Our guide reviews the most popular online booking and reservation management systems for activity operators and tour guides. We evaluated top-rated activity booking software across review sites (like G2, Capterra, and GetApp) and dug into the user feedback to compile our list of five contenders: Bókun, FareHarbor, Peek Pro, TrekkSoft, and Orioly.
We begin with a walk-through of our tour operator software — Bókun — and explain the features to: create a bookable website, sell activities across popular online travel sites like Viator and GetYourGuide, create reseller partnerships, and grow your operations.
We work with tour and activity providers, big and small, from all corners of the world to help them generate more bookings, save time, and offer a better experience. You can try Bókun for free (no credit card required) to explore the features and start selling online.
Bókun: User-friendly, cost-effective tour & activity booking software
Bókun is a comprehensive tour and activity operator software with user-friendly features to go digital and increase bookings through online channels. Our platform lets you:
- Build a custom, bookable website to receive direct bookings.
- Create listings for all your activities and experiences; manage the details, availability, and pricing.
- Reach thousands of potential customers by connecting with online travel agencies (OTAs) like Viator and partnering with other tour operators, travel agents, DMOs, hotels, and attractions via our distribution network.
- Monitor all reservations (online and offline) and update availability in one calendar.
- Manage payments and track revenue.
- Streamline field operations and keep tour guides and in-office staff working in sync.
- Improve the customer experience to encourage positive reviews and repeat reservations.
We pack a lot under our roof, but we’ve designed all dashboards and features to be intuitive and easy to navigate; Bókun requires no training, and most users can be set up in a few hours. The platform features will prompt you through different set-up steps, but our team can also help during onboarding.
Ease of use aside, what makes our platform so accessible is pricing: we charge the lowest booking fees in the category (1% to 1.5%) and charge no Bókun booking fees on Viator and offline bookings. Our preferred partnership with Viator also grants users a number of free product checks each year.
Plus, our platform (and all core features) is available starting at a low subscription cost: $49/month. This allows us to work with one- or two-person teams and helps businesses raise their bottom line and see true growth.
Here’s how it works.
Bring your business online: Build your site, add products, & connect with OTAs
Our custom website builder lets you create a branded site from a library of templates. We also call this our one-click website builder because you can choose a template and easily plug in the details: select background colours, add custom fonts and text, and include imagery and logos — no coding required.
You can choose a website name, and we’ll handle the steps to confirm, purchase, and manage your domain.
Note: If you already have a website, you can add our booking widget to your site and enable users to make reservations. It’s as easy as copying and pasting the embed code on your site.
Then, the Experiences dashboard lets you create custom listings for all your activities. Again, the product builder will prompt you through the steps, making this workflow easy.
- Create the product name (try to get creative here so your experiences stand out on OTAs and grab visitors’ attention).
- Add a detailed description of the activity — include all relevant details about activities, and be creative and engaging in descriptions to persuade visitors to book. Don’t forget to include information about policies and procedures (pick-up or drop-off destinations, cancellation policies).
- Include high-quality images.
- Include open and close dates and time slots for activities. You can modify product availability on the fly by closing out individual dates and departure times. This helps to manage seasonal activities or AM/PM experiences; you can offer specific activities during different times of the year or prevent overlap between morning and evening tours.
- Specify capacity to control the number of attendees who can book.
- Add pricing and specify rules for dynamic pricing — this feature will automatically adjust rates to maximise booking potential and revenue; for example, you can set rules to offer discounts or raise rates based on the number of days before departure.
Products automatically list on your site so visitors can see available activities and time slots and instantly book online.
We have a preferred partnership with Viator, so Viator users can auto-import products to the Bókun platform. As mentioned, we offer a number of free Viator product checks each year so that you can list new activities without fees.
Next, connect Bókun to OTAs and sell your experiences on the travel sites customers already know and use to book vacations and activities (Viator, GetYourGuide, Google Things to do, Klook, Tiqets, etc). This lets you promote activities to customers all over the world and book out your calendar.
You can manage active sales channels in the Bókun dashboard and control your offerings across sites: choose which products to sell and specify rates.
Online reservations from your site and sales channels will appear in the Bókun calendar so you can view all upcoming bookings in one dashboard.
We offer the lowest booking fees to support business growth; you can choose whether to cover booking fees or pass them to the customer.
- 1% to 1.5% fees for direct website bookings and reservations from OTAs
- 0% Bókun fees on Viator bookings
- Free offline bookings
Grow your business via Bókun Marketplace
Beyond connecting with OTAs, you can expand your online reach by making partnerships through our Marketplace.
The Bókun Marketplace is home to thousands of suppliers and resellers around the globe; you can connect with activity and tour providers, travel agents, DMOs, hotel groups, and resorts in your area to promote your activities through their business or resell their offerings for commission. This also presents creative ways for businesses to offer bundle deals.
Establishing partnerships creates new opportunities for customers to discover your activities and book with you. Tour operators who take advantage of the Marketplace tool report a 20% uptick in bookings within six months.
