Checkfront reviews

Long-time user, and a happy one.

Opmerkingen: We are a sightseeing tour operator company and we have been using Checkfront late 2018. We have explored other options thoroughly and this is still the one we like the most after several years.

Pluspunten:

After years of use, my favorite thing about Checkfront is the helpful support team. They always provide detailed, competent and helpful answers.

Minpunten:

Our only real issue is that they seem to be falling behind on channel integration (especially OTA's) compared to other reservation systems. But the functionality and usability of existing features is very good.

Absolutely love Checkfront

Opmerkingen: When we first started out we took reservations in a paper book....yes you read correctly, on paper...knowing there had to be a better way I researched different software to use. Since then we have been so happy with Checkfront. The support from their team has been amazing. From setting us up to answering my everyday questions, their team is always friendly and helpful. I highly recommend them to anyone.

Pluspunten:

We have been with check front for 7 years now and we love everything about it. It's simple to use, training new employees to use it is easy, the booking process just flows nicely so it makes sense. Customers also compliment us on how simple and straightforward it is to use. I also feel like they are there when I need them to help me out with any issues I'm having.

Minpunten:

I would like to use the waivers section but it didn't quite work for our set up. There's a couple of little things that would be nice to be able to do with the calendar etc. I also which the app was a bit more useful. I usually always send suggestions in when I come across something that I think would be beneficial for everyone.

Overall Poor, but with Some Plus Points

Pluspunten:

Checkfront is fairly easy to use and offers you the possibility to set it up for a multitude of product types, such as transportation, restaurant reservations and experiences. The ability for customers to pay directly on an invoice with various payment methods is neat. For a small business, Checkfront does the job.

Minpunten:

Reporting is poor and does not offer many customisation options. Not being able to assign a guide for an experience shows that this software lacks basic functionality. Employee scheduling in such an app is a must. It doesn't have to replace an employee scheduling software, but one should be able to directly assign an employee to an item on the schedule. The widgets on the dashboard didn't really provide relevant information for day-to-day operations. The daily summary list does not offer a great overview on the day's happenings and looks rather messy. Customer support was very average, more often than not. I never really felt that Checkfront took an interest in our business. We were planning on adding more than 10 users and were asked to pay a large sum, yearly and in advance. At this point, we decided it was time to move on.

Checkfront: An Innovative and Easy-to-Use Booking System

Pluspunten:

Checkfront has been an invaluable asset in our business. It is easy to use, reliable and customizable. We've been able to quickly set up our booking system and manage our customers' reservations. We are also able to access a variety of reports and analytics to better understand our customer base and make informed decisions.

Minpunten:

Unfortunately, the customer experience is not always seamless. We have encountered occasional technical glitches when customers are trying to book, and the customer service team has been slow to respond.

Simple to use for our customers and has increased online sales

Opmerkingen: Great experience and great customer service. Very helpful when we need trouble shooting.

Pluspunten:

The interface is very easy to use and straight forward for our customers. This software has definitely increased and enhanced our online booking procedures.

Minpunten:

The system is very robust and there is definitely a bit of a learning curve on the back end, but once you figure it out it's easier to use.

Great value and functionality, excellent support

Opmerkingen: Great, would 100% recommend to any business operating some type of activity, tour, rental etc.

Pluspunten:

Checkfront is an easy-to-use reservation system that can be customized very well to fit the needs of almost any type of activity or experience provider. It's excellent value comes from the fact that it only has a monthly fee and no extra per booking or per user etc which can literally save you thousands of Euros per year compared to other products that often have lesser or similar functionality. The support team is also worth mentioning, they are always quick and friendly and looking to provide good solutions.

Minpunten:

The number of OTA integrations could be higher and feature requests could be handled more quickly but other than that it's excellent.

Great Booking Software

Opmerkingen: We run a glamping business and have been using Checkfront for 3 years and it works great. The initial set up was a bit of a slog as we have an complex booking system, but it all works well. The team at CheckFront is always very responsive and helpful - with written suggestions and video walk-throughs for set up issues.

