Comparison
Plenty of tour, activity and attraction operators start out running everything on a spreadsheet — Excel or Google Sheets for the diary, email and phone for enquiries, and maybe a paper book at the desk. It is cheap, familiar and gets you going. The trouble is that a spreadsheet only knows what someone has typed into it. It cannot take a booking at 11pm, it cannot take a payment, it will not stop two people claiming the same seat, and it will not chase a reminder or a review for you. Experiqo is a booking and operations platform built for exactly this kind of business. It lets guests book and pay online around the clock, holds your real availability so you cannot be double-booked, automates your confirmations and reminders, and keeps every guest record safe in one place — so you spend less time on admin and stop losing bookings you never even saw.
Why operators pick Experiqo over Spreadsheets
Why Experiqo
The differences that matter most to a growing operator — grounded in what each platform actually does.
A spreadsheet cannot sell anything. Experiqo puts a booking widget on your own website so guests can book and pay by card at any hour, instead of sending an email you might not answer until the next day — by which point they have often booked elsewhere.
A shared sheet goes out of date the moment someone books off it. Experiqo holds your real capacity and availability, closes departures automatically when they are full, and applies booking cut-offs — so two guests can never claim the same seat.
Manual confirmations, reminders and follow-ups eat hours every week and are easy to forget. Experiqo sends confirmations and reminders automatically, and requests a review after the trip, so the routine work happens without you touching it.
Instead of printing and annotating a spreadsheet, you get live departure manifests and mobile QR check-in. Your guides see who is booked and can scan guests in from a phone or tablet, with everything updating in real time.
A spreadsheet keeps a list; it does not win you new business. Experiqo includes Market Analysis for keyword and competitor research and an AI content studio that drafts articles in your brand voice, plus review collection and email campaigns to bring guests back.
Feature by feature
Rows highlighted in teal are where Experiqo has the clear advantage.
| Criterion | Experiqo | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings | ||
| Online booking on your website A spreadsheet cannot take a booking on its own. | Yes | No |
| Take card payments online Secure card payments via Stripe. | Yes | No |
| Books and pays 24/7 Stop losing bookings to email tag. | Yes | Manual only |
| Deposits and part-payments | Yes | Manual |
| Gift vouchers and discount codes | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Real-time capacity control A shared sheet is out of date the moment someone books off it. | Yes | Risk of errors |
| Prevents double-bookings | Yes | No |
| Automatic booking cut-offs | Yes | Manual |
| Recurring schedules and blackout dates | Yes | Manual |
| Operations | ||
| Live departure manifests | Yes | Manual / printed |
| Mobile check-in and QR scanning | Yes | No |
| Resource allocation with conflict checks Assign guides, vehicles and equipment. | Yes | Manual |
| Digital waivers | Yes | Paper |
| Communications | ||
| Automated confirmations | Yes | Manual |
| Automated reminders before travel | Yes | Manual |
| Abandoned-cart recovery | Yes | No |
| Growth | ||
| Automatic review collection | Yes | No |
| Market Analysis (keyword and competitor research) | Yes | No |
| AI content studio (articles in your brand voice) | Yes | No |
| Email campaigns | Yes | No |
| Data | ||
| Guest data safe in one place One overwritten or lost file and your records are gone. | Yes | Risk of loss |
| Clean CSV export any time Your data stays yours. | Yes | Manual |
Bookings
Online booking on your website
A spreadsheet cannot take a booking on its own.
Take card payments online
Secure card payments via Stripe.
Books and pays 24/7
Stop losing bookings to email tag.
Deposits and part-payments
Gift vouchers and discount codes
Availability
Real-time capacity control
A shared sheet is out of date the moment someone books off it.
Prevents double-bookings
Automatic booking cut-offs
Recurring schedules and blackout dates
Operations
Live departure manifests
Mobile check-in and QR scanning
Resource allocation with conflict checks
Assign guides, vehicles and equipment.
Digital waivers
Communications
Automated confirmations
Automated reminders before travel
Abandoned-cart recovery
Growth
Automatic review collection
Market Analysis (keyword and competitor research)
AI content studio (articles in your brand voice)
Email campaigns
Data
Guest data safe in one place
One overwritten or lost file and your records are gone.
Clean CSV export any time
Your data stays yours.
Worth knowing
An honest look at the trade-offs for a direct-first, growing operator.
A spreadsheet cannot take a card or confirm a booking on its own. Every enquiry becomes an email or phone exchange, and industry write-ups note how much revenue leaks away when guests cannot simply book and pay there and then.
A shared sheet is out of date the instant a booking is taken elsewhere, and manual data entry invites typos, wrong dates and missed fields. Double-bookings cost you refunds, apologies and — often — a bad review.
Confirming reservations, sending reminders, copying details between the diary, the inbox and a payment link — it all adds up to hours a week that a spreadsheet can never automate away.
One overwritten file, a wrong sort, or a lost laptop and your bookings and customer history are gone. There is no proper record, no audit trail, and no simple way to export a clean, reliable list.
Switching is straightforward
You do not have to switch everything off overnight — we help you move across in steps.
Send us your current spreadsheet and we help you bring your products, upcoming bookings and customer details across, set up to match how you actually operate.
We configure your schedules, capacity and cut-offs so your live availability is the single source of truth — no more cross-referencing tabs to check whether there is space.
We embed your booking widget, connect card payments and turn on automatic confirmations and reminders, so guests can book and pay themselves from day one.
A guided onboarding checks your setup, gets your first online bookings flowing and shows you the dashboard, so you can retire the spreadsheet with confidence.
Honest take
Operators who want to take bookings and payments online, stop double-bookings and manual admin, and actually grow — with marketing and operations in one place.
A very new or occasional operator still testing an idea, taking a handful of bookings by hand, who is not yet ready to sell online.
Spreadsheets and email are effectively free to use, which is their appeal. But that "free" is misleading: the real cost shows up as hours of manual admin, bookings lost when guests cannot pay online, and the money and reputation damage of double-bookings and lost data. Experiqo is a flat monthly fee in GBP with no commission on your direct bookings, and it is designed to pay for itself by capturing the sales a spreadsheet quietly loses.
Pricing changes often — always check Spreadsheets's own site for the latest figures. We never quote a competitor's prices for them.
Spreadsheets are fine for a very new or occasional operator who is still testing an idea and only takes the odd booking by hand. But the moment you are trying to grow, a spreadsheet quietly costs you money: bookings lost to email tag, hours lost to manual admin, and the ever-present risk of a double-booking or a lost file. Experiqo pays for itself by capturing the online bookings you currently miss and giving you back the hours you spend copying details between a diary, an inbox and a payment link. For any operator who wants to grow, Experiqo is the clear choice.
FAQs
This comparison is based on publicly available information, last reviewed 9 Jul 2026.
Book a walkthrough and judge Experiqo against Spreadsheets on the things that matter to you.
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