Travellers often prefer to book online!
If you are a follower of our blogs, you may have heard us saying this repeatedly. We often talk about how our customers increased their bookings as they adopted the online booking system.
Here we are again, emphasizing that online booking does make a difference for trip planners. But, this time, it’s not just us.
Arival published a significant report for tour and activity operators last month. The chart lists what matters most for the travellers or why travellers prefer one tour over another.
If you are still on the fence about the need for an online booking system, stay with us. Here are a few reasons why your guests like to book online (also reasons for you to move to a digital platform).
Ease of Use
As we all know by now, most trip planning begins with an online search. Every customer is used to the convenience of getting information at their fingertips. They prefer going online to learn about the tours and activities available in their preferred destination.
It’s easy for customers to make well-informed decisions at their own pace with tour details and descriptions available on the company website. They contact the front desk only if they have any unanswered questions. These days, chatbots on websites can deal with many of those questions too. With all the information, your potential customers are equipped to make a decision quickly and book right away.
24/7 Booking Availability
Online booking is convenient for everyone—from last-minute, in-destination bookers to months-in-advance planners. They can book their trips at any time from any location with an internet connection. They receive immediate confirmation of their reservation, which gives them peace of mind.
24/7 online booking facility saves a lot of time for travellers. It is faster than doing it in person or over the phone. Imagine an in-destination traveller looking for things to do in the area. Instead of going through various brochures and making several phone calls, it’s a breeze for them to follow the lead on Google, check availability, and reserve a spot on the go.
Customization Options
Online booking allows travellers to tailor trips to their specific needs and preferences. If they plan to have several activities from different tour operators, phone and email booking may be daunting. Going back and forth with phone calls or emails to ensure there won’t be any overlap is time-consuming for travellers.
Online booking functionality helps them plan their itinerary and make reservations with various tour and activity operators with ease. They can weigh up their options, comparing the prices and reviews of each tour operator.
💡Tour operators can create tour packages by joining hands with other operators in their local network to attract more tourists to your products. A trip planner will be excited to get a tour package at a discounted rate and the option to reserve a spot for different experiences from just one website.
When you use tour booking software, it is effortless for you to bundle up tours from peers in the local market and resell them.
Zaui reservation software has an exclusive feature for its users, Zaui Connect, that helps them resell the tours and activities of operators within the Zaui community. It lets you connect with other Zaui users with similar target customers and create tour packages to resell. Instead of manually handling the reselling and distribution, Zaui can automate the entire process for you. You can learn more about here.
Control Over Booking
Online booking provides guests with more flexibility and control over their bookings. They can decide when and how they want it. And if they want to cancel their booking, in most cases, they can go back to the website and cancel it. Any information regarding cancellation and refund will also be available on the website, again saving them time.
It also gives them the freedom to make any edits to their booking. For example, Zaui online reservation system comes with a self-edit feature. Your guests can directly retrieve their booking, edit simple booking details, and process additional payments and refunds. Guests can directly edit their booking up to hours before the start of their activity if they like. When changes are made, guests will receive a booking confirmation and copy of their updated reservation via email—a feature that can be set up and enabled by operators.
From an operations standpoint, this stress-free trip management experience takes a load of phone calls off your team so they can focus on delivering safe, memorable experiences.
Final Word
All trends and reports point to one thing: travellers around the world, especially the most tech-savvy current generation, expect every transaction to be online, from research to planning to purchase.
Digital transformation has now become inevitable to drive more direct bookings. User-friendly online booking platforms are easy to navigate and simple for travellers to find and book the tours they need.
It is not just for customers. For tour and activity operators, an online booking system will reduce their manual work, minimize costs, automate resource management, and improve their operational efficiency.
If you are looking for an online booking solution for your tour and activity business, we can help you!
Book a time to meet a Zaui expert and explain your business requirements. We will give you a tailored demo of our tour booking software for your business. Do not forget to ask as many questions as possible to make sure our system is the right fit for you.
If you are new to the world of booking software, download our Buyers Guide. It maps out the essential steps and the critical questions to ask as you search for the best online booking system for your tour and activity business. You can get your copy here.