Wine tour operators have a few considerations when comparing online booking systems:
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 want to demo Bókun after reading, you can
start a free 14-day trial (no credit card required!).
Best Wine Tour Booking Software
Bókun is a popular booking management tool for wine tour operators and wineries because:
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.
Our platform has a comprehensive toolset so you can promote and
sell your wine tours online.
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.
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:
Next, it's time to set pricing and availability by tour.
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).
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.
Pro 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.
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 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 also includes a reporting dashboard to
monitor sales performance and revenue. We provide a variety of reports so you can track:
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.
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 free 14-day trial.
After the trial period, you can upgrade to our Pro Subscription. We offer one package and pricing for all customers — the
$49 Pro Plan includes all of Bókun’s core features we reviewed above. 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:
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:
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.
Vintrail Pro offers three packages:
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:
Rezdy offers three plans:
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:
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:
Roverd does not disclose pricing on its website, but you can request a demo to learn more.
If none of the above options catch your eye, you might also consider the brands below:
Is Bókun right for your business? Try Bókun online booking software free for 14 days.
Online Booking Engine • Channel Management
Inventory & Resource Management
B2B Marketplace • Reporting • Websites