Glossary

LakeBooking uses words that mean specific things in our product. Some are angling tradition; some are payments-platform tradition; a few we coined because nothing existing fit. This page is the single source of truth, so if a support page uses a word in a way that contradicts this glossary, this glossary wins.

Platform & marketplace

Angler. The person doing the fishing. We use "angler" rather than "fisherman" because it's gender-neutral and covers fly, coarse, predator, and carp anglers alike. The platform's UI in English uses "angler" everywhere.

Host. The lake owner (or licensed manager / lessee / federation) who lists and operates the lake. "Host" is the on-platform role; in legal documents and the Terms you'll see "Owner". Same person.

Lake. A listing on the platform. One legal entity can have multiple lakes. A lake has one or more swims.

Listing. The public-facing page for a single lake. Includes the lake profile, swim definitions, photos, rules, stock, and reviews.

Geography & physical

Swim. One bookable fishing spot. A swim is the unit of inventory on LakeBooking, rented to one party at a time. (British angling tradition uses "swim"; some markets say "peg" or "stand". We use "swim" platform-wide for consistency.) A swim has a name, a description, a pin on the lake map and photos. How many anglers, guests and rods it takes is set on each package (see Capacity).

Peg. Synonym for swim, used in some regions. The platform uses "swim" everywhere.

Stand. Romanian synonym for swim. Used in the RO interface.

Capacity. How many anglers, non-fishing guests and rods one swim takes on a package. Each package sets its own numbers per swim (Included anglers per swim, Included non-fishing guests per swim and Included rods per swim, up to 8 rods), so the same swim can take a different party on different packages. Where the package allows them, paid additional anglers, guests and rods raise it up to the package's maximum. A booking can't go beyond that.

Pricing model

Package. The thing anglers actually book. A package bundles one or more swims with everything that comes with them, such as the capacity per swim, fishing type and rules, accommodation (if any), extras, additional-guest / -angler / -rod rules, billing units, seasonal pricing, and discounts. A simple lake might have one package per swim ("Day Ticket, Swim 1"); a more elaborate setup might have packages like "Weekend Carp Retreat", "Family Stay with Cabin", or "Catfish Week (3 swims)". Packages are how hosts model exactly how their lake is sold.

Extras. The optional equipment rentals and additional services a host sells alongside a package, such as rod hire, boat hire, catering or a fishing guide. Anglers add them while booking; each extra has its own price, which rolls into the total booking value.

Billing unit. A block of time a package is sold in, with its own price and its own check-in times. Billing units belong to the package, one per length, and the lengths are fixed (6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 and 168 hours). Common billing units:

The names are conventions; in the dashboard a unit is just its length ("24h"). A package can have several billing units configured at once. At booking, the angler picks a session length and a check-in time, and a longer stay chains units back to back.

Charging period. The dashboard's other name for a billing unit. There's no separate cadence setting. A stay longer than one unit is a chain of units back to back, up to the package's Longest stay, each priced on the day it starts. Extras have a charging period of their own, the length their price covers.

Total booking value. The full price for the session. Always shown before checkout. It splits into two parts, the booking fee and the remaining balance.

Booking fee. The portion of the total (always a flat 10%) the angler pays online to secure the booking. Counts toward the total booking value; the angler isn't paying anything extra. This is the only money LakeBooking ever holds.

Remaining balance. The other 90% of the total. Paid by the angler directly to the host at the lake on arrival, in cash or via the host's POS. We never hold this portion and cannot refund it.

Commission / retained booking fee. Internal / host-side term for the booking fee. The platform retains the booking fee paid online by the angler as compensation for marketplace services (booking facilitation, payment processing, customer acquisition, platform operations). The Host Agreement (part of the Terms of Service the host accepts at signup) spells this out. Anglers see only "booking fee". They don't see this term.

Peak / off-peak pricing. A host can override or multiply the base price of a billing unit for date ranges (e.g. Easter weekend, August, off-season winter weeks), days of the week, or both, optionally repeating every year. The angler sees the effective price for their dates, not the base.

Bookings

Instant book. The booking is confirmed the moment the angler pays the booking fee. A lake-level setting (Lake settings → Booking preferences), off by default.

Request to book. The default. The angler pays the booking fee and the booking waits as a request until the host confirms or declines it from the dashboard. There is no automatic timeout, and declining refunds the booking fee.

