Guide for lodges and outfitters on Guest Tracker

Switching from Guest Tracker to Outfttr

Guest Tracker is a desktop database many lodges have used for years. Our own lodge, Dogskin Lake Lodge, was one of them. This page covers what comes with you when you move, the two ways to bring it across, and what will look different.

Why lodges move

Outfttr makes it easy to manage guests and bookings from start to finish. You take the booking, confirm it, and take the deposit by card, by check or by e-Transfer. Everything about the guest and the trip stays in one place your whole team can see, with the access you give them.

Shad Torgerson owns Dogskin Lake Lodge and built Outfttr. In his words, he has “been a software developer for nearly 30 years and developed Outfttr out of the need for software that works the way our type of business works.”

What comes with you

A spreadsheet import brings in:

Your guest list: names, company, two email addresses, home, work and mobile phones, mailing address, a category such as repeat guest, and notes.
Your bookings: the guest, arrival and departure dates, the cabins, the number of people, the status, a confirmation number, notes and special requests.
The money on each booking: its main price, before tax or with tax included, the total already paid, and the date it was paid.
Cabin names Outfttr does not know yet. Before anything is saved, you match each one to a cabin you have set up, or have it created for you.

What does not come across in a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet import carries one main price for each booking. It does not carry every charge line. Extras go on the booking after the import.
It carries one total for payments on each booking, not each payment on its own.
It has no column for letters, emails or call notes, or for the other people in a party beyond the head count.
Your packages and taxes are not imported with your guests and bookings. You enter those once in setup.

If you need the charge lines and unit assignments from your old bookings, that is what the extraction service is for.

Two ways to move

Import it yourself

Free on every plan

If you can get your guests and bookings into a spreadsheet, you can bring them in yourself. Excel, CSV and tab-separated files all work.

Download the Excel or CSV template, or use your own columns and match them on screen. Import guests first, then bookings.

You see a check of every row first. Nothing is saved until you press Import, and any import can be reverted afterwards.

Have us extract it

From $950, quoted first

You send us your Guest Tracker database file and we do the work. The quote comes before any work starts, and there is no hourly billing.

The service covers guests, reservations, charges and unit assignments.

We load it into your Outfttr account and you review it before you go live.

More about the extraction service is on the migration page.

Running both for a while

You do not have to switch in a day. Keep Guest Tracker open and bring Outfttr up beside it.

1
Start the trial
The trial is 30 days and needs no credit card. Nothing you do in it touches Guest Tracker.
2
Go through setup
The setup steps cover your business details, locations and cabins, taxes, packages, charge items, deposits and staff.
3
Bring in guests, then bookings
Start with your guest list and the bookings for the coming season. If an import looks wrong, revert it from Import History and try again.
4
Keep Guest Tracker as the record for now
Take a few real bookings in both. Compare the booking, the deposit and the balance until the numbers agree and you trust them.
5
Catch up, then switch
When you import bookings again later, the ones already in Outfttr are left out automatically. Watch for guests whose names are spelled a new way, because they can be added twice.

Your data is not locked in. Settings has a Data Export page that downloads it as an Excel workbook.

What looks different

The words are yours

In setup you choose what to call your units, your guests and your bookings. There are starting sets for a lodge, a hotel, a campground and a hunting operation, and you can type your own. Change them later under Settings, in Terminology.

You book from the grid

The grid shows your cabins down the side and the dates across the top. Click a cell, or drag across the nights, to start a new booking. The same grid has a phone layout.

Charges and deposits sit on the booking

Each booking has a Charges tab. You add charges there and record what comes in as a payment, a deposit or a refund, by check, cash, wire, or e-Transfer for a Canadian lodge. You can set a default deposit per guest in Settings. If you connect Stripe, which is optional, you can also send a payment link so the guest pays by card.

Taxes are set by date

Each tax has a name, a rate and the day it starts. A trip is taxed at the rate in effect on its arrival date, so a rate change does not disturb earlier trips. Your accountant sets the rates. Outfttr applies them.

Everyone has their own login

Each person has a role: owner, manager, staff or guide. What they can see and change follows that role.

What Outfttr does not do

There is no online booking page for guests yet. Your staff take the booking and enter it.
There is no QuickBooks connection.
Outfttr does not send text messages.
Outfttr is in English only. There is no French version.
Outfttr gives no tax advice. Your accountant sets the rates, and we apply them.

Common questions

Do we have to move everything at once?

No. Many lodges start with the guest list and the bookings for the coming season. An import can be reverted, and you can import again later. Bookings already in Outfttr are left out automatically when you do.

What does it cost to bring our data across?

Importing a spreadsheet of guests and bookings yourself is free on every plan. If you want us to pull the data out of your Guest Tracker database for you, that is a paid service from $950, quoted before any work starts.

Can we try Outfttr before we decide?

Yes. The trial is 30 days and needs no credit card. There is also a sample lodge you can click through first.

Can we get our data back out of Outfttr?

Yes. Settings has a Data Export page that downloads your data as an Excel workbook.

Try it beside Guest Tracker

The trial is 30 days and needs no credit card. Or click through a sample lodge first.

Start the free trial Try the Demo

Or call (833) 202-0404