like ChatGPT to find things to do.

Instead of short search queries, visitors are increasingly asking more detailed questions such as:

“Can you recommend a family-friendly maize maze near Birmingham that’s good even if it rains?”

AI tools combine information from search engines, websites, reviews and location data to generate recommendations.

The good news for operators is that the fundamentals haven’t changed. Attractions that rank highly on Google are also the most likely to appear in AI-generated answers.

What does matter is how clearly your website explains your experience. AI tools look for structured information that helps them understand what your attraction offers - for example whether you’re dog-friendly, suitable for young children, open in bad weather, or have food and facilities on site.

Top tip:

Add a simple FAQ section to your website covering common visitor questions - such as weather policies, age suitability, facilities and opening times. This makes it easier for AI tools (and visitors) to find the information they need.

Returning visitors are a major opportunity

Maize mazes tend to perform strongly when it comes to repeat visits.

Across all attractions on Beyonk, around 16% of visitors return. For maize maze operators, that figure is significantly higher - averaging around 25%, with some attractions seeing up to 45% returning visitors.

To calculate this, we analysed bookings across 2024 and 2025 and identified returning customers using the email address they used when booking.

This reflects the community-focused nature of many farm attractions, where visiting the maze becomes an annual tradition for families.

Our data also highlights several factors that correlate with higher returning visitor rates:

Faster websites → higher returning visitor rates

A smoother booking experience makes it easier for visitors to return each year.

Longer booking lead times → higher returning visitor rates

Visitors who plan ahead are more likely to be repeat customers who already know and trust the experience.

More local audiences → higher returning visitor rates

Attractions with a strong local catchment naturally see more repeat visits.

Operators who focus on improving these areas tend to build stronger visitor loyalty over time. For maize mazes in particular, returning families often become the foundation of a successful season.

Collecting visitor feedback helps improve the experience

Unsurprisingly, the biggest factor influencing whether visitors return is whether they enjoyed the experience.

Attractions collect feedback in many ways. Some rely on Google reviews, others ask staff to gather feedback, and some use forms on site. These methods can be useful, but they often produce limited data.

For example, maize maze attractions received an average of just 25 Google reviews in 2025, with the highest reaching around 170. While reviews are helpful, they rarely provide enough volume to identify meaningful trends.

That’s why we built a visitor feedback tool directly into Beyonk. Because it’s collected privately after the visit, more visitors are willing to respond. Across the same operators, this resulted in an average of 225 responses, with one attraction collecting over 1,400 pieces of feedback.

With that volume of feedback, attractions can start to see real patterns.

One of the metrics we use is Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is widely used across many industries to measure customer satisfaction and word of mouth potential.

Visitors are asked a simple question:

“How likely are you to recommend this experience to others?”

They then select a score between 0 and 10.

These responses fall into three categories:

Detractors (0–6) - unlikely to recommend the experience, will negatively talk about it to others

Passives (7–8) - satisfied but unlikely to actively promote it

Promoters (9–10) - enthusiastic visitors who are likely to recommend the attraction

Your NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

This score is most useful when tracked over time, helping you identify improvements and reduce the issues that cause negative experiences.

Across maize maze operators using Beyonk, the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) is 75.7%, which indicates very strong visitor satisfaction.

However, analysing written feedback also highlights common areas for improvement. The most frequently mentioned issues include:

Value and pricing perception

Food and drink options

Queues or waiting times

Facilities such as toilets

Interestingly, positive feedback often mentions specific memorable moments - such as tractor rides, flower fields or food treats - rather than generic praise.

These memorable experiences are often what drive recommendations and repeat visits.

Top tip:

Collect structured visitor feedback so you can identify what guests love and quickly fix the issues that detractors mention.

User-generated content strengthens word of mouth

Word of mouth doesn’t just happen through conversations - it increasingly happens through photos and videos shared online.

When visitors post about their day out, they’re effectively recommending your attraction to their friends and followers. This type of user-generated content (UGC) has become one of the most powerful forms of marketing.

Research shows that:

92% of consumers trust user-generated content more than traditional advertising

Websites featuring real visitor photos can see significantly higher engagement and conversion rates (up to +29%)

For attractions like maize mazes, this is especially valuable. Authentic photos of families exploring the maze, children playing in the pumpkin patch, or friends enjoying the experience often resonate far more than polished promotional images.

UGC also reinforces the strongest marketing channel identified in our data: word of mouth. When visitors share their experiences online, they’re extending that recommendation to a much wider audience.

To help attractions capture this content, Beyonk now allows operators to collect user generated content directly as part of the feedback process. This makes it much easier to gather authentic content that can be reused across websites, social media and marketing campaigns.

Top tip:

Share user-generated content on your social media and add this to your website and ticketing pages.

The key takeaway for maize maze operators

The data shared at the Maize Maze Association Conference highlights a clear theme: small improvements across the visitor journey can have a significant impact on bookings and revenue.

Based on the analysis, there are six actions maize maze operators should consider:

Test your website speed on mobile

Align marketing with when customers actually book

Use postcode data to target local audiences

Ask visitors where they heard about you

Encourage returning visitors and build community

Collect feedback and use user-generated content

Each of these steps helps create a more visitor-centric experience while improving your ability to generate revenue during the season.

How Beyonk helps attractions turn data into action

At Beyonk, we work with hundreds of attractions to help them optimise bookings, reduce admin and understand visitor behaviour.

By analysing real booking data and sharing insights like these, our goal is to help operators make better decisions and make the most of seasonal demand.

If you’d like to explore how Beyonk can help you streamline operations and boost your bookings, schedule a demo with our team.