8 Advantages of Using an Online Booking System for Tours

One technology that is changing the face of the travel industry is online booking systems.

The aviation and lodging sectors of the travel industry have long adopted online booking systems,

allowing clients to book and pay for flights and accommodation at their convenience.

Given the benefits of online booking systems to these sectors, tour operators are fast adopting online booking systems. But what are the advantages of using an online booking system for tours?

Read on to find the answer to this question.

The advantages of using an online booking system for tours include:

• It simplifies the reservation process
• It makes you open 24/ 7
• It reduces your workload
• It allows you to collect payments sooner
• It helps you save on commissions
• It allows you to sell add-ons and extras
• It gives valuable insights into your business
• It improves revenue

1. An online booking system simplifies the reservation process

Customers want convenience. Interestingly, online booking systems offer convenience as they allow customers to make reservations from anywhere and at any time. They would not need to search phonebooks or directories to find your business.

These days, people get the information they want online. An online booking system allows you to take advantage of the immense possibilities that the internet offers, as people searching online for tour activities can easily find your business and see everything you offer.

Besides providing tour information, an online booking system makes it easier for customers to sort through slot availability and payments.

2. An online booking system makes you open 24/ 7

It is difficult for any tour business to be open for operations round the clock (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Most tour businesses go with the typical 9 - 5 business hours. Unfortunately, a 9 - 5 tour business means that your customers may not be available to book reservations when you are in the office.

Customers may have their own 9 - 5 work to attend to. Thus, you must have closed shop for the day and be unavailable when they are available.

An online booking system helps you to be open to accepting bookings round the clock. With an online booking system, you do not need to be present or man your computer for a customer to book a tour.

Thus, customers can book your tours on their schedule, whether during the day or at night.

3. An online booking system reduces your workload

An online booking system reduces your phone and email inquiries and automates many administrative tasks to reduce your workload significantly.

It takes a lot of work to process tour bookings manually. The daily activities of a tour business will include: fielding calls and emails for inquiries, accepting bookings, managing booking changes and cancellations, etc.

Even if you have the staff for these activities, they can be overwhelming, leading to errors and lost business. For example, if you are taking a call, another call that comes in might go to voicemail, and the person may hang up and go for another tour operator.

An online booking system helps reduce your workload, allowing you to manage your daily activities effectively. The online booking system will have information about the different activities, availability/ dates, tour sizes, etc. With this information readily available, you’ll field fewer calls for inquiries. It also eliminates mistakenly giving out incorrect information.

An online booking system also helps you automate repetitive guest communication. You can set up emails to be sent to customers at different stages of their customer journey. For example, you can set up a:

• Welcome email to send to customers that sign up
• Confirmation emails to send to customers who book tours or make payments
• Encouragement emails to send to customers who abandon their cart without completing their purchase (booking or making payment)
• Reminder emails to send customers appropriate alerts (like reminders to pay following a reservation, reminders of “X” days to tour dates, etc.)

Automatic emails that remind guests of their scheduled activity (e.g., 3 days to tour date, etc.) help to prevent cancellations and no-shows.

Automating repetitive customer communications reduces your workload and eliminates mistakes such as typos and grammatical errors.

4. An online booking system allows you to collect payments sooner

Online booking differs from manual bookings, which make you wait until the day of the tour to receive payment.

In an online booking system, you can encourage customers to prepay for tour activities, whether down payments or full payments. It puts money in your pocket faster, giving you a better overview of your financial bottom line.

Also, you will not have to worry about payment on the day of the tour, allowing you to concentrate on giving customers a wonderful experience.

5. An online booking system helps you save on commissions

An online booking system can eliminate third-party booking portals, allowing you to deal directly with your customer.

Third-party booking portals collect commissions. So, if you sell your tours via these sites (like Booking.com, Expedia, etc.), you’ll only get a percentage of every payment. Sometimes, these commissions are as much as 30%.

