Based on public supplier documentation and editorial analysis, not hands-on testing. Confirm current plan features and commercial terms before buying.
Most switching decisions are born in a bad week. A statement that looked higher than expected. A double-booked kayak. A school group whose paperwork took twenty minutes at the till. By Friday, "we need a new system" feels obvious.
But a bad week is not a specification. Operators who switch on frustration alone often discover they have swapped one set of compromises for another, and paid for a migration in the process. This guide starts with the one question that makes a switch worthwhile, then follows three routes, depending on your answer, to the alternatives most likely to solve it.
The question: what exactly has to get better?
Write your reason down in a form someone could observe. Staff must be able to allocate the same kayak across hire and guided trips. The organiser must see the balance after a group changes size. The guest must see a checkout total you are comfortable with. "It feels complicated" is too vague to compare suppliers against.
Then, before you shop, put that requirement to FareHarbor itself and ask what the change would cost. Its published onboarding includes dashboard setup and transfer of future reservations, and its boat material documents mobile manifests and offline check-in. If your staff rely on those, they are capabilities any replacement has to match. They are not a reason to assume you should stay, but they are the bar to clear.[1][7]
Now pick the route that matches your answer.
Route one: the problem is the fee structure
If cost is the issue, two alternatives approach it very differently.
Bookeo's entry tours plan, Standard, costs USD 39.95/month and allows up to 1,000 reservations monthly, plus 20 staff logins and 20 guides or vehicles. No booking commission is added, though gateway processing, text messages and waiver subscriptions remain separate. For a business that sells mainly direct and fits those allowances, it is a reasonable first alternative.[5]
Bókun's entry plan, START, shows $49/month and 1.5% of applicable bookings, covering five users and resource management. Across START, PLUS and PREMIUM, Viator reservations are listed with no Bókun booking fee, whereas the separate Channel Manager takes 0.5%-1.5% of them. That makes the booking-system plans worth a look for a Viator-heavy operator, though Viator's own commission does not go away.[2]
One important caution. We could not establish a universal FareHarbor percentage from FareHarbor's own public pages. So compare these alternatives with your actual FareHarbor statement, not with a percentage someone else has published.[1][8]
Route two: the problem is the fleet
If your frustration lives in the equipment shed, ask whether your stock is shared with activities or hired on its own.
When guided activities and hire draw on the same kayaks or bikes, trial Checkfront. It documents shared resources and several booking durations, including multi-day and flexible-time rentals. Its public pricing displays $99/month plus a 3% online booking fee, with no fee on offline bookings, and notes that prices vary by region and currency.[9][3][10]
When hire is the whole business, Booqable is the more targeted candidate. It documents individually tracked and bulk stock, pickups, returns, rental buffers and downtime. Every plan comes with unlimited inventory and orders and no booking commission, while mobile access and other add-ons need their own budget line. If you rely on a particular tour marketplace, verify that connection specifically, rather than assuming it is either present or missing.[6][11]
Route three: the problem is the front gate
For admission-led businesses, TicketingHub documents QR scanning, POS options and group handling. Its pricing is 3% per transaction, including card, cash and marketplace bookings, with no monthly or setup fee. A seasonal venue may like the absence of a fixed subscription, but remember that a busy cash counter is still chargeable activity.[4][12]
Test it with a used ticket, a cancelled ticket and a school group on the hardware you would actually buy. If you also need membership accounting or donor records, keep them on your requirements list; admission scanning does not cover them.
Whichever route: make the switch pass a gate
Every route ends in the same place: a migration that has to work. Here is the gate it should pass before you commit.
Take a charter business with future reservations that carry deposits and unused vouchers. Import a permitted sample into the replacement, then compare the departure, guest count, amount paid, balance and voucher value against the old records. Separately, ask the payment providers whether payment references or stored details can move with you. Never copy card details into a spreadsheet to get round the problem.
The replacement must fix the workflow that made you look in the first place, before you move the rest of your catalogue. Agree a cutover time, keep one system in charge of availability, and name someone who can roll back. If the improvement cannot be shown, or a critical balance will not reconcile, stay where you are until the gap is closed. Our migration checklist takes you through that handover step by step.
