Benefits of an Online Booking System for a Tour Operator

Category: Travel

With an Online Reservation System, tour operators can package and sell their tours online. They can combine flights, hotels, activities and transfers from any part of the world and sell them as fixed or custom packages. It is useful for inbound and outbound tour operators as well as small activity/excursions providers.

One of the major issues facing tour operators is dealing with overseas agents and suppliers. Due to the global nature of the business, they have to collaborate with agents and suppliers based in different parts of the world. These entities use disparate, in many cases, legacy systems. They may also speak languages the tour operator may not be familiar with, making communication extremely difficult. Let's look at a practical scenario - You are a tour operator based in South Africa.

You have a corporate client based in the US, who wants to send a five-member sales team to China. So your job is to effectively communicate and coordinate with multiple suppliers in China to ensure that your client is happy. This process would require a number of phone calls and email confirmations, across continents and time zones, which can take up a lot of time and resources. You may even need to hire translators. Sounds familiar? This approach, still followed by many tour operators, translates into only one thing – Inefficiency.With a Tour Operator Software, Tour Operators can function at a much greater speed and cost-efficiency. Your agents, suppliers and your customers will be on a single platform and be able to talk to each other through the system. Multilingual systems help improve communication to a great extent. The software also allows your agents to do the bookings on your behalf. You can enter your net rates into the system, along with business rules, including commissions, mark-ups, margins, payment and cancellation policies etc.

A good Tour Operator Software allows integration of third-party systems, including payment gateways, accounting systems, CRM systems, loyalty programs, legacy systems and other business applications, making it easy for you to connect to agents and suppliers globally.

With the help of an Online Booking System , Tour Operators can also let their customers build their own packages, using real time rates and availability. Once the customer has created their own package, they can share it with the tour operator and discuss the same on the phone or in-person.

The tour operator can build a quote for the package within minutes, using a Quotation Management Module and share it with the customer via email. If the customer is happy with everything, they can ask the tour operator to book the tour for them or book it themselves on the website as per their own convenience. If they face any problems, during or after the booking, they can always call or email the tour operator to get their issue resolved.

A Tour Booking Software also includes a strong back-office and accounting module to manage bookings, cancellations, accounting functions such as accounts payable, accounts receivable and reconciliation, as well as comprehensive reporting to help tour operators keep a track of their bookings, revenues and costs including reports on the performance of all their agents.

TravelCarma's Tour Booking Software includes all the facilities discussed above, allowing tour operators to maximize their revenue potential whilst minimizing their costs, resulting in greater profitability. It is available at an affordable Monthly Subscription. Visit www.travelcarma.com for more information, or get in touch with us on sales@travelcarma.com for a quote.