Online Booking for Trekking Centres: Fill Your Rides Without Living on the Phone

It’s the second week of August. You get back from the eleven o’clock ride to three missed calls and two Facebook messages, all asking the same thing: “Have you got space for four tomorrow?” By the time you’ve untacked and rung back, one family has booked the zip wire instead.

Online booking should fix this. But a lot of trekking centres have tried it and gone back to the phone, because the booking system they tried was built for weekly riding lessons, not for visitors who will ride with you once. This guide covers what works for a yard where most customers are on holiday.

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Why trekking centres are different

A riding school gets to know its riders over months. A trekking centre has about two minutes of a stranger’s attention, usually on a phone, often the evening before they want to ride.

• They book late. Holiday plans are made a day or two ahead, and they change with the weather.
• They only ride once. They won’t sit through a long sign-up for a single afternoon out.
• They don’t speak horse. “Novice”, “rising trot” and “hack” mean very little to someone who last sat on a pony at a school fete.
• They are comparing you with everything else nearby. If the boat trip takes thirty seconds to book and you take ten minutes, the boat trip wins.

Ask for less, but ask for the right things

You still need to know who is turning up. The trick is to ask for what you need to run the ride safely, and leave everything else until they come back for a second visit.

Describe your rides in the visitor’s words too. “One-hour walk through the forest, no experience needed, age 8 and over” tells a family everything. “Novice hack” doesn’t.

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Be upfront about weight limits

Nobody enjoys turning a rider away on the yard, and it’s far worse when the rest of their family is already mounted. Put your limits where people see them before they book, and let the booking system do the refusing.

A good system checks age, height and weight against the limits for that ride and simply won’t take the booking if someone is outside them. It’s kinder for the visitor, who finds out privately at home, and it protects your horses. We’ve written more about this in how to set a weight limit policy and enforce it.

Take payment when they book

A holiday booking that hasn’t been paid for is only a maybe. The sun comes out, the beach looks tempting, and you’re left with four tacked-up horses and nobody to ride them.

Taking full payment online at the time of booking cuts no-shows dramatically. It also means nobody is fumbling for cash in the yard while the ride waits. Two things make it work:

• A clear cancellation policy. Say how much notice you need for a refund, and stick to it.
• A plain statement about weather. Visitors worry about rain far more than you do. Tell them you ride in most weather, and what happens if you have to call a ride off.

There’s more on getting paid without the chasing in how to stop chasing riding lesson payments.

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Put your booking link where visitors are looking

Holidaymakers don’t start on your website. They start with whoever they’re staying with, and with their phone. Once you have a link that opens straight onto your available rides, share it widely:

• Campsites, holiday parks and cottage owners. Ask them to put it in their welcome pack or on their “things to do” page.
• The tourist information centre and any local “what’s on” websites.
• Your Google listing. Add it as the booking link, so people who search for “horse riding near me” can book from the map.
• Facebook and Instagram. Pin it to the top of your page, and post it when you have spaces to fill tomorrow.
• The first screen of your own website. A big “Book a ride” button beats a paragraph asking people to ring.

Don’t forget the horses

Online booking fills rides faster, which is the point. But in a busy week it’s easy for the same few steady horses to do far more than their share. Keep an eye on working hours and rest days as bookings come in, not at the end of the week. It matters for the horses, and it’s one of the things your licensing inspector will ask to see. Our guide to passing your licensing inspection covers the records worth keeping.

Sell rides when you’re closed

Most trekking centres earn their money between Easter and October. Gift vouchers are one of the few ways to bring money in over the winter. A trek is an easy Christmas or birthday present, and a voucher sold in December is a ride already paid for in May. If you can sell them online, you can sell them while you’re mucking out. See online shops for riding schools for more ideas.

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A quick checklist

• Can a visitor book and pay on their phone in a few minutes?
• Do you only ask for what you need to run the ride safely?
• Are your weight, height and age limits checked before the booking is taken?
• Is every booking paid for in advance?
• Are your cancellation and weather policies written down where visitors can see them?
• Is your booking link with the places your visitors are staying?
• Can you see each horse’s workload for the week at a glance?

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How Equestrian Systems handles it

This is the gap we built Express booking for. Visitors pick a ride, give an email address and a few details about who is riding, and pay. There’s no registration form and no waiting to be approved, and your age, height and weight limits still apply to every booking.

Behind that sits the same system riding schools use for horse records, working hours, incident reports and income. There are no booking fees for you or your visitors, and it’s a rolling monthly contract. You can read more on our page for trekking centres.

Want to see how a visitor would book a ride with you?

We can show you Express booking, weight limits and the rest of the booking system in a free demo. No pressure and no jargon.

Full overview: Booking system for trekking centres →

Related: Express booking for treks, parties and one-off events →

Related: Riding school weight limits →