An honest LodgeRunner review, and when Malvavisco fits instead.
Looking for a LodgeRunner alternative? Start with what LodgeRunner does well and what it costs, taken from its own pages. LodgeRunner has served fishing and hunting lodges since 2001. Malvavisco is newer and built around running the stay: guides, boats, the kitchen and the bill, in English, Spanish or Portuguese. We wrote this page, and we say when LodgeRunner is the better choice.
What is the best LodgeRunner alternative?
The best LodgeRunner alternative depends on what you want to change. To keep online booking and card payments for less, look at Hookset or Fishing Outfitter. To schedule guides and boats with overlap checks, run the kitchen and bar from tickets and work in Spanish, try Malvavisco. Many lodges are best served by staying with LodgeRunner.
What LodgeRunner does well
From LodgeRunner’s own website, checked on 23 October 2026.
LodgeRunner was founded in 2001 and has run in the cloud since 2007. Its pages describe a broad, mature system for fishing and hunting lodges, outfitters and guide services.
- Online bookings, if you want them. Thirteen online booking systems: five for guided trips, five for rooms, two for scheduled events such as schools, and one for packages of lodging and guiding. It also says many of its users still take bookings the old-fashioned way (source).
- Payments. Nine processors (Stripe, Square, Stax, Clover, Authorize.net, Braintree, Dejavoo, Moneris and Elavon), Square and Stripe Terminal for card-present payments, ACH, hosted payment pages and stored cards, with no fees added by LodgeRunner (source).
- Waivers and pre-registration. E-sign waivers and contracts per booking type, with minors added automatically. Before arrival, guests enter their details, flights and hotels and upload licenses or passports (source).
- The kitchen. Meal schedules per party, unlimited meal types, dietary preferences shown in red and kept for the next booking, and a mobile kitchen portal with arrivals, departures and the meal calendar (source).
- The bar and shop. Touch-screen terminal screens such as a Bar Tab or a gift shop, bar codes, split bills per guest, walk-in sales, and inventory and re-order reports (source).
- Guides and logistics. A color-coded guide grid, guide logins, destinations with daily limits, charter-flight reports with fish-box weights, and booking-agent commissions.
- Canada. US and Canadian dollars with exchange rates, and up to four tax types for GST, PST and local taxes (source).
- Integrations. QuickBooks Online, Google Calendar, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Shopify, Lightspeed, Zoho and NiceJob.
It is also candid about where it doesn’t fit: its own page says it might not be a good choice if you need to sell through online travel agents such as Expedia or Airbnb. Is LodgeRunner for me?
How much LodgeRunner costs
As published on LodgeRunner’s pricing page on 23 October 2026.
| Who | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Most lodges | $100 to $300 a month, by lodge size and guests hosted each year |
| Seasonal lodge with fewer than ten rooms | About $100 a month |
| Year-round lodge with 20 rooms | About $300 a month |
| Fishing outfitters booking mainly guide trips | $100 to $250 a month, by guide trips per season |
| Hunting outfitters | $100 to $300 a month, by trips booked each year |
| One-person guide service | $50 a month |
- Paid in advance; you renew for one, three, six or twelve months. New customers save 20% on the first year by paying twelve months ahead.
- “There are no set-up or installation fees.”
- Contact lists are imported free once you pay for at least one month; data that is hard to import costs $120 an hour.
- Customization costs $120 an hour, estimated after the demo; LodgeRunner says most new customers need none.
- The monthly fee covers storage, backups, support, training and minor modifications, with no per-guest or per-user fees (Is LodgeRunner for me?).
- After a guided Zoom demo there is a free 30-day evaluation (demo page).
Source: lodgerunner.com/pricing.aspx. Malvavisco doesn’t publish prices; it quotes after a demo.
Malvavisco and LodgeRunner, row by row
Malvavisco wrote this comparison. LodgeRunner’s column comes from its own website, checked on 23 October 2026, with a link for each row. Its details may have changed since.
