No commission
We don't take a percentage of your bookings, whether a guest books one night or a two-week retreat.
Same audience, opposite starting points
Thinking about moving from Retreat Guru? You're not the first retreat center to ask. Both platforms serve retreats. Where each one started explains most of the differences. Retreat Guru began as a marketplace, and later added booking software. Bookinglayer was developed from scratch and had a single focus from day one: reservation and operations software built for overnight experiences. It has evolved alongside its clients since 2013, incorporating their requirements into its product roadmap. Retreat Guru sits between you and your guest, as an intermediary with its own view of your booking data. With Bookinglayer, every guest record, every booking, every email address is yours. We enable your website visitors to book directly, and we take no commissions.
Packages
The room, the sessions, and the transfer in one booking
Most booking software handles accommodation. Some handle activities. Very few combine both in one booking, and even fewer keep the booking flow short.
Bookinglayer
The Package Builder is the core of Bookinglayer; it combines separate items into one booking: a room, a yoga class, a massage, a meal plan, a sellable item, or an airport transfer. Each keeps its own availability. Build an item once, use it in as many packages as you like, and update its price in one place.
Packages can be set up for fixed retreat dates, or a flexible arrival like a hotel-style stay.
Retreat Guru
Everything is built around the program, with registrations against it. A program can show the parts that make up its price, and the Package option lets a guest pick a start date for a set number of nights. Each program needs to be created in Retreat Guru for each date you run it, duplicating a template or master program.
Activities
Activities with their own time slots and capacity
Activities based on time slots and capacity. A guest adds a 6 pm massage 4 weeks before arrival. The spa team sees it without anyone forwarding an email.
Bookinglayer
Guests add activities and pick their time slots while choosing their room, without emailing you. If you allow it, guests can also schedule and reschedule through the Customer Portal.
Bookinglayer treats an activity as its own piece of inventory: a real-time slot, a capacity limit, and an instructor or practitioner assigned to it
Retreat Guru
Guests can add optional services during registration, such as a massage or an airport shuttle. Programs have a maximum capacity and a waiting list.
Its public documentation does not describe activities with their own time slots, instructors, and spot counts. The extra services are handled as a checkbox: 6 people are interested in a massage, but there’s no way to schedule them.
Booking Engine
A booking page that looks like your retreat
The moment your booking page looks different from your website, guests hesitate. And hesitation costs bookings.
Bookinglayer
The Booking Engine works with any website. Colors, typography and layout follow your brand, and each step of the booking flow, including activities, add ons, payment structure and guest data fields, can be customized to fit how you actually sell. The seamless handover from your website reduces drop-offs and increases conversion. A deeplink takes a guest from an email, an ad, or a social media post straight to the start of the booking process.
Retreat Guru
Registration forms are flexible on the question side: conditional questions, multi-person registrations, sliding-scale pricing.
Its public documentation doesn’t describe the same level of customization for look and feel, branding, and flow steps.
Customer Portal
A guest portal that does more than take the balance
Nobody emails to add a massage. They just don't do it, and the revenue is gone.
Bookinglayer
With Bookinglayer, you can keep the booking flow short because the Customer Portal lets you collect everything you need from your guests before arrival.
Guests fill in their personal data, dietary information, an emergency contact, sign waivers, or add the transfer or service they forgot*. You can also add your own pages, like a packing list or a FAQ.
*27% of guests add something extra after booking.
Retreat Guru
Retreat Guru's Participant Portal lets a guest view past and future bookings, pay balances, access program information, and add a retreat to their calendar.
Useful, but more of a viewing window with relevant information than a place to act.
Payments
Deposits and payment plans, on the gateway you choose
High-ticket retreats rarely get paid in one go. A deposit now, the rest over months, and someone has to chase every installment.