Pluspunten:

There is a lot of flexibility in the this product, with many features. Developed by a small Canadian company, that is very responsive to questions and feature requests. Very supportive with assistance for technical issues in my set up.

Minpunten:

With all the features and parameters to set up, there is lots of things that can get out of lineament. Sometimes I will spend hours trying to puzzle out why something that I have set up does not work as it should. The team at CheckFront is always great is helping me get it fixed.

Very responsive customer care

Opmerkingen: Very positive experience with Checkfront - nothing seems to be a problem, always supportive response from Support staff. Really very happy with product and overall support.

Pluspunten:

The software has many really useful functions e.g. waivers; group waivers; integration with Xero. The developements in terms of the calendar and manifest are great improvements but little tweaks in layout would declutter the view. Some of the details functionality is brilliant - often not easy to find how to do something but just ask the Support folks and they usually have a very neat solution to offer. The customer support is fantastic, so responsive and are very wiling to take a suggestion/issue back to the developers.

Minpunten:

Find the Inventory calendar a bit cluttered and the mobile app could be done with a little refinement in terms of daily manifest. Integration with Xero needs a little refinement - would be excellent if an admin could choose which Payment Methods are integrated, at the moment every transaction creates a Xero invoice which is not always appropriate (e.g. gift vouchers, cash, face-to-face card payments) so there can be quite a bit of voiding in Xero to correct position. The Partner Accounts are too restrictive for the way we work with our partners so we had to provide User accounts to provide the functionality.

Best small-medium hotel booking system I've come across...

Opmerkingen: Bookings for different room types, transport and activities is made easy through using Checkfront. I dont have to worry about double bookings and I know exactly who's coming in and out of my resort, even when I'm not there. My staff find it easy to use and we are able to amend things quickly and easily. For the customer it's also very clear to book what they are looking for.

Pluspunten:

Ease of navigation and clear information layout especially on a laptop.

Minpunten:

Sometimes find a few features a little tricky to get my head around on my own but that doesnt matter because the customer support is amazing and they always find a solution.

Easy software for Booking Tourist Activities / invoice

Opmerkingen: - I decided to say with checkfront, because their team is very helpful, there is a community and a forum to get inspired, to get help if you are a beginner in the tourism industry

Pluspunten:

+ All in one place : Booking / customers / invoices + You can customize every detail of the Activity you are selling to your customers + The support team listens to your needs

Minpunten:

- During covid, the hibernation plan means that your website goes offline

Haliburton Forest Review on Checkfront

Opmerkingen: Overall, we have been extremely satisfied and find that checkfront has more benefits than cons, but it would be nice if the cons could be improved. We have only been using checkfront for a little over a year and couldn't ask for an easier program to use. It has definitely improved how we manage our reservations and are constantly learning about new features and how others work.

Pluspunten:

This is very user friendly, both on the back end/set up side as well as the user side. The reservation system we used to use is extremely limited. We love that we can create a reservation and easily make changes. Our old system was not as user friendly and we would have to delete a reservation and re-create it even if we wanted to something as simple as change a date.

Minpunten:

The website version is awesome, but the mobile app is not as user friendly as we would like and we are not thrilled with the reports. For the app, we are unable to check booking documents or update the reservations. That's great that we can check them in, but if they need to add a feature or change their dates at time of check in, we have to switch over to the web version, then switch back for payment. Which is another issue. We have connected checkfront with square, and a lot of the payments don't register with checkfront, so we have to first take the payment, and then record the payment. Very frustrating. We already had a few issues with the checkfront reports, which we have been able to work around, but now that we have connected to square, we are finding it extremely difficult to balance and now our bookkeeper has to refer to multiple reports, which of course does not help. One huge thing that would help is that our items in checkfront be able to communicate with square directly. Right now they convert over and say 'Custom Amount'. In one square report the booking id is referenced, but not others. Very, very frustrating. But if an item, like snowmobile passes, could actually transfer over as snowmobile passes, that would be huge. There are a few other issues, but those are the main setbacks we have currently.

