Winery booking software: how to choose in 2026

These families do not meet exactly the same need: a platform also sells visibility, while software equips you to take the bookings that come from your website, Google or social media. Many wineries combine the two.

A platform lists your experiences on its website, collects the visitor's payment and pays you the amount after deducting its commission.

What we found:

• Commission: 20 % of the price at the platforms that publish their rate, card fees sometimes included, VAT sometimes on top; some offer lower rates for a simple booking button, others set the rate when the account opens without publishing it.
• No fixed fees as a rule: no subscription or set-up fee on the basic plan.
• Payout: every week or every month depending on the platform, after the visit.

Strengths: an audience of visitors looking for something to do in your region; you only pay for what is booked.

Watch out for:

• The cost grows with your success: at 20 %, a €20 tasting brings you €16.
• Cash flow: the money goes through the platform before it reaches you.
• Your link with the visitor: read what the terms say about visitors' contact details and what you may send them afterwards.
• Cancellation terms: check who sets them; some platforms let the winery choose its free-cancellation period.
• Who sells? Depending on its terms, the platform sells your visits or acts as an intermediary: this decides who must inform the visitor and who answers in a dispute.

These tools add booking to your own website. Visitors pay into your account, with no intermediary, and you set your own terms. What we found: from €0 (a limited free plan) to €49 excl. VAT a month for booking tools on their own, with no commission per ticket; some winery management systems (invoicing, till, stock) have a booking module whose price is not published. Oenolosite is one of them: see section 9.

Strengths: no commission, the money comes to you, the features follow cellar-door practice (tickets with or without tasting, several prices).

Watch out for: no audience comes with it. Visitors come from your website, your Google listing, your social media or the tourist office.

Built for leisure (outings, guided tours, workshops), it also handles tastings. What we found: a subscription of €49 to €99 a month, sometimes with fees per transaction, per booking and per ticket on top; others say « no commission » with a price on request.

Strengths: detailed management of time slots, resources and staff, distribution through resellers.

Watch out for: features a winery does not always need, and fees that add up. Ask who, the winery or the visitor, pays each fee, and do the sums over a year.

• Ticketing: no subscription, fees per ticket sold online (one example: 2.5 % with a minimum of €0.99 incl. VAT per ticket), bank fees included; free for free events. The money is paid out periodically, every two weeks for example.
• Scheduling tools: a subscription per user as soon as you need to take payments, connected to your payment provider. Designed for individual appointments rather than groups.

Strengths: ideal for a one-off event (an evening, a concert, a paid open day).

Watch out for: check how they handle time slots that repeat every week, and the money goes through the ticketing service before it is paid out to you.

1. Who collects the money? On your account (you get it straight away) or on the platform's (paid out later, minus the commission).
2. What does a booking cost? Add up subscription, commission, per-ticket fees and payment fees over a year.
3. Where do visitors book? On your website, in your colours, or on an outside page.
4. Slots and places: a capacity per date, without overbooking, and several ticket types (with or without tasting, child, group).
5. Welcome: a ticket with a QR code, the day's list, check-in on a phone.
6. Automatic messages: confirmation, reminder the day before, cancellation.
7. Your terms: your own cancellation and refund rules, accepted before the booking.
8. Pay on site or free: possible for visits that are not paid in advance.
9. Languages: the booking page in your foreign visitors' language.
10. Your data: export of your bookings and customers, and what happens if you change tools.

Selling a visit or a tasting online to a consumer is a distance contract under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU), which each EU country has written into its own law. With your own tool, these rules are yours; with a platform, its terms say whether the platform or you is the seller: read them. In every case, check that the tool lets you meet them. National rules can add to them: check your country's.

Before the booking, inform the visitor (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 6): what they are booking (main characteristics), the total price including taxes, the date, your identity and contact details, your terms, and, if you have committed or are obliged to use an out-of-court dispute (ADR) body, that body (Directive 2013/11/EU, article 13). Tell visitors how you use their data in a privacy notice (GDPR, article 13). Have your booking terms accepted before the visitor books.

No 14-day withdrawal period for a leisure activity on a set date: EU countries may not give a right of withdrawal for « services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance » (article 16(l)). A visit or tasting booked for a given day and time very probably falls under it; no text mentions tastings, so ask a lawyer about your own case if needed. The visitor must then be told that they have no right of withdrawal (article 6(1)(k)). By its wording, the exception does not cover an undated ticket or a gift voucher, nor bottles bought in the same order. Your own cancellation rules (until when, refund or not) are those of your booking terms. The online withdrawal function added by Directive (EU) 2023/2673, which EU countries had to apply from 19 June 2026 through their own laws, only concerns purchases that carry a right of withdrawal.

An unambiguous button: when the booking is paid, the button that confirms it must say « order with obligation to pay » or a corresponding unambiguous wording; otherwise the visitor is not bound by the booking (article 8(2)). Just before this button, the visitor sees a reminder of what they are booking and of the price. Say which payment methods you accept at the latest when the booking process starts (article 8(3)).

A written confirmation: after the booking, and at the latest before the visit, the visitor receives confirmation of the contract on a durable medium, in practice an e-mail, with the information listed above (article 8(7)).

No alcohol for minors: the minimum age for buying or being served alcohol is set by each country, not by the EU. Check your country's rule, ask for proof of age when you serve, and remember that a « I am of age » box ticked online does not replace that check. For a family visit, offer a ticket « without tasting ».

Your tasting page advertises your wines: your country's rules on alcohol advertising apply to it (see our guide to the legal requirements of a winery website).

E-mails after the visit: a visitor who bought a visit may receive your e-mails about your own similar products or services, if they could object free of charge and easily when booking and in every e-mail (Directive 2002/58/EC, article 13(2)). For a free booking or a simple enquiry, with no sale, ask for their consent first. Keep booking data only as long as you need it (GDPR, article 5).

These rules cover sales to consumers in the EU. Events with paid performers (a concert at the winery) can need a licence or a declaration under national rules: ask your local authority.

Assumption: 600 adult visitors in the year at €20 per visit or tasting, i.e. €12,000 of tickets, booked in pairs (300 bookings).

Sums: platform, 20 % of €12,000 (card fees included, VAT on top where it applies). Ticketing: 2.5 % of a €20 ticket is €0.50, so the €0.99 minimum per ticket shown on the provider's euro price page applies, × 600. Oenolosite: €228 excl. VAT of subscription (€19 × 12). Card fees (1.5 % + €0.25 per payment by standard European card) are charged separately by Stripe on your account, as for any online payment.

This table compares the cost of the tool, assuming its fees are yours to pay, and what each provider states on its page. A platform also brings visitors you might not have had; with ticketing, check that it handles your regular slots and ticket types; the ranking changes with your volume and ticket price. With software or ticketing, add the cost of the website you put it on and the visitors you have to bring yourself.