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Travel · head to head

Bookinglayer vs Lodgify

Bookinglayer logo

Bookinglayer

Travel

Booking system for surf camps, retreats and activity-led accommodation

From
€260/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lodgify logo

Lodgify

Travel

Direct booking website builder and channel manager for vacation rental owners and small managers

From
$16/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Bookinglayer at 260 euros a month the entry tier is a heavy fixed cost for a fifteen-bed camp, several times what a comparable small hotel pays for a property management system.; Lodgify the 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.
  • They diverge on capability: Bookinglayer covers Package builder, Lodgify covers Website builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bookinglayer and Lodgify actually diverge.

Attributes where Bookinglayer and Lodgify differ
AttributeBookinglayerLodgify
Starting price€260/month$16/month
Pricing modelPer month by planPer month by property count and plan

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Travel).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Bookinglayer

  • Package builder
  • Activity scheduling
  • Instalment payments
  • Guest portal
  • Direct booking engine
  • Back office
  • Multi-location support
  • API access

Only in Lodgify

  • Website builder
  • Channel manager
  • Booking engine
  • Unified inbox
  • Automated messaging
  • Rental agreements
  • Multi-calendar
  • Damage deposits

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Bookinglayer

  • A surf camp selling seven-night packages where lesson capacity, not bed capacity, is the constraintnot Lodgify
  • A yoga retreat taking deposits nine months ahead with staged balance paymentsnot Lodgify
  • A dive centre allocating instructors and equipment alongside accommodationnot Lodgify
  • A ski school running two locations under one booking system and one guest portalnot Lodgify

Lodgify

  • An owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut Airbnb commissionnot Bookinglayer
  • A manager consolidating Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com calendars to stop double bookingsnot Bookinglayer
  • A rural property with weak OTA visibility that relies on repeat direct guestsnot Bookinglayer
  • A host adding rental agreements and deposit collection to bookings taken off-platformnot Bookinglayer

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Bookinglayer

  • At 260 euros a month the entry tier is a heavy fixed cost for a fifteen-bed camp, several times what a comparable small hotel pays for a property management system.
  • The Essential plan includes only two users, so a camp with a reception team, an instructor coordinator and a manager is pushed to the 415 euro tier by headcount rather than by features.
  • The 2 per cent commission alternative carries a 100 euro monthly minimum, so a genuinely closed off-season still costs money.
  • API access sits only on the quoted top tier, which blocks integration work for mid-sized operators unwilling to move to bespoke pricing.
  • The product is deliberately narrow: an operator whose business shifts toward conventional room-night accommodation will find the package model is overhead rather than advantage.

Lodgify

  • The 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.
  • Operations tooling is thin: there is no real housekeeping scheduling, task assignment or owner statement generation, so managers past roughly twenty units outgrow it.
  • Prices shown are annual-commitment rates; paying monthly costs substantially more, which makes the headline figure misleading for anyone unwilling to commit for a year.
  • The website templates are constrained, and heavy design customisation means editing within a narrow theme system rather than having real control over layout or markup.
  • Payment processing is effectively tied to a small set of gateways, so operators in markets without local acquiring support may struggle to take payments in their own currency without extra cost.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bookinglayer

€260/month
  • Essential$260/month
    • About 300 USD equivalent
    • Two users included
    • Package builder and booking engine
  • Pro$415/month
    • About 445 USD equivalent
    • Ten users and two locations
    • Extended functionality
  • Alpha$undefined/month
    • Custom quote
    • Multiple locations
    • API access included
  • Commission alternative$undefined/month
    • 2% of booking value instead of a fixed fee
    • Minimum EUR 100 per month
    • Suits seasonal businesses with quiet months

Lodgify

$16/month
  • Starter$16/month
    • Billed annually, higher month to month
    • Website builder and booking engine
    • Channel manager
  • Professional$42/month
    • Billed annually
    • Payment automation
    • More integrations and higher limits
  • Ultimate$103/month
    • Billed annually
    • No booking fee on direct reservations
    • Priority support

Which should you pick?

Choose Bookinglayer if

  • You need package builder.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want activity scheduling.
Bookinglayer review

Choose Lodgify if

  • You need website builder.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want channel manager.
Lodgify review

Questions people ask

Is Bookinglayer or Lodgify better?
Neither clearly leads. Bookinglayer starts at €260/month and Lodgify at $16/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bookinglayer or Lodgify?
Bookinglayer starts at €260/month and Lodgify at $16/month.
Does Bookinglayer or Lodgify run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Bookinglayer best used for?
Bookinglayer is most often used for a surf camp selling seven-night packages where lesson capacity, not bed capacity, is the constraint, a yoga retreat taking deposits nine months ahead with staged balance payments, a dive centre allocating instructors and equipment alongside accommodation, a ski school running two locations under one booking system and one guest portal. Of those, a surf camp selling seven-night packages where lesson capacity, not bed capacity, is the constraint and a yoga retreat taking deposits nine months ahead with staged balance payments are not what Lodgify is typically brought in for.
What can Bookinglayer do that Lodgify cannot?
Bookinglayer covers Package builder, Activity scheduling, Instalment payments, Guest portal. Lodgify covers Website builder, Channel manager, Booking engine, Unified inbox.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bookinglayer: How much does Bookinglayer cost?

Essential is 260 euros a month for two users, Pro is 415 euros for ten users and two locations, and Alpha is quoted. There is a 5 per cent discount for annual payment.

Lodgify: Does Lodgify charge commission on direct bookings?

Yes on the two lower tiers. Starter and Professional take 1.9 per cent of each direct booking; the Ultimate plan removes it.

Bookinglayer: Is there a commission option instead?

Yes, 2 per cent of booking value with a minimum of 100 euros a month, which suits businesses with a pronounced off-season.

Lodgify: At what point is Ultimate cheaper than Professional?

Roughly once your direct booking revenue passes about 38,000 dollars a year, at which point the 1.9 per cent fee exceeds the price difference between the plans.

Bookinglayer: Why not just use a normal hotel PMS?

Because a package that bundles nights, lessons, equipment and transfers with capacity limits on the activities rather than the beds does not fit a room-night model.

Lodgify: Is Lodgify a full property management system?

No. It is a website, booking engine and channel manager. Housekeeping, task management and owner accounting are largely absent.

Bookinglayer: Does it include API access?

Only on the top Alpha tier, which is quoted rather than published.

Lodgify: Can it run a hotel?

It is designed for whole-unit vacation rentals. Room-level hotel inventory, folios and night audit are not part of the product.

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