With an online booking system, you dodge abusive third-party commissions. You only have to pay for the license and nothing more to implement an online booking system. When customers book your tours, you receive 100% of the payment.

6. An online booking system allows you to upsell add-ons and extras

An online booking system makes upselling easy for your tour business to increase your revenue. The system allows you to easily add perks and extra services to your standard tour package to give customers a more memorable experience.

In an online booking system, you can show customers the extra services and allow them to choose whether they want the extras.

For example, you can add a short tour to your standard tour and advertise the bundle as a more fulfilling package. Many customers who come for the standard tour may be enticed by the “more fulfilling” offer and go for it.

Extras you can upsell using an online booking system include tour-related merchandise. For example, you can include fun tour memorabilia like local artisan handicrafts, postcards, branded souvenirs, photo packages, books, etc.

A meal (and drinks) is also a popular add-on for upselling tour activities. You can offer a meal as an add-on and encourage customers to add it to their tour package for a more enjoyable experience.

7. An online booking system gives valuable insights into your business and customer behavior

An online booking system gives you data that helps you understand your tour business and customers better.

As you may already know, data helps you make better decisions for your business's future. It helps you forecast, plan, and track your business performance.

For example, online booking systems can give you insights to improve your tour business in the following ways:

• It shows your popular tours. You can use this to forecast whether a certain tour will draw visitors. You can also use the information to know what tours to promote and which ones to retire.
• It shows the times when tours are mostly in demand. You can use this information to forecast when your tours will be in demand and plan effectively (e.g., build more capacity by getting more staff, etc.). It can also give you insight into why certain tours are not successful (e.g., fixing the right tours for the wrong season).
• It shows the profile of your customers. In an online booking system, you can choose to collect different customer information like sex, age, likes, etc. Thus, the system gives you insight into the customer to target in your marketing campaigns.
• It shows the effectiveness of your partnerships. Online booking systems can give insights into how your customers find and book your tour services. This tells you partnerships that you can renew and scale up to drive more leads for your tour business.
• It shows customer satisfaction levels. You can seek for customer feedback regarding the booking process or the tour itself. Such feedback gives you insights into design or operational changes to make to improve customer experiences.

8. An online booking system improves revenue

An online booking system can boost revenue for your tour business directly and indirectly.
Some of the ways that an online booking system boosts revenue are:

• Maximizes bookings. Since an online booking system allows you to accept bookings 24/ 7, you gain customers that you would have otherwise lost, putting more money in your hand.
• Reduces no-shows. The email automation that online booking systems allow enables you to set reminders to customers, reducing no-shows and refunds.
• Upsell services. Since an online booking system allows you to upsell your tours effortlessly, you can get customers to purchase more than what they came for, putting more money in your hand.
• Eliminates third-party commissions. Since an online booking system can help you eliminate third-party booking portals and their commissions, allowing you to earn more per booking.
• Revenue-boosting insights. The many insights that an online booking system gives can boost revenue directly and indirectly. For example, you can arrange tours when they are most demanded, pursue partnerships that drive more leads, etc.

Conclusion

If you have a tour business, implementing an online booking system is a no-brainer as it has many advantages.

It simplifies the reservation process, allows you to accept bookings 24/ 7, reduces your workload, puts money in your hand sooner, helps you save on commission, allows you to upsell tours, gives valuable insights about your business, and helps you boost revenue.

Roverd ticks all the right boxes when it comes to online booking systems. You can:

• Easily integrate it to your website to start booking clients for tours because all you need is to install a plugin
• Make it yours by customizing the widget with your logos and colors, keeping in theme with your company branding
• Use it to give your customers booking access to tours and activities 24/ 7
• Provide customers with information about tours and easily accept payments
• Notify guests of their scheduled activity to prevent cancellations and no-shows

Roverd is your tour business’ one-stop shop for all things tour planning and scheduling.
Ready to boost your tour business’ reservations and revenue? Contact Roverd for a demo today!