An honest Vally review, and when Malvavisco fits instead.
Looking for a Vally alternative? Start with what Vally does well and how it gets paid, taken from its own pages. Vally is booking software for charters, guides, fly shops, marinas and fishing or hunting lodges, built by a team in Florida and Minnesota and free to the business. Malvavisco is 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 Vally is the better choice.
What is the best Vally alternative?
If you want guests to book and pay online and don’t want a monthly bill, Vally is hard to beat, and many charters and guides should stay. If your guests stay several days and the hard part is the week itself, with named guides and boats, meals for every guest and a bar tab on one bill, or your team works in Spanish, try Malvavisco.
What Vally does well
From Vally’s own website, checked on 23 October 2026.
Vally sells to fishing charters, tours and rentals, fishing and hunting lodges, fly shops and outfitters, hunting operations and marinas. Its team includes charter captains and US-based engineers (source).
- Online booking. A booking engine with real-time availability that only holds a spot once it is paid, plus booking requests you can accept automatically or by hand (source).
- Lodges on one dashboard. Lodging, rentals, trips and guides in one place; resources such as boats or rooms limit what can be booked; bundles, multi-day trips and seasonal prices; add-ons and discounts for children, military and first responders (lodge page, features).
- The team. Guide permissions so each person sees only their own trips, and a two-way Google Calendar sync for the whole team (source).
- Payments. Stripe, deposits as a percentage or a fixed amount, sales tax per experience, invoices for bookings taken by phone or in person, and balances and tips collected online or in person (source). Payouts arrive within 24 to 48 hours, and instant payouts are available (source).
- Guest communication. Branded confirmations, reminders and post-trip emails, pre-trip questionnaires and waivers, and a cancellation policy the guest agrees to when booking (source).
- Marketing. Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Mailchimp connections, plus websites, SEO, ads and email marketing as separate services (features, FAQ).
- Support. Free onboarding (source), and a dedicated account manager with support at any hour, never outsourced (source).
How much Vally costs
As published on Vally’s pricing page on 23 October 2026.
- “Vally is 100% free for every partner”: no subscription, no commissions and no card fees for the business.
- Vally earns a booking fee on each booking. You pass it to the customer or include it in your trip prices. Vally doesn’t publish the amount; it says its fees are 42% lower than its average competitors’.
- No contracts, no set-up or onboarding fees.
- You can run several businesses on Vally with no extra fees (FAQ).
- Websites and digital marketing are priced separately, by the size of the job (FAQ).
Source: vallypro.com/free-business-management-software. Malvavisco doesn’t publish prices; it quotes after a demo.
Malvavisco and Vally, row by row
Malvavisco wrote this comparison. Vally’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 | Vally |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Remote lodges in the Americas where a stay includes guided days, meals and a bar: fishing, hunting, guest ranches, eco lodges | Charters, tours and rentals, fly shops, marinas, and fishing or hunting lodges and outfittersSource |
| Guest online booking | No: staff enter bookings from email, phone and agents | Yes: an online booking engine with real-time availability and booking requestsSource |
| Card payments | No: staff record cash, transfer and card-terminal payments with receipts. Mercado Pago links in Argentine pesos are built but not yet live | Stripe, with deposits, invoices, balances and tips; payouts in 24 to 48 hoursSource |
| Waivers and guest forms | Pre-trip and post-stay questionnaires; no waivers or e-signatures | Pre-trip questionnaires and waivers gathered before the tripSource |
| Rooms, guides and boats | Rooms or cabins for the stay; named guides with skills and languages; boats, horses, vehicles or floatplanes as assets, with overlap, capacity and skill checks | Lodging, rentals, trips and guides on one dashboard; boats and rooms as resources that limit bookingsSource |
| Kitchen | Included meals planned per stay, a daily dietary brief, kitchen tickets from preparing to ready to served | Not mentionedSource |
| Bar and shop | Point of sale on the booking’s bill, with stock counts, supply orders and supply receipts | Add-ons and upsells sold with a booking; no point of sale or stock mentionedSource |
| Staff roles | Eleven roles enforced on the server, including guide, kitchen, housekeeping, finance and owner read-only; two-factor sign-in | Several permission levels, so guides see only the trips that concern themSource |
| Currencies and taxes | Rates in about 30 currencies, one per booking, reported separately with no automatic conversion; your own tax rules | Sales tax per experience; currencies not statedSource |
| 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; cloud-based and mobile-friendlySource |
| Price | Not published; quoted after a demo | Free to the business; a booking fee on each booking, paid by the customer or built into your pricesSource |
When to choose each
Stay with Vally, or choose it, if…
- Guests should book and pay online, and you’d rather pay per booking than a monthly fee
- You mostly sell day trips, charters or guided days, with a room or a bundle now and then
- Your guides live in Google Calendar and you want it to stay in sync
- You want waivers and pre-trip questions gathered before every trip
- You want Vally’s team to build your website or run your marketing too
Choose Malvavisco if…
- Guests stay several nights and every stay includes guided days, meals and a bar
- You want each outing scheduled with a named guide and the boat, horse or vehicle it needs, with overlap checks
- The kitchen needs meal counts and a dietary brief, and drinks and shop sales should land on the guest’s bill with stock counts
- Your team works in Spanish, or in Spanish and English
- You bill in pesos, reais or other currencies and want each one reported on its own
What Vally’s pages don’t cover
We found no mention of kitchen tools, a bar or shop with stock, currencies, interface languages other than English, offline use, or the amount of its booking fee. If any of that matters, ask Vally during its walkthrough. For a wider field, see the best fishing lodge software comparison, or how Malvavisco runs a fishing lodge.
Vally reviews and alternatives
For the business, yes: Vally charges no subscription, commission or card fees. It earns a booking fee on each booking, which you pass to the customer or build into your prices. Vally doesn’t publish the amount.
For lodges that sell guided trips and rooms online, yes. Its lodge page covers online booking, rooms and resources, guide permissions, bundles, add-ons, waivers and a two-way Google Calendar sync. It doesn’t mention a kitchen, a bar with stock, currencies or interface languages other than English.
For running the lodge, yes: bookings, rooms, guides, assets, the kitchen, the point of sale, payments and reports. It does not replace Vally’s online booking, card payments, waivers or Google Calendar sync.
Yes, for free. Our team sets up your rooms, rates, services, guides, assets and staff roles, enters every upcoming booking with its deposits, loads your guest list and rebuilds your emails. Past bookings and signed waivers stay in Vally.
Its website is in English and doesn’t mention other interface languages. Malvavisco’s staff app runs in Spanish, English or Brazilian Portuguese.
