One inventory clock
Holds expire. Overlaps are rules, not tribal knowledge. Two browsers cannot sell the same departure.
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Reservation system
Published by Slipstack. We launch this stack for live rental and charter operators — how it works.
The reservation path
01
The guest is on your domain, not a marketplace stall. Search, ads, and repeat customers all hit the same inventory.
02
Open windows, blackouts, and boats already held. What they see is what the crew will run.
03
Trip or unit, departure, party size, add-ons. Capacity and overlap rules fire before checkout, not after a double-book.
04
Name, email, phone, party. That record is the reservation — not a separate CRM you paste into later.
05
Rental rules and the liability waiver sit on the booking. The signing link rides with the receipt; walk-ups use a QR.
06
Deposit or pay in full. Remaining balance before departure. Refunds and failed cards stay in your Stripe.
07
Automated receipt. The guest has a record. So does the office.
08
Calendar, check-in, unsigned follow-up, guest list. The reservation is finished only when the trip has run — not when the form submitted.
Not a hospitality engine
A restaurant reservation is a party size and a time. A hotel reservation is a room night. A boat or tour reservation is a piece of inventory that might be a four-hour charter in the morning and a different trip at 2 p.m., with a waiver, fuel policy, and a remaining balance. Forcing that into OpenTable-shaped software is how operators end up with a spreadsheet next to the “real” system.
Slipstack’s reservation layer is the same product as online booking software — this page is the mechanics. Boat shops continue to boat rental booking software. Tours continue to tour booking software. Rentable units continue to rental booking software. Scheduled experiences sit on trip booking software. Fuel, late return, and weather language belong in the rental agreement, not as a dock argument.
What has to be true
Holds expire. Overlaps are rules, not tribal knowledge. Two browsers cannot sell the same departure.
Deposits, remaining balances, and refunds are properties of the reservation, not a Square ticket with a note.
Unsigned is a state the dock can see. The PDF files against this booking.
The person at the dock should not re-type what the guest already typed at checkout.
What to look for
Full-day vs half-day, buffers, blackouts. If the only protection is “we just know,” it will double-book on a Saturday.
A reservation without money is a hold that expires. Deposits and remaining balances belong on the same object as the guest.
Cancellation, weather, damage, waiver. The guest already agreed at checkout — the dock should not invent it at the ramp.
Traffic, availability, pay, and confirmation on your site. A reservation system that dumps guests into a marketplace is renting you the last click.
Calendar locks
| Lock | What it protects | What fails without it |
|---|---|---|
| Hold while they pay | Two browsers, one hull. | A double-book you discover when both receipts print. |
| Turnaround buffer | Fuel, inspect, rinse before the next clock. | A 10 a.m. that returns at 12:05 and a noon that already paid. |
| Full-day kills afternoon | One hull cannot be two products in the same daylight. | A four-hour morning stacked on a sold sunset. |
| Maintenance block | A unit in the shop is not for sale. | A deposit on a hull that will not launch. |
| Blackout / closed day | Holiday, weather, “we are closed.” | A live checkout on a day nobody is at the dock. |
Slipstack is not a marine CMMS. It will not depreciate an engine or run a work-order shop. It will keep a blocked unit off the public calendar.
In production
Live operator · Lake Austin · Boat Bros ATX
Production data from Boat Bros ATX, a Slipstack shop on Lake Austin: $121k booked trip value in 134 days. Their whole prior year through the old website: $34,000. A 6% cut on this season’s volume is $7,275. Slipstack was $4,500. Not a survey and not a forecast for your lake.
$121k
booked trip value
212
trips booked online
556
waivers signed
$572
average order
In production
Boat Bros ATX · Lake Austin
Captained pontoon, watersports, sunset, and holiday charters on Lake Austin.
Nasty Sport Fishing · Cabo San Lucas
Private Cabo fishing charters — packages, live booking, Stripe, and buy-now-pay-later.
Also see online booking software, trip booking software, rental booking software, tour booking software, boat rental booking software, agreements and waivers, equipment rental software, pricing, and how launch works.
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