Bookinglayer
Choose from 35+ payment gateways and accept payments in 140 countries, including local gateways. Often you can keep the provider you already use. Deposits and payment plans run on schedule, and reminders go out automatically, in your tone of voice. With Bookinglayer Pay, our built in payment gateway, you can manage every payment from your backoffice, create your own payment plans, and cut down on the number of tools you need.
Retreat Guru
Supports monthly or quarterly payment plans. For payment processing, Retreat Guru has limited options; it recommends Paysafe or its own RG Stripe Connect.
No public documentation shows options for countries where Stripe isn’t available.
Multiple locations
More than one venue, one account
A second center shouldn't mean a second login, a second team setup, a second set of reports, or higher commissions.
Bookinglayer
Centers in different countries all run under a single account. Data and reports are filtered by location. Limit user access to data to one or multiple locations.
Retreat Guru
Plans scale by booking volume. The Locations feature, rolling out since June 2026, tags the location a program runs at, and Venue Management handles meeting rooms.
We found nothing in its documentation on running separate centers, each with its own rooms and team, from one account.
Pricing
A fixed fee, or a fee on every booking
Commission looks small on a single booking. Across a full season, it adds up.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer starts at roughly USD 300/month, with no commission on your bookings. What you earn is yours. It lets you pay for the features you need, instead of pushing you toward a predefined plan.
Retreat Guru
Retreat Guru charges a flat fee of USD 220/month plus a 1% fee on every booking. Once you take more than USD 8,000 a month in bookings, that cost exceeds the Bookinglayer subscription.
When Retreat Guru is the better choice
We'd rather tell you we're not the right fit than onboard you and find out two months later. If your retreats need more visibility and a 14% commission per marketplace booking works for you, a Retreat Guru listing is worth exploring. A listing doesn’t tie you to its booking software, so you can still take direct bookings through Bookinglayer. Retreat Guru is the better option if you mainly rent your space to outside teachers. It handles inquiries, quotes, and contracts in one flow, and its integrations may already cover what you need.
“We opened a new retreat center and decided to go with Bookinglayer as well. I have worked in hospitality for over ten years, and I can safely say that BL is the best PMS I have worked with. The platform is incredibly intuitive, from setup to daily use. It is a pleasure to use. ”
Melanie P.
General Manager
Comparison Table
How we compare at a glance
| Feature | Bookinglayer | Retreat Guru |
|---|---|---|
| Activities with time slots and capacity | Yes:Yes. Session Planner and Capacity Manager | Partly:Not in their public docs. Optional add-ons, plus capacity and wait lists per program |
| Guests move activities themselves | Yes:Yes, in the Customer Portal | Partly:Not in their public docs |
| Digital waivers | Yes:Yes, signed in the Customer Portal | Partly:No digital signing in their public docs. Their guide mentions a terms checkbox or paper form |
| Guest portal after booking | Yes:Check-in form, waivers, session swaps, upgrade requests, custom pages | Partly:View registrations, pay balance, add to calendar |
| Packages of separate products | Yes:Yes. Rooms, activities, meals, transfers, each with its own availability | Partly:Package builder lists the parts of a program price, add ons sold with it |
| Installment payments | Yes:Yes, through Bookinglayer Pay with a Stripe account | Yes:Yes, monthly or quarterly plans |
| Payment gateways | Yes:35+ across 140 countries | Yes:Paysafe and RG-Stripe Connect, both recommended by Retreat Guru |
| Commission on bookings | Yes:None | No:Software fee is a percentage of your bookings. Marketplace bookings carry a separate commission |
| Several locations in one account | Yes:Yes, with staff limited by location | Partly:Programs can be tagged by location. Nothing found on separate centers in one account |
| Renting space to outside teachers | Partly:Staff block the rooms and add the booking by hand, or the renter books online if the dates are free. Partner login is also available for group leaders | Yes:Yes. Inquiries, quotes, contracts, group leader without logging in |
| API | Yes:Yes | Yes:Yes |
| Diet lists for the kitchen | Yes:Diets preset in the Guests list, printable and downloadable. Custom reports can be emailed on a schedule | Yes:Diet based meal reports |
| Housekeeping for changeover day | Yes:Housekeeping page with each room, the guest checking out and the next guest checking in | Yes:Housekeeping report |
| Hold a room for one program | Yes:Add the room to one package only, and keep it hidden from the booking engine | Yes:Program restricted room blocks |
| Donations | Yes:Donation item in a package, guests enter the amount | Yes:Suggested donation prices |
| Event day sheet | Yes:A custom report or Guests list preset lists who comes, their rooms and details | Yes:Banquet event orders |
| Accounting labels | Partly:Backoffice categories, with a Sales Report by category | Yes:GL codes on transactions |
| Lock on past transactions | No:No lock. Your team can still correct bookings and payments, with each activity being logged | Yes:Accounting mode locks past transactions |
| Change history | Yes:Activity Log for each booking and each user | Yes:Changes log |
- Yes
- No
- Partly
Make the switch
1
Request a demo
We look at how you sell, your rooms, activities, and packages. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
2
Onboard in two weeks
Most clients go live in two weeks, working one to two hours a day with a dedicated onboarding specialist.
