August 11, 2021
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Operating a tour company can be an absolute dream if you love sharing travel and fun with curious would-be adventurers. Experiencing the joy on your customer's faces as you introduce them to the experience of a lifetime is more than reason enough to get into the tour and charter industry. But running a successful tour and travel business is much more than endless fun and unforgettable moments. You spend countless hours curating unique experiences and organizing logistics so that your customers can enjoy these moments. There are ways to make this process easier for both your customers and yourself so that you can all focus more on the adventure on the adventure before you.
The days of taking reservations over the phone and penciling in your customer's booking and information in a paper calendar are far gone. In the glowing age of technology, tour operators have the advantage of using a tour booking engine to keep track of tour bookings, availabilities, dates, times, tour customizations, and so much more. Modernizing your booking system with online tour operating software offers multiple advantages and conveniences for both you and your customers that will save time, increase revenue, and — most importantly — create a better overall experience.
The statistics are staggering and thorough. It's estimated that by 2023 over 700 million people will use online booking systems. Additionally, 83% of would-be travelers prefer to book their adventures online.
With a good booking engine in place, your tour company can be available to your customers at all times. This means that should a potential customer have an impulse in the middle of the night to book a tour, you don't have to personally be available for them to scratch that itch. This convenience will help to increase your bookings and revenue.
Manually processing and managing bookings takes considerable time, time which could be spent improving your offerings and business in other ways. Having a booking engine automates hours of work. With a booking engine, you can automatically book, send confirmation information, reminders, further information for customers to know, terms and services, and organize invoices. Think about how long all of that takes you, and then think about what you could do with the time that is freed up because you automated it.
In order to increase customer satisfaction and bookings, you need to know what is working and what isn't. Having tour operator software helps you understand what packages are the most popular by season, what time slots are the most in-demand, and what drives your customers to book with you.
All tour operators have found themselves stuck in the unfortunate position of having overbooked a popular tour. Some online booking engines don't have live inventory, so you can go to sleep one evening with twenty open slots on a specific tour and wake up to thirty reservations. Now you have to contact ten potential customers and tell them that they can't have what your website promised. With live inventory, your customers can see up-to-date information on how booked a certain tour is at any given time. This helps you to keep customers happy and helps to book other time slots that have more availability.
Consumers are continually switching from their desktops and laptops to mobile devices. Apps have exponentially increased in frequency because of their convenience, and this trend is due to continue, especially with younger generations.
Many travelers make tour bookings on a whim when they're already at their destination. They don't stop in internet cafes to surf the web and look for tours; they check their phones while at a cafe or the accommodation. You want to be available for as many bookings as possible, and having your offerings available through a mobile device will considerably increase your bookings and revenue.
You want your booking process to be as unique as the experiences you offer. Your customers are all different, and they'll all want different things. A booking engine that allows clients to customize their adventure with different options and add-ons makes their experience feel bespoke. Also, allowing customers to make unique orders increases your chance of upselling additional features and generating more revenue.
Junglebee is an online booking engine built by tour operators for tour operators. Their custom booking engine organizes schedules, shows real-time tour availability, and makes it easy for your customers to book the adventure of a lifetime with you. Day-to-day operations and collecting payment are made easier so that you can focus on giving your clients the tour of their dreams. Try it for free and experience for yourself how easy your booking process can be.
