Most high-quality tour operator software includes an inventory management module — often referred to as resource management — to track supplies and equipment, which is an essential aspect of managing experiences, availability, and bookings.
This enables tour and activity providers to manage operations from a central system, avoiding the need to switch between and pay for separate software. It simplifies workflows, saves time, and prevents errors like overbookings when inventory is unavailable.
Since there is a variety of tour operator software available, we’ve narrowed down the list to five of the best systems with advanced inventory management so you can explore top-rated options.
We’ll cover core features and pricing and explain who each system appeals to so you can find a solution suitable for your business and experience types.
Our guide reviews 5 of the best tour operator software with inventory management, starting with our platform, Bókun. Specifically, we’ll cover:
To explore Bókun more after reading, start a 14-day free trial (no credit card required).
1. Bókun
Comprehensive, scalable tour operator software with the industry’s lowest booking fees
Bókun provides everything tour, activity, and experience providers need to manage operations. It’s one of the most top-rated tour operator software because:
- We’re a Tripadvisor brand with over a decade of experience in the tourism industry.
- Our system connects with dozens of OTAs, and we have premium partnerships with Viator and GetYourGuide to help you grow your business through those channels.
- We provide packages for all team sizes to support one- and two-person teams just building a website and bringing their business online, as well as high-volume global teams looking to manage their business at scale. We even offer a free plan for teams to sell on Viator and manage those bookings.
We’re a top choice for tour operators because our booking fees are lower than competing systems — 1% to 1.5% — so teams can digitise and grow their business via online sales channels without expensive fees (then invest those savings back into business resources).
All in all, our platform includes:
- A centralised booking calendar with real-time availability management
- Online booking engine widgets & a one-click website builder
- Online payment options so customers can confirm reservations & checkout online
- Product & resource management — to create engaging tour listings & track inventory for experiences
- OTA connections & channel management
- Bókun Marketplace with 27K+ travel industry partners
- CRM to store customer information
- Automated communications to send booking confirmations, tickets, reminders, follow-ups, retargeting emails, and other marketing emails
- Mobile apps to keep all tour guides connected
We work with small, fast-growing businesses interested in optimising operational processes and expanding their customer base, as Bókun offers a comprehensive feature set and countless avenues to broaden your distribution network.
In the following sections, we’ll briefly review our core features and explain how our resource management module supports your booking calendar.
You can also explore our platform for free here.
Bókun booking calendar & channel management
The Bókun booking calendar centralises bookings from all connected sales channels — including your website, OTAs, and partner sites (more on those later) — and feeds availability back to those sites. It updates in real time to keep all calendars current and prevent double bookings.
You can see all bookings in one place instead of checking a dozen calendars daily and updating them individually.
We also simplify booking management with customer portals. After customers book with you (whether on your website or an OTA like Viator), they receive a confirmation email with their booking details.
Travellers can view, modify, or cancel bookings directly through the confirmation email; your calendar updates to reflect changes and cancellations.
Product, availability & resource management
Bókun’s Experience tab houses all of the tools to:
- Build tour listings.
- Offer add-ons with experiences.
- Set availability by experience and create availability rules. Specify start and close-out dates, available days and departure times, booking cutoffs, minimum and maximum capacities, and more.
- Specify pricing and create dynamic pricing rules. Create pricing categories, bulk discounts, and private tour rates; dynamic pricing automatically adjusts rates based on preset conditions.
- Add inventory & supplies to monitor its availability.
The product builder walks you through the steps to create tour listings so you know exactly what details to provide and how to create engaging listings. For example, it prompts you to create an attention-grabbing title, include a detailed description and itinerary, and add media like images and videos.
Our system also integrates with Tripadvisor, so you can feed traveller reviews to your listings.
Note: Viator users can also import tour listings from their Viator account to complete set-up in seconds and sell those experiences on their website.
Our platform works for tour, activity, and other travel experience providers because our system allows you to control the creative detail in listings and offers flexible ways to set availability and inventory.
Tour and activity operators may set specific days and times for customers to book with them, while attractions and event providers, like a winery or brewery, may sell tickets or day passes.
During your free trial, you can explore our product builder and design listings, but we’ll explain how our resource management module works below.
Resource management module
Bókun’s resource management module lets you:
- Import supplies and equipment per experience
- Add tour guides for scheduling
- Manage resource allocation
- Track inventory availability in real-time with incoming bookings
Here’s how it works. Let’s say you manage a bike tour business in Pittsburgh, PA, and are designing listings for your various excursions. You offer city tours and trail rides, so you have different bikes for different experiences.
- You’ll add resources in Bókun via Settings —> Operations —> Resource —> Create a Resource.
- Then, you’ll add a descriptive name so you can easily identify the resource (e.g., “City Bike #1”).
