Compare

Tarn vs. Adventure Office

The modern alternative for outfitters switching from Adventure Office — real-time software, guest self-service, your own Stripe account, and a proven path for your data.

Adventure Office has served adventure companies for roughly two decades, and its breadth is real — reservations, point of sale, accounting, employee scheduling, even lodging in one system. But that breadth runs on software from another era: full page reloads, desktop-first workflows, and no way for guests to manage their own bookings. Tarn is the modern alternative — a fast, real-time app for the part of the business that matters most, with an import path proven on a real outfitter's move off Adventure Office.

How they compare
Tarn
Adventure Office
Pricing model
Published per-booking rate, 3% → 2% (as low as 4.9% all-in)
Not published — quoted per operator
The software
Modern real-time web app — updates as bookings land
Dated interface, full page reloads
Guest self-service
Manage-booking portal — guests pay balances & sign waivers themselves
No customer self-service
Payment processor
Your own Stripe account, direct payouts
AO Pay / legacy gateways
Working from your phone
Fully responsive — run the day from the put-in
Desktop-first, limited mobile
Setup
Self-serve, no sales call
Demo + onboarding
Built for
Outdoor outfitters — guides, put-ins, conditions
Adventure companies broadly — bookings plus POS, lodging, accounting
Contract
No contract, no monthly fee
Varies

Comparison based on publicly available information about each vendor's standard offering as of 2026. Vendors change their terms — confirm current pricing and features directly with each provider.

Why outfitters pick Tarn

What you get by switching.

Guests serve themselves

Every booking gets a manage-booking link where guests view details, pay a balance, and sign waivers on their own — and the admin dashboard updates in real time while they do. Fewer phone calls, no refresh button.

Transparent, published pricing

One published rate — 3% per booking stepping down to 2% with volume, no monthly fee, and no contract. You decide how the fee is handled — absorb it in your prices or pass it on at checkout.

You own your data, your site, and your Stripe

Tarn embeds on the website you already own, runs on your own Stripe account with payouts straight to your bank, and lets you export every booking, contact, and waiver anytime. Nothing is held hostage.

Set up yourself in an afternoon

No mandatory demo, no multi-week onboarding, no implementation fee. Add your trips, share your booking link, and you can be live the same day.

Switching

Your Adventure Office data has a proven way out

Tarn's import isn't theoretical. It was built by moving a real outfitter off Adventure Office — 6,900 bookings, 12 activities, payment history, and 12,900 contacts, verified line by line. Export your CSVs from AO and we'll help you bring them over, free.

Bookings come over with payment history and balances intact
Contacts arrive with their booking stats already attached
Activities, schedules, and pricing recreated in Tarn
Run both systems in parallel until you're ready to cut over
The honest version

Adventure Office's breadth is real. If you lean on its retail point of sale, lodging management, or in-house general ledger, that's surface Tarn deliberately doesn't cover — we think accounting belongs in QuickBooks, not your booking system. Tarn is for outfitters who want the core of the business — bookings, payments, waivers, guides, the day itself — in one fast, modern app.

Your next season starts at the desk. Make it a short visit.

Set up your trips, take your first booking, and get back to the river — with no monthly fee.

No card required · No monthly fee · Your data exports cleanly if you leave