Reserving is a FareHarbor alternative for escape rooms, indoor golf and other local activity venues that sell most of their games on their own website, Google and Instagram. Instead of a booking fee of about 6% on every order, you pay a flat 49 USD a month per venue, or 149 USD (74 USD billed yearly) with deposits, prepaid weekend slots and two-way text reminders. Your players pay your ticket price and nothing on top.
Lockbox Escape Rooms
Open noon to 11 pm
Room board
Room fitted
Deposit rule
No-show risk
Reminders
01
FareHarbor charges the operator no monthly fee and adds a booking fee to the customer's checkout instead, reported at about 6% of the order on direct bookings (some 2026 guides say 6 to 8%). Card processing of roughly 1.9 to 2.9% plus 30 cents comes out of your payout on top, and partner bookings carry about 2% more. FareHarbor does not publish a rate card, so the exact rate is set per account.
On the right is the same Saturday booking on both systems. The ticket price is identical. The difference is the line under it, which your player sees on the last screen before paying and which goes to the platform, not to you.
That line is easy to ignore because it is not on your profit and loss. It still sets the price players compare: a group of six choosing between two escape rooms in your town sees 222.60 USD at one and 210 USD at the other.
Fee-based checkout
The 12.60 USD goes to the platform.
Reserving checkout
You pay one flat monthly price per venue.
02
A flat plan costs less than a 6% booking fee once you sell about 2,500 USD of tickets a month online on Growth monthly, or about 1,250 USD on Growth billed yearly. A single escape room open five days a week usually passes that in its first month. Here is the fee next to the flat price at three sizes.
One or two rooms
8,000 USD online sales a month
Four rooms
40,000 USD online sales a month
Five rooms, busy weekends
90,000 USD online sales a month
USD a month, before card processing, which you pay on any system. FareHarbor publishes no rate card; the 6% is the rate reported for direct bookings in 2026 pricing guides by Bokun, CaptainBook and Automate Travel. Growth is 149 USD a month, or 74 USD a month billed yearly. The full fee breakdown is in our FareHarbor pricing and fees guide.
03
The booking page sits on your own website and Google profile, payments land in your own account, and the player list is yours to export.
04
FareHarbor is worth it when a real share of your bookings comes from travel sites and resellers, because its partner network is what the fee pays for. It is a weak deal for local venues whose players book from Google and Instagram, where the fee mostly pays for a checkout you can run yourself for 74 to 149 USD a month.
05
The alternatives split into two camps. Fee-based platforms charge nothing monthly and add a fee to the customer's order. Subscription tools charge the venue a fixed price and nothing per booking. Prices are list prices checked on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026 unless marked reported.
| Tool | How it charges | Fee on the player's order | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| FareHarbor | 0 USD a month, rate set per account | about 6% reported, up to 8% | tours that sell through travel sites |
| Xola | no subscription, contact for pricing | partner fee charged to customers, cards from 2.39% + 0.30 USD | activity operators with many sales channels |
| Bokun | see its pricing page | depends on plan and channel | operators who need a channel manager for travel sites |
| Resova | Lite 50, Pro 90, Premium 135 USD a month for 100, 300, 600 bookings, up to 20% off yearly | none, 20 cents a booking over the limit | venues that want waivers and vouchers built in |
| Bookeo | Tours plans 14.95 to 119.95 USD a month, Standard 39.95 USD for 1,000 bookings | none | small venues that want the lowest price |
| Reserving | 49 or 149 USD per venue, 499 USD for 5 venues, half that billed yearly | none | local venues with rooms or bays and weekend no-shows |
06
Set up your rooms and payment rules first, then move the booking button on your site and Google profile on a quiet weekday. Leave FareHarbor running for games already sold until the last of them is played, so nobody's booking is moved twice.
Each one gets its player capacity, game length and reset time. The booking page works out real start times from those three numbers.
Full payment on Friday and Saturday evenings, a per-player deposit for groups of seven or more, pay on arrival for weekday afternoons. Write your cancellation policy once.
Add upcoming bookings to the board so those slots stay blocked, or leave them on FareHarbor until they are played. Export your FareHarbor customer list before you close the account.
Replace the booking link on your website, Google Business Profile and Instagram bio. From that moment new players see your ticket price and nothing more.
For local escape rooms and activity venues that sell mostly on their own site, the best FareHarbor alternative is a subscription booking system with no fee on the player's order, such as Reserving, Resova or Bookeo. Tour operators that depend on travel sites are better served by Bokun or by staying on FareHarbor.
No. FareHarbor charges operators no monthly subscription and no setup fee. It earns from a booking fee added to the customer's checkout, reported at about 6% on direct bookings, plus card processing that comes out of your payout and about 2% on bookings from partner sites.
On the standard setup the customer pays it, as a separate line at checkout. You can lower your ticket price to absorb it, but then the fee comes out of your revenue instead. Either way it is part of the total your players compare.
No. Reserving takes bookings from your website, your Google Business Profile, Instagram and the phone. If travel sites bring a large share of your sales, a platform with a channel manager fits better.
Yes. Deposits and prepaid games are charged to your own card payment account, at your provider's normal rate, and paid out on its schedule. We take no cut of bookings.
No. You buy Core, Growth or Multi-Venue online, monthly or yearly, with no sales call and no setup fee. Core includes 300 bookings a month; Growth has no booking limit.
Create your account, add your rooms or bays, set deposits for weekend nights and move your booking button this week.
Enter the email address that runs your venue and we take it from there. One field, no card, no sales call.
By creating an account you agree to the terms and the privacy policy.