BEST RENTAL AND TOUR BOOKING SOFTWARE

Are you a bike, paddle, or ski shop that rents outdoor gear and/or provides activities, lessons or tours?  Are you looking for an easier solution to provide online rentals?  We’ve done the research for you on some of the best online booking software options out there.

Who We Are: Let’s start with what we aren’t, TripOutside is not a software provider, we are a marketplace and a booking engine that helps outdoor businesses get more visibility and more bookings. If your outdoor business does not have an online booking solution, we can still send you bookings from TripOutside using our simple booking widget (disclaimer: it is a booking request tool and not rental software).

TripOutside integrates with many of the rental and tour booking software companies listed below and partners with many different outdoor businesses that use these software options. We get questions all the time on which software option is best so we have decided to share some of our knowledge and our experience of working with the companies, their pricing, and the feedback that we hear from our partners. We have personally worked with many of the hard-working people at the companies listed below and appreciate their support in collectively bringing more customers to locally owned outdoor businesses.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase after reading this post. It helps us keep writing and updating our content. Regardless, we strive to provide an unbiased opinion of the various options, gathered from our experience and feedback from our partners.  Thank you for your support.

The Benefits of Reservations Activity Rental Software

• 24/7 availability for bookings and reservations. Get bookings while you sleep!
• Avoid errors and reduce touchpoints by reducing paperwork and manual efforts.
• Reduce tasking, labor costs, and improve employee satisfaction by reducing phone calls and redundant questions.
• Optimize and automate the operations to ensure all the important tasks get completed.
• Get insights into your business with reporting and data analytics to maximize your revenue and profit.
• Get a secure payment process to increase customer trust and improve PCI compliance.

It is possible for a business to thrive online without having to pay for an online software as well. You can custom build booking tools, use plugins and widgets that are available online, and integrate them with a payment solution on your own and avoid any monthly or recurring fees. We will try to cover those options in another post, leave a comment below and let us know if that would be of interest to you.

Rental and Tour Software Pricing Models

We can’t tell you which model is ”best” for you as it depends on your business goals and where you are in your business life cycle. However, we’ve put together some tips to help you review the pros and cons of each of the pricing models. We hope that this information helps you make the most informed decision to grow your outdoor business, profitably.

Monthly or Annually Billed Software (flat-rate pricing): Fixed costs

From the list below, Bike Rental Manager and Checkfront offer monthly software pricing.

• Pros: 
  • Your costs don’t grow at the same rate as your business grows.
    • Example: If you make $1000 month in rentals, you pay $50. If you make $10000/month in rentals, you may pay $50 or the next pricing tiers or $85-$99.
  • With a flat payment model, when your business grows, your software costs don’t have to. We really like this model.
  • It also helps the customer save money as they don’t have to pay extra booking fees.
• Cons: 
  • There could be upfront costs associated if you are just starting off your business and don’t have the funds to invest in future growth. But, remember that if you just get one more rental/booking from your software per month (your average booking amount may vary), it will usually cover your costs.

Pay Per Booking Software Model: Variable Costs

The bigger players in the booking software market are charging a pay-per-booking model and the fee can be paid by the business or gets passed on to the customer as a ”booking fee”.  Most of these companies only charge this fee for online bookings and not for bookings that you create manually on your backend for walk-in or phone reservations.

• Pros:
  • Its a great option if you are just starting your business as there are no upfront costs.
  • If you are a small business with low bookings volume and don’t have the budget to justify a monthly payment. You can calculate how many total bookings you can expect to do, take the percentage, and see if the monthly payment model is more affordable vs. pay per booking.
  • If you are a seasonal business and you don’t want to pay monthly for the months that aren’t using the software at all.
• Cons:
  • There are two different pricing options that we have found in our research, here are some concerns with both.
    • The customer pays the booking fee
      • This can make it seem that the software is ”FREE” for the business, but if your customer is paying for the booking, it’s your cost of doing business that you’re passing on to the customers. We don’t make the customer’s pay for our CC transaction fees, this shouldn’t really be any different.
      • Your customer ends up paying more for the rental or tour where they could spend the money instead of your store instead. In these examples, the customer is spending $10 on a $175 rental or more just for the convenience of booking online. The customer will still see this as a $185 charge from YOUR shop on their credit card statement.
      • This is also money that the customer could have saved, spent it in your store, or on their vacation.
    • The business pays the booking fee:
      • This is no big deal if you’re doing less than $1000-$2000 in monthly rentals. You’ll only pay $60-$90/month for the software. However, 6% of a $100,000/year rental or tour business means that you’re paying $6000 / year ($500/month) for rental software. The software providers would claim that this isn’t just the price for software, but they are helping you improve your online business and bringing you new customers by improving your website and helping you with marketing. But until you can prove that these are incremental new customers, it’s a bit hard to prove.
  • This model does make sense when this is a marketing cost like hotels.com or booking.com as they are providing marketing services for your business and bringing you incremental bookings.

