GuidedFloats puts your guide service on the exact waters, sections, and floats you run, next to live flow data anglers check before they book. Listing is free. Commission is 10%, or 7% with a premium profile. From launch on March 1, 2027, premium profiles list first on every water they run. There is no bidding, no exclusivity, and no clause that stops you from booking your own clients directly.
Your profile may already exist
We seed profiles for licensed guides and outfitters from public records: state licensing registries, federal permit holder lists, and state tourism listings. An unclaimed profile shows your business name, the waters you fish, and your public website. It never shows a personal phone number, a home address, or an email we found in a document. Claiming is free and takes a day. We verify you through your business website domain or a call to the published business number, then unlock photos, pricing, trip listings, a calendar, and booking requests.
Find your water on the waters directory, open your profile, and use the claim form. If there is no profile yet, check the guide directory or email guides@guidedfloats.com with your business name, state, and waters, and we will create one for you to claim.
Claiming means accepting the Listing Agreement, which sets out what you and GuidedFloats each agree to. Read it before you claim.
What it costs
There are only two numbers. A commission on the trips we send you, and an optional monthly fee for a premium profile. A listing itself is free and always will be.
| Free | Premium | Outfitter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $49 $468 a year |
$149 $1,430 a year |
| Commission | 10% | 7% | 7% |
| Placement on water pages (at launch) | After premium | Listed first | Listed first |
| Waters you appear on | 1 | Up to 15 | Unlimited |
| Guide seats | 1 | 1 | Up to 10 |
| Photos | 3 | Unlimited + video | Unlimited + video |
| Booking requests (at launch) | After 12 hours | Instantly | Instantly |
| Phone and email shown (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Booking button and calendar (at launch) | No | Yes | Team calendar |
| Followed link to your site (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Traffic and lead dashboard (at launch) | No | Yes | Per guide |
| Review requests and replies (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Verified badge (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Post water reports (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Widget for your own site (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Open dates promoted (at launch) | No | Yes | Yes |
Rows marked at launch ship with the full launch on March 1, 2027, before any founding guide is invoiced. Until then every profile, claimed or not, is listed on its waters and takes booking requests through the form on the profile.
Annual plans are billed in February, ahead of the season, not in the middle of your off-season. Monthly plans can be cancelled any time and the profile drops back to free. We never delete a profile you have claimed.
How placement works
From launch on March 1, 2027, premium profiles list first on every water they run. Everyone else follows. Until launch, no profile pays for placement and none is ordered by plan. Inside each group the order is reviews, response time, and calendar accuracy, and unclaimed profiles always sort last.
What we do not run is an auction. There is one premium price, the same for every guide in the country, and no amount of money moves you above another premium guide. That is decided by how you actually perform. On the platforms that let captains set their own commission, position goes to whoever hands over the biggest cut, so the guide giving up 30% buries the guide giving up 10% no matter who fishes better. We are not built that way and we are not going to be.
Premium also changes how many waters you appear on, how fast a lead reaches you, and what you can do once it does.
The math, honestly
A full day on the oars runs roughly $500 to $700 for the boat in most of the country. Three things follow from that.
- Premium at $468 a year costs less than one float trip. If GuidedFloats sends you one trip a year you would not otherwise have had, it paid for itself.
- The three point difference between 10% and 7% covers the $49 at about $1,650 a month in GuidedFloats bookings, or roughly three trips. Past that, premium is cheaper than being on the free plan.
- Under three trips a month through the platform, premium is a marketing spend, not a saving. If that is where you are, stay on the free plan until the dashboard says otherwise. We would rather you renew for the right reason.
How booking will work at launch (March 1, 2027)
An angler requests a date. You have 24 hours to accept. On acceptance we charge the angler’s deposit (you set the percentage; 25% is the default) and hold it. On trip day the balance is charged when you scan the angler’s boarding pass or they check in. Payout lands in your account within 48 hours of the trip. If you call the trip for weather, the angler gets a full cash refund of the deposit and neither side pays a fee. If the angler cancels inside your window, the deposit is yours.
Outfitters
Most river guiding runs through an outfitter that holds the license and assigns guides by the day. GuidedFloats models that: an outfitter account holds named guides underneath it, trips belong to the outfitter or to a specific guide, and every trip is attached to the waters it runs on.
The outfitter plan covers up to ten named guides, unlimited waters, a shared calendar, and one dashboard that breaks views and leads out by guide and by river, so you can see which of your waters is actually pulling. Shops running more than ten guides should email us and we will price it properly rather than make you buy two accounts.
Questions guides actually ask
Do I have to run my own clients through you?
No. There is no exclusivity and no anti-circumvention clause. Repeat clients who come back to you directly are yours, and we take nothing on those.
What happens if I stop paying for premium?
The profile stays up and reverts to the free plan at 10%. You keep your reviews, your history, and your claim. Extra waters and premium features go dormant until you come back.
I already have a website. Why would I pay for this?
Mostly for the waters. Your site ranks for your business name. A GuidedFloats water page ranks for the river, which is what an angler planning a trip actually searches. Premium puts you on up to fifteen of those pages with a followed link back to your site.
When does billing actually start?
Not until the dashboard can show you your own numbers, and not without 60 days notice. Founding guides get their first full season, March 1, 2027 through October 31, 2027, free regardless.
So paying does move me up the page?
Above free profiles, yes, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. Above another premium guide, no. There is one premium price and no way to bid past a guide who answers faster and keeps a cleaner calendar than you do.
Is the commission taken before or after tips?
Before tips and before taxes, on the trip price only. Gratuity is yours in full and never passes through us.
Can I set my own prices?
Yes. You set trip prices, deposit percentage, cancellation window, and availability. We do not discount your trips or run promotions on your behalf.
Do not want a listing?
Every unclaimed profile has a one-click removal request. No login, no reason required. The page stops being indexed immediately and is removed within 72 hours, and we keep a suppression record so it is not re-created by a later import.
Our Public Profile Policy explains where unclaimed listings come from, what they show, and how removal works.
Our mission
GuidedFloats is a for-profit company on a mission to leave our waterways cleaner for our children. Guides who log river cleanups with photo evidence earn River Keeper badges that show on their profiles, and we promote the guides who do the work.
Find your water and claim your profile
Claim your founding-guide spot
Tell us where you guide and we will send you a promo code for your first full season of Premium, free: launch day, March 1, 2027, through October 31, 2027. No card, no commitment, and you can have your listing removed at any time.