If you frequently book out and want new strategies to increase revenue, you can act as a reseller and promote others’ activities alongside your products. Then, you can earn bookings for partners and receive a commission.
You can add new partners as you go (we support unlimited partner contracts) and manage all contracts within Bókun.
Manage your entire operations from one hub
The first major appeal to online booking tools is the opportunity to sell online and grow your business, but the convenience these tools offer in managing and improving operations are arguably just as valuable.
- You can add staff members to the platform, assign user roles, and keep everyone connected — we even have mobile apps to support field staff.
- Set your operating hours and availability through Bókun — your availability updates across sales channels in real-time to prevent overbookings.
- Manage all bookings in one calendar — see all new reservations and their details from the dashboard; then, you can schedule staff and monitor resources.
- Connect Bókun with payment processing tools, like Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Worldpay, etc., to track online payments in the dashboard. You can also add offline reservations and track those payments in Bókun.
- Create custom booking forms, tickets, and waivers for activities.
- Automatically collect and store customer information with the CRM tool.
- Create automated emails that are sent to customers at certain times or after specific actions. For example, you can design order confirmation emails, follow-ups to remind customers of bookings, and thank-you emails to share review links or discounts to rebook. You can also use the auto message feature to follow up with customers when they abandon checkout or cancel bookings.
Bókun also has a reporting dashboard to help you understand more about your digital strategies and what’s happening behind the scenes. We offer preset reports to show:
- The number of reservations booked — you can monitor upcoming bookings and reference past reservations.
- Reservations by sales channel — you can see which OTAs and partners bring in the most bookings.
- Reservations by product so you can see which activities are most popular.
- Revenue and income — you can compare earnings by product or sales channel and analyse data over different dates.
These reports give you a bird’s-eye view of operations so you can make more strategic business decisions and prepare for slow and busy seasons.
Save time & simplify workflows for all staff members
Bókun keeps bookings and staff members organised to maintain smooth operations, and our tools empower customers to learn about your offerings, book with you (even cancel bookings), and pay online without requesting information or help from your team.
Providing a simple, seamless booking process improves the chance of earning new reservations and saves your staff time — compared to traditional spreadsheets and booking forms that require back and forth to confirm time slots, collect payment information, and complete waivers. (And more communication if customers want to modify or cancel bookings.)
Our mobile apps also improve the customer check-in experience so arrival doesn’t cause delays. Customers can complete waivers and download tickets from order confirmation emails; then, staff members can easily see who’s booked for each tour, scan tickets, and confirm attendees’ arrivals.
Then, all that’s left is to deliver an exemplary customer experience throughout their visit to win positive reviews and repeat customers.
Getting started with Bókun
We offer a 14-day free trial to explore our platform before opting into a subscription. Our platform is easy to use, so you can begin building your site, adding products, and browsing OTAs and the Marketplace.
After the trial ends, you can choose to upgrade to a plan from $49/month (this doesn’t happen automatically); to access all applicable features discussed in our guide, unlimited Marketplace access, and website costs. We offer free Viator bookings and charge a (low) 1% to 1.5% booking fee for other online reservations. You can also add offline reservations and payments to Bókun and manage those on our platform for free.
Alternative Tour & Activity Booking Software
In addition to Bókun, brands like FareHarbor, Peek Pro, TrekkSoft, and Orioly are also favoured on customer review sites.
FareHarbor
FareHarbor is a popular online booking system commonly mentioned across review sites — the appeal to the software is that it’s marketed as a free solution for tour operators (they don’t charge subscription fees).
However, they charge ~6% in booking fees, which could deter price sensitive customers from making a booking. Several FareHarbor customers have stated this can negatively impact booking conversions and decrease the new reservations.
Overall, FareHarbor offers website-building services and essential booking management features, and their platform is fairly easy to use.
Features
- Website-building services — note: this has its pros and cons. It can be time-saving and ease some onboarding burden, but you’re limited to what FareHarbor designs and have to go through their team to perfect the initial design or make changes to the site in the future. Plus, FareHarbor’s team uses templates to design sites, so they’re not doing anything overly complex or complicated.
- Online booking engine
- Customisable dashboard to manage all bookings (offline & online) in one place
- Channel management & connections with OTAs like Expedia
- Partner network
- Product (Inventory) management to list activities & monitor business resources
- Availability management
- Staff management
- Features to improve the customer experience: portals to modify bookings, automated communications, online waiver solutions, fast check-in tools, memberships
- Reporting
- Native POS (with transaction fees to use) and integrations with Stripe
- Mobile apps
Pricing
FareHarbor does not charge subscription fees, and they pass booking fees to the customer. Booking fees vary depending on your business size but are reported to go up to 6%.
Peek Pro
Peek Pro is a more advanced online booking solution that’s best for teams that already have an online presence and are interested in new strategies to increase bookings and revenue. Peek Pro markets its solution to activity businesses and attractions of all sizes, but we give this recommendation because the platform does not offer a website builder, and most of the features focus on enhancing the booking experience.