Below are some of the software platforms that we work with and really, and their features/benefits, pricing, and customer ratings.

Subscription-based software

Bike Rental Manager

BRMs simple pricing model offers all of the benefits regardless of the size of the business, you simply pay based on the size of your rental fleet.

• Captera Rating: 4.8 ⭐️ (18 reviews)
• Bike Rental Manager Pricing: $59 – $259 /month
• Free trial: Nothing to pay for 2 weeks. No credit card required.
• Free version: A limited functionality free version of the software is also available.
• Features/Benefits:
  • Integrated Bookings: BRM unites all information regarding bookings- whether walk-in, phone, email, online, agents, etc. all in one place. One-click to cancel, change, swap, book, pay, and more. It also manages your reservation receipts and stores customer notes regarding bike rentals, pedals, travel details, and more. An integrated customer database allows communication and marketing.
  • Scheduling & Tracking: Calendar-based management to schedule your equipment showing any gaps in bookings to be filled. Book and change multiple times each day with a click of a button. Ability to create a “buffer” to allow turnaround time.
  • Inventory & Fleet Management: Powerful inventory management wherein every movement is logged so you can track the complete life cycle of your assets. BRM keeps a history of your data so you can check metrics, and has integrated maintenance options. Inventory reporting in seconds with the ability to barcode and scan all bikes.  Customizable reporting on all aspects of your business.
• Bike Rental Manager Pricing – choose among the following plans based on the size of your business:
  • Pay per month model
    • Bronze Plan: Unlimited tickets to up to 50 rental items for $59/mon
    • Silver Plan: Unlimited tickets to up to 100 rental items for $89/mon
    • Gold Plan: Unlimited tickets to up to 250 rental items for $149/mon
    • Platinum Plan: Unlimited tickets to up to 1000 rental items for $259/mon
• Best suited for: Bike shops or gear rental shops that want barcode scanning and in-depth analysis of their rental inventory. The software goes in-depth on maintenance, point of sale integration with LightSpeed POS, rental profit reporting, and more.
• A few examples of outdoor businesses using Bike Rental Manager and TripOutside. Just click  ‘Book  Now’  to see the booking experience.
  • Hutch’s bike shop, Pagosa mountain sports, Bingham Cyclery

BRM 2.0 Planner is an improved version of BRM where you can place to create, search and manage rentals.

BRM 2.0 short demo of how to set up rental items and create a store. This is much improved than the previous version of BRM which was extremely powerful, but not as fast as intuitive.

Rezo Systems

Rezo Systems simple monthly pricing model couldn’t get any easier. A simple $50/month, month to month without any contracts. Easy! This stays the price even though each shop gets a custom solution.

• Captera Rating: not available
• Rezo Systems Pricing: $50/month, no contracts, no annual fees.
• Free trial: No
• Free version: No
• Features/Benefits:
  • All their products are running in a work environment with real customers. Tested and customer friendly.
  • A system can be installed and have you up and running in days.
  • Low startup fees and a simple flat monthly fee makes working with them easy
• Best suited for: Ski rental shops, bike shops or gear rental shops that want a simple payment booking
• A few examples of outdoor businesses using Bike Rental Manager and TripOutside. Just click  ‘Book  Now’  to see the booking experience.
  • Carvers ski rental Breckenridge, Black Tie Skis (all of their locations)

Checkfront

• Captera Rating: 4.5 ⭐️ (245 reviews)
• Checkfront Pricing: Starting at $49/month and also newly released pay-per-booking option, the fee is not disclosed.
• Free trial: 21-day free trial, no credit card required. It’s a great way to explore what the software can do and make a decision. If you’re interested in Checkfront, we recommend signing up for the 21-day account and following along their YouTube channel’s Checkup videos to set up your store.
• Features/Benefits:
  • Sales Management: Checkfront can integrate with your website and their mobile app allows you to manage your inventory, track sales, and accept payments from the palm of your hand. Allocate shared resources and manage rental availability, collect customizable customer information, set up automatic booking notifications, digital waivers and rental agreements.
  • Reporting and Integrations: Granular reporting within your dashboard and detailed downloadable reports to track trends over time. 60+ integrations with various business tools like marketing, resellers/OTAs, accounting and more!
• Pricing:
  • Soho Plan: 2 staff accounts, 1200 bookings per year, and Basic support in just $49/month.
  • Pro Plan: 5 staff accounts, 3000 bookings per year, and Basic support in just $99/month.
  • Plus Plan: 10 staff accounts, 6000 bookings per year, and Priority support in just $199/month.
• You can check out Spicy Sports and Checkfront’s online booking experience with Ski Rental and with Bike Rental as they offer both.

This is a super helpful video that shows how you can easily set up a tour, set its variable pricing, availability, and experience in under 5 minutes.

