Frequently Asked Questions

Broad Reach Bookings is an all‑in‑one booking and management platform built specifically for RYA Training Centres. It handles course scheduling, online booking, payments, client CRM, instructor management, certifications, email/SMS automation, reporting, and more — all from one dashboard.

Primarily for RYA‑recognised training centres in the UK, but it works equally well for any sailing school, powerboat centre, watersports school, or maritime training provider. If you run courses, manage instructors, and book students — it's built for you.

Yes. Those are generic booking platforms designed for tour operators and activities. Broad Reach is purpose‑built for structured training courses — with features like RYA certification tracking, qualification pathways, cabin/berth management, instructor qualification monitoring, and multi‑day course scheduling that generic tools simply don't offer. See our full comparison →

Visit app.broadreachbookings.com/signup, enter your details and school information, and you'll be up and running in under 5 minutes. No credit card required for the free trial.

14 days with full access to every feature. No limitations, no credit card. At the end of the trial you choose a plan, or your account is paused (not deleted) for 30 days while you decide.

Yes. Broad Reach includes an Import Wizard that lets you upload students, courses, instructors, and bookings from CSV/Excel files. If you're migrating from another platform, we can help with the transition.

Most centres are fully set up in under an hour. Create your courses, add your instructors, configure your branding, and you're ready to accept bookings. Our setup guide walks you through every step.

Absolutely. You get branded public booking pages that show your courses, availability, and pricing. Students can browse, select a date, and pay — all without you lifting a finger. You can also embed a booking widget directly on your existing website.

Stripe (cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay), Stripe Connect (for marketplace / multi‑centre), Nexi (European card processing), and Xero (for accounting/invoicing). We support deposits, full payments, surcharges, and refunds.

Yes — it's one of our core features. You can track student progression through qualification pathways (e.g. Competent Crew → Day Skipper → Coastal Skipper → Yachtmaster), record course completions, generate certificates, and monitor instructor qualifications and expiry dates.

Yes. You can create multi‑day courses with overnight stays, allocate cabins and berths, set per‑cabin pricing, and manage cabin capacity alongside course capacity. Perfect for live‑aboard Yachtmaster preps.

The platform includes a revenue dashboard, booking analytics, instructor utilisation tracking, email performance metrics, and client insights. Data can be exported to CSV/PDF. Xero integration provides full accounting reconciliation.

No. Never. We charge a flat monthly fee based on your plan. Whether you process 10 bookings or 1,000, your cost stays the same. Payment processing fees (Stripe's standard rates) are charged by Stripe directly — we don't add anything on top.

Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time. Changes take effect on your next billing cycle. No cancellation fees, no lock‑in contracts.

Yes — save 20% by paying annually. See our pricing page for details.

Absolutely. We use SSL encryption for all connections, passwords are hashed with bcrypt, and your data is stored in isolated multi‑tenant databases. Daily backups are automatic. We follow GDPR best practices including consent tracking, data export, and right‑to‑deletion tools.

Yes. You own your data. Export clients, bookings, invoices, and reports at any time in CSV or PDF format. If you ever decide to leave, we'll help you migrate everything out.

Yes. The platform includes built‑in GDPR tools: consent tracking, marketing preference management, data subject access request handling, data deletion tools, and audit logging. We also offer an unsubscribe link for marketing emails and SMS opt‑out management.