Your tours and rooms in a single calendar, with direct bookings in Spanish and English.
For tour operators and lodges that today receive bookings by WhatsApp, email and several OTAs, and sort them in a spreadsheet. The tourist books from their phone and pays a deposit; you see the real availability of each departure, the daily manifest with guides and transport, and how much each channel brings in.
Fictional business, people and amounts. The demo doesn't charge any card or connect to OTAs.Watch the demo in 47 seconds
A tourist books in English from her phone, the booking shows up on the calendar next to those from other channels, the team checks in the morning departure and tomorrow's reminders go out in each client's language. Then try it yourself: everything works in your browser.
From the moment the tourist books until they're back from the tour
The demo shows a fictional lodge in Uvita, on the South Pacific coast, with four tours and three types of lodging. In a real project we adjust it to your tours, your seasons, your deposit policy and your sales channels.
Bilingual booking site
The tourist picks a tour or room, sees only the dates with availability, enters adults and kids, and pays a deposit by card. The confirmation arrives by WhatsApp and email, in Spanish or English.
Availability calendar
Tours and lodging in a single 14-day view, color-coded by occupancy. You close sales for a date with one click when there's bad weather or maintenance.
Bookings from every channel
Your own site, WhatsApp, Viator, GetYourGuide, Booking.com and partner agencies in a single list, with payment status and outstanding balance for each booking.
Daily manifest
Each departure with its client list, pickup point, language and balance due. You assign a guide and transport, check people in from your phone and send the manifest to the guide.
Automatic communications
Confirmation, day-before reminder and review request, by WhatsApp or email and in each client's language. Fewer no-shows and fewer manual messages.
Reports
Tour and lodging occupancy by month, revenue by channel, cancellations by channel and best-selling tours. You know how much comes from direct sales and how much from intermediaries.
FareHarbor, Bokun, Checkfront, Cloudbeds and Little Hotelier are solid products. The question is how much they cost you as you grow and how well they fit your operation.
If you're just starting or sell little online, a ready-made platform is usually cheaper in the first few years, and we'll say so plainly. Custom makes sense when you want a single system for tours and lodging, with no commission on each direct booking, with SINPE and invoices under Hacienda regulations, and with the manifest and the rules of your operation.
No commission per booking
The platforms compared charge a percentage per online booking, either to the operator or to the tourist. With custom you pay for development and hosting; what you sell directly pays no commission to kiub.
Tours and lodging together
Tour tools and lodging tools are usually separate products. Here the same calendar handles departures, cabins and tour packages with a night included.
Designed for Costa Rica
Card deposit and SINPE Móvil for local clients, colones and dollars, VAT and invoices under current Hacienda regulations, and WhatsApp messages, which is how your clients write to you.
Your way of operating
Pickup points, capacity per boat or shuttle, rules by tide or season, guides by language. It's programmed the way you work, not the other way around.
The data is yours
Clients, bookings and history stay in your system. You can write to anyone who has already visited you, without depending on a platform to contact them.
Support in Spanish and in your time zone
You talk directly to the people who built it, from Escazú, and we tune it with what you learn in the first season.
Cumulative total cost
- kiub: development from US$3,800 to 4,900 (estimate in this proposal) + an assumed US$50/month for hosting, backups and basic support. That assumption is not an official kiub rate; it is defined in the proposal.
- Volume: the amount you sell per month in online bookings through your own site. OTA bookings and those entered by hand pay no platform commission on Bokun or Checkfront, according to their pages.
- Bokun and Checkfront let you pass the commission on to the tourist. Here we add it to the operator to compare; if you pass it on, your client pays it in the final price.
- FareHarbor charges no monthly fee: it charges a per-booking fee to the tourist, shown at payment. Its page doesn't publish the percentage, which is why it appears as US$0 for the operator.
- Does not include payment gateway fees (they apply in every option), OTA commissions, taxes, migration or integrations. The platforms do include years of product development, apps and ready-made OTA connections; with custom, future improvements are quoted separately.
Official prices checked
| Platform and plan | Monthly fee | Commission | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bokun · Free 1 user, Viator bookings | 0 | 0% Viator | bokun.io ↗ checked Oct 22, 2026 |
| Bokun · Start up to 5 users | 49 | 1.5% | |
| Bokun · Plus up to 10 users | 149 | 1.25% | |
| Bokun · Premium unlimited users | 499 | 1% | |
| Checkfront | 99 | 3% online | checkfront.com ↗ checked Oct 22, 2026 |
| FareHarbor | 0 | fee to the tourist, not published | fareharbor.com ↗ checked Oct 22, 2026 |
| Cloudbeds Flex, One, Experience, Enterprise | not published | cloudbeds.com ↗ checked Oct 22, 2026 | |
| Little Hotelier Basics and Pro | depends on rooms | Basics: 1% | littlehotelier.com ↗ checked Oct 22, 2026 |
- Bokun: the commission applies to the bookings that qualify according to its page; Viator bookings and those entered offline carry 0%. 14-day free trial.
