Over the course of time in the outdoor industry, the way charters and outfitters book their trips has changed dramatically. From sporting shows to online booking calendars and everything in-between, we’re there.

First off, if you’re a hunting outfitter or fishing charter reading this…I have a serious question for you. ARE YOU STILL USING A PHYSICAL BOOKING CALENDAR?!?!?!?! 

While some of you may be laughing, it’s a VERY serious question and it needs to be changed, now. I know I know, CHANGE is hard for many, but this is just too important.

I don’t care how you approach the Internet and your business, you need a digital calendar.  Because heaven forbid, you lose that physical calendar in any way, shape, or form…you’re in deep you know what!

I don’t care how you approach the Internet and your business, you need a digital calendar.  Because heaven forbid, you lose that physical calendar in any way, shape, or form…you’re in deep you know what!

Relax.  If you’re an old-timer and a one-finger typer, I have an idea… bribe one of your grandchildren to do it for you! (I will let you figure out the rest haha!)  Have them do the manual entry of adding all the future calendar events into your digital calendar.  THEN, after that, you need to throw that book away!  Force yourself to use something online, I promise, you’ll thank me later.  Just be strict in using it, and have an app on your phone to make it fast and easy.

In my opinion, it’s tough to beat Google Calendars….It’s FREE.  If you have a gmail account, you’re already set!  Just click “Sign In” and you’re on your way.

They also have a business version (for those with google business accounts), it has a lot of bells and whistles, but it's not necessary for most.

It’s super easy to access online, anywhere, and they also have an app for your phone to make it even easier.

GET IN THE HABIT of entering ALL events into your calendar going forward.  Include personal stuff too!  

Create Google Calendar

And you can setup multiple calendars on that ONE calendar.  And what I mean is, you can turn various calendars on and off for visibility purposes too.  So if you don’t want your personal calendar shown, for obvious business purposes, you can turn it off in the click of a button.

And one of the best things about Google Calendar, is that it "works" with pretty much anything.  Meaning, you can import/export calendar events, and due to it's simplicity, it works with a lot of 3rd party booking calendar software companies.  I will get into that next...

Nowadays, the big question I ask all of my clients is…”How do you want to get leads?”

When I say that, I mean, do you want PHONE CALLS to be the main goal? Or for people to use an integrated BOOKING CALENDAR as the main focus?

And to be honest, however you respond is fine with me. We do both well here with our SEO, so it all boils down to how you want to be contacted.  

Some want to get ALL calls because they feel they can sell the experience better than anyone (and I don’t blame them). Often, these are the “bigger” trips that a company may include multi-day lodging/guiding/etc.  

But for those fishing charters or hunting guides that may only spend one outing with them, the booking calendar is more popular. And when I say Booking Calendar, I mean Google Calendar OR a 3rd party software that integrates with Google Calendar. Either way, Google is the driver.

So if you use Google Calendars (or others such as Outlook), now you want to figure out the best way to utilize it in your marketing…and this is where I feel we shine.

MOST online booking calendars are stand-alone, meaning, you have to LEAVE your website and go to another in a new window, or whatever.  Point is, at that point, you’ve lost all control of the sale if something goes wrong.  I hate that, nobody likes to be redirected to a checkout that looks nothing like the branding.

I spent A LOT of my time in search of the best booking calendar for websites, and I feel we did make the right choice.  Literally after almost 18-months of evaluating vendors, etc. we’re very happy with the booking calendar solution we use…why?