Can I bring my existing spreadsheet over?

The reservations already on it, yes — you can paste a list of stays in one go rather than retyping them, and guests who aren't on your list yet get added as part of it. Bulk-importing a whole guest list from a CSV in one step is a Premium feature; on the free plan you invite people by entering their email addresses, which for the twenty-odd people a family cabin involves takes a few minutes once.

Does everyone need to make an account?

Yes. Each guest gets an emailed invitation, clicks it, and sets up a login — that's what makes a reservation genuinely theirs, and it's how the calendar knows who booked what. There's nothing to download: it works in any phone browser and can be installed to a home screen like an app.

What if some of my family isn't good with technology?

The whole interaction is an email link and a calendar: open the link, pick the dates, done. It's a smaller ask than teaching someone to edit the right cell of a shared sheet without breaking a formula — and unlike the sheet, there's no way for them to accidentally overwrite somebody else's weekend.

What actually stops a double booking?

The calendar refuses to create a reservation whose dates overlap one that's already confirmed. It's enforced when the booking is made, not flagged afterward for a human to catch.

For one property with up to three spots and 25 guests, yes. Premium lifts those limits for $10/month, and it's only billed in months when somebody actually stays — a cabin that sits closed all winter costs nothing all winter.

The shared-spreadsheet alternative for friends and family cabin scheduling

Almost every shared cabin is run on a shared spreadsheet, and for a while that's completely fine. Then it isn't. Two families type into the same weekend. Someone edits the wrong row and nobody notices for a month. The tab tracking who owes what for propane goes stale, and nobody wants to be the person who chases it. Spreadsheets are good at a lot of things. Being the single source of truth for a group of people who don't check them is not one of them.

Create your property

Cabyn vs. Spreadsheets, side by side

Feature	Spreadsheets	Cabyn
Double bookings	Nothing stops two families typing into the same weekend	Overlapping dates are rejected before the reservation exists
Who can change what	Anyone with the link can overwrite anyone's row	Guests can only request their own dates — you decide who books instantly and who needs approval
Knowing it's settled	It's settled because a cell is filled in	A confirmed reservation, a confirmation email, and a calendar invite that lands in their calendar
Who owes what	A tab someone has to maintain, and then chase	An optional contribution shown at booking, paid straight to your PayPal or Venmo
The rules	Written at the top of the sheet and ignored	Enforced: minimum and maximum stay, how far ahead people can book, blackout dates you keep
Cabin info	A second tab nobody opens	Info sections — directions, rules, local tips — on the page they already land on
On a phone	Pinch, zoom, scroll sideways, give up	A mobile app your family can install and actually open
History	Last edit wins and the old version is gone	Every stay, past and upcoming, stays on the record
Cost	Free	Free for one property, up to three spots and 25 guests

A spreadsheet doesn't prevent a double booking. It records one.

This is the whole difference. A cell is a place to write down that two families think they have the same weekend; it has no opinion about it. Cabyn's calendar refuses to create a reservation that overlaps one that already exists — not a warning, not a highlighted cell someone has to notice, but a booking that simply cannot be made. Every conversation that starts "wait, I thought we had the 14th" is a conversation the calendar has already had for you.

The money tab is the part everyone quietly hates

Somebody has to keep it current, and somebody has to chase the people who haven't paid, and it is always the same person, and they didn't volunteer. Cabyn attaches the ask to the booking instead: an optional contribution, suggested or fixed or switched off entirely, shown when someone reserves their dates. It goes straight to your PayPal or Venmo, all of it, and nobody has to send the message that begins "sorry to be annoying, but…"

Nobody reads the rules tab

The check-in time, the two-night minimum, the weekend you always keep for yourselves — writing them at the top of a sheet is not the same as enforcing them. Guest levels let you set the rules per group and then let the calendar apply them. Family books instantly and stays as long as they want; the wider circle needs approving and can't claim the long weekend eleven months out.

You can keep the spreadsheet

Plenty of hosts do, for the things a sheet is genuinely good at — the opening-weekend checklist, the inventory, the list of who has a key. What moves out is the scheduling and the money, which were always the two columns that caused the argument. The dates already spoken for can be brought over in bulk rather than re-entered one at a time.

A spreadsheet is genuinely fine, until it isn't

You shouldn't replace a spreadsheet that's working. If it's you and your brother splitting six weekends a year, a shared sheet is free, you both already know how to use it, and it has never once double-booked you. Cabyn earns its place when the number of people, dates, or unspoken money questions grows past what one person can hold in their head.

Two or three people who talk constantly and have never overlapped — the sheet is doing its job.
A handful of weekends a year. The overhead of moving everyone somewhere new isn't worth it.
Nobody contributes toward costs and nobody ever will. Half of what Cabyn does would go unused.

Common questions

Can I bring my existing spreadsheet over?: The reservations already on it, yes — you can paste a list of stays in one go rather than retyping them, and guests who aren't on your list yet get added as part of it. Bulk-importing a whole guest list from a CSV in one step is a Premium feature; on the free plan you invite people by entering their email addresses, which for the twenty-odd people a family cabin involves takes a few minutes once.
Does everyone need to make an account?: Yes. Each guest gets an emailed invitation, clicks it, and sets up a login — that's what makes a reservation genuinely theirs, and it's how the calendar knows who booked what. There's nothing to download: it works in any phone browser and can be installed to a home screen like an app.
What if some of my family isn't good with technology?: The whole interaction is an email link and a calendar: open the link, pick the dates, done. It's a smaller ask than teaching someone to edit the right cell of a shared sheet without breaking a formula — and unlike the sheet, there's no way for them to accidentally overwrite somebody else's weekend.
What actually stops a double booking?: The calendar refuses to create a reservation whose dates overlap one that's already confirmed. It's enforced when the booking is made, not flagged afterward for a human to catch.
Is it free?: For one property with up to three spots and 25 guests, yes. Premium lifts those limits for $10/month, and it's only billed in months when somebody actually stays — a cabin that sits closed all winter costs nothing all winter.

Share your property with people you trust

No public listing. No strangers. Guests can contribute via PayPal or Venmo and 100% of it goes to you — Cabyn never takes a cut. Free for one property.