- Checkfront: the 3% applies to online bookings and can be absorbed or passed on to the customer; it charges no commission on offline, OTA or API bookings. It states that the price may vary by region.
- FareHarbor: its terms and official blog state that the per-booking fee is paid by the customer and shown during checkout; it doesn't publish a fixed percentage.
- Cloudbeds: the page shows the plans without a price and asks you to request a quote; it states that its booking engine and channel manager add no commissions.
- Little Hotelier: shows “from” per month depending on the number of rooms (calculator), excluding taxes and with an annual discount; the Basics plan adds 1% per booking.
And the OTAs?
Your own system doesn't replace Booking.com, Viator or GetYourGuide: they bring you new customers and it makes sense to stay there. What changes is how much you sell directly to people who have already found you. What they officially publish about their commissions:
partner.booking.com ↗ · checked Oct 22, 2026
supplier.viator.com ↗ · checked Oct 22, 2026
getyourguide.com ↗ · checked Oct 22, 2026
Step by step, with visible progress
We understand how your business operates first and deliver in blocks. Your team uses the dashboard with real bookings before the booking site is opened to the public.
Understand
Tours, lodging, capacities, seasons, deposit and cancellation policy, and sales channels. We define the scope and the final price.
Build and test
Availability calendar, bookings, manifest, messages, reports and the bilingual site with deposit payment. Demos every week with your team.
Migrate and launch
We load future bookings from your spreadsheet, train reception and guides, and publish the site on your domain.
A clear estimate from the start
Low end
- Booking site in Spanish and English with card deposit
- Availability calendar for tours and lodging
- Log of bookings from WhatsApp, OTAs and agencies
- Daily manifest, check-in and assignment of guides and transport
- Email confirmations and reminders, and basic reports
High end
- Messages through the official WhatsApp Business API
- SINPE payment tracking with receipt reconciliation
- Invoices under current Hacienda regulations, directly or through your provider
- Connection to a channel manager or an OTA API, depending on what each allows
- Access for partner hotels and agencies that send you clients
A chat assistant inside the booking system that answers questions about your data with tables, charts and reports you can export to PDF or HTML. For example:
- “Occupancy by tour this month”
- “Bookings by sales channel this quarter”
- “Deposits pending payment”
The data is made up. The work isn't.
This demo doesn't correspond to any client: the lodge, the people, the bookings and the amounts are fictional. What is real is kiub's experience building custom systems for teams that work with us today.
“The system has helped us enormously to improve the organization of our company. We now have better control over project billing and can follow our team's work more closely, making day-to-day management easier.”
Before you start
Does it connect to Booking.com, Viator or GetYourGuide?
Not in the demo. In a real project there are two paths: log those bookings in the dashboard (quick and at no extra cost) or connect them through a channel manager or each OTA's API, when the OTA allows it. We decide based on your volume and the cost of each option.
How do you avoid selling the same spot twice?
Every booking draws from the same calendar, whether it comes from the site, WhatsApp or a connected OTA. If an OTA isn't connected, the team logs it in the dashboard and the availability on the site updates right away.
How does the deposit work?
In the demo it's simulated. In the real system the tourist pays by card through a payment gateway we choose with you, or by SINPE Móvil if they're a local client; the balance is collected on the day of the tour or on arrival, depending on your policy.
Do the WhatsApp messages go out on their own?
Yes, through the official WhatsApp Business API with approved templates, or by email if you prefer to start without that cost. Each client gets the message in their language.
Can guides use it from their phone?
Yes. The manifest and check-in work on a phone, and the guide can receive the departure's list by WhatsApp every morning.
Why not use FareHarbor, Bokun or Checkfront?
They're good products and, for many operators, the fastest option. Custom makes sense when you sell a lot online and the commissions add up, when you run tours and lodging together, or when you need SINPE, invoices under Hacienda regulations and rules specific to your operation. The comparison with sources and assumptions is above.
Real engineering, powered by AI
Code that is reviewed, tested and maintained. AI speeds things up, people stand behind the work. That's why we can offer affordable prices.
- ✔ Reviewed
- ✔ Tested
- ✔ Maintained
Want a system like this for your tours or lodging?
With your departures, your spots and your way of charging.
Tell us how you receive bookings today. We'll reply within 24 hours with the next steps.
WhatsApp: Costa Rica +506 6451 1884 · USA +1 786 603 9420