Barb Outdoors
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About Barb Outdoors

Barb Outdoors helps you find an outdoor guide and book the trip by text. Fishing, hunting, rafting, hiking, climbing, boating, diving, snowmobiling, and tours, across the United States. We're building our guide listings now.

How it works

Barb is an automated assistant you talk to by message, the way you'd text a friend who knows every guide in town.

  1. Step 1

    Tell Barb what you want

    Message Barb: the activity, where, when, and who's coming. Once guides are listed, you can browse them on the site too.

  2. Step 2

    Barb will find guides who fit

    Once guides are listed, Barb suggests a few, with a link to each one's page, and answers your questions about them.

  3. Step 3

    You say when to send it

    Nothing goes to a guide until you reply SEND. Barb tells you exactly what the guide will get: your name, how to reach you, and your trip details.

  4. Step 4

    Book and pay with the guide

    For a guide on Barb, Barb checks their open times. Once you say send, the guide's Barb texts you to book and sends the deposit link. Barb keeps you posted either way.

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By text. Nothing to download. Msg & data rates may apply.

Where the guides come from

Barb Outdoors is now adding outdoor guide businesses from public information, like their own websites and business listings. A business can claim its listing to correct it and take requests through Barb, or ask us to take it down. Guides who use Barb to run their bookings show it on their page, and you can book them by message.

Barb Outdoors doesn't run trips. Each guide runs their own trips under their own terms, licenses, and insurance. Check what matters to you with the guide before you book. How we list businesses.

How we make money

Barb Outdoors is free for you. It's made by Barbed.ai LLC, which also makes Barb, the booking assistant some guides pay for. A guide on Barb pays a fee on the payments Barb collects for them. In our "Recommended" order, guides who use Barb come first. That never changes which reviews we show or how we rate a guide.

Reviews you can trust

After a trip booked through Barb, we ask every client of that guide for a review, never only the happy ones, and nobody is paid for a review. Most reviews post right away, good or bad; a few are held for a person to check first. The guide can reply publicly. Some listings also show the business's Google rating. How reviews work.

Your information

Your request goes only to the guides you choose, and only when you say so. We never sell your information or use it for advertising. Reply STOP to stop messages, and ask Barb to forget you anytime. Privacy policy.

Who we are

Barb Outdoors is run by Barbed.ai LLC, based in Seattle, Washington. We started Barb in 2026 to take the busywork off outdoor guides, most of whom run their business alone, and built Barb Outdoors so clients can find them and book in a few messages.

Colin Van Dyke

Colin Van Dyke

Founder of Barb Outdoors, and the author of its Help Center.

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