Seven dude ranch systems compared, gaps included.
Guest ranch software books cabins and weeks, schedules horses and rides, feeds the dining room and takes payment. We compared seven systems using each company’s own website. Malvavisco wrote this page and is one of them: it schedules horses, wranglers and meals well, and it has no online booking engine and no packages, which ranch buyers usually ask about first.
What is guest ranch software?
Guest ranch software, also called dude ranch software, runs the hospitality side of a ranch: cabin bookings and weekly stays, trail rides and horse assignments, meals, the store and guest payments. It is a different product from ranch management software, which tracks cattle, grazing and herd records on working ranches.
Seven guest ranch systems, feature by feature
Read across a row to compare one job. Every competitor cell links to the page it comes from.
| Feature | Malvavisco | The Flybook | GraceSoft | ReservationKey | LodgeRunner | roommaster | Booking Marshal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Remote lodges and ranches that sell stays with guided activities, meals and a bar | Activity operators, lodging resorts and dude ranchesSource | Hotels, B&Bs, vacation rentals and dude ranches; in business since 1999Source | Small lodging businesses, with a ranch and lodge solution; founded in 2007Source | Fishing and hunting lodges; says it also fits dude and guest ranchesSource | Hotels and resorts; its blog ranks it first for guest ranchesSource | Guest ranches with weekly seasons; co-designed with a Wyoming ranchSource |
| Online booking engine | No: staff enter bookings | Yes: lodging, rides, activities and add-ons in one booking flowSource | Yes: package-based bookings on your websiteSource | Yes: a booking engine on your websiteSource | Yes: 13 online booking systemsSource | Yes: commission-free booking engineSource | Online reservation requests that staff confirmSource |
| Packages and weekly stays | No: nightly rates plus per-person activity prices; included items show at zero | All-inclusive stays combining lodging, meals, riding and activitiesSource | 3- to 6-night and weekly packages with fixed arrival rulesSource | Supports package-based staysSource | Online packages that combine lodging, meals and guidingSource | Not stated for its own productSource | Week-long stays by season, priced by daily ratesSource |
| Child or age-based rates | No | Family packages; child rates not statedSource | Not statedSource | Not statedSource | Rates by guest age range in online bookingSource | Not statedSource | Yes: adult and child daily rates per seasonSource |
| Horses and wranglers | Each horse is an asset with overlap checks; wranglers are guides with skills | Capacity limits so staff, horses and resources are availableSource | Guides scheduled; horses not mentionedSource | Not mentionedSource | Not mentionedSource | Not mentionedSource | Wrangler week view with rider height, weight and experience; horse and saddle fieldsSource |
| Activities and rides | Sold on the booking, then scheduled with a guide and the assets they need | Activity scheduling with capacity limitsSource | Activity scheduling and automatic guest itinerariesSource | Not mentionedSource | Optional activities such as trail rides, on the room grid and in daily reportsSource | Not mentionedSource | Weekly headcounts for trail rides and staffingSource |
| Meals and kitchen | Included meals per stay, a daily dietary brief, kitchen tickets | Meals inside packages; no kitchen tools mentionedSource | Food sold through the POS; no meal planning mentionedSource | Not mentionedSource | Meal schedules, dietary flags and a kitchen portalSource | Not mentionedSource | Dietary needs captured on the booking requestSource |
| Store, bar or POS | Point of sale on the guest’s bill, with stock counts | POS for retail, snacks and apparel, with inventorySource | Retail POS that posts charges to guest foliosSource | Not mentioned; Square Terminal for in-person paymentsSource | Bar Tab and gift-shop screens with inventorySource | Not mentionedSource | Not mentionedSource |
| Waivers and rider forms | No | Digital waivers before arrivalSource | E-signature listed among plan featuresSource | Not mentionedSource | E-sign waivers and contracts, minors includedSource | Not mentionedSource | Rider forms and liability waivers signed by each guestSource |
| Channel manager | No | Integrations with Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia and Booking.comSource | Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and VrboSource | Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and others, plus iCal syncSource | No: its site says it isn’t built for online travel agentsSource | Yes, across hundreds of online travel agentsSource | Not mentionedSource |
| Card processing | No: staff record payments | Flybook PaySource | Credit card processing and payment linksSource | Square, Stripe, Authorize.net and Yapstone; PayPalSource | Nine processors, including Stripe and SquareSource | Payment processing included in the quoteSource | Records payments; optional card-fee calculationSource |
| Staff interface languages | English, Spanish or Portuguese | Not stated; website in EnglishSource | Plans list multi-languageSource | Not stated; website in EnglishSource | Not stated; website in EnglishSource | Not stated; website in EnglishSource | Not stated; website in EnglishSource |
| Published price | No: quoted after a demo | 4% of online bookings or 2% of all transactions, or negotiatedSource | Quote on requestSource | From $41 a month for up to 4 unitsSource | Most lodges $100–$300 a monthSource | Quote on requestSource | $300 a month at launch pricing; $600 long-termSource |
Malvavisco wrote this comparison. Each competitor cell comes from that company’s own website, checked on 23 October 2026, and details may have changed since. “Not stated” or “not mentioned” means we did not find it on the pages we read, not that the system lacks it. If a cell is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
Malvavisco: horses, wranglers and the dining room
Who it’s for. Guest ranches, estancias and remote lodges that book by phone and email and run the week by hand today: cabins, horses and wranglers, rides, meals for every guest and one bill per family. Teams in English, Spanish or both.
