Charter Booker
Charter Booker helps fishing and boat charter operators accept online bookings, manage schedules, and turn website visits into confirmed trips.
Use with caution
Charter Booker works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 6 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Charter Booker stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| boats | #34 |
| charter booking | #3 |
| fishing | #7 |
| payments | >100 |
| trips | #90 |
About Charter Booker
From the official readme · v1.3.0Description
Charter Booker gives charter businesses a complete booking workflow inside WordPress, from trip setup to customer confirmation.
Create trip types, assign captains and boats, control capacity, and publish bookable trips on your website with simple shortcodes. Customers can browse availability and submit booking requests in a clean frontend flow, while your team manages schedules, statuses, and notifications from wp-admin.
Whether you run inshore, offshore, private group, or specialty trips, Charter Booker is designed to help you:
- Capture more direct bookings from your own website.
- Reduce back-and-forth scheduling and manual admin work.
- Keep bookings, trip data, and communication organized in one place.
Core features include:
- Custom post types for captains, boats, trips, and bookings.
- Admin dashboards and list tables for operations.
- Trip scheduling with availability checks.
- Calendar-based booking form departure selection with available dates and times.
- Capacity controls and overbooking settings.
- Booking status and payment tracking.
- Email templates for customer and admin notifications.
- Optional compatibility with a separately distributed Charter Booker Pro plugin.
Premium features include:
- Calendar view for booked trips and trip, captain, and boat blackout periods.
- Stripe checkout integration with test/live mode and connection checks.
- PayPal checkout integration with sandbox/live mode and connection checks.
- Per-trip deposit controls (fixed amount or percentage) and “must pay in full” options.
- Advanced pricing support for time-based rules and manual price overrides.
- Trip-level max party size overrides for finer capacity control.
- Monthly sales and bookings dashboard panels for quick performance insights.
The WordPress.org package is fully functional for all features included in this plugin and does not require a license key to use those included features.
Installation
- Upload the
charter-bookerfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory. - Activate the plugin through the
Pluginsscreen in WordPress. - Go to
Charter Bookerin wp-admin to configure trips, captains, boats, and settings. - Add the
[chbk_trip_search]shortcode to a page to show trip listings. - Add
[chbk_booking_form]to a trip template/page where needed.
Frequently asked questions
Which shortcodes are available?
Use: [chbk_trip_search] for public trip listings. [chbk_trip_search columns="3"] for public trip listings in 1 to 4 columns. [chbk_trip_search limit="6" columns="2"] for limiting the number of trips and setting the listing columns. [chbk_booking_form] for booking the current trip context. [chbk_booking_form trip_id="123"] for a specific trip.
Is there a Pro plugin?
Yes. Advanced payment integrations and additional premium features are provided in a separately distributed Charter Booker Pro plugin.
Do I need a license key to use this plugin?
No. A license key is not required to use the features included in this WordPress.org plugin package.
Where do I configure settings?
Go to Charter Booker > Settings in wp-admin.
Changelog
1.3.0 (2026-05-02)
- Add calendar-based departure selection to the booking form for free and Pro users.
- Add available time buttons and automatic single-time selection after choosing a departure date.
- Add
columnssupport to[chbk_trip_search]for 1 to 4 column trip listing layouts. - Fix trip listing starting prices to use seat pricing and per-person pricing fallbacks.
- Refactor trip listing cards to use a column flex layout with bottom-aligned actions.
- Refactor booking form layout into separate details and departure columns with top-aligned fields.
- Document trip listing column shortcode examples in the readme and admin shortcode help.
1.2.0 (2026-04-26)
- Add Pro calendar for booked trips and trip, captain, and boat blackout periods.
- Add calendar month navigation, event filters, monthly counts, and upcoming booking summaries.
- Add modern Pro calendar styling with top-aligned bookings and bottom-aligned blackout periods.
- Fix trip max party size override checkbox saving when unchecked.
- Fix Pro checkbox save handling for sanitized unchecked values.
- Fix free and Pro release version metadata for 1.2.0.
1.1.2 (2026-04-26)
- Remove captain/boat quota restrictions from core for WordPress.org trialware compliance.
- Add Freemius
is_org_compliantconfiguration flag. - Fix release boundaries for more reliable WordPress.org compliance.
1.1.1 (2026-04-26)
- Fix wp.org checker issues for escaping and request-method sanitization.
- Refactor booking form nonce-first POST handling flow.
1.1.0 (2026-04-26)
- Fix WordPress.org compliance and security hardening issues.
- Fix release compatibility for separate free and pro distributions.
- Fix admin/frontend enqueue and UI compatibility issues.
1.0.0 (2026-04-26)
- Add initial public release of Charter Booker.
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Charter Booker alternatives
All boats plugins →FAQ
Charter Booker: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 17, 2026
Is Charter Booker free?
Yes. Charter Booker is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Charter Booker safe to use in 2026?
Charter Booker works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 6 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Charter Booker?
Charter Booker is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 625 times since it launched in March 2026. It was downloaded 65 times in the last 30 days.
Does Charter Booker work with WordPress 7.1?
Charter Booker is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.7, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Charter Booker need?
Charter Booker requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Charter Booker last updated?
The latest version, 1.3.0, was released on May 2, 2026 (6 months ago).
Who makes Charter Booker?
Charter Booker is developed and maintained by mdburnette.
What are the best alternatives to Charter Booker?
The most popular alternatives to Charter Booker are Yachtino boat listing (10+ installs), SmartBroker (10+ installs) and Broker for Boat (<10 installs).
Powered by PageForge
Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.
This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.
- CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
- AI content, schema & internal links per page
- Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
- Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
