How a fly-in fishing operation established in 1969 replaced legacy desktop software, spreadsheets, and manual billing with a single system — and imported every guest record they'd ever created.
Dogskin Lake Lodge is a fly-in fishing and hunting operation in northern Manitoba — a main lodge plus four remote outpost camps, 14 bookable units total. Established in 1969, it was once Manitoba's largest fly-in lodge.
Current owners Shad and his brother purchased the operation in 2004. Most guests are repeat visitors, many returning for over 20 years. The kind of operation where guest relationships are the business.
Decades of data spread across a legacy desktop app, spreadsheets, printed calendars, and handwritten notes. No single source of truth.
Guest Tracker — a Windows desktop app built in the late '90s. No email, no payments, no web access. Data locked in a local Access database.
Deposit tracking, tax calculations, supply lists, flight manifests — all in separate spreadsheets that didn't talk to each other.
Confirmation emails typed one at a time. Tax calculations done by hand in CAD. Invoices built in Word. Payments tracked on paper.
A guest calls — you dig through the Access database, check a spreadsheet for their balance, and look at a printed calendar for their dates.
Deposits collected by check or phone call. No way for guests to pay online. Chasing deposits manually every season.
Had to be at the office computer to look anything up. No access from the dock, the outpost, or home during the off-season.
What changed when Dogskin switched to Outfttr.
The features that replaced spreadsheets, desktop software, and manual processes.
Main lodge and 4 outposts on one screen — bookings, status, vendor orders, and service badges at a glance
Main lodge and 4 outposts on one screen. Color-coded by status with customizable service badges — guides, shuttles, food packages, gear. Print filtered views for staff, chef, guide coordinator.
Send a payment link — guests pay by card or bank transfer (ACH). Deposits, balances, and refunds tracked automatically. No more mailed checks or spreadsheet reconciliation.
4,840 guests, 3,565 reservations, 17,300 unit assignments — all imported from legacy software.
Charges in USD, taxes remitted in CAD. Bank of Canada exchange rates auto-applied for CRA reporting.
Main lodge (10 units) plus 4 remote outpost camps — all in one system with location-specific packages.
Incoming call triggers a popup with guest name, booking details, balance, and full history.
Pre-trip forms — food preferences, arrival details, gear — sent automatically and linked to each booking.
Shuttles, guides, supplies — every vendor order visible on the grid. Red means needs attention, green means confirmed. Nothing forgotten.
Confirmation on booking. Questionnaire 30 days out. Reminder before arrival. Feedback after departure. Payment nudge when balance is due.
Owner, Manager, Staff, Guide — each sees what they need. Every change logged with who, when, and before-after.
Video walkthroughs and guides on every page. Staff learn the system themselves — 23 topics, 20+ videos.
Manage from the lodge, the dock, or home. Works on any device — desktop, tablet, phone.
Decades of operational data — extracted, cleaned, and imported. Nothing lost.
27 years of Guest Tracker data extracted, cleaned, and imported — 4,840 guests, 3,565 reservations, 18,760 charges, 17,300 unit assignments.
5 locations, 14 units, packages, charge items, taxes (GST 7% + PST 5%), email templates, and questionnaires — all configured through the UI.
Stripe payments connected. First payment link sent. Real guests booking for the upcoming season. No downtime, no parallel systems.
“After 25 years of Access databases, sticky notes, and spreadsheets, we finally have a system that actually works the way we think. Our booking process went from chaos to confidence overnight.”
S.T.
Lodge Owner, Manitoba
Yes, we run a lodge on Outfttr too. Your data is safe, private, and completely separate from ours.
Outfttr LLC is a separate legal entity from Dogskin Lake Lodge. Different business, different accounts, different data.
Every tenant's data is isolated using PostgreSQL Row-Level Security — enforced at the database engine level. No tenant can see another tenant's data. Platform admins can access data only for support and troubleshooting purposes.
Payments go directly to your Stripe account via Stripe Connect. Outfttr never holds your money or sees your bank details.
Independent security audit completed and fully remediated. Rate limiting, CAPTCHA, CSP headers, webhook verification, and encrypted credentials — all built in from the start.
Your data is never locked in. Export guests, reservations, charges, and reports to CSV at any time. Leave whenever you want — no penalties, no data hostage.
The founder spent years at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, where security and reliability aren't optional. That mindset is in the foundation.
Most booking platforms charge a percentage of every reservation. On a busy season, that adds up fast. Outfttr is a flat monthly fee — what you see is what you pay.
Try the demo with a season's worth of sample data, or start your free trial and we'll help you import your existing records.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.