What the season costs
How to compare what a booking platform costs
Every platform publishes a number and none of them publish the same number. Building one you can compare is a morning of work and it is worth doing before a demo.
- Largest bike rental fleet on Hilton Head IslandBodhisys runs the reservations, routing and returns behind it.
- Running live rental operations since 2023Every peak season since has been taken on the platform.
- Every capability includedNo feature tiers and no paid modules holding anything back.
Why the published rates do not compare
One platform quotes a percentage added to the guest. Another quotes a percentage taken from you. A third quotes an annual subscription by fleet size. A fourth quotes per booking. None of those four numbers can be placed beside each other without work.
The comparable figure is the all-in effective take: everything that leaves the transaction, as a percentage of what the guest paid, across a year of your own volume.
Build it once and it answers every version of the question, including the ones a salesperson asks in a way that favours their shape.
The four places the rest of it hides
Card processing. A platform that runs the payments sets that rate, and it is charged to you separately from the headline fee. A platform that leaves you with your own processor does not, which is a difference of several points that never appears in a comparison table.
Modules and seats. Features that are part of the platform in one product are a paid add-on in another, and per-seat pricing turns a summer team into a line item.
Channel and reseller fees, which stack on top of everything else on the bookings they apply to.
Manual entries. Some platforms charge a fee on bookings taken by phone or at the counter, which lands hardest on exactly the operators who take a lot of them.
Do it with your own numbers
A comparison run on a vendor's example volume tells you about their example. Use your own: unit count, reservations across a year, average order value, and the share of bookings that arrive through a channel.
The savings calculator puts those against the published terms of FareHarbor, Peek Pro and Bike Rental Manager, and it takes your margin and season length as well, so the answer is an annual figure rather than a rate.
The per-platform detail, including where each one is stronger, sits on the comparison pages. Every one of them opens with what the other platform does better, which is the part worth reading first.
Your volume
- $21,060platform charges you stop paying
- +66bookings from a cheaper checkout, worth $9,239 in margin
6% of that is added to your guest’s checkout. The other 3% is card processing, billed by the platform that runs the payments. With Bodhisys you keep your own processor and pay them directly, so the only rate beside our name is the one at checkout.
Who pays it changes the answer
A fee added to the guest at checkout and a fee taken out of your deposit are the same money and a different business. The first keeps your list price intact and shows up as a line the customer sees. The second reduces what you receive on a price you already advertised.
Bodhisys adds 4.5% to each reservation, paid by your customer at checkout, and bills nothing else. There is no monthly fee, no seat licence, no per-location charge and no implementation or migration fee, and card processing stays between you and your own processor at the rate you negotiated.
Against a platform whose all-in take is roughly double that, the difference at checkout is the sort of thing a guest comparing two tabs notices.
Guest sees
- 4 bikes, 7 days$225.00
- Helmet and lock pack$18.00
- Cancellation protection$11.25
- Booking fee 4.5%$10.13
Guest pays$235.13
You receive
- List price$225.00
- Reseller commission$0.00
- Paid modules and seats$0.00
Payout$225.00
The fee is added at checkout and paid by your customer, so the payout is your list price. Cancellation protection and the helmet pack are sold from real stock and settle the same way.
Where a subscription wins
At high volume across a long season a flat annual fee stops scaling while a percentage keeps going, and the subscription becomes the cheaper shape. That is a real outcome and the calculator will show it.
The argument for a percentage is the seasonal one: a quiet February costs nothing, and the platform earns when you do. Which matters more depends on the shape of your year rather than on anybody's marketing.
How do you compare rental booking software pricing?
Build one comparable figure: the all-in effective take, meaning everything that leaves the transaction as a percentage of what the guest paid, across a year of your own volume. Published rates cannot be compared directly because some are charged to the guest, some to the operator, some annually and some per booking.
The four places the rest hides are card processing set by the platform, paid modules and per-seat licences, channel and reseller fees, and fees on manually entered bookings. Who pays also changes the answer: a fee added at checkout leaves your list price intact, while a fee taken from your deposit reduces what you receive.
Questions
What is an all-in effective take rate?
Everything that leaves the transaction, expressed as a percentage of what the guest paid: the headline fee, the card processing the platform bills you, any module or seat costs amortised across bookings, and channel commission where it applies.
Does Bodhisys charge for card processing?
No. You keep your own payment processor and pay them directly at the rate you negotiated. The only Bodhisys charge is 4.5% added to each reservation and paid by your customer at checkout.
Is there an implementation or migration fee?
No. There is no implementation fee and no charge for migrating your data, and no monthly fee, seat licence or per-location charge.
If this is your operation
A demo takes six fields and someone who understands rental operations calls you back. Where Bodhisys is the wrong fit you will hear it on that call rather than after three meetings.