Traditional platforms charge your customers 2.39% plus 30 cents per booking. At 200 bookings per month, that adds up fast. BookingFlow charges just 1.2-1.9% to customers, with $0 in fees for venue owners.
Xola positions itself as a premium booking platform for tour and activity operators. The pricing looks reasonable at first: free plan available, paid plans starting at modest monthly fees.
Then you read the fine print. Xola charges 2.39% plus $0.30 per booking. Not to you, the venue owner. To your customers.
This is called "Guest Checkout Fees" in their documentation. Every person who books through Xola pays extra on top of your listed price.
Let me show you what that actually costs.
Let's say you are an escape room doing 200 bookings per month. Your average booking is $180 (6 people at $30 each, which is typical).
With Xola, every customer pays:
Over 200 bookings:
That is $11,040 per year. Your customers are paying an extra $11,040 per year because you chose Xola.
Now, Xola will argue that the customer pays this, not you. Technically true. But do you really think customers do not notice? Do you think it does not affect conversion rates when your $180 escape room suddenly costs $184.60 at checkout?
Let me show you what Xola costs at 100, 300, and 500 bookings per month, assuming the same $180 average booking:
100 bookings/month:
300 bookings/month:
500 bookings/month:
At 500 bookings per month, your customers are collectively paying $27,600 per year in Xola fees. That is on top of whatever Xola charges you for the software itself.
BookingFlow charges a predictable monthly fee ($0-$99) plus a small service fee (1.2-1.9%) paid by customers. This is still 26-113% cheaper than Xola's 2.39% per booking.
If you do 50 bookings a month or 5,000 bookings a month, your monthly price is the same. The customer service fee ensures sustainable platform development while keeping your costs predictable and lower than any competitor.
To be fair to Xola, there is a logic behind their 2.39% commission. For very small operators doing 10-20 bookings per month, it seems cheaper than a monthly fee.
The problem is that commission pricing scales in the wrong direction. The more successful you become, the more you (and your customers) pay. Our model rewards growth with lower percentage fees as you upgrade plans. Xola's model punishes it.
Xola optimizes for getting small operators onboarded easily, even if it costs those operators significantly more as they grow. BookingFlow optimizes for long-term value.
Xola is not a bad platform. It has some strengths worth acknowledging:
Comprehensive feature set. Xola has been around since 2011 and has built out a wide range of features for complex tour operators: multi-day experiences, resource management, guide scheduling, and waiver management.
Integrations. Xola connects with a lot of third-party distribution channels like TripAdvisor, Viator, and GetYourGuide. If you rely heavily on online travel agencies (OTAs) for bookings, Xola makes that easier.
Robust reporting. Their analytics and reporting tools are solid. You can slice data by booking source, guide, time period, and more.
Established platform. 13+ years in business means the software is stable and the company is not going anywhere.
For multi-day tours, adventure activities with equipment rentals, or businesses that need guide scheduling, Xola has features that make sense.
For escape rooms? Most of those features are overkill. You do not need guide scheduling. You do not need equipment tracking. You need a clean booking experience, room management, and customer communication. Paying commission fees for features you will never use is not a good trade.
Beyond the pricing model, there are a few areas where Xola is not ideal for escape rooms specifically:
No AI support. Xola does not offer AI chatbots or voice agents. If a customer has a question at 11 PM, they wait until morning or they book somewhere else. In 2026, that is a missed opportunity.
Complex setup. Xola is built for complex operations, which means the setup process reflects that. Creating your first booking flow involves more steps and decisions than most escape room owners need.
Overkill features. The interface is packed with options that tour operators need but escape rooms do not. This creates cognitive overhead every time you log in to manage bookings.
Commission friction. Even if you are fine with paying per booking, your customers notice the extra fee at checkout. That creates hesitation and questions. "Why am I being charged an extra $4.60?" is not a question you want customers asking right before they click "Book."
This comes up in every comparison because it is that important. Xola has no AI capabilities.
BookingFlow includes:
These are not add-ons. They are included in the platform.
For an escape room doing 200 bookings per month, the AI chatbot alone probably handles 50-100 customer inquiries that would otherwise require staff time or go unanswered. The voice agent catches missed calls that represent thousands of dollars in bookings.
Xola offers none of this. If you want chatbot functionality with Xola, you are integrating a third-party tool and paying separately for it.
Xola is a good fit if:
For a standard escape room doing 100+ bookings per month with straightforward time slots and room management, Xola is expensive and over-engineered.
If you are currently on Xola and the commission fees are adding up, moving to BookingFlow is straightforward:
The whole process typically takes 2-3 hours. Some venues run both systems in parallel for a week or two during the transition, which is fine.
Xola is a powerful, mature platform built for complex tour operations. If you are running multi-day adventure tours with equipment rentals and guide scheduling, it might be worth the commission fees.
For escape rooms, the commission model does not make sense. You are paying (or rather, your customers are paying) for features you do not need, and you are giving up modern capabilities like AI support that actually move the needle.
BookingFlow charges a simple monthly fee plus a customer service fee (1.2-1.9%) that's still 26-113% cheaper than Xola. Built for the way entertainment venues operate in 2026. If you are doing more than 100 bookings per month, the savings are significant.
Responses are generated using AI and may contain mistakes.
Hey! Ask me anything about BookingFlow.
