One of the biggest questions that new tour operators ask themselves is, which tour booking software should I use? It’s one of the most important and frequent questions we get as hundreds of our students work through our Start and Grow a Tour Business online course. There’s no simple, obvious answer, except: it depends!
And since many operators have recently had more time than they wish they had, people are asking whether they are using the best platform, or whether they should change. Ask the question what is the best platform to 10 operators, and you very well might get 15 different answers.
Booking software is only a relatively recent invention (the earliest incarnations are less than 20 years old), and it’s just really in the past decade in particular that reservation technology has been on the minds of tour operators, as 100+ companies have begun offering competing versions of software that all claims to be special and different. It leaves the small operator confused!
So let’s dive in to what it is, exactly, and list some example companies for you to explore. In a separate post, we’ll help you ask the question: how should I decide which software to use?
What do we mean by tour booking software?
Booking software is sometimes called reservation technology or ResTech if you’re hip. In very general terms, booking software:
- is a cloud-based web service you sign up for, and integrates into your website through code or a plugin
- allows you to accept online payments for your tour or activity business (charging you a card processing fee)
- takes a commission and/or charges you a monthly fee for their general services (above and beyond the credit card fee, even if it’s combined)
- lets you manage your tour schedule and bookings
- often connects with OTAs (online travel agencies) like Viator and GetYourGuide and other sales channels, so sales on those websites automatically show up in your booking software, allowing you to keep track of bookings across multiple channels in one place.
Most booking software does a LOT more than that.
A few important notes about what booking software is not:
Booking software is what it says; it helps you with your bookings. There’s a lot of other software out there. It is not:
- CRM software — like Hubspot or Pipedrive or Nutshell, that help you organize communication and sales with your clients. Some restech solutions are better at acting like a lite version of a CRM than others.
- Email automation software — booking software will help you email your clients before and after a tour (transactional emails), but they won’t help you with advanced segmenting of your audiences and automating behavior-triggered marketing emails. You’ll need something like Drip or Mailerlite or Activecampaign for that. Booking tech does often connect via Zapier with your email solutions.
- Travel Agent Software — if you search for travel software, you’ll get a lot of packages aimed at travel agents. Different set of features, although some overlap.
- Itinerary planning software — solutions like Travefy and Proposify and Wetu help you craft custom itineraries and deliver proposals to clients. Some multi-day booking software does a version of this.
- Full-Featured Tour Operator Software — consider this the difference, for example, between Peek Pro and Peak 15 (not related). Peek Pro does a great job of handling all the complex needs of your day tour business. Peak 15 presents itself as an all-in-one solution for your business needs, covering everything from trip planning, vendor contracting, operations, sales, accounting and more. Peek Pro charges a small percentage of a booking. Peak 15 starts at $200/month. Tour operator software might be just what you need, but it’s just as likely that it’s overkill.
How to get started choosing a platform?
- Browse the company websites of the list below, to get a feel for what’s out there.
- Explore fellow tour operator websites in your niche, and see what platforms they’re using. Try the checkout process for a tour, and ask yourself as a customer whether it feels natural and easy.
- Explore the Meet the ResTech video interviews created by Shane Whaley of Tourpreneur. Shane interviews real tour operators + representatives of the tech companies as they demo the product.
- Understand the landscape of day and multi-day tours by reading articles by Arival, like this one.
- Finally, Make a list of the criteria you need. This is the most important step of all, and often the most neglected!
Do you need to use one of these services? Am I missing out? Are there alternatives?
Ok. Deep breath. Let’s start by saying: you absolutely do not need one, you’re not alone if you don’t use a service. In fact, the largest restech company, Fareharbor, claims 15,000 clients. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 500,000-1 million tour operators estimated by Arival.
You should use booking software they it makes running your business much smoother, and attracts customers by the ease of booking. However, there are a lot of small operators who don’t need to pay extra for the software, because some free or low-cost alternatives might work just fine.
Some operators use Wordpress plugins like Bookly (a one-time fee of $89), or Square Appointments, which only charges the cost of the credit card transaction. Where these plugins fall short is their feature set specifically for tour operators, and you might find a big difference in 3% fee charged by Square, and the 6% charged by Peek or Fareharbor, when it comes to the features that will make your life easier, especially as you grow.