| Feature | MalvaviscoLodge software | LodgeRunner |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Remote lodges in the Americas where a stay includes guided days, meals and a bar: fishing, hunting, guest ranches, eco lodges | Fishing and hunting lodges, outfitters and guide services, plus dude ranches; books rooms, guide trips, hunts, charter boats, canoes and duck blindsSource |
| Guest online booking | No: staff enter bookings from email, phone and agents | 13 online booking systems for rooms, guided trips, scheduled events and packagesSource |
| Card processing | No: staff record cash, transfer and card-terminal payments with receipts. Mercado Pago links in Argentine pesos are built but not yet live | Nine processors including Stripe, Square, Moneris and Elavon; Square and Stripe Terminal; ACH; no added feesSource |
| Waivers and e-signatures | No: guests cannot sign waivers in Malvavisco | E-sign waivers and contracts per booking type, with minors added automaticallySource |
| Guides, boats and horses | Named guides with skills and languages; boats, horses, vehicles or floatplanes as assets; overlap, capacity and skill checks on every assignment | Guide grid with seniority and destinations; boats tracked by a daily maximum per charge codeSource |
| Kitchen | Included meals planned per stay, a daily dietary brief, kitchen tickets from preparing to ready to served | Meal schedules per party, dietary preferences in red, kitchen and bar notes, a kitchen portalSource |
| Bar and shop | Point of sale on the booking’s bill, with stock counts, supply orders and supply receipts | Bar Tab and gift-shop tablet screens, bar codes, split bills, inventory and re-order reportsSource |
| Staff roles | Eleven roles enforced on the server, including guide, kitchen, housekeeping, finance and owner read-only; two-factor sign-in | Guide, kitchen and housekeeping portals, with permissions set per guideSource |
| Currencies and taxes | Rates in about 30 currencies, one per booking, reported separately with no automatic conversion; your own tax rules | US and Canadian dollars with current exchange rates to convert a bill; up to four tax typesSource |
| Staff interface language | English, Spanish or Portuguese, set per workspace | Not stated; website in EnglishSource |
| Offline | No: needs an internet connection; the kitchen screen disables its buttons when its data goes stale | Not stated; available on internet-connected PCs, Macs, tablets and phonesSource |
| Price | Not published; quoted after a demo | Most lodges $100–$300 a month; single guides $50; no set-up feesSource |
When to choose each
Stay with LodgeRunner, or choose it, if…
- Guests need to book and pay online on your website
- You want card processing, e-signatures and license records in the same system
- You want a long track record with Alaska and Canada lodges
- You bill in US and Canadian dollars and want the system to convert between them
- You want a published monthly price and a free trial before you commit
Choose Malvavisco if…
- Your team works in Spanish, or in Spanish and English
- You want each outing scheduled with a named guide and the boat, horse or vehicle it needs, with overlap checks
- The kitchen and the bar should work from tickets that land on the guest’s bill
- You bill in pesos, reais or other currencies and want each one reported on its own
- You run more than fishing and hunting: a guest ranch, an estancia or an eco lodge
What LodgeRunner’s pages don’t cover
We found no mention of interface languages other than English, of currencies beyond US and Canadian dollars, or of offline use. Boats are counted per day by charge code rather than scheduled with a guide. If any of that matters, ask LodgeRunner during its demo. For a wider field, see the best fishing lodge software and best hunting lodge software comparisons, or our Flybook comparison.
LodgeRunner reviews and alternatives
For many North American fishing and hunting lodges, yes. It has run since 2001, covers online booking, card processing, waivers, a kitchen portal and a bar tab, and publishes its prices. It fits less well if your team needs a Spanish interface (its site doesn’t mention one), if you bill in currencies other than US and Canadian dollars, or if you sell through online travel agents, which its own site says it isn’t built for.
LodgeRunner’s pricing page says most lodges pay $100 to $300 a month, fishing outfitters $100 to $250, hunting outfitters $100 to $300 and one-person guide services $50. It has no set-up fees, takes payment in advance for one, three, six or twelve months, gives new customers 20% off a prepaid first year, and charges $120 an hour for customization or hard-to-import data.
For running the lodge, yes: bookings, rooms, guides, assets, the kitchen, the point of sale, payments and reports. It does not replace LodgeRunner’s online booking, card processing, e-signatures or license records.
Yes, for free. Malvavisco has no self-serve import tool, so our team sets up your rooms, rates, services, guides and assets, enters your upcoming bookings with their deposits and loads your guest list from what LodgeRunner exports. Past bookings stay in LodgeRunner.
Its website is in English and doesn’t mention other interface languages. Malvavisco’s staff app runs in Spanish, English or Brazilian Portuguese, and this comparison is also published in Spanish.
LodgeRunner is built for fishing and hunting lodges and charges a monthly fee; The Flybook is built for activity operators and lodging resorts and its standard pricing takes a share of bookings. For a lodge with guides, a kitchen and a bar tab, LodgeRunner’s pages cover more.
