Online tour and activity booking systems are essential for tour companies' business growth in the state-of-the-art hospitality industry. Customers can book quickly, their data is secure, and the checkout process is smooth - it makes life easier for you and your patrons.
What are the advantages of tour operator software?
Online reservation systems help streamline the whole customer experience whilst simplifying operations.
What are some features of tour operator software?
- Enable customers to book instantly online
- Provide a clear overview of all attendance records (booking confirmation, customer confirmation email, clear availability view, payment details)
- Easily manage tour bookings (allow customers to modify their reservation, manage cancellations)
- Integrate with marketing tools (analyze customers' behavior with Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Google tag manager)
- Understand your customers' behavior with insightful data
What is the purpose of an online reservation system?
Integrating with online scheduling software allows overall efficiency in tour businesses, which helps tour operators reach more potential customers and grow more revenue.
Top 10 Key Features of Tour Booking Software
We have compiled the top ten must-have features of the right tour operator software in this post.
1. Calendar
An availability calendar is an essential feature in tour operator software. It enables tour operators' guests to check availability at a glance along with the booking form. Enable bookings to sync with Google Calendar on guests' mobile devices to avoid no-shows.
The platforms automatically synchronize with your availability calendar in real-time to prevent overbookings from multiple channels streamlining the booking process and making it much smoother and faster for you and your guests.
2. Email Automation
Automated follow-up emails
- keep customers informed about their booking and remind them of it the day before.
- Grow your reviews and customer satisfaction by sending automatic feedback emails asking clients to review your TripAdvisor or Google My Business Page. This will get you more customer bookings with all the positive reviews.
- Automated booking confirmations and payment reminders - ensure that all the details of a guest's reservation are taken care of
Automating emails keeps everyone on the same page. It helps you gain customer feedback, re-engage with customers and not lose them. On the other hand, automating emails with staff members and sending them the manifest in advance helps you organize tours and avoid miscommunication in only a few clicks.
3. Multiple Languages and Currency Options
Your tour operator software must support different languages and currencies so that you can take more international bookings.
- Enable a smoother customer checkout experience
- Avoid exchange rate confusion.
- Get more clients with more diversified guests
Electric Gamebox now uses TicketingHub as their tour booking software for all their venues, know more about the switch here: Reasons Why Electric Gamebox Chose TicketingHub Tour Scheduling Software
4. Online Payment Processing
Payment processing is a secure payment system that allows buyers to pay for products or services online. This system will enable customers to pay for their purchases through a payment gateway, which is a secure payment processing system.
Outstanding payments will become a thing of the past, and taking bookings will be simple, so you will get more bookings.
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Features of online payment can:
- Guarantee online payments directly from customers
- Show value to customer security and privacy
- Improve cash flow with immediate payment processing
Choose a tour operator software that integrates with Apple and Android Pay, a convenient, secure, and straightforward way of paying online. While some customers prefer to pay with a credit card, Paypal, or bank transfer, more customers choose to book with these tools.
TicketingHub integrates with up to 130 payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and Spreedly.
5. Third-Party OTA Integration
Many online reservation systems integrate with online travel agents (OTA). This allows tour operators to reach more potential patrons and grow their revenue. By integrating with OTAs, you can boost marketing in multiple channels.
Integrating with third-party platforms in the tourism industry enables you to:
- Have all your reservations in the same place.
- Increase your reach
- Improve visibility of tours and packages
- Extend the booking widget and booking form on OTA's booking page
- Check-in guests from a simple app
6. Reporting Tools
Streamline your system for tracking business performance and revenue and generate custom reports with built-in reporting solutions.
Generate accurate booking and customer data with reporting data:
- Sales forecasts
- Profit margins
- Saleable tours
- Marketing campaign performance
- Conversion rates
- Customer information and profiles (customer relationship management)
- Inventory fluctuations
You can respond immediately to issues and make better decisions; take full control of your marketing strategy with complete and reliable insights.
7. Real-time Online Bookings
A booking solution should allow quick and easy reservations. Customers should not have to wait for your response to confirm if the tour is available or not.
When a customer books, the system automatically updates the availability on your booking page website and the schedule on the booking management dashboard with real-time booking technology.
8. Channel Management System
One of the cloud-based software must-have features is integrating with a channel manager.
A Channel management system allows you to:
- Synchronize availability from multiple sales channels
- Connect with a variety of online travel agencies and marketplaces
- Avoid double booking and overbooking
Channel management is an efficient way to ensure that all of your channels are instantly and automatically updated, so your availability is always accurate.
9. Discounts and Gift Vouchers
A great booking system should allow upselling of products and services.
- Configure discounts and promo codes
- Offer gift voucher promotions
- Open special offers by season or specific period
- Increase your prices during peak days or hours
By doing so, you can offer customized and dynamic pricing that matches the demand of guests and season.
10. Customer Service
Excellent customer support is one of the most important features you should look for in reservation software.
Aside from telephone and email support, tour operator software providers may provide other tools on their website, for example:
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Video Tutorials
- Virtual Help Desk
Read: How Ticketinghub Got All-5-Star Capterra Reviews
Regardless of how user-friendly a platform may be, you will need to contact the service provider for assistance sooner or later.
TIP: When evaluating free trials of the booking engine, test the support function too!
How can I improve my tour operator software?
Improve your tour operations and booking system with TicketingHub. TicketingHub is a cloud-based reservation system that offers a wide range of essential features that a booking system should have.
It also integrates with OTAs and provides business-in-depth analytics and reports. With TicketingHub, businesses can manage reservations in real-time and increase their marketing reach.
See TicketingHub Case Study: Egypt's Sound and Light Shows Ticket Sales Grew Over 500% With The Help Of TicketingHub.
Grow your Tour and Activity business with TicketingHub!
- Integrate the booking system on your website fast
- Versatile and customizable booking widget
- Excellent customer service
- Business automation tools for booking management
See TicketingHub's tour operator software's full features here.
Try TicketingHub free for 14 days and see how it benefits and helps you grow your business.
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