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Retreat Booking Guru
What Is Retreat Booking Guru?
Did you know Esalen, Hollyhock and Spirit Rock all run on Retreat Guru? It’s the only software built for retreat leaders like you to fill events (250K+ registrations yearly), build relationships (automate guest messaging, ratings & reviews), manage bookings (rooms & rentals), simplify finances (payments and reporting), and organize all your operations, so you can focus on what you do best – delivering experiences that impact lives. Get started with a free trial today
Who Uses Retreat Booking Guru?
Retreat centers and retreat leaders across the globe.
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Retreat Booking Guru
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Reviews of Retreat Booking Guru
Amazing, efficient, easy to use.
Comments: Easy book and retreat set-up as well as group rental management
Pros:
The customer service and it's easy of use. The people at Retreat Guru are all doing a wonderful job and it's always a pleasure to know we have their responsive, competent, friendly support.
Cons:
It could use more pricing features. But that is coming. It's always evolving around user needs and that's why this software only gets better.
Great Retreat Booking Software
Comments: Having retreatants and program participants be able to register and pay online has been something both they and we have wanted for a long time. As soon as it went live, we had people using it and happy to do so. That cut back on the number of phone calls and the time spent on manual registrations done by our staff--a big help to us! People really appreciate being able to register/pay online; it saves them time too. We think our income has increased, but haven't done a complete analysis yet. I'd be surprised if it doesn't show an increase--which is important to us even though we are a nonprofit. Guru has been a big success for us and we are very glad to have found it!
Pros:
It does about 97% of what we want to do with it, an excellent piece of software. I think with feedback from users to developers it should soon do 100% of what we want. It is on the complex side from user's point of view, but what we need done is complex, so that's no surprise. The setup and training is also excellent--we felt we had the undivided attention of the person who worked with us to decide if it was the right software for us, and also of the person who helped us learn it. And they were always nice to us, never impatient : ) They helped us understand how it would interface with our website and also gave us information about Paypal and other payment options for online payments. Not least important is the cost: we thought for years we couldn't afford such software, but this software is the best for our retreat booking purposes and it's relatively inexpensive.
Cons:
Some of the language does not fit *our* retreat ministry, although I'm sure it's perfect for others. In some cases the language could be changed, but in others we just have to live with it. Guru representatives helped us change as much as they could, certainly. Don't know how easy it would be to make changing language more flexible, but that would be helpful to us. One problem that keeps cropping up is that each registration is tied to an i.d. number, so that if someone registers often for our retreats and programs, s/he sometimes ends up with more than one i.d. I think this is something that needs more work in order for it not to be so labor-intensive on the user end.
Well intentioned but the outcome looks like a scam: they're selling spots on full retreats
Comments: Terrible
Pros:
It seems like they have cool retreats, but you can never know if you can trust them.
Cons:
I wanted to book a retreat in Morocco and paid the deposit, thinking it would reserve my spot. I then booked my flights and afterwards received an email telling me that paying the deposit does not confirm your spot because the retreat center might not be available in those dates and recommended not to book my flights until I received confirmation from the retreat center. It turned out those dates were unavailable. How was I supposed to know that paying the deposit does not ensure your spot? How was I supposed to know that those dates were unavailable? I contacted them right away and they say there is a mention of this in the cancellation policies. It's a small paragraph at the bottom of the cancellation policies. This is how they get you. Very deceiving! To sell something you don't have is called scam, wether it was your intention or not.
Awesome system, no more worries
Comments: Aside from the great software, I'm really impressed with the team and customer service. Whenever I encounter a hiccup or have a question, the retreatGuru team is available within a short period of time, and always happy to help.
Pros:
That it's very customisable. Beforehand we had booking systems that could do either a hotel functionality OR retreats with set dates, but not both. That made things very complicated. Now with retreatGuru, after initially investing the time to set it up properly now it's super easy to use. Love it!!
Cons:
That it takes up quite a bit of data to load each site. When I work from home or use my mobile hotspot, I have limited/expensive internet and it really drains a lot of my precious MBs to load each page. Maybe that could be optimised over time. if you have unlimited Internet it's not an issue though...
I love working RetreatGuru - professional, friendly and great service!
Comments: Helps organize all our clients and availability.
Pros:
I like that all records and data are well organized, accessible and recorded for future reference. I also like the reports - easily customizable! It works very well for hotels and retreat centers. And customer service is excellent!
Cons:
We are a retreat company without one location - this software works best for a hotel or retreat center. Some aspects of the software are user-friendly - some things a bit less.
