Spreadsheet or booking software for your kite cruises?

What a spreadsheet does well

• It is free, and everyone on the team already knows how to use it.
• It bends to any way of working: a column per cabin, a tab per departure.
• For one boat and a handful of departures, it is often enough.

Where it breaks

• Two people update the same cabin on the same evening, and a berth is sold twice.
• Deposits are ticked by hand and matched against bank transfers that arrive days later.
• The balance reminders and the practical info go out one guest at a time.
• Guests cannot book on their own: every booking starts with a message and ends with you typing it in.
• You only know whether a departure made money once the season is over.

Signs it is time to switch

• More than one boat, or more than one person taking bookings.
• You chase payments every week.
• A cabin has already been sold twice.
• You want guests to book and pay a deposit online, without you in the loop.

Moving over

Declare your boats and open your departures. For each departure, export its participant list from Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers as a CSV file and import it: one row per guest becomes a booking, and the columns are detected automatically. Most operators switch between two seasons, when the schedule is quiet.

KiteDeck has no subscription: it takes 3 % excl. VAT (plus 20 % VAT in France) of each payment collected online, so you can set everything up and compare before the season starts.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep my spreadsheet as a backup?

Yes. Your clients, cruises, bookings and boats can be exported at any time as CSV files that open in Excel or LibreOffice, so you are never locked in.

Is it worth it for one boat?

If you take bookings alone and never sell online, a spreadsheet can be enough. KiteDeck only costs something on payments collected online, so you can try the difference at no cost.

How long does the move take?

Declaring a boat and opening a first departure takes minutes, and each departure's participants come in with one CSV file. The setup guide walks through every step with screenshots.