- Then, you’ll add the capacity. A bike will only fit one (maybe two) passengers, but a bus, for example, could accommodate a dozen or more people.
- You’ll continue this until you’ve added all of your equipment.
Next, you’ll create Resource Types. In this example, our two types could be “City Bikes” and “Trail Bikes.”
Then, you’ll assign each resource to a resource type. You’ll categorise all of the city bikes you imported in step one as “City Bikes” and do the same for your trail bikes.
After, you can assign resource types to experiences. So, you’ll link the City Bikes resource type to all your city tours and do the same again for your trail bikes.
Finally, you’ll set resource allocation rules based on experience. Our system supports a variety of rules — not used, manual, shared (round robin), shared (orderly), sticky, and private — and lets you combine rules to optimise resource usage, which is one way our system is more convenient than competitors.
The most commonly used rules include shared (orderly) and shared (round robin); however,
- Sticky is often used by teams that offer classes or don’t have many staff. They can assign resources to multiple experiences, and the experience booked first reserves the resource. Bókun shuts off availability for other experiences that require that specific resource.
- Private is used by teams that offer more personalised experiences. For example, a yacht captain may specify certain charters for private tours and others for group experiences.
- Teams that like to keep more control over their calendar and allocate resources when new bookings come in prefer manual assignments. Most teams also like manually assigning tour guides rather than creating rules to auto-assign schedules.
Aside from setting allocation rules, you can also assign and re-assign inventory on the fly from the central booking calendar.
You can read more about our resource management module here.
Streamline the booking experience & earn direct bookings
Now, features to fill out your booking calendar.
First, Bókun’s packages include a one-click website builder, so teams who haven’t yet created a branded site can do so. Our system makes this process easy with templates and plug-and-play fields to add brand history, logos, media, and custom colours.
You can also read about how to create a booking website here.
For teams that already have a site, we provide a user-friendly Bókun booking engine widget. With a few clicks, you can copy the code and embed it on your site to enable direct bookings.
Bókun’s booking engine is developed to eliminate steps in the traditional, manual booking process and encourage travellers through checkout. Bókun also integrates with various online payment processing systems, allowing customers to complete checkout and pay online.
Bókun integrates with Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Worldpay, Raypd, Braintree, and more. We also partner with Klarna so that tour providers with more expensive experiences can offer payment options for customers who wouldn’t usually be able to book with them.
Earn new customers via OTAs & partnerships
Enabling direct bookings is convenient for customers who have already heard about your brand and experiences. However, tour operators can’t effectively grow their customer base and earn new bookings without OTAs and partners.
OTAs, or online travel agencies, are the sites travellers use to research vacations, destinations, and things to do. These include Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia, Headout, Trip.com, Klook, Civitatis, and more.
Travellers visit these sites to book travel and activities, so these are the sites you want to list your experiences to be found by interested tourists.
Bókun connects with all of these sites and more. As mentioned, we have premium partnerships with Viator and GetYourGuide, earning our customers more benefits on these channels.
Our Viator partnership allows us to grant customers a number of free submission checks every year (12, 24, or 48, depending on your package), and we waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations. You can keep costs low while selling tours on Viator.
Bókun’s GetYourGuide partnership grants access to new feature releases and guarantees the strongest API performance, so the platforms communicate in real time to update calendars.
Read more: Best OTA booking systems for tour operators
In addition to OTAs, Bókun’s Marketplace includes thousands (upon thousands) of tourism and travel businesses so tour and experience providers can connect with complementary businesses and create partnerships.
Bókun’s network includes travel agents, destination management companies (DMCs), rental providers, hotels, resorts, other lodging providers, and attractions like theatres, universities, and museums. You can connect with partners and:
- Create reseller contracts (where others will promote your experiences and earn you bookings)
- Resell others’ experiences for a commission
- Design tour and travel packages
Partnerships can help you reach new customers, meet new professionals in your industry, expand your product line, and offer unique or more standout experiences.
Our client, Tour Marbella, pulls in 54% of their bookings through connections via the Bókun Marketplace — see how they use Bókun Marketplace to drive new business.
Mobile apps & back-office tools
As mentioned, Bókun combines everything tour and experience providers need to manage their operations. In addition to the tools discussed above, Bókun also provides:
- Mobile apps with access to the booking calendar and ticket scanning tools; field guides can effectively manage check-ins and departures.
- CRM, to automatically store customers’ names, emails, and booking history, so you don’t have to invest in this tool separately and integrate systems.
- Automated communications to send standard emails like booking confirmations and tour reminders, as well as abandoned cart emails and other retargeting or marketing emails. We provide a gallery of email templates for you to personalise and schedule, but you can also design new emails or newsletters.
