In reply to airbournegrapefruit:
Maybe have a look at checkfront or the system clip n climb uses (I can't remember what it is). I've not used either of those systems though as even on initial inspection they weren't suitable for us (I think checkfront might be one of the companies that charge monthly based on your numbers of bookings as well which might not be suitable, i.e. if you have lots of customers in July you'll still be on that price plan in December). Maybe ask your web developers what companies they have experience with and if they have any suggestions?
It's a hugely expanding market and lots of people do it now (including the cowboys as with all things), making a simple one size fits all booking system probably isn't that hard for a programmer but our experience is finding a company that can deliver a system and with good service and support is the golden egg and it's hard to know this up front. We've been stung before with an epos till which looked great but wasn't. We narrowly avoided a similar experience with a coffee machine rental but after reading the small print and going and asking other businesses that used them we realised it was a con. I would be very reluctant to consider a company that doesn't visit the premises and only operates remotely (which narrows your options considerably). If you're looking for an accommodation booking system we use one I can wholeheartedly recommend.
I know of one activities provider that is having a system made for them to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds and I think in reality this is probably the best way to go long term rather than bodging someone elses system on from a faceless online company who've made a system for booking massages and are convinced it's the right system for booking activity sessions too. I guess it's a question of in 5 or 10 years time how big a part of your business is online booking going to be and how much revenue is it going to make. A bespoke system can handle your staff rota and pay as well which along with handling all your bookings might well save you a member of staff and their wage bill every year or it might be that whoever owns or manages the staff/pay etc. might be able to invest that extra time saved in creating revenue all of which might pay for what seems like an expensive option quite quickly.
When you said estate the other thing that popped into my mind to check (I'm sure you're aware of this) is your internet speed and reliability, a lot of systems are cloud based and a few companies we spoken to seemed to be completely ignorant about the need for redundancy when you're using a cloud based system in a rural area. We spoke to a consultant about digital infrastructure as our broadband is slow and unreliable and there's not really any easy solutions, basically have 2 or 3 ways of accessing the internet (satelite, broadband and an internet share for e.g.) and have a system that can backup and be used locally. Both our satellite and our broadband go down quite regularly but so far never both at once!
Most systems seem to work with a variety of payment options but I vaguely remember this was an issue we looked into as some methods of online payment will skim considerably more off your profits than others for the privaledge.
One simple but ugly solution pitched to us was voucher systems like the ones you buy gig tickets with, i cant remember what it's called but i guess there are a few of them. People want to book online and supposedly in a few years time any activities/service operator not providing an online booking option will be losing out but if a fully integrated system isnt viable for whatever reason you can offer a number of slots up on these sorts of systems which is as simple as integrating a link and then the customer books through the third party website and you get an email through. It's not an elegant solution but it's cheap, easy, non-committing and gives you access to a market of customers that will (supposedly) only book online.
