Sherpa Foods

Sherpa Food Tours is the number one food tour in Buenos Aires, offering immersive gastronomic experiences in Argentina. The company has grown significantly in the past few years, expanding its offerings with restaurants, food, and city tours. It has also launched experiences in London and plans to expand to other countries. 

The tour operator partnered with Bókun in 2022 with one account before increasing its use of subvendor accounts and completely migrating to using Bókun as a booking partner. As a result of that partnership, Sherpa Food Tours has seen a 214% increase in GBV (Gross Booking Value) from OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) in the past year.

In the past 12 months, 46% of their sales have been from Bókun’s agent area which allows Sherpa Food Tours to keep track of all bookings under one roof.

Key results:

• The company saw a 214% increase in GBV from OTAs when comparing Jan-Sep in 2023 and 2024. 
• Agent area in Bókun made up 46% of sales in the past year.
• Agent area helps the tour operator keep track of bookings in one place.

When Alex Pels founded Sherpa Food Tours, he first used the booking engine Bookeo before trying to create his own software. However, he realised that the number of OTAs on the market was aggressively expanding, and it was hard to keep up with all the booking opportunities without a good platform, which is where Bókun stepped in to help. 

“Bókun had thousands of clients, so it was an easy and great decision,” says Alex. “We picked Bókun because having an established API with Viator and GetYourGuide was a big advantage.” 

Many factors appealed to Alex Pels about Bókun beyond its connections to OTAs and the booking platform; he realised that there were benefits to partnering with another growing company.  

“As a business develops and grows, you realise that you need different things. Your needs change and become more complex, and going with a company like Bókun, already established but growing constantly, was a great match. I know that other software companies are more established, but I like the feeling of Bókun being more personal and the team more accessible. I felt more like part of the family.” – Alex Pels, Founder of Sherpa Food Tours

As Alex Pels tried to set up his business with Bókun and was figuring it out, he soon realised that help was there for him and that Bókun was on his team. 

“I ended up in contact with Tommy from customer service and Eimantas, the API Account Manager, and they just were so helpful in figuring things out,” says Alex, “I then eventually found out that Eimantas had nothing to do with customer service, and he was the API guy, but he was helping me with something that was completely beyond his job description. That’s when I was like, these people really are trying to help me succeed. This network of people was ready to help us when we needed it.”

Once he got support from Bókun, everything started to fall into place, and the integration went smoothly, and any challenges that came up got resolved quickly. 

“Everything was quick, and Bókun was transparent about everything that would not be. You understand that sometimes you’re requesting things that are specific to your business and it’s not a priority, but they take the feedback onboard, and they are always very helpful in finding a solution for it.” – Alex Pels, Founder of Sherpa Food Tours

Once the Argentinian food tour operator set up their account with Bókun and got everything running, they started to grow their business and were able to focus on enhancing the quality of their tours. 

“You take so many things for granted when you start with Bókun. I just put a widget on my site where people can book tours, and that’s it. That’s amazing. All the operations and day-to-day tasks like reporting, growing the extras I can sell online, and clients being able to cancel their own bookings, everything has been time-saving for the team, and it allowed us to concentrate on what we do best: Creating unique experiences.” – Alex Pels, Founder of Sherpa Food Tours

Bókun introduced Sherpa Food Tours to our subvendor feature, allowing them to manage multiple companies and offer different brands based on target markets. This enabled the tour operator to oversee everything in one place and manage all brands from a single account.

“The subvendor feature is very helpful because we have different brands with different branding and different telephones to contact clients. That’s been very helpful as it’s given us a one-stop shop. I can have everything in one place, and it’s straightforward,” adds Alex.

One other benefit of the Bókun system for the tour company is currency. Since Argentina has a currency restriction similar to Turkey, having the option to allow for different payment methods has been a massive benefit for the company. 

“It’s probably been one of the biggest game changers for us, as Argentines can pay with local currency, and Americans can pay with Stripe. When you’re new, you don’t realise the things you need until they come on demand, and you realise that Bókun is already thinking about them. And if they’re not, they’re open to listening, and that’s another huge benefit of working with Bókun,” says Alex. 

Bókun opened the tour company’s business to online shopping, which is available 24/7, making it easier for them to grow. 

