5 Best Wine Tour Booking Software | 2024 Guide

Wine tour operators have a few considerations when comparing online booking systems:

• First, your booking system should provide multiple ways to sell tours online — you should be able to accept direct bookings on your website, sell on OTAs, and grow your distribution network through partnerships. 
• It should also offer a digital waiver solution for quickly creating custom forms, sharing paperwork with attendees, and storing waivers with customer information in the booking system. 
• It should have the option to customise wine tours with add-ons (sometimes called extras or up-sells). For example, guests could upgrade their experience with small bites, or you could offer merchandise to remember the experience (wine totes, branded glasses or corkscrews, bottle stoppers, etc.). 

Of course, any high-quality booking management system will also include tools to automate workflows and save you time (e.g., availability management, centralised booking calendars, and automated communications) while also supporting a convenient guest experience (e.g., digital tickets, ticket scanning, portals to modify or cancel bookings). 

Bókun is a booking management software specifically designed for tour operators. We’ve worked with small one- and two-person teams to help them hit the ground running and drive business through online channels, and we can strategise with growing teams to help them achieve operational goals.

Our software includes all the tools to sell online, manage reservations, staff, back-office tasks, and grow your business — as well as scaling with your teams.

We put together this guide to review our solution for wine tour operators; at the end, we also review four other top-rated booking management tools so you can compare popular options.

If you’re interested in trying Bókun, keep reading or start a free 14-day trial. 

Best Wine Tour Booking Software

Bókun is a popular booking management tool for wine tour operators and wineries because:

• It offers a comprehensive toolset to manage operations under one roof. Despite Bókun’s many features, customers note our software’s ease of use. Set-up takes no time and you can easily onboard guides and adjust settings as you grow. 
• Our software is highly customisable and scalable. You can connect with dozens of sales channels and customise the platform with added modules through our app store. Our team offers consulting for larger or emerging tour operator brands to help them hit their goals.
• We offer one of the most cost-effective solutions. Instead of tiered packages, our booking management tools come at one flat subscription cost for all customers. Then we differentiate ourselves from competitors with super-low booking fees. We’re a Tripadvisor company and Viator partner so we waive Bókun booking fees from Viator, support free offline bookings, and charge low fees for online bookings. We offer some paid add-ons (most are free!) for teams with more advanced requirements. In addition, we’re a Premium Connectivity Status partner with GetYourGuide.

We’ve been working with tour operators for over a decade and have experience with teams at all growth stages; not to mention, we’ve worked with hundreds of wine tour operators and wineries, specifically, and can share strategies that have worked for other teams in wine tourism.

Below, we discuss our core booking management tools, but if you’d prefer to explore the platform yourself, you can start your free trial.

Tools to Sell Wine Tours Online

Our platform has a comprehensive toolset so you can promote and sell your wine tours online.

• Embed our booking engine on your website to enable direct online bookings (or create a booking website with our one-click website builder).
• Connect Bókun to OTAs like GetYourGuide, Expedia, Tiqets, Civitatis, Booking.com, Klook, and more. We connect with 100+ sites to expand your online reach. We’re a Tripadvisor brand and have a preferred partnership with Viator; meaning you can sell tours on Viator without paying Bókun booking fees. (We also offer Viator users free submissions checks each month.) 
• Connect with other tour operators, activity businesses, hotels, travel agents, attractions like museums, universities and more in the Bókun Marketplace to establish reseller partnerships.

Our channel management tool lets you choose the sites you sell tours on (and even which tours you sell where). You can modify sales channels and settings at any time. 

We typically suggest starting with a more popular, commonly known OTAs — say, Viator, GetYourGuide, or Expedia — then testing industry-specific sales channels. OTAs like Winedering and Tabl are typically popular with wine tour operators. 

Our Marketplace also provides the tools to manage those relationships: You can browse our partner network, reach out to resellers (to promote your tours) or suppliers (to promote their tours), and share contracts within our system. 

You can have unlimited partnerships — our network is home to thousands of businesses in the tourism industry — and you can modify these relationships anytime.

We have 150K+ contracts established between Bókun suppliers and resellers. An average of $1 million in bookings flow through our Marketplace daily.

All online reservations — from your website, OTAs, and partners — populate your Bókun booking calendar in real time. You can also add and manage offline bookings in our system for free.

Read more: 10 Ways to Get More Tour Reservations & Win New Customers

Tools to Create (& Manage) Tour Listings

The Bókun Experiences dashboard houses everything you need to manage tour listings, availability, and pricing — and the product builder walks you through these steps. You can also create templates from saved listings to add new experiences in the future quickly.

Note: Viator users can auto-import listings from our partner platform into Bókun and save time on set-up. These listings automatically display on your website so you can receive direct bookings. Then you can manage bookings and availability in Bókun.