The platform offers dozens of features for teams ready to scale operations, and they earn positive reviews for their customer support and the platform’s ease of use. Some users say set-up can be challenging, but their team is available to help.
Features
- Online booking engine (you can embed their widget on your site to make it bookable)
- Custom booking calendar & reservation management tools
- Product management
- Channel management & connections with OTAs
- Availability & staff management
- Features to increase revenue, including dynamic pricing, bundles, and add-ons (note: Peek collects commission on add-on sales)
- Features to increase bookings, including marketing tools to follow up with customers who abandon their carts and features to offer memberships, vouchers, gift cards, and discounts
- Peek reseller network
- Peek Capital (to apply for loans)
- Native POS to collect in-person payments & integrations with online payment processors
- Features to improve the customer experience: portals to modify bookings, digital waivers, custom tickets, Kiosk mode with ticket scanning
- Mobile apps
- Integrations & API
- Reporting
Pricing
Peek Pro does not list pricing on their website; however, users say they do not charge subscription fees, and booking fees are passed to the customer. These fees can vary, but we’ve heard they can be as high as 6% (the same as FareHarbor above). Users also report Peek charges a $199 one-time set-up fee.
TrekkSoft
TrekkSoft’s online booking platform is a popular choice amongst European-based activity businesses (that said, they have expanded their reach and work with businesses around the world).
TrekkSoft offers tiered plans to support businesses at different growth stages — and the platform is mostly straightforward and easy to use.
Features
- Custom website builder (and booking widgets for teams that already have websites)
- Online booking engine
- Channel management & connections with OTAs
- Reseller network to partner with travel agents, hotels, attractions, and other tour operators
- Back-office tools to report on operations; manage products, availability, and staff schedules; monitor upcoming bookings and resources; process payments and track finances
- Payoo, TrekkSoft’s native payment processing system
- Native POS (also available on mobile) & integrations with online payment processors, including Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay
- Mobile apps
Pricing
TrekkSoft offers three packages: Commission (for teams just getting started), Accelerate (the recommended plan), and Ultimate (for larger, scaling teams).
- Commission — no subscription costs — includes the essentials to bring your business online and sell activities across OTAs but grants limited access to the reseller network. This plan seems appealing because it’s free, but you are required to sign a 12-month contract and pay a €799 one-time set-up fee. TrekkSoft also charges the highest booking fees for this package: 5% for direct online bookings, 3% on bookings from OTAs, and a €0.55 fee for every offline booking.
- Accelerate — €117 per month — includes everything in Commission, full access to the reseller network, and a couple of extra convenient features, like calendar synchronisation. This plan grants lower booking fees: 2.5% for online bookings and €0.55 per offline booking.
- Ultimate — €234 per month — includes TrekkSoft’s business intelligence suite and access to the developer API. Users enjoy the lowest booking fees in this plan: 2% for online bookings and €0.55 per offline booking.
Note: TrekkSoft charges a transaction fee for all online payments through Payoo (2.5% + €0.25 — this rate is the same across all packages).
Orioly
The last name on our list, Orioly , is a fairly new online reservation and booking management system — with that, there aren’t many user reviews about the brand, but the available feedback is all positive. They work primarily with UK-based teams and are prominent in Croatia.
Orioly offers solutions for tour operators, activity providers, attractions, DMOs, and tourism boards, and they have a variety of packages for both SMBs and enterprise teams.
The platform is marketed as easy to use with essential functionality to simplify operations; users also note the platform’s ease of use and praise the customer support team, reporting that onboarding is quick and simple. However, it’s worth noting this solution is one of the most expensive in this software category.
Features
- Online booking widget to receive reservations from your website
- Product (Inventory) management & availability management
- Channel management
- Connections with OTAs & OTA channel management
- B2B reseller marketplace
- Features to offer add-ons and discounts
- Native POS and integrations with common payment processors
- Lightweight CRM & automated customer communications
- Automated document creation to send quotes, invoices, waivers, vouchers, etc.
- Reporting
- Staff management
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Orioly has three packages for small and growing businesses and offers custom plans for enterprise teams.
The packages for SMBs include:
- Startup — €228 per month — includes the channel manager, POS system, reporting dashboard, Google and Facebook integrations, online payment notifications, guest tools, and coupon codes. It notably does not include resource management, OTA management, or mobile apps. Users pay a 2.5% fee for online bookings in this plan.
- Growth — €320 per month — this includes access to all Orioly features but excludes email automation. Orioly charges a 2% booking fee in this plan.
- Business — €455 per month — this includes access to all Orioly features, and users pay the lowest booking fees in this plan (1%).
Pros & Cons: All plans allow unlimited bookings, products, and user accounts. However, users must pay a one-time set-up fee regardless of the plan they choose (Orioly does not disclose this cost).
Bókun makes it easy for activity and tour operators to bring their business online, with user-friendly features and affordable pricing. Our platform lets you create a custom site, sell activities across countless sales channels, and reach hundreds of potential customers — and keep all of your reservations, resources, and employees organised in the process.
See how Bókun can support your business by starting a 14-day free trial .
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