Strengths. Each horse is an asset with its own calendar row, so it can’t be on two rides at once, and wranglers are guides with skills and languages. Included meals feed a daily dietary brief and kitchen tickets, and the store or bar charges to the booking with stock counts. Deposits, payment schedules and guest emails in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
Limits. No packages or child rates. No online booking engine. No waivers or rider forms, no channel manager and no card processing either.
Price. Not published; quoted after a demo. How it works for guest ranches.
The Flybook: packages and rides sold online
Who it’s for. Dude ranches that sell most stays, rides and extras online and want packages, waivers and a store in the same system.
Strengths. All-inclusive packages of lodging, meals, riding and activities; capacity limits for staff, horses and resources; waiver reminders; a POS with inventory; gift cards and memberships; abandoned-cart recovery; integrations with Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia and Booking.com.
Limits. We found no kitchen tools or meal counts on its pages, and its standard pricing takes a share of each booking.
Price. A 4% online booking fee or a 2% fee on all transactions, or a negotiated fixed or subscription fee (home page). Our full Flybook comparison.
GraceSoft: a hotel-style system for ranches
Who it’s for. Dude ranches that want hotel-style property management: a booking engine, a channel manager, housekeeping and a store.
Strengths. Package bookings of 3 to 6 nights or weekly stays with fixed arrival rules; guide and activity scheduling with automatic itineraries; CRM quotes and payment links; connections to Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and Vrbo; housekeeping dashboards; a retail POS that posts to guest folios; 24/7 support.
Limits. Its dude ranch page doesn’t mention horses, rider forms or meal planning.
Price. Quoted on request, with the POS module quoted separately (pricing page). Our full GraceSoft comparison.
ReservationKey: low flat fee, booking engine included
Who it’s for. Small guest ranches and lodges that mainly need a reservation calendar, a booking engine and OTA sync for a low flat fee.
Strengths. Flat monthly pricing with no booking commissions or per-user fees; a booking engine for your website; deposits and partial payments through Square, Stripe, Authorize.net or Yapstone, plus PayPal; Square Terminal; a channel manager with iCal sync; a free trial.
Limits. It is a general reservation system: we found no horses, activities, meals, store or waivers on its ranch page.
Price. From $41 a month for up to 4 units, $65 for 20 and $92 for 40; the channel manager is $29 a month extra (pricing page). Our full ReservationKey comparison.
LodgeRunner: a lodge system that fits ranches
Who it’s for. Ranches that run like a fishing or hunting lodge and want a long-established system with online booking, signed documents and a kitchen portal.
Strengths. A Guest Reservation Center where guests pay, sign documents and upload files; a room grid; optional activities such as trail rides on the grid and in daily reports; day-by-day itineraries; rates by season and guest age range; a kitchen portal; bar and gift-shop screens.
Limits. Its dude ranch page doesn’t mention horses, and its site says it is not a good choice if you need to sell through online travel agents.
Price. Most lodges pay $100–$300 a month, with no set-up fees (pricing page). Our full LodgeRunner comparison.
roommaster: a hotel PMS for resort ranches
Who it’s for. Larger guest ranches and resort ranches that want a hotel property management system with a booking engine, channel manager and revenue management.