Checkfront Booking Engine

Opmerkingen: Using Check-front as my online booking engine. Great tech support. Tech Support is friendly, knowledgeable, and usually very quick to reply.

Pluspunten:

The software is great value for the money. Best out there in my opinion. Great telephone software support during the set-up/onboarding. Ongoing support via email is extremely good, with tech support promptly replying with step-by-step detailed explanations and screen videos of how to address the issues.

Minpunten:

1. For vacation rental managements, this software in it's current version is very awkward & time consuming to update rates, descriptions, etc if the property falls in more than one category, such as a being 4 bedroom, ski-in/ski-out, base area location, private hot tub & pet friendly. For each category, rates need to be added for that property each time a rate change or new set of dates is added. It seems to be that there should be a main listing that communicates with each of the categories the property is listed under. In the initial set-up, an "alias" can be used, but once the property is up, new rates, fees, taxes, etc have to be added to the property in each category it is listed under. Takes way too much time to do things this way. Needs to be an option to "link" the same property throughout each category it is listed in so rate adjustments can be done with just one entry. 2. Wish they had ongoing telephone support though the email support works well 3. Wish Checkfront had calendar connections with other vacation rental sites such as VRBO, HomeAway, AirBnB, Expedia, Booking.com and so one so once a reservation is made on one site, all the other booking calendars updated at the same time.

Easy-to-use booking software made in Canada

Pluspunten:

The software is easy to use for clients and staff alike. As a result, we spend less time answering emails and the phone as people book themselves in. I also love that the company is based in Canada, and that the team is very responsive and the software is constantly developed. There is an affordable option if you just wanted to get started with booking software that does not break the bank.

Minpunten:

A few very specific things would be great to straighten out. For example, we offer 2 different overnight tours - the 2-day Seal Cove Adventure and the 3-day Cape Chignecto Adventure. We cannot run those tours parallel or overlapping - it is either one or the other -, so we set the availability to 0 by hand in the inventory the other tour every time an overnight tour gets booked. This way, however, we also have to block out the day before to ensure no overlapping tour gets booked even though in reality the date is available as the last day of a potential trip that starts earlier. It's not a huge impact, but we might loose a few bookings to this. Also, we cannot accept single bookings for tours where nobody else is booked on yet as we require a minimum of 2 guests for any tour to run. We have set the booking form (at least for the overnight tours) so that the field 'Adults' is automatically filled with the number 2. We do, however, accept single bookings if other people are booked on already, and we also would accept a pair of Adult/Child as a minimum. I wonder whether there is a way to streamline this.

Checkfront = Next Level

Opmerkingen: Checkfront affords is the ability to automate so much of the reservation process that not only do we have extremely organized and fluid interaction with customer’s reservations but we can streamline so many other elements of our system such as housekeeping as well.

Pluspunten:

Multiple configurations allow us to customize our back and front facing reservation database even though we are not a traditional hotel. Support is usually very detailed and forward thinking. If what we want can’t be accomplished, we always get good insight on workarounds and temporary solutions, that sometimes work better than what we had planned. CF constantly works to improve itself. We get monthly updates that bring new funtctions and extension platforms into the mix. It’s about 75% of the way to eliminating the rest of our internal support platforms - loyalty rewards, staff scheduling, & customizable customer profiles are the remaining topics we’d like to see incorporated into CF.

Minpunten:

We hold little hope that our feature requests will ever be developed. Configuration on the backend comes with a significant learning curve. One can get lost in the labyrinth of configuration options. I understand it’s necessary for all the functionality on the front end but if hotels are configuring this themselves, the labyrinth could be a little less complicated (topics re: parameters, & alias are very confusing).