Group booking. There's no group booking with split payment. One booking can hold several swims of the same package, paid by the angler who books.

Invite-only listing. Not available on LakeBooking. A lake is either public or hidden. With Published listing off, its page is hidden from everyone but the host, their team and LakeBooking, and it's out of search. Search lists only published lakes that accept bookings and have an active package, so syndicate and members-only waters should talk to us first.

Fishing session. The booked time on the water, from the start of the booking to its end. A session is one billing unit or a chain of them, and reviews open when the session ends.

Money flow

Stripe. The payments processor that handles the angler's booking-fee card payment. We never store card details. Stripe does. In our first season we use plain Stripe (one charge, retained by us as commission per the Host Agreement); when we roll out Stripe Connect in 2027, hosts will be able to opt into receiving the full booking total online with payouts to their IBAN.

3DS / 3D Secure. The bank-side authentication step on card payments. Stripe and the card's issuing bank decide when a payment needs it. Adds ~30 seconds to checkout but cuts chargebacks dramatically.

Chargeback. When an angler disputes a card payment directly with their bank rather than via the platform's dispute path. Slower and rougher than the platform path. See Refund Policy for why we prefer the platform path.

Payout. A bank transfer from Stripe to a host's IBAN. Not in use during our first season. Hosts collect the remaining balance directly at the lake, and no platform-to-host money transfer is needed because the booking fee is retained as commission per the Host Agreement. When Stripe Connect rolls out in 2027, hosts who switch on all-online payment will receive payouts on a rolling 7-day schedule by default.

RO e-Factura. Romania's mandatory fiscal-invoice reporting system. LakeBooking issues an invoice for the retained commission (the booking fee) and reports it to RO e-Factura. The host is separately responsible for invoicing the remaining balance to the angler.

ANAF. Romania's national fiscal authority. Receives, through RO e-Factura, the booking-fee invoices we report. Hosts have their own ANAF obligations on the remaining balance. We don't intermediate that.

ANPA. Romania's national fisheries agency (Agenția Națională pentru Pescuit și Acvacultură). It issues the recreational fishing permit for public and natural waters and runs the licence regime for waters of public good. An emergency ordinance published on 31 December 2025 (OUG 92/2025) folds ANPA into ANADSPA (Autoritatea Națională pentru Administrarea Domeniilor Statului, Pescuit și Acvacultură) once the merger completes. Until then ANPA keeps working under its own name (the permit rules adopted in September 2026 name it as the issuer). Many hosts hold an authorisation from ANPA (or ANADSPA) as their proof-of-control document.

Stock & welfare

Declared stock. The species, approximate quantity and trophy sizes the host lists under Fish stock. Not a guarantee, but a host-attested snapshot. Only the host can edit it, so keeping it current season by season is up to them.

Catch report. A catch an angler logs during a session, with photo, species, weight, and optionally the swim and bait. Catch reports appear on the lake page (where the host has enabled them) and help other anglers see what's biting.

Stocking. The act of adding fish to a water. LakeBooking doesn't keep stocking records. A host who stocks can update the lake's declared stock to match.

Catch and release (C&R). The angler returns the fish unharmed. Each package sets a Fish retention policy, either Catch & release only or Catch & keep. On a catch-and-release-only package, the angler can't take fish home.

Barbless / barbed. Refers to the hook type. Barbless hooks have no rear barb and are easier to remove; many welfare-conscious waters require them. The platform has no barbless setting, so a lake that requires them says so in its written rules. Always check the lake's house rules before you arrive. Switching hooks at the gate isn't always an option.

Sling, mat, weighing harness. The basic unhooking-and-care kit many lakes require. The lake's or package's written rules say whether it's required, and whether the lake provides it or you bring your own.

No-kill. No fish may be taken from the lake. Pure catch-and-release (a package set to Catch & release only).

Take (with permit / under size limit). The angler may keep fish, with constraints. That's a package set to Catch & keep, where the host writes in their own words which species, what size and how many.

Account & trust

Verified. A lake our team has reviewed and approved, at the host's request, once its setup is complete. It carries a Verified badge on the listing, and the host who runs it shows the same badge on their fishing experiences and host page. Verification is a basic review, not a guarantee of quality or safety.

See also

• Trust & Safety: the policy side of verification, welfare, and incidents.
• Refund Policy: when money moves back, and to whom.
• Quick start for anglers and Quick start for hosts: see the terms in action.