Pay per booking software

FareHarbor

FareHarbor is a Booking.com company and is one of the largest booking platforms on the market. Even though they are really large, they are able to maintain a very strong support network that helps the outfitters. What we have loved about working with FareHarbor since 2018 is their commitment to support for not only the outfitters but also resellers like us. Compared to other software companies, FareHarbor helps set up the outfitter’s reseller process and provides us with a dashboard so we don’t have to task the shops with pulling reporting and create invoices.

• Captera Rating: 4.8 ⭐️ (960 reviews)
• FareHarbor Pricing: Not listed on their website. We found ~6% of the booking fee plus CC transaction fees during our research. Pay per booking model and the fees.
• Free trial: No, but free demos are available
• Best for: Tours and rentals providers that are looking for growth and don’t mind passing the booking costs to the customers. FareHarbor probably has the biggest share of paddle sports shops like kayaking, surfing, SUPs, and more.
• Features/Benefits:
  • Ease of Access: FareHarbor is a cloud-based tour and activity booking solution that enables shops to manage their day-to-day business operations. Online booking management and payment portals and integration with shop websites. Designed to work on both desktop and mobile devices. Shops also get a comprehensive set of advanced reports to keep you on top of your accounting, bookings, and operations, and powerful tools for custom pricing.
  • Convenience: Customers can view tours and events, create bookings, and submit payments using FareHarbor. The user dashboard provides a calendar, booking details, and booking management tools through a single interface. In the calendar, tour operators can view customer payment details for individual activities and pending due. Bookings can be filtered by activity type, which allows users to see which activities and tours are being booked most often.
  • Integration: Users can integrate FareHarbor with existing websites or use the service’s website building platform. Reporting features allow users to track operations, bookings, and accounting in real-time, and integrations with travel websites let shops promote their business through other channels. Like TripOutside 😉
• Shops using FareHarbor: You can visit most of our shops under our water sports category and chances are that they are using FareHarbor. This will give you a good idea of what the look and feel of the booking experience is. Also, you can see how a bike shop manages their rentals in Moab.
• Pricing:
  • Pay per booking: Fareharbor pricing structure is a pay-per-booking model, only charged on the online reservations.  
  • For details on pricing and suitable options for your business contact (855) 495-5551 or email the Fareharbor sales team at [email protected].

Peek Pro

• Captera Rating: 4.8 ⭐️ (611 reviews)
• Peek Pro Pricing: ~6% to ~8.8% booking fee. These are the estimates and ranges based on variable booking fees found during our research process.
• Free trial: No, but free demos are available
• Features/Benefits:
  • Booking Management: With Peek Pro software sites can book customers even outside business hours when everybody is offline. This way you can never miss a booking and monitor your bookings from your resellers effortlessly. Real-time information and updates help users avoid overbooking, complex check-ins, and long waiting times. Peek Pro is optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that websites are capable of booking and altering bookings for clients who are using their smartphones and tablets.
  • Streamline Your Business: Manage and run your business on-the-go with mobile apps for iOS and Android. Reduce customer calls through fast online booking, self-rescheduling, and automated email systems.  Automate your business systems by connecting to 750+ online business tools.
  • Customer Convenience: Give your customers a fast, simple, mobile-friendly experience with a customizable booking flow. Streamline customer pickups and check-in with transportation management and custom manifests.  Allow customers to easily book tours and activities at their convenience with request forms and invoice links.
• Pricing:
  • Pay per booking: We found inconsistencies in the booking fees between different shops, even within the same market and categories but found the fees to be between 6% and 8.8%. A one time set up fee may also apply.
  • For details on pricing and suitable options for your business contact 855-733-5776 or write to the Peek Pro sales team at [email protected].

Xola

• Captera Rating: 4.7 ⭐️ (535 reviews)
• Xola Pricing: Not listed
• Free trial: No, but free demos are available
• Features/Benefits:
  • Omni-Channel Mobile Booking and Reservation Software: Easily accept website bookings, phone reservations, in-person bookings, and re-seller orders with Xola’s online booking software.  Xola’s mobile-optimized checkout delivers a booking experience on every device.  Run your business on the go with the online booking app.  Resource management allows you to share resources between tours.
  • Growth and Marketing Tools: Custom reporting, conversion tracking, abandoned cart remarketing, automated customer review emails, and coupons, discounts, and gifts to attract new customers and keep the old ones coming back.
  • Affiliates and Partners: Xola partners with many travel websites to allow you to market your tours and allows you to build and track local partnerships with resellers.
• Pricing:
  • For details on Xola’s pricing and suitable options for your business contact +1 (415) 404-9652 or write to the Xola sales team at [email protected]

There are many other outdoor gear rental software options on the market that we will continue to review and update in the future.

Incremental Bookings with TripOutside

The great news is, your shop can take advantage of TripOutside, a fast-growing outdoor gear rental and adventure booking marketplace, with any of the above options. For shops without software, we can provide the shop with a free booking tool for their own website as well.  Thank you for reading.