freetobook Reviews 227

I’ve been working with Free to Book for around 10 years and always find them excellent. Immediate customer support with a friendly touch. Always helpful and professional.

As a web developer, I’ve worked with many booking systems, and FreetoBook is by far one of the best. I use it myself and recommend it to all my clients who need a simple, reliable, and cost-effective booking engine. The system is easy to use, full of useful features, and great value for money. The support is also fantastic – Heather has been especially helpful and always goes the extra mile. It’s a pleasure working with her and the team.

Ben – Cumbria Creative Projects

I have tried without success to obtain their 'real' fees. Freetobook obviously applies to the traveller, but what is the actual cost to the host? There are never any answers to this question. Reading the t & c's there are fees of up to 7% for one year to a Barclays account, but what is this for and why are you charging it. What do you get for your up to 7% per year???????

I came across FTB on another hotel supplies site and thought it looked interesting. The staff are wonderfully patient and explain everything simply which is great if you’re not that techie minded. The bookings and payment system is very easy to use and there are lots of videos to explain how to do things. You get free advice, even about their competitors, and the cost is very minimal especially compared to the big beasts who take 15% plus off every booking. I really recommend it, and our direct bookings have increased considerably since joining them.

Sandra is fantastic. She explains everything so well and helped my set up immensely. Looking forward to being on free book with local help. Thank you so much again

Myself and my Wife and Wife's Mother and Dog Pearl had a wonderful weekend stay at Babbacombe Palms Guest House. Rooms were very clean and comfy beds too and the cooked breakfast was absolutely beautiful each morning with quality local ingredients used. Scott & Lynn (the owners) couldn't do enough for us and was so helpful and welcoming with their lovely Labrador Poppy. Highly recommend a stay here, very close to the Babbacombe Downs with amazing views and a cliff railway to the beach, lots of great restaurants and pubs to choose from and a fabulous theatre too. Close to Torquay Marina and beach too, we took a 10minute bus ride, travelling around was very easy. Really great weekend and good value for money.

I moved to Freetobook about 18 months ago after using another booking system for many years, for my B&B.
I soon noticed a big increase in direct bookings and the customer support is fantastic. Heather, Jessica and Sandra have "held my hand" many times. Even when I have had problems with other booking sites, which those sites seemed unable to resolve. It's so refreshing to get a fast and helpul response through the help desk or, to talk to a UK based human being. Moving to FTB was one of my best business decisions. If you are considering joining them don't hesitate. Highly recommended.

Freetobook is very easy to use and to navigate, the online support is excellent and the staff are very knowledgeable. Every feature you can imagine is available and have suited everything I needed for my BnB. I would highly recommend Freetobook to anyone who is thinking about using it.

Fantastic service all round, helpful face to face chat during set up and immediate help if any problems arise, after using another channel manager Ftb are a breath of fresh air and have greatly helped my business, I would definitely recommend

We use Freetobook for our holiday rental, and we are extremely satisfied. The system is user-friendly, well-organized, and provides all the features we need to manage bookings smoothly.

What truly sets Freetobook apart is its excellent customer service. Whenever we have questions or issues, the support team responds quickly and professionally, always offering clear and effective solutions. It’s reassuring to know that a reliable team is behind the system.

In short, Freetobook is a must-have for anyone looking for a flexible and reliable booking system!

Good software dedicated to Direct Bookings for independent Hospitality providers with flexibility for paid extra services to manage online payments and communications direct with the guests.

I met the girls at expo west today so helpful would highly recommend freetobook as so professional and nothing is too much trouble

My call was answered quickly, Sandra was able to help with all my questions and helped me navigate through a couple of issues and sorted. Great friendly service.

I have been with Free to Book for over two years, and honestly, if it were not for the time-consuming setup process required to integrate different online travel agencies etc., I would have left within months of joining.

After repeatedly coming off the telephone feeling gas lit when I have explained the problems I have encountered with their system, I decided to run some of their emails through Chat GPT, to see if I was misgauging their tone etc. The AI’s assessment when asked, "How would you analyse the tone in these messages? Drumroll:
“Lack of empathy and transactional.” No joke.

Many reviews highlight how friendly the staff are when you call. While they may have a pleasant tone, this does not translate into genuine customer support. They provide answers to questions in the narrowest sense, often overlooking the bigger picture of how their system integrates with OTA software their customers rely on. If something goes wrong, don’t expect empathy.

