Loch Insh Outdoor Centre boosts online revenue by 37% with Sailia

Nestled in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, Loch Insh Outdoor Centre is a firm favourite for families, groups, and outdoor enthusiasts. Whether visitors are looking for an adventure on land, on water, or on snow, the centre offers a truly unique, year-round experience. Beyond the activities, the centre is a destination in itself, featuring on-site lodges and campervan pitches, alongside a restaurant and bar.

The Challenge

Operating a centre as diverse as Loch Insh is an exercise in complex logistics. The centre is a destination in its own right, offering a vast array of experiences:

• Snow Sports: Skiing and snowboarding on either the nearby Cairngorm Mountains or the centre’s own 60m dry ski slope, alongside tubing, curling, and ice skating.

• Watersports: An RYA-affiliated hub for pedalos, rowing, SUP, kayaking, canoeing, windsurfing, wing-foiling, guided river tours, and more.

• Land Adventures: Archery, mountain biking, walking routes, stargazing, and a loch-front sauna.

Beyond these activities, the team manages on-site accommodation, a restaurant and bar, and a huge variety of visitors, ranging from local school trips and after-school clubs to corporate away days, weddings, stag groups, member bookings, and on-the-day arrivals.

Managing this volume of staff, resources, and bookings requires seamless coordination. Loch Insh found that their previous booking software was no longer up to the task; it was cumbersome, inflexible, and failed to meet the unique, fast-paced demands of a multi-activity centre.

The hurdles the team faced included:

• System Complexity: Only a handful of staff could navigate the back-end, meaning experienced instructors were frequently pulled away from leading sessions to troubleshoot front-desk issues.

• Booking Bottlenecks: Processing their diverse mix of bookings resulted in excessive manual admin in a system that couldn't handle this level of complexity.

• Operational Inflexibility: During peak times, the system lacked the agility to create last-minute sessions or scale capacity to meet sudden demand.

• Fragmented POS: The POS (point of sale) system was not staff-friendly, leading to errors and miscommunications.

With both front-of-house and back-office teams facing hours of unnecessary admin every week, the need for a solution built specifically to handle the demands of a high-volume, multi-disciplinary centre was clear.

The Solution

“It saves me hours every day. Our previous systems didn't allow us to be flexible; with Sailia, it takes 30 seconds to add extra sessions or open up last-minute availability.”
Eilidh Lyddon, Watersports Instructor

At the start of 2026, Loch Insh switched to Sailia. This transition has delivered several significant operational advantages:

• Unified Booking Software: Every activity Loch Insh offers, from snow sports to bike hire, is now booked through one centralised system, Sailia.

• Intuitive Flexibility: Thanks to Sailia’s user-friendly interface, every member of the team now has the ability to manage bookings in real-time, instantly adjusting to meet demand.

• Integrated POS: Sailia’s POS now powers the restaurant, bar, and on-site shop, making stock management, end-of-day reconciliation, and reporting effortless.

• Xero Accounting Integration: The Loch Insh finance team has integrated Sailia directly into their Xero account, enabling powerful automations that save hours of admin every week.

• Live Reporting: The leadership team at Loch Insh now has a real-time overview of the entire business, making it easy to track utilisation and revenue trends across every department from one single dashboard.

• Digital Waivers: Sailia digital waivers are being used across all activities, providing the centre with automated reminders, guardian consent flows, and real-time tracking, all seamlessly integrated into our CRM.

• Staffing & Scheduling: With smart scheduling, automated payroll data, and built-in shift reminders, staff management is now faster and more intuitive than ever before.

• Memberships: Membership plans are now managed entirely within Sailia, allowing for flexible sign-ups and automatic perk assignment.

• Automated Communications & Marketing: The team can now implement automated communications to keep customers informed and loyal, a process that previously felt too complex to manage.

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The Results

“It’s an amazing system that streamlines our whole business into one place, and the possibilities seem endless”
Duncan Freshwater, Managing Director, Loch Insh Outdoor Centre

The transformation has been immediate. By consolidating their operations into one single platform, Loch Insh has successfully replaced a fragment workflow with a streamlined, automated, and scalable system.

The results speak for themselves:

• 37% Online Revenue Growth: For April 2026, the centre has seen a 37% year-on-year increase in online sales compared to the same period last year

• Operational Efficiency: Administrative hours have been slashed, allowing instructors and managers to focus on experiences rather than data entry.

• Unified Management: From the restaurant and shop to ski lessons and guided river tours, the team now has complete, real-time visibility across every department.

Testimonial

“Ski hire. Bike hire. River trips. POS. We needed one solution to handle all of that. We’ve looked at a load, tried a couple, and Salia is by far the best we’ve found. The onboarding was smooth, the backend is intuitive and easy to use, and it has been refreshing to work with the Salia team, which has a real can-do attitude and meets every request with a smile on their faces.”

Jonny Freshwater, Activities Director, Loch Insh Outdoor Centre

Why Loch Insh chose Sailia

Loch Insh needed a platform as versatile and dynamic as the centre itself. They chose Sailia because it was built by and for activity centre operators, and designed to meet the unique demands of a busy multi-department business.

• Purpose-Built for Complexity: Unlike generic booking tools, Sailia understands the reality of running a multi-activity venue, seamlessly handling everything from snow sports and watersports to waivers and staffing in one system.

• Total Integration: By replacing fragmented tools with one unified ecosystem, Loch Insh now manages their entire operation without the cost or friction of disparate systems.

• Operational Agility: Sailia provides the flexibility the team lacked in their previous software, enabling them to create sessions, manage capacity, and adapt to demand in seconds.

• Industry Expertise: A platform backed by a team that understands the outdoor sector, providing the tailored features and the responsive, personal support needed to thrive.

Ready to streamline your operations like Loch Insh? 

Join Loch Insh and hundreds of experience businesses using Sailia to deliver seamless, professional experiences, from the snow slopes to the water's edge. Click here to book a call with the team today.