4 reasons why tour and activity operators should be using Payment Links

Before we dive into the world of Payment Links, and their benefits, we wanted to announce an exciting new development the team has been working on. 

New Release: Deposit payments are now available via Payment Links!

“The best news we have heard from Bókun forever” – Bókun user.

Our team has been working hard on adding deposit payment functionality for Payment Links and we are happy to announce this feature is now available to Bókun users!

Help to increase conversion on more expensive tours and remove barriers to purchase by allowing deposit payments on your tours and experiences. Deposit options are also commonly available in other areas within the tourism industry so are familiar to travellers.

If you use Stripe as your payment provider you can also offer Buy Now, Pay Later options when sending customers Payment Links. Buy Now, Pay Later is a great option for customers who want to spread the cost of more expensive tours and experiences. 

Let’s take a look into how Payment Links can help grow your business.

A Payment Link is sent to customers who book with you outside of your website or on reseller sites.

If a customer calls you, emails you or pops into one of your shops, you can take payment securely using Payment Links. All you have to do is create an offline booking in Bókun to generate a Payment Link that you can share with your customer – this can be for the full amount, or a deposit amount.

So, why should you start using Payment Links today?

Paying securely online is commonplace for many customers.

Customers are not as comfortable providing payment details over the phone, on emails or fraud-prone credit card authorisation forms. 

Payment Links provide customers with a secure option to pay online, and can be sent to them whilst you are creating their booking. Payment Links are provided by many payment providers and allow customers to pay securely online within a few clicks. 

Providing secure payment options for offline bookings helps to build trust between you and your customers and can help with positive reviews following the experience. It also means that your team is not having to manage sensitive information when booking tours for offline customers.

No-shows are disappointing and can be costly in terms of lost revenue. Payment Links can help to reduce no-shows among customers who have not yet paid for their experience. 

Customers who are going to pay at the tour start time (or even after it) may be more likely to not show up as they will not incur any financial loss. Payment Links helps to build confidence that all slots on a tour will be full. You can ask customers to secure their booking with a deposit or full payment through Payment Links.

Payment Links can also be set with a ‘must pay by date’. This means that if the date passes without payment, the associated tour slots will become bookable again and can help to reduce revenue losses. 

Bókun is designed to help you move away from offline and spreadsheet management of their tours and business operations. 

Keeping track of payments, invoices, bookings and customer details on different platforms can be tricky, and information can be missed or lost. Adding offline bookings into the Bókun system allows you and your team to keep track of all information in one place. By doing this, you can view all information and easily keep track of customers who have outstanding payments. 

Payment links can also be added into triggered reminder emails before the tour. Using reminder emails allows you to ensure all customers have paid any outstanding funds before the tour starts.

Taking customer payments at the time of your tour or experience can be very time-consuming and can lead to delays. This is inconvenient for you and your team and can lead to a poor customer experience. 

Payment Links eliminate the need to chase customers for payment at the time of your tour, so your guides can start the tour immediately when everyone arrives. Saving time and operational costs so you can focus on growing your business.

Bókun users can find Payment Links under Settings → Sales Settings → Booking Channels. Or you can click here.

If you want to find out more about Payment Links you can watch our video with Product Guru Asthildur here. You can also follow our how-to-guides in our Help Center here. 

Bókun has a whole catalogue of tools, much like Payment Links, to help growing tour and activity operators streamline their operations and make increasing their bookings simpler. Try out your 14-day free trial here.