Your wine tour listings should include:

• A fun, attention-grabbing title. You want to stand out from competitors without hitting travellers with a long-winded title. Be descriptive but concise, such as “A tipsy tour of Toronto,” “Boozy brunch in Niagara,” or “Flights of the Finger Lakes.” Research OTAs to see how tour operators are titling their experiences. Also, consider audiences you’d want to attract, for example bachelorette groups, when determining titles. 
• A detailed itinerary. Include the duration, location(s), and complete details on what to expect during the experience. What wines will customers be trying? Can you mention anything noteworthy about your experience that’ll hook potentially customers?
• Pictures and videos. Include as many as you can offer (we recommend a minimum of six). Include high-quality images from past tours, show off the locations you’ve visited, and add pictures of any snacks or small bites you offer. Images are the #1 way to stand out from the crowd and win customers over.
• Options to purchase add-ons and customise the experience. The Extras tab in the product builder lets you choose the add-ons for each wine tour. You can get as creative as you’d like here and charge Extras per experience. You could keep it simple by adding merchandise — branded wine glasses, tumblers, or wine keys, for example. Or, say you’re managing tours at a winery that has a kitchen or partners with local food trucks; you could offer menu items with wine tours. (You also then receive earnings from these sales.) 
• Any important “fine print” details, like inclusions, exclusions, pick-up or drop-off spots, and what to bring on the tour day.
• You should also link Bókun to your Tripadvisor account to sync tour reviews between platforms; travellers can then see Tripadvisor reviews on your site. 

Next, it’s time to set pricing and availability by tour.

Pricing

Choose the pricing structure that best suits your experience. You could have one set rate for tours, create pricing categories, and even offer bulk discounts.

Pricing categories are a great way to offer special rates for private tours or different rates for different customer groups. For example, you could have one rate for people 21 and older and another for people 65 and older to offer seniors a discount. You could also offer discounted rates for first responders, active military, veterans, etc. 

Our tiered pricing feature allows you to enable and manage bulk discounts. Offering bulk discounts can be an excellent way to attract groups — family vacationers, bachelorettes, travellers on work retreats, etc. — which is especially relevant for wine tours.

We also have a dynamic pricing modulator that automatically adjusts tour rates based on specific parameters. You can set rules that increase or decrease pricing if departure times are approaching and you’re eager to fill seats. You could also use this tool to offer seasonal discounts (perhaps during slower periods to promote more bookings).

Availability

Specify the start and closing dates for each experience, the days each experience is offered, departure times, and booking cutoffs. You can create availability rules per tour so they automatically reflect across your calendar without weekly management. (You can adjust availability on the fly by closing out a specific date or departure time.)

Then, you can choose how people book with you — whether they select a day and time, just the day, or a general pass.

Most wineries have customers choose both a day and time for tours, but if you hold art festivals, concerts, seasonal activities, or other events, you could sell tickets (for single-day events) or utilise the pass feature (that allows customers to visit anytime while the experience is running).

Tour availability automatically updates across all connected sales channels (e.g., your website, OTAs, and partner sites) to prevent customers from double-booking time slots. 

Top Tip: You can also create tour packages by bundling two+ experiences. You can create bundles from your product line or collaborate with partners to offer more unique experiences.

Tools to Manage Back-Office Tasks & Improve the Customer Experience

In addition to this advanced availability management and the features discussed above, Bókun includes several tools to streamline back-office operations and sweeten the customer experience. 

For starters, our platform includes a CRM to store guest information during checkout. We also include an automated communications tool to manage customer emails. Keeping customers engaged in the lead-up to a tour can help to reduce no-shows or last-minute cancellations.

Our tool can automatically send booking confirmations, tickets, waivers, upsell emails, reminders before tours, follow-ups, retargeting or abandoned cart emails, newsletters, promotional emails — the list goes on. We offer a template library to help you design these emails, and then you choose when to send them.

Next, we provide a variety of tools to improve the booking process for customers:

• We connect with dozens of payment gateways so you can enable customers to confirm bookings and pay online with credit cards. We connect with Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even Klarna so you can give customers various payment options. 
• Bókun has customer portals so guests can modify or cancel reservations online without contacting your team for help. We send notifications and update your booking calendar when customers make changes. 
• We offer a digital ticketing feature so you can customise tickets for tours (with QR or bar codes) and send them to customers after booking. Then, guests can save tickets on mobile devices for a fast check-in. 
• Speaking of — we also provide mobile apps (for iOS and Android) with ticket-scanning features so guides can easily check guests in upon arrival. These apps are also handy for keeping guides in the loop while out of the office — they can see tour schedules, who’s booked to attend, and last-minute changes. 
• Our system also provides options to sell guests gift cards or vouchers. 

We also offer dozens of apps (free and paid) to build upon our software’s core functionality and enable users to customise our platform to fit their business needs.

