Small travel-related businesses constantly seek innovative ways to connect with an increasingly adventurous and experiential traveler base. Booking software helps empower operators to market to these travelers.
Photo: Trekksoft
Whether you’re a boutique city tour operator, a food tour enthusiast, or a company specializing in unique adventures like yoga retreats, boat tours, bike rentals, kayak rentals, or surf camps, the digital age has brought forth a wide variety of travel booking platforms designed to elevate your reach and efficiency. Here, we explore five leading companies with tailored offerings to help small businesses streamline booking processes, enhance customer experiences, or expand their online presence to flourish in the competitive travel industry.
WeTravel
Specializing in booking and payments for multi-day travel businesses, WeTravel caters to faith-based, adventure, sports, wellness, academic, event, and other group travel markets. It allows users to accept payments instantly, manage bookings efficiently, and transfer funds globally. Choose from three plans—Basic, Pro, and Enterprise—that range from free to $899/month for a fully customized plan. All plans include unlimited trips, bookings, team members, integrated payment processing through WeTravel or a connected Stripe account, and customer and client support. Another perk? Suppliers can transfer their WeTravel balance to a WeTravel branded Visa® credit card, where funds become accessible the moment they clear, with no fees. WeTravel has no additional fees for international cards, cross-border card payments, or currency conversions, and they also accept bank transfers and eCheck free of any additional charge.
FareHarbor
This all-in-one booking solution and business management platform makes operating tours, activities, rentals, and attractions a breeze. Built to scale with a business, FareHarbor offers solutions for tour operators, rental companies, trains, zip lines, farms, and more, allowing them to set up memberships, engage with members, and grow their customer base all in one place. The platform works seamlessly on both desktop and mobile, with 24/7 support available by phone or email. FareHarbor also tracks the success of your existing marketing campaigns via a customized dashboard. Onboarding experts ensure clients are set up to maximize bookings, and there’s a fantastic educational blog to help operators maximize their marketing efforts.
TrekkSoft
This versatile travel booking platform empowers operators to sell on multiple sales channels, automate workflows, manage bookings, and much more. From the moment they sign up, users work closely with the TrekkSoft team to optimize their website and tour content to convert more website visitors to bookers. TrekkSoft offers three monthly pricing plans: a commission model, the Accelerate model ($144), and the Ultimate ($287). Among the long list of things operators can accomplish with the platform are setting up tours, managing schedules, editing bookings, processing payments, tracking resources, rebooking customers, tracking pending payments, and issuing refunds in one place. TrekkSoft also records all changes made for future reference. In addition, the platform can analyze customer data, booking information, and sales performance to get unique insights that help operators leverage historical data to make smarter business decisions.
Checkfront
Checkfront works with ATV tours, boat charters, axe throwing, kayak rentals, adventure parks, escape rooms, and more to sell, manage, report, and market their tours. The platform boasts a long list of features and integrations and offers three pricing models. The Starter option is free and allows users to explore all Checkfront offers with no time limit. The second (and most popular) is the Growth option, which involves a three percent fee per booking. For clients who need personalized solutions and dedicated support, there’s the Managed model with custom pricing.
Lodgify
Designed specifically for vacation rental professionals, Lodgify’s vacation rental management software has everything operators need to increase occupancy rates and income. Centralized property management software manages calendars, bookings, rates, and payments, plus automatically syncs calendars, rates, and reservations across sites like Booking.com, Airbnb, HomeAway/Vrbo, Expedia, and more. Each user has their own website that comes fully equipped with an integrated booking system so guests can schedule—and pay—directly from day one. With affordable rates ranging from $13–$59 per month, Lodgify quickly pays for itself, especially considering the robust library of training resources available to its users.