3
Keep your data
Our technical team imports your guest data, so your history comes with you. Switchers also get a special discount.
Our pricing model
A fixed fee. No cut of your bookings.
Some booking software takes a percentage of every booking, so your bill grows with every guest you bring in yourself. Bookinglayer charges one fixed monthly fee, and what you earn is yours.
Know your cost upfront
One monthly fee, set by the size of your operation and the add-ons you choose.
No lock-in
No annual commitment and no cancellation fees. Stay because it works.
Our foundation
The core of Bookinglayer
The four core components are in every plan, at every size. They are not tiers. They are the foundation.
- Dedicated one-on-one onboarding
- 24/7 support
- Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime
Comparisons
See how we compare
Two side-by-side comparisons, feature by feature. Where Bookinglayer is stronger, and where it honestly isn't. We'd rather you find out now than two months in.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How is Bookinglayer different from Retreat Guru?
Retreat Guru started as a marketplace to help guests discover a retreat, with booking software added on top of that. Bookinglayer was built from day one as reservation and operations software for the operator, so guest data, branding, and payments stay with the business rather than routed through a marketplace. That difference shows up in the feature set too: Bookinglayer covers hotel-style wellness bookings and guest-scheduled activities, neither of which Retreat Guru offers, plus a much wider payment footprint, 35+ gateways compared to 2, and 10+ native integrations where Retreat Guru has none. Pricing structure differs as well, Bookinglayer runs on a fixed monthly fee, while Retreat Guru's model is commission based.
Can I move from Retreat Guru to Bookinglayer?
Yes. A business can switch from Retreat Guru to Bookinglayer. It brings its export or spreadsheet of existing guest and booking data, which gets uploaded during onboarding so names, emails, and booking history carry over instead of starting from a blank account. Most clients go live within two weeks, working one to two hours a day with a dedicated onboarding specialist.
Which one is the right fit for my business?
Choosing between Bookingnayer and Retreat Guru depends on what's actually driving bookings today. A single venue running one type of program that relies on Retreat Guru's public marketplace to help fill seats is a case where Retreat Guru's discovery reach is a genuine reason to stay, even with a commission attached to marketplace-sourced bookings. Once the priority shifts to running the operation itself, accommodation alongside scheduled activities, guest self-service, a fixed cost that does not grow with every booking, that's where Bookinglayer's model fits better, since it is built around operating the business rather than being found by new guests.
Sources
- Retreat Guru features(opens in a new tab)
- Retreat Guru Configuration Guide(opens in a new tab)
- Retreat Guru Participant Portal(opens in a new tab)
- Retreat Guru Marketplace FAQ(opens in a new tab)
- Retreat Guru pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Bookinglayer pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Bookinglayer payments(opens in a new tab)