Kayak, canoe & SUP booking system – Self-service kayak, canoe and SUP rental

Yes – from a locked box, rack or shed at a beach, a lake or a canoe landing, with nobody there to hand out paddles and life jackets. Kajakkbox runs self-service kayak boxes at several places in Norway, Skellefteå Kayaking runs an unmanned kayak station, Lofoten Wild runs a SUP box at its basecamp, and in England Marlow Boating runs self-service canoe, kayak and SUP hire at Hurley Riverside campsite on the Thames: renters scan a QR code, book, confirm they've watched the safety video and get a code that releases the boats, paddles and life jackets. Customers book and pay online or on the spot – a QR code on the box leads to your booking page – open the lock with the code on their unlock page, paddle, put everything back and lock up. Igloohome, the lock maker, has written a case study on Side Cut Sports' self-service SUP kiosks, run with Rentalbuddy, and lists Rentalbuddy among the booking systems for SUP and kayak rental.

Three ways to lock it:

• One box, one lock on the door – for a handful of boards at a quiet spot. Fit a sturdy hasp on the door and hang an Igloohome Padlock 2 in it. Every booking gets its own code for the door, and Rentalbuddy still books each board on its own, so you never sell more boards than are in the box. Renters push the padlock shut when they head out and open it again with the same code to put the board back: Igloohome codes run in whole hours, so a code works from up to an hour before the booking starts until up to an hour after it ends. Running late? With extensions switched on, renters add time on their unlock page and pay for it, and their code is updated to the new time; later than that, they call you and you create a one-time code in the Igloohome app. The trade-off: a renter's code opens the whole box, not only their own board – so number the boards and ask for a photo of the box at return. 4 boards and the door count as 5 locks on your plan, though you buy only one lock.
• A row of lockers – for many boards or a busy beach. Each holds a board, a paddle and a life jacket, with a padlock on every door, like Side Cut Sports' SUP station at Schwarzsee in Switzerland: the region's tourist office lists its self-service station at the Gypsera wooden jetty, beside the staffed one, open every day 06:00–21:00 from May to September, from 22 CHF an hour (Region Fribourg, checked October 2026). A renter's code opens only the locker they booked, and 6 boards in 6 lockers count as 6 locks.
• An open rack – the usual way for canoes. A padlock and steel cable around each board, through each kayak's cockpit or around each canoe's seat or crossbar, with paddles and life jackets in one shared locker. That locker counts as one more lock: 5 canoes and the locker are 6 locks – still Starter – and 6 canoes and the locker are 7, which needs Growth, 599 SEK a month.

What could 6 boards, each with its own lock, earn?

Rentalbuddy costs from 299 SEK a month excl. VAT on Starter – one location with up to 6 locks, no commission. Every kayak, canoe or board renters book counts as one lock, and so does a shared door: 4 SUPs in one box with a padlock on the door count as 5 locks, though you buy only one lock. More than 6 locks, or more than one location, is Growth: 599 SEK a month with 8 locks included, then 120 SEK a month per extra lock. On top come Igloohome's code fee of about 20 SEK per lock a month and Stripe's fee per payment, plus the locks, bought once – €159.99 for an Igloohome Padlock 2 in Igloohome's EU shop (October 2026). In Norway, Vipps isn't in the online checkout yet: renters pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay – which also works for visitors from abroad – and you can take Vipps yourself for phone bookings and mark them paid. Try it free for 30 days – or until your season starts, up to 180 days: set your launch date in the admin. Rentalbuddy works wherever Stripe accepts businesses from your country, in your own currency; rental businesses use it in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and the UK, and in the US and Canada.

