Tour operators use reservation systems to manage bookings and staff, take payments, increase sales, and broaden distribution. They have become an essential piece of technology for many travel companies to track and analyse the progress of their business. However, Arival estimates that almost half of operators do not use a booking system. Here’s why tour operators should use a reservation system.
Online sales
Reservation systems were created for most travel industries to enable online sales. While it is possible to sell online and through online travel agencies (OTAs) without one, it is much easier when a booking system is used. The technology is designed to efficiently organise inventory and sales and remove much of the required manual work.
A reservation system will connect to your website, to OTAs, distributors and resellers, to your front and back offices, and to street salespeople. Every sale and cancellation made is automatically and immediately updated in the system. This reduces mistakes, speeds up all your processes, and makes the information easier to analyse. The reservation system is your single source of truth.
For example, because a reservation system tracks every booking and cancellation, it knows exactly how many seats are still available to sell. Once the limit for a tour is hit, sales of that trip will automatically be closed across all channels. This is called live availability and is a tool that OTAs want operators to use. Live availability brings an end to overbookings and updating everything manually.
Distribution
Distribution is selling your products in different locations, such as through an online travel agency. For most tour operators, the distribution capabilities of a reservation system will suit their needs and provide sales through the main OTAs. Some operators may require an additional tool to widen the number of channels they can sell through. This is called a channel manager.
Every OTA will have a way of communicating with a reservation system called an API. This is a pipe through which specific information flows, such as new bookings, seats available, and payment details. Information that changes less frequently, such as tour descriptions and photos, will be updated through an OTA’s extranet or portal.
Reservation systems will have years of experience in building tools for these APIs, and some will work closely with the OTAs to provide the best service possible, such as Palisis’ Premium involvement in the GetYourGuide Connectivity Partner Program.
Payment handling
Safe and secure payment handling is essential when taking online and offline payments and storing customer information. It is important to ask a booking platform provider questions about these before making decisions.
All connections to your website, OTAs and distributors must be secure, well-maintained and regularly updated. While it should be expected that a website will be secure in 2024, there are still operators out there working without the proper security measures. The databases of the reservation system need to be encrypted and only accessible by you and members of staff that you trust.
Not all booking systems will provide connected point-of-sale devices to be used on the street and in sales offices. However, these must meet all relevant standards, such as PCI, to receive credit and debit card payments. Connected POS devices can also reduce the risk of fraud by a member of your staff, as all payments are immediately linked to a product in the system and a printed receipt is provided. This reduces the risk of somebody skimming off the top.
Analysis
To grow your business, you need to know what is working and what isn’t. At times, you need to be able to see this in granular detail. Reservation systems for tour and experience operators are specialised in providing the tools for these analyses.
Top-level graphs, charts and information will included on your dashboard as soon as you log in. This will include sales volumes, channels, products and locations. It will be possible to drill down into each of these using a range of criteria and factors, such as date, location, and salesperson, to analyse why something is working or not.
Because information in the booking system is updated in real-time, it can react quickly to changes. For example, each handheld point-of-sale device is fitted with a GPS tracker. If one suddenly starts to report a large increase in sales, you can despatch another salesperson to take advantage of the situation while ensuring that your staff aren’t overwhelmed while each customer can buy their ticket.
Staff and transport
Higher-end reservation systems will contain features designed to help you manage your staff, equipment and vehicles. Many systems at this end are specialised in a certain area of the tours and experiences sector and will have built tools specifically for that market.
For example, creating rotas to cover every trip automatically is possible. If an extra tour is required or one is cancelled, it is easy to shift your resources so that everything is covered.
If you pick up guests from their hotels, routes can be generated for drivers, and the guests can be provided with an accurate time. Vehicle management is another feature that larger operators often require to ensure that every bus or car is in the correct location to provide transport for the activities.
Salespeople can be incentivised by providing accurate real-time details of their targets and commissions. These can be set in the system, which communicates with the device the salesperson is using.
Devices
There has been a marked increase in consumers booking their experiences online. However, many will still walk into an office looking for a tour or purchase on the street while they are visiting your destination. Walk-ups will never disappear for many tour operators.
Different point-of-sale devices are available to process these sales more efficiently. These include hand-held, desktop, and self-service kiosks. Each will be directly connected to the booking system, and your inventory will be updated automatically with each sale.
The POS devices pull information from the system. Details of each tour can be shown to a customer, and upgrades and extras can be upsold easily using a checkout flow that you set up. This can be unique to each product. High-resolution pictures can be shown to inspire the customer on all devices. Each is designed to take card payments quickly and securely, and fraud is reduced with cash payments because each sale is automatically tracked.