- A reporting dashboard to monitor bookings and revenue and learn more about who’s booking with you.
We also provide an app store where you can supplement Bókun’s core functionality with extras like TipDirect, Wayop, and Paxflow. This app store also provides access to Zapier and custom integrations.
Packages & Bókun free trial
We offer a 14-day free trial for all customers to test our platform and make sure it fits the bill before they start a subscription. After your 14-day trial, you can:
- Stay in the limited free plan to manage Viator and offline bookings.
- Upgrade to one of the paid packages — START, PLUS, or PREMIUM.
The START plan includes access to all of the features discussed above, including our advanced resource management module. It’s available at $49/month with 1.5% booking fees (on online bookings).
We charge the lowest booking fees among competitors. Remember, we also waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations, and managing offline bookings in Bókun is always free.
The PLUS and PREMIUM plans are for large teams with more specialised needs or who require sub-vendor management.
You can compare our packages here or start your free trial.
2. Ventrata
Ventrata is a UK-based booking and ticketing management software brand that appeals to tour providers, attractions, and event venues — specifically targeting hop-on-hop-off experiences like bus tours.
The brand typically works with larger teams and global organisations with annual revenue of $1M+; some of its customers include Paramount Plus Studios, Gray Line, Big Bus Tours, The Empire State Building, and Discover Banff.
The platform supports booking management and high-volume ticket sales with multi-channel bookings, a centralised calendar, and real-time availability management. It also offers OTA connections and a reseller hub to grow your distribution network.
Ventrata also has advanced inventory management tools that allow you to manage equipment and supplies by experience. You can set resource allocation rules by experience, as well. Ventrata can double-check inventory with availability to ensure you’re not overbooked and automatically assign guides and equipment with new bookings.
The primary point of hesitation is that Ventrata does not have much customer feedback to validate website claims or provide the inside scoop. For example, as of this writing (October 2024), the system only has nine reviews on G2, one of the most popular software review sites. That said, the few reviews it has garnered are all positive (4.7-star average).
In addition, Ventrata is one of the more expensive solutions on the market. Bókun’s feature set is comparable to Ventrata’s, and our starting package is a fraction of the cost ($550 vs. $49).
Features
- Inventory management
- Online booking widgets
- Channel management & OTA connections
- Ticket POS
- Retail POS
- Self-service Kiosk
- Stripe integration
- Capacity management
- Regulation compliance
- Fraud detection
- Back-office sales tools
- Automated invoicing
- Options to sell gift cards
- Real-time reporting dashboard with custom reporting
- Mobile app (for Android)
Pricing
Ventrata offers three packages:
- The Standard plan is $550/month, and tour operators pay 2% transaction fees in this plan. It includes all core features but not a dedicated account manager or certain integration options.
- The Premium plan is $2200/month, and tour operators pay 1% transaction fees in this plan. This includes everything in the Standard plan plus a dedicated account manager, access to webhooks, and custom payment gateways.
- The Elite plan is $5500/month, and tour operators pay 0.5% transaction fees in this plan. This includes full platform access and a dedicated account manager.
Tour operators can plug in their annual revenue to see which package is recommended for them.
3. Peek Pro
Peek Pro is advanced tour operator software with various features for managing bookings and operations, growing your customer base, and automating back-office tasks.
In addition to expected booking management tools (e.g., a centralised calendar, availability management, and channel management), the platform also includes marketing tools to support customer retargeting and options to sell memberships.
Peek Pro also has a unique feature other competitors don’t offer — Peek Capital to apply for business loans, which can be especially convenient and time-saving for rapidly growing businesses.
With that, the platform typically appeals to larger teams or scaling companies. In addition, it advertises its product to adventure or outdoor excursion providers, like zipline, ATV, and trail riding tours.
Considering Peek’s target audience, it makes sense that they’d offer an inventory management module to monitor supplies for outdoor adventures.
Peek Pro’s inventory management tool works a lot like the options above: you add inventory, assign it to experiences, and set resource allocation rules.
Peek Pro can display real-time inventory levels to let you know if equipment is available or currently in use. Tour guides can also leave notes about inventory in case items are damaged or need replacing; all notes are saved and easily accessible.
The notable downside with Peek Pro is they charge some of the highest booking fees among competitors (up to 6%). They offer custom pricing and fees for every client, so you have a chance to discuss pricing options with their team, but most of the time, booking fees are on the expensive side. (>3%).
Features
- Inventory management
- Online booking widgets
- Customisable booking calendar
- Reservation management
- Integrations with OTAs & channel management tools
- Availability & staff management
- Options to sell memberships, add-ons, bundles, gift cards & vouchers
- Marketing tools (including customer retargeting)
- Dynamic pricing
- Fast check-in features, including digital waivers, Kiosk mode, & ticket scanning
- Customer portals
- Peek reseller network
- Peek Capital (to apply for loans)
- Native POS
- Integrations with online payment processors
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Peek Pro does not share pricing on their site — they encourage customers to contact them to discuss requirements and receive a custom quote.