Supplier features and commercial terms
Supplier-documented scope, not a scored ranking. Compare this evidence with the requirements above.
| Product | Documented scope | What to demonstrate |
|---|---|---|
| Bookeo | Tours & Activities supports group/private experiences, with dedicated boat and escape-room documentation. Standard includes 20 staff logins and 20 guides/vehicles.[13] | Select the relevant product and verify booking limits, room or guide rules and payment-provider arrangements. |
| Bókun | Booking system with resource management, payment links and gift cards in START; PLUS adds custom agent areas and Zapier. A separate Channel Manager connects other reservation systems.[14] | Demonstrate product mapping and shared-resource rules across your actual sales channels. |
| Checkfront | Tours, activities and rentals with shared resources and daily, multi-day, timeslot and flexible-time availability. Official integrations list GetYourGuide and Viator.[9] | Test an overlapping resource reservation and an unavailable item with existing future bookings. |
| Booqable | Rental-first inventory with individually tracked or bulk stock, variations, pickups, returns, buffers and downtime. Grow adds permissions and e-signatures; Scale adds activity logs and location options.[11] | Test an overdue hire and a damaged item with future reservations; verify any essential tour-marketplace connection and payment-country support. |
| TicketingHub | Ticketing with QR scanning, POS options and group handling; validate actual hardware and admission exceptions.[15] | Test your ticket types, validation exceptions and on-site hardware with the supplier. |
| FareHarbor | Tours, rentals and attractions; published onboarding includes dashboard setup and transfer of future reservations. Boat documentation describes mobile manifests and offline check-in.[1] | Test shared-vessel blocking and confirm which reservations, financial references and records the onboarding team will transfer. |
Pricing and trial conditions
Bookeo
Tours & Activities Standard: USD 39.95/month for 1,000 reservations/month, without booking commission. Gateway fees are separate; waivers from USD 9/month and SMS credits cost extra. Confirm tax.[5]
30-day trial without a credit card; all features available during the trial. Match any add-ons to the eventual paid plan.[5]
Bókun
START displays $49/month + 1.5%, PLUS $149 + 1.25%, PREMIUM $499 + 1% on applicable bookings. Currency and tax require account confirmation. No Bókun Viator booking fee on START, PLUS or PREMIUM; separate Channel Manager: 0.5%-1.5% on Viator reservations. Viator commission remains separate.[2]
14-day trial, no credit card required; check the intended paid tier.[2]
Checkfront
Displays $99/month + 3% online booking fee, no offline booking fee and no additional OTA booking fee. Pricing varies by region and currency; confirm taxes and processing separately.[3]
The reviewed homepage invites a demonstration. Trial entitlement needs confirmation.[9]
Booqable
Start, Grow and Scale include unlimited inventory and orders with no booking commission. Monthly/annual terms are available; mobile POS, barcodes and website builder are separately billed. Currency labels were not resolved in the reviewed live pricing state, so obtain a local numeric quote. Payment-processing charges depend on plan, provider and method.[6]
14-day no-card trial includes features and add-ons. Check which remain in the paid configuration.[6]
TicketingHub
3% per transaction, including card, cash and OTA transactions, with no monthly or setup fee. Confirm processing, refunds and marketplace commissions separately.[4]
A demo is advertised. Confirm the test environment and any trial terms directly.[15]
FareHarbor
A universal numeric rate was not established from the reviewed official homepage and payments page. Obtain a written fee schedule and country-specific payment terms; this is not a claim that the service lacks public commercial information.[8]
A demonstration is advertised. Unrestricted trial access was not confirmed.[1]
Sources
Official documentation supporting this guide. Prices and availability may change; an access date is not a supplier publication date.
- Fareharbor Booking Platform And Onboarding: official source
- Bókun Pricing And Channel Manager Terms: official source
- Checkfront Pricing: official source
- Ticketinghub Pricing: official source
- Bookeo Tours & Activities Pricing: official source
- Booqable Pricing And Add Ons: official source
- Fareharbor Boat Tour Features: official source
- Fareharbor Payments: official source
- Checkfront Booking Software: official source
- Checkfront Features: official source
- Booqable Rental Features: official source
- Ticketinghub Features: official source
- Bookeo Booking Products: official source
- Bókun Booking Software: official source
- Ticketinghub Booking Software: official source
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Bókun vs FareHarbor: fees, booking features and switching
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Printable demo and migration checklists · Create a requirements checklist