One of the most frustrating issues I’ve encountered is when Free to Book updates their system, not all parts of the website reflect these updates. This matters, as customers can unknowingly overwrite existing rates and settings, leading to costly mistakes which F2B will take zero responsibility for. Step-by-step guides fail to include warnings about overrides which may unintentionally arise in one area to another. In other words, you the customer, who did not create the code for the system, are meant to intuitively know how it all links together. If we are all so well-versed in system coding etc. why would we need the assistance of a channel manager?!

Their app is clumsy, poorly built, so the fall back is the website. This often needs to be reloaded several times, especially on the diary tab when trying to message guests. The “Click to Reply” function is a joke—it takes you to an email login and then a verification link, instead of simply replying and guests just get around the unnecessary extra steps by using the OTA messaging. So, why bother paying out for the F2B messaging service?

F2B are completely unreachable by phone at the weekend (when most guests make reservations). During the week, they routinely close their phone lines for training—without a pre-recorded message to inform customers. You waste time repeatedly calling, unaware that it’s pointless only to be told when you do get through, "We don't take calls when we are doing training" - Is this genuine customer service? Apologise. Here's an idea: Update your website with your opening times, leave a messaging service for customers so that they know what is going on. Don't take people's time for granted. Just basically act like you care. The phrase, "Tail wagging the dog" = F2B

They also misled customers when it suited them. I was very reluctant to sign up for Google Rental Vacations but was assured that if I didn’t receive a booking within a year, I could get a refund for the annual subscription. When the year passed with zero bookings, I contacted them—only to be told that no such conversation ever took place because they had no record of it.

This all ties into a larger issue: their approach is purely transactional. Imagine going to a doctor, explaining your symptoms and what you think the cause is, and getting told, “No, you don't have that.” Months later, the issue worsens, and you find out it was something different all along. When you return to the doctor, they say, “Well, you didn’t specifically ask about that.” That’s how Free to Book operates day-in-day-out. You seek expert advice about making their system work effectively, but instead of proactively advising you, they provide the bare minimum—then later blame you for not asking the exact right question.

This is especially absurd given that their core purpose is to simplify booking system integrations. Yet when integration problems arise, they act as if it’s not their responsibility.

The final proof of their cold, transactional approach? When I called to close my account, they didn’t even ask why. No concern, no attempt to understand my frustrations—just a robotic “Can I have your property ID please?” If a company truly cared about customer service, the first response would be, “We’re sorry to hear that. Can you tell us what went wrong?” Instead, their indifference only confirmed that leaving was the right choice.

If you’re considering Free to Book, be warned: while they may be friendly on the phone, their actual support is frustratingly transactional and lacking in empathy. When things go wrong—and they will—don’t expect them to step up. Other companies for a similar fee provide a better service. So go find them : )

I have been using freetobook for 5 years and suddenly out of nowhere they have increased the cost of there product by 50%, they have also made it a subscription service. THINK BEFORE USING THEM AS YOUR CONTRACT IS NOT SECURE! HUGE PRICE INCREASES.

We have always felt very supported by Angela and the team and they have made life a lot easier when running a small hotel.

Rubbish! I was directed here and wrote a review that I want to withdraw, but it just keeps saying the booking doesn't exist! Where is my sodding review? How these idiots got 5 stars off anyone I'll never know!

Freetobook is really easy to use. The option to pay for add ons means you can customise their services for your individual business needs. We used Freetobook for our 6 bedroom B&B for the 6 years we owned it and would recommend it 100%. We paid for Stripe and Messaging as we found it the simplest way to keep everything in one place. The friendly and responsive support and great customer service we received from the whole team was excellent and always appreciated.

What do you expect when something is sort of free lol it beat my expectations although some of the page set outs and labels are clumsy. The log in button in the front page is grey and small and usually 92% covered by junk labels. The most annoying thing is waiting for a week for money to be paid by stripe when our own card machine gives us the money in two days! Other than that it works but be prepared to be charged for every useful function.

I use Freetobook to manage my three holiday cottages and have done so from the beginning.
I would not use any other platform now - it is simple to use, efficient, user friendly, great help there if its needed. There are paid add on's if you need any extras but so far, I am just fine with the free version.
No hesitation in recommending - great service.