A great piece of technology is defined by its ease of use… and how up-to-date the technology is with the needs of its target market.
Well, let me tell you, over the past 10 years I have seen many online booking systems for the tourism industry. From the simple online contact form that lands in the wrong mailbox, to the $20,000 “now obsolete” custom-built system.
First, why you may need an online booking system
The Internet makes the world go round, but about 1,000 times faster. People want everything now, or yesterday. If you can, why not give them the opportunity to book in a “one stop shop” on your website.
Don’t be fooled though, having an online booking system on your website will make absolutely zero difference to your number of bookings if your website cannot be found on search engines! (you may want to read my older post about tourism businesses and online visibility…).
Ok, let’s imagine your website is well search engine optimised, therefore shows up for most of your keywords in a decent spot on search engines. Your content is compelling too, and you constantly add new pages and edit your site. Well, you have now ticked the “prerequisites” and are ready to start looking for a decent online booking system.
What to have in hand prior to choosing an online booking system for your tourism business
Start by assessing your needs
To answer these questions, you need first need to have a clear picture - on paper - of what your reservation process and offer is. Eg. if you offer bushwalking tours, are there different departure times, different days, and do you offer lunch as an option? Get a piece of paper and write everything down using the method I scribbled below
Then for each option or rule, write down the price, and number of seats available next to it. Repeat for each tour on offer. Obviously, if you are not selling tours but rooms, you can replace the name of the tour by the name of the room, the option being single/double/queen and the rules could be “minimum 3 days”.
Once you are finished, you should have a pretty accurate picture of how you do business, so if you suddenly win tonight’s lotto and disappear your successor will be able to use that info pretty easily.
What extras do you need
Do you want to offer gift certificates, discount codes (very good way to offer discount and see if your promotions are being picked up by the public or if all your efforts don’t work), agent’s login?
Do you have an in house reservation system with which you require your booking system to integrate (otherwise you will need to manage both…).
Do you wish to use your online booking system as your offline reservation system as well? Some smart systems offer this as well.
Which tourism online booking system we recommend
Keep in mind that we haven’t tested them all, we haven’t written one and we are not paid by any of these companies to write a review:
Rezgo: for tour, activities and even events operators
- We came across Rezgo.com over a year ago now, being a member of the Tips from the TList.com. And we simply love the system and simply admire their team. These guys know their stuff, and the system offers many features, is fast, simple and good looking.
- Best of all? The free version is great, and the pro version costs about $150 US per month and offers payment gateway facilities, and a state of the art offline reservation system. No commissions are charged on bookings made on your site.
- What we also found amazing is their online support. Check out their knowledge base, as well as their online forum and customer service space where you can learn from other operator’s questions.
Netbookings: for tours, small and medium accommodation providers, and day spas.
- These guys are Australian and we found them in our quest to find a “Rezgo twin brother” for the bed and breakfast and accommodation industry. After a phonecall and a demo with their boss, we were convinced!
- Just like Rezgo, the installation is free. However, their payment plan is based on commission. They do charge 5% on bookings made on your own website, and have different commissions when you get booked on their own site.
- We haven’t tested their support yet, but our first impression was excellent. Their focus is the tourism operator directly (and not a reseller) and have got training and support methods well established. Plus, they have been around for a long time.
Needless to say that both systems integrate all the features you may want. Rezgo also integrates Youtube videos, and both have Google maps. And they both allow you to use your Google analtytics tracking code!
However, none of these systems integrates with RMS. NetBookings however say that you won’t need RMS with them and offers weekly reports to input the grouped transactions into your accounting program such as MYOB.
If you are after a system that talks to RMS, one of our client is currently testing NetRoomz. We weren’t quite convinced with the online booking version of RMS directly.
What system are you currently using? Australian systems or overseas, we are very keen to know!