For wineries, tasting rooms, candle bars, paint-and-sip studios, pottery shops, and cooking schools. Built by experiential operators who got tired of working around their own booking software.
Built by the founders of Cork & Candles and Wax + Wine. Now live — start a free 14-day trial.
FareHarbor, Bookeo, Peek Pro, and Tock all do some things well, and we’ve used or evaluated all of them. None were built for the way an experiential venue actually runs on a Saturday night.
These are seven specific things we knew we had to fix when we built ArtistryHost. Each one traces back to a real operator quote on a public review site, sourced at the bottom of each block. If any of them feel familiar, that’s the point.
“Our sales dropped 25% because the booking checkout took 14 seconds.” A quote we’ve read variations of from operators across the big tour platforms. Slow checkout is a category-wide problem.
Ours loads in under 3 seconds. No spinner, no bounce.
One operator reported their funds were frozen for two weeks after a single customer refund triggered an account-level payout freeze. It took 50+ phone calls to unwind. When the booking platform sits between you and your processor, the platform decides when you get paid.
Square handles your money the whole way through. We never touch it, which means we structurally can’t freeze it.
When your booking platform isn’t your POS, every month-end is two reports, two reconciliations, and an Excel sheet praying you matched them right. Online bookings here, walk-in candle pours there, retail and gift cards somewhere else.
ArtistryHost is built on Square, the same POS already running your retail and walk-ins. Online bookings, in-store pours, bottle sales, gift cards: one deposit, one report, one financial view.
The standard winery contract on some of the bigger reservation platforms. The sales pitch promises new guests; operator reviews say the traffic doesn’t always arrive.
Monthly cancels any time. No contract. Annual prepay is optional.
The surcharge some tour-and-activity platforms add to your guests’ total at checkout. Right when they’re deciding whether to book.
We charge you a flat fee. Your guests see the price you set, nothing more.
The question your host asks ten times a Saturday on a generic booking dashboard.
Daily run sheet built for the host stand. Who’s arriving, who paid, what’s the deposit, all in one view.
What your bookkeeper asks every month if your booking software uses Square’s E-commerce endpoint instead of Square’s Orders endpoint. The recommended workaround is to bolt on Xero. Another tool, another bill.
We use Square Orders the way Square built it. Tax, tip, and revenue come through separated. Your bookkeeper stops asking.
Side-by-side, no adjectives. Just how each platform treats the issues from above. If you’re already running on one of these, find your column and see what lines up with your week.
| ArtistryHost | Bookeo | FareHarbor | Peek Pro | Tock | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square integration | |||||
| Online bookings + in-store retail in one Square report | ✓ | bookings only | — | — | — |
| Tax, tip, revenue as separate Square line items | ✓ | not supported | — | — | — |
| Revenue booked on experience date (accrual) | ✓ | cash basis | cash basis | cash basis | cash basis |
| Gift cards redeemable at checkout AND in-person | ✓ | platform-only | platform-only | platform-only | platform-only |
| Operations | |||||
| Daily run sheet built for the host stand | ✓ | generic | tour-shaped | tour-shaped | restaurant-shaped |
| Booking-flow speed | <3s | 5–7s | 14s reported | 5–10s | 4–6s |
| Money handling | |||||
| Funds land on Square's normal schedule | ✓ | ✓ | held + delayed | held + delayed | ✓ |
| No customer-facing surcharge at checkout | ✓ | ✓ | 6% to guest | 6–8% to guest | per-cover |
| Commitment | |||||
| Annual contract required | — | — | varies | varies | 3 yr standard |
| Cancel monthly any time | ✓ | ✓ | varies | varies | — |
| Switching in | |||||
| Free CSV migration from your current platform | Bookeo, FareHarbor, Peek, Toast, and other platforms | — | — | — | — |
| People | |||||
| Built by an experiential operator | Cork & Candles + Wax + Wine | — | — | — | — |
Sources: published support docs, G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, CellarPass (2025–2026). Full feature comparison and sourced footnotes on the pricing page.
Most operators we talk to assume software with this much depth runs in the $200–$400/month range. The closest comparison product, Bookeo at $40, sets the floor, and we built ours to sit right above it.
With ArtistryHost, we focus on the software so you can focus on your business.
Spin up your account, connect Square, and run your real bookings free for two weeks. No contract, no percentage of your revenue, cancel any time.
Start your free trial →