My Experience with Checkfront

Opmerkingen: I operate a charter yacht in the USVI. Checkfront is my booking calendar if record. I use it to manage availability, and as a direct booking channel. I've stayed with Checkfront for the past two years because it meets most all my needs at a reasonable price point. The addition of tipping functionality is important to me. It will likely drive my purchasing decision in the future, as I shift towards a daysailing business from a term charter operation.

Pluspunten:

The software meets most of my expectations. I especially appreciate the flexibility I have when setting up inventory items. Perhaps more important is the quality of support you provide. Each time that I have had a need to reach out, my inquiry was handled by a knowledgeable and concerned person, who rapidly resolved my challenge and typically taught me something along the way. Thank you.

Minpunten:

My biggest issue with the service is that my clients don't have the option to tip while they are checking out. As a service provider, tipping is critical, especially for the crew. If the client was presented with the option to add a tip, I know that my income would increase significantly, perhaps 10%+

Accommodation Management using Checkfront

Opmerkingen: Checkfront has met our every business need, so far. Yes, we have had to reach out to Checkfront support for assistance from time to time, but they have come to the party with a solution every time. Make no mistake, this is a great product.

Pluspunten:

Flexibility to meet our business processes, automated customer communications via "Notifications" (which you can tailor to your needs), calendar functions, ability to specify requirements for the booking page and guest lists. We also like the different look and feel options for your booking page.

Minpunten:

If I had to make a criticism, and I mean "had to", I would say that because Checkfront is so flexible in its design features, there is a learning curve to understand how the functionality works. That is why you need good customer support, which you also get with Checkfront.

I have a very small business. I wanted software to handle online bookings. In no time it was done!

Opmerkingen: It handles all my bookings. It's like I have someone in an office full time.

Pluspunten:

The most thing I like about this software is the support. Even before I became a customer, Checkfront was answering my questions. I didn't know if the software would handle the things the way I wanted. The tutorial got me started and it provide the base for me to ask intelligent questions. Checkfront answers each question quickly and usually gives me 2 to 3 step by step solutions I could use. The software interfaces seamlessly with my website and their E-Commerce handles my selected payment method flawlessly. Because my business is seasonal, I simply select hibernation mode and my monthly charges are ended until next season. I had no idea what a great fit it would be.

Minpunten:

The only 'Con' I have is when I search help I can't think of the right term to define what I'm looking for so, I get frustrated with the search. However, I can easily overcome that by dropping a note to Checkfront support.

Review on behalf of Haliburton Forest

Opmerkingen: Overall we have been very satisfied. We have been able to relieve some of the stress from the office by having online reservations available and allowing for customers to book for themselves.

Pluspunten:

Ease of use. There are a few things that should be addressed, but overall ease of use has been fantastic.

Minpunten:

Certain features need some work or need to become available for better functionality.

A good foundation but could do better

Opmerkingen: Overall, we have been happy with Checkfront. There is some improvement we'd like to do on the notification and invoicing side of things so that the booking process is more informative and smooth. The guides could provide more indepth information on this topic.

Pluspunten:

Going from paper based to cloud based has been a big help in recording all our bookings and allowing multiple users to view what bookings have been entered. We use Checkfront for our accommoation, catering, meeting rooms and equipment bookings so need a level of complexity to do this and Checkfront is up to the task. The main difference for us is that we manage the bookings in house after an enquiry is made via phone/email or our website. We do not run a live booking portal for guests to make bookings from.

Minpunten:

The intergration with Xero does not talk back and forth therefore, invoices that change totals after they are booked show discrepancies with the final amount. Setting new rates in advance through the item events function was recommended however, it does not suit more complex items such as rooms with multiple occupancy etc.

Good for managing make cottage bookings

Opmerkingen: A feature-rich booking system which works well on all devices. Loved by the owner, accountant, cleaner and, working in the background, benefits our guests too. Life has become a whole lot easier since using Checkfront.

