Switching from another platform
Most operators arrive with a live business, a full forward book and a season that will not pause for a migration. This page is the order to do things in so that nothing is lost and no customer is charged twice.
The whole switch takes two to three weeks of calendar time, of which perhaps six to ten hours is actual work on your side. Almost all of the elapsed time is waiting on Stripe verification and running your two systems side by side long enough to trust the new one.
RentalTide does not need your old system switched off to work. You can take new bookings in RentalTide while your old platform runs down its existing forward book. Most operators overlap by two to four weeks.
What can be imported
| Source | Connection | What comes across |
|---|---|---|
| FareHarbor | CSV export | Bookings, contacts, items, gift cards |
| Rezdy | API key | Products, bookings, customers, vouchers |
| Generic CSV | CSV upload | Customers, bookings |
| Historical renters | CSV upload | Customer records only, simplified flow |
| PeekPro | Coming soon | Use Generic CSV in the meantime |
| Checkfront | Coming soon | Use Generic CSV in the meantime |
The importer lives at Admin > Import and runs as a six-step wizard. Full mechanics are in the Import reference.
No platform exports everything. Plan to rebuild by hand:
- Pricing rules and seasons. Rates import as flat values; seasonal and day-of-week rules are rebuilt in RentalTide.
- Waiver templates. Your waiver text carries over by copy and paste; signatures held by your old provider stay with them.
- Saved cards. Card credentials cannot be exported by anyone. See Cards on file below.
- Email and SMS templates. Rebuilt in RentalTide, which is usually an improvement.
- Reviews and channel listings. Reconnected, not migrated.
The order that matters
One rule governs the whole sequence:
The importer makes you map every product name in your export to an existing RentalTide inventory item. If your inventory does not exist yet, there is nothing to map to and the booking import cannot proceed. Build your fleet first.
Week 1 — build, in parallel with your live season
Nothing in week 1 touches a customer. Your old system keeps running untouched.
1. Get Stripe started on day one
Stripe verification takes one to two business days and occasionally longer if documents need review. It gates nothing else, so start it first and let it run in the background while you build. See Initial setup.
2. Configure the location
Business details, timezone, operating hours, tax rates. Roughly 30 minutes. Initial setup walks through each field, with the tax and identity requirements for your country.
3. Build your fleet
Create every rentable item under Fleet > Inventory with its correct quantity, photos and pricing. This is the longest single job, typically two to four hours, and it is the one that everything else depends on.
Export your product list from your old platform first and work down it, so nothing is missed and the names roughly match. Matching names make the import mapping step much faster.
4. Import your customer history
Run Admin > Import with Renters selected and bookings switched off. This is low risk, de-duplicates by email address, and gives you a real customer list to test against.
Importing customers early also means that when a returning guest books, they are recognised rather than created as a duplicate.
5. Import bookings
With inventory built and mapped, re-run the importer with Bookings selected.
- Always run Generate Preview first and read the sample records.
- Keep Skip Duplicates on.
- Keep your original CSV files. Do not delete them until you are fully live.
Future bookings must come across, because they are the ones you have to deliver. Past bookings are optional and mostly useful for reporting and for recognising returning customers. If your export is enormous, import the forward book plus the last 12 months, and load older history later as historical renters.
Week 2 — verify before anyone sees it
6. Reconcile the forward book
This is the step operators skip and then regret. Open Core > Bookings, filter to future dates, and compare the count and the total value against the same report in your old system.
Check specifically:
- Booking count matches for each of the next four weeks.
- Deposits already paid show as paid, and balances owing match.
- Party sizes and add-ons came across.
- Nothing landed on the wrong date because of a timezone difference.
Fix discrepancies now, while there are dozens rather than hundreds.
7. Cards on file
No platform can export saved card credentials. This is a PCI rule, not a RentalTide limitation, and it applies to every vendor equally.
For a customer with a future booking and a card held at your old provider:
- Collect the balance through your old system before cutover, or
- Send a payment link from RentalTide so the customer re-enters their card, which then saves to your account.
Plan for this explicitly if you hold deposits with balances due after your cutover date.
8. Test with real money
Take one live booking through end to end, on your own card: book on the public page, pay, sign the waiver, check in, check out, refund.
Then take one through the POS register and one walk-up.
Refund yourself afterwards. The point is to see money genuinely move and land in your bank, not to simulate it.
9. Train your team
Before any staff member touches a real customer. See Training your team for what each role needs to know and how long it takes.
Week 3 — cut over
10. Stop taking new bookings on the old platform
Point your website and booking links at RentalTide. Embed the booking widget or link your booking page.
Leave the old platform running read-only. Do not cancel it yet.
11. Run the old system down
Existing bookings on the old platform still need delivering. Two options:
- Import them and deliver everything from RentalTide. Cleaner operationally, one manifest, one place to look.
- Deliver them from the old system and let it expire. Simpler, but staff work two systems until the forward book empties.
Most operators import. The deciding factor is usually how far out the old forward book runs.
12. Reconnect the edges
- Channel and OTA connections. See OTAs and resellers.
- Google Analytics and ad tags. See Google tags.
- Review requests. See Reviews.
- Accounting export. See Exports.
13. Cancel the old platform
Only after a full week of clean operation in RentalTide, and only after you have exported and archived everything you may need: historical reports, signed waivers, customer lists, tax records.
Signed waivers held by your previous provider are a legal record and are usually the hardest thing to get back after an account closes. Download the archive while your account is still active, whatever else you decide to keep.
Common migration problems
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings land one day off | Timezone set incorrectly on the location | Fix the timezone, re-import. Existing bookings do not shift when the timezone changes |
| Duplicate customers | Same person under two email addresses | Merge from Core > Customers |
| Import will not start | Unmapped inventory items | Every source item must map to a RentalTide asset before bookings can import |
| FareHarbor CSV rejected | Title row above the header row | The importer detects and skips this automatically. Confirm the Item column exists |
| Rezdy connection fails | API key expired, or API access not enabled | Regenerate the key in Rezdy and confirm API access is on |
| Availability looks wrong after import | Inventory quantity set to 1 | Set the true unit count per item under Fleet > Inventory |