RoamRoster: one roster for the whole departure · Updated September 8, 2026

What the tool actually does, step by step

The workflow the site describes is short enough to fit on a napkin. You open a departure and set the trip details, the price, the deposit and the installment dates. You import travelers by CSV or type them in. From there the system charges the cards on the dates you picked and flags anyone whose balance is late.

Rooming is handled by asking travelers six short questions: sleep hours, temperature, tidiness, snoring, scent sensitivity and how much conversation they want at breakfast. The system proposes pairings and shows its reasoning, and you approve or override it. This is the most quietly useful feature on the page, because "who did you put me with and why" is a question every organizer has answered badly at least once.

Documents are requested from inside the departure (passport photo, insurance certificate) with reminders that repeat until the file lands. Expiry dates get flagged automatically, including passports that expire within six months of the return date, which is the rule that ruins more trips than bad weather. Then the countdown messages go out at 90, 30 and 7 days with trip specific details and read receipts, so you can see who actually opened the packing list before claiming nobody told them.

Money: installments, drops and who is holding the cash

You can set a deposit plus up to six dated installments per departure, and the card on file does the rest. That cap matters: if your payment plan needs more than six pulls, this is not the tool for it.

The part worth reading twice is that payments run through your own Stripe or Square account. RoamRoster states it never holds deposits, so the money reaches your bank on your existing schedule rather than sitting in someone else's balance waiting for a payout cycle. For anyone who has watched a platform sit on a group's deposits, that is the difference between a software vendor and a counterparty.

When someone drops, the next name on the waitlist is offered the seat with the balance prorated according to your cancellation policy, and refunds or credits are recorded against the departure so the accounting still reconciles at year end. The site also publishes its own usage statistics. Treat vendor numbers as vendor numbers, the way you would with any company writing its own scoreboard.

Passports, insurance certificates and the delete button

Traveler documents are stored encrypted and attached to the departure they belong to, which is the polite way of saying they are not being forwarded around as email attachments. Access is logged, and only the organizer plus approved staff can view them.

Retention is set by you, anywhere from the day the group lands to twelve months after. When that date passes the files are removed and the deletion is written into the departure log. Having a default deletion date rather than a folder that quietly accumulates other people's passport scans forever is the correct design, and it is unusual enough to be worth pointing out.

RoamRoster collects insurance certificates. It does not issue insurance, it is not a travel agency, and it does not give legal advice. Seller of travel compliance, licensing and whatever your state requires remain your problem. The software is a filing cabinet with reminders, not a regulator.

Pricing, plans and the limits printed on the box

Three plans, all billed monthly in dollars, all cancellable, with no per traveler fees and no setup charge. One Trip is $39 per month and keeps a single live departure open with its full roster, payment plan and messaging. Season Pass is $99 per month for unlimited concurrent departures. Tour Business is $209 per month and adds three staff seats with guide permissions plus read only API access.

The stated limits are refreshingly specific. Multi staff access and the API are Tour Business only. Departure week phone support is on Season Pass and Tour Business, not on One Trip. If you cancel, the account goes read only for 60 days before permanent deletion, and everything (rosters, payment history, rooming lists, messages, documents) exports as CSV, XLSX or ZIP first.

One more detail that quietly says who this was built for: travelers do not need to create a password. You can enter a payment, upload a document or record a rooming preference on someone's behalf, and the confirmation still reaches them. Anyone who has organized a trip with a group whose comfort with apps varies wildly will understand why that line exists.

What it does not do: book flights, book hotels, or arrange suppliers. It manages the roster, the money and the paperwork behind a trip you have already built.