Small to medium sized adventure, activity and adventure tour operators have been very slow to offer true online booking on their websites. There are a number of reasons for this, which I will investigate in a separate blog post. Recently there have been significant advances in online booking and reservation systems for niche operators and it is now essential of adventure, activity and tour operators to implement online booking systems, which display live availability and pricing information.

Here are the top 10 compelling reasons why your business needs to start taking online bookings today:

1. Customers Demand Online Booking.

Today’s customer wants to check availability and price and 24/7/365. In our fast moving world if they can’t find what availability you have they are going to leave your website and book with a competitor. Would Easyjet have been as successful if they only accepted bookings by phone, post, fax and payment by cheque?

2. Improve Your Website.

It is widely accepted that on the web “content is king”. Your web content includes photos, videos, maps, reviews, descriptions, itineraries and most importantly the prices, dates and availability of your adventures, tours or holidays. No matter how good your tour is your user will only be able to go ahead with his booking if the date suits and the tour is within budget.Would you eat a restaurant that didn’t have prices on the menu?

3. Get To Know Your Customers Better.

A good online reservation system will integrate seamlessly with your bookings management and customer management system. You can review customer booking history, collect useful customer data, track customer bookings and enquiries better and target future marketing efforts more effectively.

4. Improve Customer Experience & Deliver the Wow Factor.

Web savvy consumers expect smooth online booking, secure online payment and instant confirmation and reservation information. With a robust online tour booking system you can deliver instant email notification to your customer. This reduces booking errors and gives the customer a great first impression.

5. Spend More Time Doing What You Do Best!

I got involved with the adventure industry because I love helping people realise their ambitions in the outdoors, not entering booking data into a spreadsheet or answering the phone. By making it easy for your customers to book online they will do all the admin for you, meaning you can spend more time out there doing what you do best – wowing your customers.

6. Decrease Costs & Streamline Administration.

Web bookings are cheaper! Why else would Ryanair only accept online bookings? By offering online bookings you are able to take bookings 24/7/365, reduce staffing costs and improve customer service. Using a reservation system will undoubtedly streamline your back office, improving your staff efficiency and reducing your costs.

7. Improve Your Business Processes and Staff Product Knowledge.

Niche operators with flexible systems often keep all their product, price and availability knowledge in their heads. This is manageable when your business is small but as you grow how do you communicate all this knowledge to your staff and clients. Using a structured reservation system will force you to formalise all your product knowledge, making it easier to grow your business.

8.Distribute Your Adventures, Activities, Tours and Holidays.

Without online product, price and availability information it is difficult and time consuming to distribute your tours to third party distribution partners, travel agents, affiliates and marketing partners. This ultimately limits your sales growth as you are only going to be able to sell your tours through one channel.

9. Increase Your Sales.

- The UK remains the largest online travel market in Europe, with Germany in second place. These two markets accounted for 48% of the EUR 58.4 bn. European online travel market in 2008.

- The European online travel market grew by 17% during 2008, and a further increase of 12% may be expected during 2009.

- The European online travel market (including the 12 newest EU member countries) may reach EUR 65 bn. by 2009, which is about 25% of the total market for selected travel and tourism services.

Source: Trends in European Internet Distribution – of Travel and Tourism Services by Carl H. Marcussen, PhD, Senior Researcher,
Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark

Online product, price and availability information backed up by a smooth and secure online will increase your sales.

10. Increase Profitability & The Value of Your Business

Increased sales, lower costs, better service and great tours will increase the value of your adventure business. It will also go a long way to keeping you ahead of the competition and improving your working life.

The following suppliers offer online reservation systems which are suitable for small adventure, activities, tour and holiday operators.

TourCMS – Adventure Networks technology partner and a excellent low cost reservation system.

Rezgo – An established supplier that charges a percentage of booking value.

Adventure Engine – Booking engine and distribution system.

Tourist Way – A relatively new entrant that seems to have some interesting features.

There are numerous other systems available and I would be very interested in hearing from other suppliers if you would like your systems reviewed.