Pluspunten:

Check from the allows me to easily manage my bookings between my website, Booking.com, Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Home Away. Previously when a booking can in I had to manually change the calendars on every holiday website and it was a nightmare. I have configured Checkfront to link to my accountancy software (Xero) and I have also started offering customers gift cards. I'm not technically-minded and have found the technical support excellent, especially when the send me custom videos showing me what to do.

Minpunten:

It does virtually everything I need, but sometimes I don't find it very intuitive. It's disappointing there isn't a way of getting it to work with new Google Holiday feature. No great loss now, but I expect this will grow in customer popularity.

Solid, feature-filled software product that seamlessly integrates with our business

Opmerkingen: Checkfront very easily allowed us to move the vast majority of our reservations from over the phone reservations to online reservations freeing valuable staff time. Nothing but good feelings about Checkfront.

Pluspunten:

Checkfront is easy to use for our customers, extremely reliable on the back-end, provides amazing value for our business at its cost, is continually improving their product, and provides fast and clear-cut support for any issues. It is easy to integrate with our existing services and online presentation, giving our customers a seamless and easy-to-use experience when ordering through our website.

Minpunten:

Sometimes I wish the customizations for automated email communications were more granular in terms of controlling what information goes out and comes in based on product types.

Great Solution.

Opmerkingen: Fantastic and happy I chose it.

Pluspunten:

Checkfront is an easy software with plenty of flexibility. Fantastic Customer Care and that is the best part of it. We have been successfully using it for over 4 years with almost none problems. Paying solutions are spotless and easy to use.

Minpunten:

It needs some new features such us: - Male /Female inventory control - as at the moment is not possible to control that if you need to have gender only groups.

Super easy to navigate!

Opmerkingen: I love checkfront. Customer service is great. Responses are quick. The app is user friendly and easy to use.

Pluspunten:

I love how easy this software is to use. Setting up tours, packages, classes and hire options has been a breeze with easy shortcodes to include booking links on my website. Also love that if a class requires certain hire equipment, with each booking the hire equipment also books out - meaning I can't overbook our standard equipment hire. The app is super easy to use and love that it all syncs with my phone's calendar.

Minpunten:

Would like a "membership" option for those that frequent our business. I know there's a workaround but it's not really the easiest way. The upgrade to using liability waivers is a pretty big price difference! Would love a smaller pricepoint option for single option upgrades as I don't need all features on the next tier.

So thankful we found Checkfront!

Opmerkingen: The customer service is amazing. We love this product! So worth the investment. A GREAT value.

Pluspunten:

I love how much time this software has freed up for us. I have time in the evenings to be with my family again because it takes care of bookings for our vacation homes and for our excursions. There is very little follow up on my end but guests still get all their questions answered and feel very taken care of. It also has integrated beautifully into our website. In addition, we just keep discovering more amazing things it will do for us automatically. It's really made running our business so much more streamlined.

Minpunten:

It's honestly pretty difficult to set up. It took me a long time to set it up on the back end so it would do what we needed it to do. But the customer service in walking me through this process was exceptional and the software can do so much. It just takes time figuring out how to set it up correctly.

Checkfront for Tour & Service Company

Opmerkingen: We needed to integrate a simple booking widget on our custom-developed website -- Our website is fully developed, already integrated with advanced searches and complex structure, so we needed something that could be used as booking engine only and added to each individual tour page. Checkfront offers the use of a <iframe> widget that allows that. It's possible to customize the widget via css hower if you want full integration, you might want to consider the developer mode. There are some limitations in terms of settings and things you can tailor but overall it's a good product I wouldn't know about completely building a site with Checkfront, but to use it as booking engine in a fully developed site seems to be working alright for us.

Pluspunten:

The software is fairly easy to navigate and launch/integrate on your site.

Minpunten:

As with any out-of-the-box software, there are some limitations and restrictions.