“It’s not just having the website that matters, but being able to connect to the most important OTAs also matters,” concludes Alex, “If you want to succeed, you have to be everywhere. This was very hard, but now, with Bókun, it is super straightforward.”  

Other Key Operational Improvements: 

• Bókun’s Agent Area contributed to 46% of sales, providing a centralised system for managing bookings and connecting with additional agents.
• By using Bókun’s subvendor functionality, Sherpa Food Tours managed accounts for five subsidiary brands, streamlining operations under one platform.
• The integration of Bókun’s automation features reduced manual communication and administrative tasks, allowing Sherpa Food Tours to focus more on enhancing their tours.
• The ability to accept payments in local currency and through various payment methods addressed currency restrictions in Argentina and simplified transactions for international transactions.
• Sherpa Food Tours set up multiple triggered emails to ensure customers have all necessary information (including booking reminders with pick up points, cart abandonment and request review emails).

Sherpa Food Tours took advantage of most of Bókun’s features, such as the Marketplace, Agent Areas, Subvendors, Custom Reports, and Booking Widgets. 

“The booking widget is very helpful; it makes it easy to get reservations, and being able to maintain a reservation for 48 hours until the client pays, unless the reservation is cancelled, is very convenient for our team,” says Alex. 

The Bókun platform reduces the time it takes to upload new products as well as allowing them to showcase their traveller reviews.

“Creating products, cloning products, and connecting to the OTAs are game changers, being able to connect my Tripadvisor reviews is also super helpful.” – Alex Pels, Founder of Sherpa Food Tours

However, as Bókun’s features evolve, Alex Pels finds there’s always something new and opportunities to explore. 

“Bókun has allowed us to start working with blogs and affiliate links,” he says, “The monthly reports sent to us have been incredibly helpful, allowing us to expand our network with agencies and blogs. I also appreciate the versatility of the booking channels.”

Marketplace 
The Bókun Marketplace has allowed the tour operator to expand their reach and allow partnerships with OTAs and other companies. This has resulted in 3 supplier contracts, allowing Sherpa Tours to sell complementary tours from other operators, and 17 reseller contracts.

Agent Areas
Bókun’s Agent Areas, where companies from outside Bókun can check the inventory and book tours without having to contact the team directly, opened up new booking opportunities. The tour company has connected with 41 booking agents, and 46% of the past years’ bookings came through this feature.

Subvendors 
The subvendors feature allowed the company to connect the accounts of subsidiary tour companies. Sherpa Food Tours now has 5: Argentine Experience, Criolla, Fogón Asado, Furia Tours, and IGR Argentine Experience. 

Custom Reports 
The Custom Reports helped the food tour operator analyse and understand how the business is performing to help make decisions and find ways to increase revenue. 

Advanced Website Upgrade
The website is where most of the tour operator’s customers book and find out about their experiences, so the feature helps keep the website operating at its best at all times and upgrades automatically. 

Pass the fee 
This feature adds the 1.5% booking charge to the traveller’s price, allowing Sherpa Tours to maximise their revenues. 

Alex Pels learned that being available for bookings round the clock is vital for success, especially when it comes to working with OTAs.

The founder has gained considerable insight from Bókun and feels like an expert when it comes to using the platform. This also made him realise the importance of having a reliable booking system that takes the pressure off his team and also makes things more streamlined for his customers. 

“If you want to succeed with the OTAs, you have to have as much availability as possible, whenever they want. It allowed us to go from one tour a day to 10 to 15 tours a day.”

Another thing we learned from Alex’s experience with Bókun is our team’s willingness to improve things continuously. 

“Once you compare products between Bókun and another company, they are all going to look the same at first, but with Bókun you will feel taken care of. They will help you succeed and that they are the people you need in your corner at the end of the day. All the help you can get is what’s going to make you better than the rest, and that’s what I’d say applies to Bókun,” concludes Alex. 

Sherpa Food Tours has worked with Bókun since 2022 and has since grown from being a company with only one account and a few tours on offer to operating several subvendor accounts, expanding their tour offerings, and expanding into foreign markets. 

The tour company has taken advantage of several Bókun features, allowing them to continually streamline their business processes and operations, saving their team time to focus on creating the best experience possible for their clients. 

Bókun’s mission is to help your tour and activity business generate more bookings with less work. Start your free 14-day trial today to explore our software can help you save time and grow your business.