As we mentioned, many wine tour operators want a booking system with a digital waiver solution — you can add Adventure Waivers through the app store and create electronic waivers for guests. Adventure Waivers lets you customise different waivers for different experiences, send these to guests via email, and save completed forms in our system. 

You might also be interested in the Adventure Photos app, which lets you capture guests’ boozy experiences and share the memories. (Another add-on idea!) 

You can also enable custom integrations through our Zapier connection. 

Remember, you can adjust Bókun settings as you grow and your needs change. Our team is around to help when you have questions.

Bókun Reporting Dashboard

Bókun also includes a reporting dashboard to monitor sales performance and revenue. We provide a variety of reports so you can track:

• How many bookings you receive and overall revenue. You can also see stats like average seats sold per booking that show whether your experiences usually attract couples, families, or large groups. This way, you can determine the most effective ways to use discounts.
• Which tours are booked most often (and which are less popular).
• Income from add-ons (and which add-ons are purchased most often).
• Which seasons are busiest (and slowest).
• Which sales channels or partners drive the most bookings. 

You can use these insights to guide your growth strategies.

For example, you may want to keep an eye on best-performing sales channels to ensure you have connected all of your products for increased bookings.

Or, if you find you’re ultra-busy during one season and super slow during another, you could think of ways to offer new experiences or products that drive business during slow seasons.

For example, wineries that pause outdoor tours in the cold seasons could partner with local vendors to hold indoor holiday markets through December. We’ve also seen wineries build “igloos” (a.k.a., bubble tents with heaters) and rent those to small groups — you can charge guests to rent the igloo and/or require food and beverage minimums to increase earnings for these experiences. 

Our team can also consult with you as you grow to guide you in the right direction and share tips to increase bookings and revenue.

Note: Our app store also offers a more comprehensive reporting tool for teams that want to examine financial performance in greater depth. 

Getting Started with Bókun

Our platform is user-friendly and quick to set up — you can explore our features, start creating tour listings, connect with Viator, and browse the Marketplace in our 14-day free trial.

After the trial period, you can upgrade to a subscription. Then, you can add extra modules to our software through the app store (again, some of these are free while others are paid add-ons). 

We charge the lowest booking fees across competitors: 

• We waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations.
• Offline bookings are always free.
• Low fees for online bookings from your website, partner sites, or OTAs (besides Viator) — you can choose to cover fees or pass them to the customer. We’ll incorporate fees into tour prices at checkout so they don’t appear as an added cost.  

Alternative Booking Software for Wine Tour Operators

In addition to Bókun, Vintrail Pro, Rezdy, Tashi, and Roverd typically appeal to wine tour operators. You can also compare more tour operator software here.

Vintrail Pro is a booking and sales CRM system specifically designed for wine businesses. It offers solutions for tour operators, wineries, winemakers, breweries, and more. 

Their software solution for tour operators includes:

• Reservation management — To create listings for your experiences, set availability, enable direct bookings, and manage bookings in a customisable calendar.
• Channel management — To sell tours on OTAs and centralise bookings in the Vintrail calendar.
  
• Wine tasting app — This is a unique tool that allows customers to provide feedback on wines during their tour. Vintrail offers an interactive app for users to choose colours of wines, add tasting notes, leave reviews, and purchase wines from their experience.
  
• POS & E-commerce system — Sell wines and other merchandise online 24/7 (available in 44 countries).
• Wine Club — To offer tour memberships or wine subscriptions. If you offer different types of wine tours, you can provide memberships for customers to attend upcoming experiences. 
• CRM & automated customer communications — To store customer details and send scheduled emails. 

Vintrail Pro is a relatively new software brand (it debuted in 2020 in Australia) but, in the last few years, has worked with wineries and tour operators in over a dozen countries, including the U.S., Mexico, England, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, Argentina, and more. Pricing suggests they might be most appealing to midsize teams and larger businesses.

Pricing

Vintrail Pro offers three packages:

• Starter — Costs $45/month — Includes the smart booking system, eCommerce tools, website integrations, channel management, and CRM. You can also add the Wine tasting app for an extra $22/month. Vintrail Pro charges a $215 one-time onboarding fee, with a separate $85 set-up fee for the channel management tool. They also charge a $0.53 + 3% fee per booking and a 4% fee on sales processed through their POS system.
• Growth — Costs $105/month — This is the recommended plan and includes all of the tools in our list above (counting the Wine tasting app and Wine Club). Vintrail charges a $425 one-time onboarding fee for this plan (plus the $85 set-up fee for the channel management tool). Booking fees are the same as those for the starter plan, but you only pay a 3% transaction fee for this plan. 
• Acceleration — Costs $200/month — Includes all of the features mentioned above plus extras like a rewards program. They still charge a $425 onboarding fee but waive the channel management set-up cost. Vintrail charges a $0.53 + 2.5% booking fee in this plan and a 2% transaction fee. 

