Booking software for surf, sailing and dive schools compared

Superota is the best choice for a surf, sailing or dive school with its own team of instructors. It is built for schools that sell their own lessons and plan their own team. You schedule your instructors around the bookings and every staff member has their own app with their schedule, where they also request time off. Guests sign the waiver digitally, every invoice carries your country’s VAT and you pay a fixed monthly fee with no commission. Below, Superota stands next to eight other systems: BookingLayer, Recras, Regiondo, Bookeo, FareHarbor, Checkfront, bookingkit and SimplyBook.me.

How did we compare?

On 5 November 2026 we read each provider’s own pages: pricing, features and help articles. Review sites did not count. What we could not find on their pages is marked “not found”. It may still be possible, so ask the provider.

Superota is our own system. About the others, we only state what their own pages say.

What does booking software for a surf school cost?

System	Price on own site	Per booking
Superota	119 euros a month for the admin, the office and two active staff members, 19 euros per extra active staff member	none
Bookeo	10.95 to 89.95 euros a month	no commission
SimplyBook.me	free to 59.90 euros a month	no transaction fees
BookingLayer	custom, examples: 260 euros a month for a surf resort with 15 beds and 410 euros for a retreat with two locations	no commission
Recras	5 euros per active user a month, at least 25 euros	0.5 percent of the booking value
bookingkit	49 or 99 euros a month, annual plan	2 to 3 percent booking fee, 3 percent online payment fee and 0.60 euros per ticket
Checkfront	99 euros a month	3 percent per online booking
Regiondo	59 or 99 euros a month, annual contract	small fee per online booking (amount not stated)
FareHarbor	not stated	the guest pays booking fees, the business pays processing fees; the amounts are not on its site

With every system you also pay your payment provider, such as Stripe or Mollie. Not every provider says whether its amounts include VAT. Superota’s amounts exclude VAT.

Look closely at the last column. A percentage per booking grows with your revenue: 3 percent of 50,000 euros in online sales is 1,500 euros a year. With Superota the fee depends on your team, and bookings don’t count. After the season you switch staff off and pay less.

Which systems have a schedule for instructors?

This is where they differ most. A surf school with ten instructors in summer needs more than a name next to a lesson.

System	Team and schedule
Superota	weekly plan with staffing suggestions based on language, skills and earlier lessons; own app with the schedule, readable without signal; time off requested in the app; hours and payroll export as an extra
Recras	schedule with shifts linked to bookings; staff pass on their availability; qualifications; monthly hours overview
Bookeo	schedule guides and vehicles without double booking
Checkfront	assign staff in the daily manifest (since May 2026); roles per user
FareHarbor	assign staff to a trip or tour, with roles such as captain and crew
Regiondo	link staff to an offer in advance with the Resource Manager
BookingLayer	assign instructors per session with the Session Planner add-on
bookingkit	not found
SimplyBook.me	not found on the pages we read

Can guests sign a waiver online?

For surf, sailing and dive schools this is often a must.

• Yes: Superota (in the base price, per activity, a parent signs for a child), FareHarbor (in the booking flow), Checkfront, BookingLayer (paid add-on) and Bookeo (add-on from 7 to 215 euros a month).
• Not found: Recras, Regiondo, bookingkit and SimplyBook.me.

Can you take a deposit and offer iDEAL or Bancontact?

Deposits or instalments are possible with BookingLayer, Bookeo, Checkfront, Regiondo, Recras and Superota. For bookingkit and SimplyBook.me we did not find it.

bookingkit, FareHarbor and Recras (through Mollie) name iDEAL and Bancontact on their own pages. Bookeo and Regiondo show them as logos on their integrations page. BookingLayer’s payments page did not list them; Checkfront only mentions iDEAL, on its pricing page.

With Superota, payments run through your own Stripe account, with iDEAL, Bancontact and card. Per activity you choose a fixed amount or a percentage as the deposit. For the rest the guest gets a payment link, with a reminder 14 and 3 days before the due date.

What does your watersports school get with Superota?

• Staffing suggestions for the whole week. In the weekly plan the staffing suggestion fills a week in one go. It looks at language, skills and who already knows the group, and every suggestion says why. It leaves out anyone on time off. An expired certificate triggers a warning.
• Groups with their own instructor. You split a large edition into groups, each with its own instructor. Multi-day courses and camps sit in the calendar as one edition.
• Readable on the beach. The app stays readable without signal. Your instructor sees their lessons with the meeting point, colleagues with a call button and the participants.
• Two languages. Guests book in Dutch or English and get their emails in that language. Each staff member picks the language of their own app.
• A parent signs for a child. Guests sign in their guest portal or on a tablet at the desk. Below the age you choose, a parent or guardian signs. Per participant you see who has signed.
• Pay less after the season. You pay 119 euros a month for the admin, the office and two active staff members, plus 19 euros per extra active staff member, excluding VAT. A staff member you switch off costs nothing.
• A copy for your accountant. Every paid booking automatically gets an invoice with the VAT of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany or Austria, with a line per rate. Your accountant gets a copy.

Which booking software should your watersports school choose?

Superota is our pick for the watersports school that plans its own instructors around its lessons. Schedule, time off, waiver and invoice all come from the same booking. Your instructors see their schedule, meeting point and participants in their own app and request time off there. You pay a fixed fee, however many bookings come in.

Try it yourself in the demo. A surf school is ready for you there: book a lesson as a guest and follow where your booking shows up.