BOKUN vs Checkfront for Tour Operators (2026)

A catamaran operator I know in Simpson Bay ran both of these. Not at the same time, thankfully. He started on Checkfront, got annoyed about something, jumped to BOKUN for a season, then called me one cruise ship morning to ask which one I'd actually keep. My answer wasn't the one he wanted, because the honest answer is "it depends on how you sell." But we worked through it, and that conversation is most of this article.

So if you're shopping for booking software right now, you're probably asking one blunt question. What does this cost me per booking, and what headaches does it actually remove. Both BOKUN and Checkfront look like do-it-all systems on paper. But their pricing pushes you toward two different ways of running a business, and that's the part nobody explains on the demo call.

One thing to know before you compare the prices

BOKUN is owned by Booking.com. It grew up as a channel manager, which is the plumbing that pushes your inventory out to marketplaces and keeps the calendars in sync. That lineage shows. BOKUN is very good at the OTA side because that's where it comes from. Checkfront is broader, more of a general reservation system that a land tour, a rental shop, or a tour company could all use without it feeling weird.

That's not a knock on either. It just tells you what each one was built to be good at before you ever look at the fees.

BOKUN pricing - low booking fees, plus a monthly plan

BOKUN publishes its pricing, which I always respect, because the systems that hide their fees behind a "book a demo" wall are usually hiding something. Their START plan is $49 a month plus a 1.5% fee on applicable bookings. Then $149 a month plus 1.25%, and $499 a month plus 1%. The percentage drops as you move up.

The detail that matters: BOKUN says it doesn't charge its own booking fee on bookings made through Viator on the START, PLUS, and PREMIUM plans, and it charges 0% on offline bookings. In plain terms, you're mostly paying BOKUN on your direct online sales, not on everything that moves through your business.

That fits a certain kind of operation:

• High direct online volume. Your fees scale with you, but at a lower percentage than commission-style systems.
• Lots of walk-ups and phone bookings. Offline is 0%, so you're not punished for selling the way Caribbean operators actually sell.
• A heavy Viator mix. The no-fee-on-Viator angle keeps your software fees from stacking on top of the OTA commission.

Checkfront pricing - simpler, and you can hand the fee to the guest

Checkfront is also clear about pricing, which again I like. Their page lists $99 a month plus a 3% online booking fee, with no setup fees or hidden charges.

Two things operators tend to like here:

• You choose who pays the online fee. Checkfront lets you absorb the 3% or pass it to the guest at checkout.
• No extra fees on offline sales. That fits dockside reality, where half your day is phone calls and WhatsApp.

Checkfront also says it doesn't add platform fees on OTA bookings. You pay only the commission the OTA sets. That matters if you're sending inventory to resellers and you don't want your booking system skimming a second slice off the top.

The fee math no one runs but should

Most operators compare the monthly subscription, see $49 against $99, and stop there. Don't stop there. Compare the annual cost at your real booking volume, because that's the number that hits your account.

• Estimate your annual direct online revenue. Not total revenue. Just the sales that go through online checkout.
• Multiply by the booking fee. BOKUN runs 1% to 1.5% depending on plan. Checkfront is 3% online.
• Add the subscription. $49 to $499 a month for BOKUN, $99 a month for Checkfront.

Here's the gut-check. Once your direct online sales have any real volume, the gap between 1.5% and 3% gets bigger than the monthly subscription difference. The monthly fee is the number you see. The percentage is the number that actually decides this.

One caution on the Checkfront pass-through. Handing the 3% to the guest protects your margin, sure. But it also adds friction right at checkout, and if you're selling shore excursions to a guest comparing three operators on their phone in the parking lot, a higher final number can lose you the sale. Test it before you commit to it.

What matters once the boat actually leaves the dock

Pricing gets the attention. Operations are where the software either saves you or drains you all season.

• OTA handling. If marketplaces are a big chunk of your business, the whole game is no double-bookings and no extra fees on top of the OTA commission. Both position themselves as OTA-friendly, but the fee structure is different, and BOKUN's channel-manager roots show here.
• Offline bookings. We still sell by phone, WhatsApp, and walk-up down here. Both charge nothing on offline sales, which is what you want.
• Deposits and balance due. If you run boats you want a deposit to kill no-shows and the balance collected later. Make sure partial payments are clean and the guest actually understands what they paid.
• Waivers and guest data. Anything higher-risk, jet skis, fishing, ATV, needs a waiver that works on a phone. And you want the guest's details for follow-up and repeat business.
• Setup time. Cheap software that takes a month to configure isn't cheap in July. It's the most expensive thing you own that month.

And both of these share something I keep coming back to. Neither was built for the Caribbean specifically. They're land-tour-friendly systems, good ones, but they assume a world with one currency and payment rails in the box. Down here a morning run gets blown out by the Christmas Winds, your guests pay in USD and EUR depending which side of the island they're standing on, and the money has to land in your local bank, not take a detour through someone's offshore account. That's the gap we built Junglebee to close.

What I told the guy in Simpson Bay

I told my catamaran friend the truth. If he was building a direct-booking machine and wanted his software fees light on every online sale, BOKUN wins on fee structure, especially with no BOKUN fee on Viator bookings on the key plans. If he wanted the simpler pricing model, liked the option to pass the fee to guests, and wanted a clear no-extra-OTA-fee statement, Checkfront was a real contender.

But the real answer was the boring one. The best booking system is the one you'll actually use every single day, the one that keeps your calendar accurate, your deposits collected, and your guests properly informed. He'd been so busy switching platforms that he kept breaking his own calendar in the process.

So if you do one thing from this article, do this. Run the fee math at your real volume, not the sticker price. Then pick the system you'll stop fiddling with. The one you leave alone is the one that makes you money.