Historically, Peek Pro has been known to charge a one-time set-up fee ($199) and variable booking fees (up to 6%).
Read more: Best Peek Pro alternatives: 2024 comparison guide
4. Xola
Xola is another advanced tour operator software solution with digital marketing and automation tools to maximise bookings and revenue. The platform includes abandoned cart recovery, dynamic pricing, upsells, and more to help you earn more from traveller bookings.
Xola differentiates its solution from others on the market with a homegrown booking engine and online payment gateway developed to keep customers in the checkout flow and prevent drop offs. Teams interested in increasing direct bookings typically like Xola for this reason. Xola also provides OTA integrations and a reseller network to help you earn online reservations outside of your site.
Xola’s inventory management tool is called equipment management.
As the name sounds, it lets you add equipment to the system, assign it to experiences, and set allocation rules. The system provides automatic inventory controls to assign equipment and guides when new tour bookings hit your calendar.
Xola’s inventory management system also provides a resource utilisation report so you can see how you’re assigning resources and identify opportunities to improve usage.
The catch with Xola is that you must use their online payment gateway, and they charge customers a “partner” fee (a.k.a., a booking fee) when they book and pay online. This fee is 1.9% + 30¢ and is displayed when customers checkout. So, although the booking engine is designed to prevent abandoned carts, the extra fee at checkout could deter customers from taking the last step.
Features
- Inventory management
- Website building service
- Online booking widgets (for existing sites)
- Channel management & connections with OTAs
- Distribution network
- Availability management
- Staff management
- Phone booking system to manage offline reservations
- Native POS
- CRM
- Marketing tools to promote your tours & retarget customers
- Digital waiver solution
- Customisable tickets (and ticket scanning tools for convenient check-in)
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Xola does not charge subscription or booking fees. Instead, travellers pay a “partner fee” (1.9% + 30¢) when they book with you and checkout online.
Xola does not share full pricing details on the site; you must contact them to learn more.
Read more: Best Xola alternatives: 2024 comparison guide
5. Rezdy
The last booking software on our list, Rezdy, is a well-known name that works with tour and activity providers around the globe. They’ve also merged with online booking systems Checkfront and Regiondo to broaden their network and offer more benefits for tour companies.
Rezdy is a popular name because it offers a robust toolset to manage all areas of operations and packages for tour operators at all growth stages. Plus, its booking fees are relatively low compared to competitors (between 1.75% and 2%, depending on your package).
The downside is that subscription fees tend to be expensive — the recommended plan, with features comparable to Bókun, is $99/month (vs. our $49/month).
Rezdy’s inventory management tools work like the options described above. You can manage all equipment and supplies for experiences in Rezdy’s system, free up inventory with the resource categories tool, and optimise resource allocation with preset rules.
Features
- Inventory management
- One-click website builder
- Online booking engine
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Reseller network
- Reservation management
- Live availability
- Automated customer communications
- RezdyPay — Rezdy’s native payment gateway — and integrations with solutions like Stripe, PayPal, Google, and Apple Pay
- Integrations & API
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Rezdy offers three packages:
- Rezdy’s starter plan — Foundation ($49/month) — provides basic feature access and includes inventory management. Rezdy charges 2% booking fees in this plan.
- Rezdy recommends the Accelerate plan ($99/month) because it offers greater feature access for tour operators. This plan charges 1.9% booking fees.
- Rezdy’s most expensive package — Expansion ($249/month) — includes API and webhook access. It’s recommended for teams that require more comprehensive customisation and integration options. Rezdy charges a 1.75% booking fee in this package.
Note: All packages include guided onboarding and customer support.
Read more: Best Rezdy alternatives: 2024 comparison guide
Honourable Mentions
Some brands, like TicketingHub and Tripworks advertise an inventory management feature but it only allows users to manage bookings/tickets, staff, and availability — not actual equipment and supplies for experiences.
In addition to those names, you may see travel software like Trawex, TravelTek, Travelopro, and AIDA (by dcs plus) during your research.
These systems do offer reservation systems for tour operators, but they are much larger software designed for enterprise or global travel companies. They often offer too much for tour operators’ business needs (and come at an expensive price tag).
For example, AIDA offers “the complete travel ecosystem” for DMOs and travel agents, while Trawex often works with airlines vs. tour operators.
For those reasons, we do not recommend these names for tour operators and instead recommend a smaller-scale booking solution.
Explore Bókun’s inventory management module with a 14-day free trial here!
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