All plans and prices

It depends on how you sell. Rentalbuddy is built for kayaks, canoes and SUPs that people take out on their own: a fixed plan from 299 SEK a month with no commission, and a new code for every booking on a battery-powered Igloohome lock, shown on the renter's unlock page. BookSpot is built for tours and activities: it takes bookings from GetYourGuide and Viator, and supports self-service through an integration with Igloo locks. Kayakomat offers a 'franchise-lite' station: a turnkey package with the rack, its booking system and its brand. Heiuki runs solar-powered SUP and kayak vending stations at over 100 places in Europe; under HEIUKI SHARE you run one under Heiuki's brand and system, with €0 starting capital by Heiuki's own comparison. With Rentalbuddy the box, the boards, the name and the prices are yours. Guiding as well? Sell tours as events in Rentalbuddy, as Arkipelagkajak does in Karlskrona, or keep a tour system for them. Facts about other companies checked October 2026. Every system compared, with sources →

About 300–450 SEK for 2–4 hours at self-service kayak boxes and stations – Kajup in Östersund charges 300 SEK for 3 hours – and 300–700 SEK for a full day; SUPs about 200–450 SEK for 2–4 hours. Typical prices on Nordic rental businesses' public price lists (October 2026); the season usually runs late May to early September. In Switzerland, Side Cut Sports' self-service SUP station at Schwarzsee charges from 22 CHF an hour. What could a box with 4 boards earn?

No – and that's why it costs so little to start. A kiosk franchise such as Kayakomat sells you a turnkey station – its rack, its booking system and its brand. With Rentalbuddy you build or buy the box, cabinet or rack yourself, the boats and boards are yours, and it all runs under your own name, at your own prices. A local carpenter can make a box – Kayup in Skövde shares the drawings of its kayak and SUP station (PDF) – and Kajakkbox's boxes double as benches by the water. Rentalbuddy is the booking system and the codes, from 299 SEK (about €27) a month; the Igloohome locks you buy once from Igloohome or a reseller – €159.99 for a Padlock 2 in Igloohome's EU shop (October 2026). Before you put up the box, get permission for the place from the landowner or municipality.

No power or Wi-Fi: the Igloohome padlock runs on a rechargeable battery and checks the code itself, so it works on a beach, a jetty or by a forest lake. Only the renter's phone needs a signal, to open the unlock page where the code appears 15 minutes before the start. No coverage down at the water? Say in your confirmation text where the nearest signal is – the car park or the road – and ask renters to note the code there; if they call, you can read it out from the booking. Igloohome rates the Padlock 2 as waterproof (IPX7) for −20 °C to 50 °C, with up to about 9 months per charge. How the digital locks work

Yes – before the code appears, renters do what you ask. Have them confirm that they hold the certificate you require, upload a photo of it, accept your rules and watch your safety video. The photo is saved on the booking for you to look at; it isn't checked automatically, and the code doesn't wait for anyone to approve it.

Yes. Set a price for 1, 2, 3 … up to 14 days, so longer trips cost less per day, and sell a tent, dry bags, a cooking kit or a lift to where the trip starts as extras. The Directions button in the confirmation email leads renters to your landing. Trips end where they start, though: each canoe belongs to one location, so Rentalbuddy can't book a one-way trip that ends at another landing. If your routes end downriver, fetch the canoes yourself and leave a break between bookings long enough for it. What could 5 canoes on 3-day trips at 1,500 SEK earn?

Yes – sell tours and courses as events linked to the same kayaks. The boats a tour needs are held for it and the rest stay bookable for self-service, so a kayak out on a tour can't be rented at the same time. Events take a price per person, with adult, child or member prices. Arkipelagkajak in Karlskrona runs self-service whenever Alexander isn't guiding, and Lofoten Wild rents out SUPs from a self-service box while its guide leads kayak tours. Selling most of your tours through Viator or GetYourGuide? Keep a tour system for those and run your boxes and racks in Rentalbuddy, with separate kayaks for each: the two systems don't sync.

A kayak or canoe stays marked as picked up until its renter confirms the return on their unlock page, so one look at your calendar shows which boats are still out, and each renter's phone number is on their booking. Rentalbuddy doesn't alert you when someone is late back, so set your last return time well before dark and add a 'please return' email that goes only to renters who haven't confirmed their return. Strong wind forecast? Close the day for bookings in the admin.