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What is an online booking software?

With the recent rise in travelling after the long and dreary COVID-19 lockdown lifts, the tourism industry's popularity is rising. People finally have exciting vacations and holidays to look forward to and are making the most of them.

TripAdmit
TripAdmit

With the recent rise in travelling after the long and dreary COVID-19 lockdown lifts, the tourism industry's popularity is rising. People finally have exciting vacations and holidays to look forward to and are making the most of them. Long gone are the days of traditional travelling — consumer behaviour shows that people are now investing more in unique and exclusive experiences, in and out of their countries. Hence, this offers a perfect opportunity for tour and activity businesses to showcase their offers and take advantage of the current climate.

Let's step into the shoes of customers for a minute. Here's a situation: you're planning to take a well-deserved trip with your family after being cooped up in the house for so long, but where do you want to go? What do you want to do? You're in the mood for new, thrilling adventures, and having one platform where you can access all of your options would be pretty convenient. This is where online booking software comes in handy.

What is an online tour booking software?

An online tour booking software is a facility where tour and activity suppliers/companies can display their services, activities and experiences to customers (tourists, travellers, vacationers) for purchasing all under one roof. With the online booking software, customers can either browse various tours/activities before purchasing their favourite one or be redirected to a supplier website where they choose their tour/activity.

There are several reasons why many tour companies are opting for activity booking software. Other than being ridiculously convenient for both supplier and customer, an online booking software is:

  • Open 24/7: customers can browse or purchase tours whenever they want.
  • Highly efficient: tour booking systems allow customers to book more activities in less time.
  • Automated: you and your staff focus on other tasks while the booking software automates key tasks such as payments, reservations, waiver signing, insurance and many more.

Most of all, an online booking software is remarkably easy to set up and use! Here is a little guide on what to expect with TripAdmit's online tour booking software. From setup to customers arriving with e-tickets on their phones, there are three main interactions with the TripAdmit ticketing system.

1.Setting up/adding new tours and activities

Suppliers can start setting up their tours and activities on the online booking system by providing the details, availability and pricing for each one. All of their tours/activities are organized on a single dashboard where suppliers can make edits or updates if needed.

  • Details: This includes images, descriptions, highlights and important information about the tour/activity the supplier is offering, such as the location on a map, directions or captures of previous customer experiences. The supplier can also choose to enable custom requests for any information that they require from the customers.
  • Availability: Suppliers can specify when and how long each tour/activity should be available for. This feature is important especially for certain activities desirable in a particular season, such as cliff-diving, which probably runs at a high season in the summer than the winter.

Suppliers can also choose to give opening and closing times (opening time tours) only for activities open all day, for example, theme parks. Specific time hours are allocated for tours/activities with certain starting times (starting time tours), such as hour-long tapas tours. According to the nature of their tour/activities, suppliers choose and input the relevant information.

  • Pricing: Pricing varies according to the tour and factors such as the age of each customer: child, adult, and senior, and whether they are students or not. Tour/activity suppliers can set prices, lower them during low seasons and raise/vary them during peak times in the high seasons. The online booking system also allows suppliers to specify the maximum number of participants allowed on a tour. This helps prevent overbooking, reaching past peak capacity and various other issues.

Pricing also includes a new feature where the TripAdmit tour booking system allows suppliers to set up and add additional extras to tours. That enables upsell for suppliers and makes the experience that bit more luxurious for customers if they wish to stretch the extra bit in the checkout. Typical extras usually include audio guides, bottles of water & pints of Guinness on some Dublin walking tours.

2.Browsing

Customers arrive on the supplier's website organically through search engines or from a social media post. They can browse through a variety of tours and activities before making a purchase.

Using the efficient and easy-to-use online tour booking system, the customer clicks on TripAdmit's 'Book Now' button. They are given options to select the date, the time and the number of participants included in their booking. Next, the customers supply any additional details, pay for the tour, and they're done!

But that's not all. TripAdmit's new feature, the channel manager, makes this process even easier. Once the tours/activities are set up, TripAdmit's online tour booking system enables users to add their tour/activity to multiple third-party channels and industry leaders, including Reserve with Google, Expedia, Get Your Guide, Groupon & Viator. In addition to now being available for purchase on their own website, suppliers can take bookings on their tours from these third-party websites, which allows them to access a wider audience resulting in an increase in bookings.

3.After purchase

After the customer has purchased their desired tour/activity, they receive an email consisting of a digital ticket shown to the company's supplier upon arrival.

The tour/activity supplier receives the customer's booking notification which automatically gets added to their manifest: all of their bookings with dates, time and details. If enabled, they will then receive the payment made by the customer directly into their bank account, minus TripAdmit's fees.

With such a convenient and efficient way to manage your bookings, it is no wonder that many tour/activities suppliers and companies are switching to online booking systems. TripAdmit's online tour booking system allows suppliers to provide the ultimate seamless and smooth booking experience for customers, showing sensitivity towards their needs. Alongside that, suppliers can make their business more convenient, organised and efficient for themselves too.

To learn more about how TripAdmit can improve and enhance your booking experience, click here to make any enquiries or keep an eye out for regular updates on our LinkedIn!