E-paper displays for instant opening hours at Center Parcs

The challenge

At a large holiday park, opening hours never stay fixed for long. The pool opens earlier in summer, a restaurant stays open later at weekends, and an activity desk shifts its times for the school holidays. Every one of those changes has to reach guests at the right spot, at the right moment.

For years that meant paper. Every change was handled by hand: someone printed a new sign, carried it to the right facility and swapped out the old one. Even moving a closing time by half an hour set off the same routine. Across a park with dozens of facilities, that added up to a steady stream of printing, laminating and replacing signs, with time and money spent on materials and labour. And whenever an old sign stayed up longer than it should have, guests trusted the posted hours and walked up to a door that was already closed.

What they run

Together with its signage partner, the park replaced the printed schedules with wireless e-paper displays. The partner took care of the physical signage on site; Castit provides the software that drives and updates the content.

E-paper uses the same low-power, paper-like technology as an e-reader, which suits opening-hours signs spread across a large indoor and outdoor site:

• The text stays sharp and easy to read in bright daylight.
• A display only draws power when its content changes.
• The displays run for a long time without heavy wiring or frequent charging.

How it is managed

All the displays are managed from one place in Castit. When the hours change, the routine is short:

1. A team member opens Castit in a browser.
2. They edit the schedule and publish it.
3. The new times appear on the right display within seconds.

Nobody prints anything, walks anywhere or touches the device. Because Castit runs in the cloud, hours can be changed from an office or from any location with an internet connection, not only from the spot where the display hangs. Updating a schedule works like editing a simple page, so staff needed no technical training, and day-to-day control stays with the people who know the hours best, without a call to IT for every small change.

The result

A daily chore became a quick action:

• Faster updates. A change that once needed a printed sign and a walk across the park now takes a few seconds in a browser.
• Lower costs. The same display shows new hours as often as needed, with nothing to print, laminate or replace.
• Accurate hours. The times on the display always match the schedule staff set in Castit.
• A smoother guest experience. Correct information means fewer wasted trips to a closed facility and fewer questions at the desk.
• Less waste. Fewer printed signs means less paper, which suits a park built around its natural surroundings.

E-paper fits anywhere opening hours, schedules or prices change often and need to stay readable all day. See how e-paper signage is managed alongside your screens, or how Castit works for hospitality and leisure.