List of some tour operator software companies:
If you’re new to tour booking software, start by exploring the websites of companies. Below is a list of reservation technology companies that specialize in tour operators. This is not exhaustive — there are over a hundred of them! These are in no particular order. There are certainly a lot more companies out there, but researching these will help you start to get a handle on the kinds of options you have.
- Peek Pro – raised $80M in funding, they have a lot of features for adventure/activity operators in particular, but work with everyone.
- Fareharbor – owned by Booking.com, largest customer base, offer a free basic website.
- Bokun – owned by TripAdvisor, charges a monthly fee.
- Rezdy – known for their extensive channel manager.
- WeTravel – excellent for handling booking process for multi-day tours, which includes deposits, recurring payment plans and more.
- YouLi – also for multi-day tours, handles creation passenger documents, too.
- Origin – working to make guide scheduling easier for adventure operators
- Indie Travel – for entrepreneurial tour guides, indie integrates with payment platforms and OTAs
- Group Collect – multi-day tech particularly suited to the needs of student group travel
- Bookingkit
- Trekksoft
- Checkfront
- Xola
- Bookeo
- Orioly
- Rezgo
(yes I know there are many many more, this is just a snapshot!)
How to choose your Tour Operator Booking Software
Below is our attempt to outline some of the biggest questions you should be asking yourself and the potential company before making a decision.
In other words, before you know if a service is right for you, you need to know your business needs, especially considering your plans for growth.
- Is your sales representative responsive and communicative to your questions?
- Does the platform help you manage your customers, seeing past purchases, etc. (CRM / Customer Relationship Management)?
- Can you send invoices to clients if you offer private tours?
- Can you create manual forms and custom fields added to the booking process?
- Can you accept deposits and installment payments for higher-cost or multi-day tours?
- Do they charge a monthly fee?
- Do they charge an initial setup fee?
- What’s the per-booking commission? Does that include the credit card processing fee, or is that an additional percentage?
- Is the per-tour fee percentage capped at a certain amount if you’re selling a high-priced tour?
- Are you locked into a contract?
- Do they offer some version of dynamic pricing?
- How do they handle booking/cart abandonment?
- What’s the process for offering refunds? Do I get the booking fee refunded?
- Do they handle liability waivers for you, including signing them in-person or in-advance?
- Do they integrate with your existing email or CRM software you use?
- Can you set different prices for children, seniors?
- Can you sell upsells and bundled packages?
- Can you sell digital products like virtual tours or PDFs or self-guided tours?
- Can you create a wait list?
- Can you create promo or coupon codes?
- Does the platform help you collect reviews after a tour?
- Does it connect with Google and TripAdvisor reviews?
- Does it connect with the OTAs where you sell your tours? (Viator, Expedia, Klook, etc.)
- Can you send automated reminder/follow-up emails before and after a tour?
- What do those emails look like; can they be branded, or include PDF attachments, etc.?
- Can you send text messages to your customers?
- Will the platform handle private tours, and other specialty tours you offer?
- Do they offer a Zapier connection to your other software? What kinds of triggers/actions are available?
- Does it connect with your social media sites easily?
- Does it sync with Google Calendar to manage your schedule?
- Do they accept e-check/ACH?
- Can you absorb the fee or choose to pass it on to the customer?
- Can you manually add a tour booking?
- Can you create and offer gift cards?
- Do they accept the kinds of payments your customers make (in your country, etc.)
- What’s the delay before getting a payout?
- Can the platform automatically bill the customer on a payment plan?
- Do they offer an in-person terminal for transactions, or connect with Square?
- Is there a native mobile app?
- Can you check in customers on site?
- Does the customer stay on your site and book through a popup, or are they redirected to another page?
- How is the payment system branded on your site?
- Does it integrate with your accounting/payroll software?
- Can it handle affiliate relationships?
- Can you get good/deep analytics on customer behavior?
- What kind of business reporting do you offer?
- Do you offer a free business website?
- What happens to my free business website when I stop using your service?
- How easy is it to get my booking data if I decide to switch services later?
- Can I communicate with and manage my team of guides?