Strengths. A cloud PMS, commission-free booking engine, channel manager and payment processing in one quote, with implementation, training and data migration included, and 24/7 support.
Limits. Its product pages are written for hotels; we found no horses, rides, meals or waivers described for its own system.
Price. Quoted per property (pricing page). It also publishes a guest ranch software ranking that places itself first. Our full roommaster comparison.
Booking Marshal: built around wranglers and rider forms
Who it’s for. Family guest ranches with fixed weekly seasons that want a reservation system shaped around wranglers and rider forms.
Strengths. Week selection by season; adult and child daily rates; rider forms and liability waivers signed by each guest; a wrangler week view with height, weight and riding experience; horse and saddle fields; state tax allocations by lodging, food, horses and activities; a guest portal; a public live demo.
Limits. Guests send reservation requests that staff confirm, rather than paying online at once, and we found no card processing, store or channel manager on its site.
Price. Launch pricing of $300 a month, $600 long-term; data migration $500 at launch, or waived if you start fresh (home page). Our full Booking Marshal comparison.
Six questions that narrow the list
- Must families book and pay online? Then Malvavisco is out for now. The Flybook, GraceSoft, ReservationKey, LodgeRunner and roommaster take online bookings; Booking Marshal takes requests you confirm.
- Do you sell all-inclusive weeks with child rates? For packages, look at The Flybook, GraceSoft or LodgeRunner. For child rates, Booking Marshal and LodgeRunner say so on their pages.
- How much of the week is horses? Only Booking Marshal (rider details and horse fields) and Malvavisco (each horse an asset, with overlap checks) describe assigning individual horses; The Flybook manages horse capacity.
- Who cooks, and from what list? LodgeRunner’s kitchen portal and Malvavisco’s dietary brief and kitchen tickets are the kitchen tools in this group.
- Do you sell on Airbnb or Booking.com? Pick a system with a channel manager: GraceSoft, ReservationKey, roommaster, or The Flybook’s integrations.
- Does your crew speak Spanish? Malvavisco runs in Spanish, English or Portuguese. For estancias, read about software para estancias y ranchos.
If your ranch mostly sells rooms through online travel agents, a hotel system may be enough; see hotel software vs lodge software.
Who should not pick Malvavisco
If your ranch sells all-inclusive weeks online, with a package price and child rates, Malvavisco is the wrong tool today: it has no packages, no child rates and no online booking engine. It also has no waivers or rider forms and no channel manager. The Flybook and GraceSoft cover online packages; Booking Marshal covers rider forms and child rates for a flat fee.
Malvavisco fits ranches that book by phone and email and struggle with the week itself: which horse goes on which ride, which wrangler leads it, how many lunches the kitchen packs and what each family owes at checkout. See everything that isn’t built yet.
Choosing guest ranch software
No. Dude ranch or guest ranch software handles guests: cabins, weekly stays, rides, meals and payments. Ranch management software handles livestock and land: herd records, breeding, grazing and feed. A working ranch that also hosts guests may need both.
It depends on how families book. For online packages, The Flybook and GraceSoft lead with booking engines; for a small ranch on a budget, ReservationKey; for rider forms and child rates, Booking Marshal; for a lodge-style ranch with a kitchen portal, LodgeRunner. Malvavisco fits ranches that book by phone and email and need horses, wranglers, meals and the bill run well.
Published prices: ReservationKey from $41 a month, Booking Marshal $300 a month at launch pricing, LodgeRunner $100 to $300 a month for most lodges, and The Flybook 4% of online bookings or 2% of all transactions unless negotiated. GraceSoft, roommaster and Malvavisco quote on request.
Not as one package price. You set a nightly rate and per-person prices for rides and extras; anything priced at zero shows as Included on the bill, and included meals are planned for the kitchen without charging again. Packages and child rates are not built yet.
Booking Marshal collects rider height, weight and experience and has fields for horse and saddle numbers. Malvavisco treats each horse as an asset with its own calendar row and refuses overlapping assignments. The Flybook manages horse capacity alongside staff and resources.
Malvavisco’s staff interface runs in Spanish, English or Brazilian Portuguese, and GraceSoft lists multi-language among its plan features. Malvavisco also publishes a Spanish page for estancias and ranches in Argentina and Uruguay.