Vintrail Pro offers a free 21-day trial to get started.

Rezdy is a popular tour operator software brand that works with teams around the globe. They offer features for wine tour operators just introducing their business online (for example, the one-click website builder) and more advanced tools for growing teams (like reseller tools and agent portals). It’s also worth noting that Rezdy has recently acquired booking software brands Checkfront and Regiondo.

As with Vintrail above, due to pricing, Rezdy is typically better for larger teams.

Unlike Vintrail above, Rezdy is best for tour operators who want to increase bookings for on-site experiences, as it lacks features to create an eCommerce storefront and sell wines online.

Rezdy’s core features include:

• One-click website builder (booking widgets for existing sites)
• Channel management & connections with OTAs
• Product & availability management
• Reseller network
• Integrations with payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.)
• RezdyPay (Rezdy’s native POS)
• CRM & automated customer communications
• Reporting dashboard

Pricing

Rezdy offers three plans:

• Foundation — Costs $49/month — Includes core features to create a booking website, sell on OTAs, and partner with resellers. Rezdy charges a 2% fee on all online bookings and a $1 fee for offline or agent bookings in this plan.
• Accelerate — Costs $99/month — Includes the above-mentioned tools plus features to offer add-ons and create tour packages. We’d suggest this plan for wineries so you can provide visitors options to customise tours. You pay a 1.9% fee for online bookings and a $0.85 fee for offline or agent bookings in this package.
• Expansion — Costs $249/month — Includes all features from the above plans, with upgraded reporting features and access to custom integrations via API and webhooks. You pay a 1.75% fee for all online bookings, and a $0.70 fee on offline or agent bookings.

Rezdy offers a 21-day free trial to get started.

Read more: Best Rezdy Alternatives: Comparison Guide

On the more budget-friendly side, we have Tashi. Tashi is a booking solution for tour operators, travel agents, and rental property managers. We include them because they might appeal to both wine tour operators and wineries that offer overnight stays or multi-day experiences. You can choose the plan that suits you (if you sell wine tours or both tours and accommodations).

Tashi works well for wine tour businesses of all sizes; it offers a website builder and booking widgets to enable bookings from your site, and the platform connects with 100+ OTAs so you can sell tours across dozens of sites. 

Overall, Tashi is noted as user-friendly, so getting started on the platform isn’t a challenge. However, you can chat with their team if you have questions during setup.   

Tashi’s core features include:

• One-click website builder (booking widgets for existing sites)
• Product & availability management (with options to sell custom & private tours)
• Channel management & connections with OTAs
• Reseller network
• Guest communications hub — including a CRM, automated communication features, review and survey tools, customer portals, and options to upsell guests after booking
• Integrations with payment processing tools
• Reporting
• Property management — optional — for travellers to book overnight stays
• Guest communications — optional — to manage guests’ stays with you

Pricing

Tashi offers several packages based on your requirements, but even the full package, including tour and property management, costs less than $100 per month, making it more affordable than Vintrail above. You can explore pricing options here.

Tashi offers a free 14-day trial to get started.

Roverd is an online booking automation and reservation management tool — in other words, it helps you manage online bookings and automate back-office tasks like sending customer emails. 

Compared to the options above, Roverd is a fairly simple and straightforward solution; it boasts ease of use and a simple set-up. Notably, the platform lacks some of the bells and whistles mentioned with competitors above (wine tasting apps, options to sell memberships, property management, etc.).

We include this tool because it’s a good option for wine tour operators who want the basics. You can enable online bookings and sell on OTAs; enhance the customer experience with options to sell add-ons, reserve spots before confirming, pay online; and improve operational management. 

Roverd’s core features include:

• Online booking engine (for existing sites)
• Product management (with options to sell multi-day experiences)
• Channel management — connect with OTAs & resellers
• Advanced scheduling & availability management
• Reservation management (with options for customers to reserve spots before confirming and paying)
• Integrations with major payment processors like Stripe & PayPal
• Cancellation & refund management 
• CRM & automated customer communications
• Reporting

Pricing

Roverd does not disclose pricing on its website, but you can request a demo to learn more.

Honourable Mentions

If none of the above options catch your eye, you might also consider the brands below:

• Bookeo — Read reviews here 
• Rezgo — Read reviews here
• Tripworks — Read reviews here 
• TicketingHub — Read reviews here 
• PlaceFull — Read more here

Is Bókun right for your business? Try Bókun online booking software free for 14 days.

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• Tour & Activity Booking System Pricing Comparison Guide
• How to Market a Tour Company: 10 (Free & Paid) Strategies
• Alternatives to Creating a Booking System in Excel