Being a tour operator or activity provider is no small feat. Between managing reservations, handling customer inquiries, processing payments, and ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, the workload can quickly become overwhelming.
Fortunately, booking systems are designed to streamline these processes, helping businesses operate efficiently and scale with ease. If you’re looking for the best tour operator software, this guide will highlight the key features to look for, and explain why Checkfront is the ideal solution for all travel industry professionals.
What is tour operator software?
Tour operator software is a specialized platform that automates and simplifies the management of tours, and activities. It enables businesses to process reservations, accept payments, monitor availability, connect with major online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia, TripAdvisor and GetYourGuide, and deliver an exceptional customer experience.
For experience providers, this type of software is essential because it:
- Automates booking processes
- Manages secure payments and invoices
- Reduces manual errors
- Saves time and improves productivity
- Enhances customer satisfaction
And much more! Among the options available, Checkfront has emerged as the best tour operator software, designed specifically for the unique needs of tour and activity providers.
Key features of best-in-class tour operator software
Not all software solutions are created equal. When evaluating the best tour operator software, focus on these must-have features:
Online booking system
A robust online booking system is the backbone of any tour operator software. It allows travellers to book directly from your website 24/7, giving them flexibility and convenience while maximizing your revenue. Real-time updates guarantee accurate availability, eliminating double bookings and customer frustration. With a streamlined system, you can focus on creating exceptional experiences instead of juggling endless phone calls or manually updating spreadsheets.
Payment processing
Smooth and secure payment processing is essential for any tour business. The best software integrates with trusted gateways like Stripe or PayPal, supporting secure transactions and multiple currencies. This way, customers can book with confidence, regardless of their location or preferred payment method. Plus, by automating invoicing, you save time and reduce human error, keeping operations professional.
Availability management
Managing real-time availability is critical to avoid overbooking and missed opportunities. Tour operator software like Checkfront provides a live view of your inventory, so every booking is accurately reflected across all channels (OTAs, marketplaces, resellers, etc.). Whether you offer daily tours, activities with a limited number of seats, or seasonal experiences, effective availability management keeps your operations organized.
Channel manager
Speaking of which, a powerful channel manager allows you to connect and synchronize your inventory with major OTAs, resellers, and distribution platforms. This means your availability and rates are automatically updated across all connected channels, reducing the risk of overbooking and saving you hours of manual updates. By extending your reach through platforms such as the aforementioned TripAdvisor, Expedia, and GetYourGuide, a channel manager can help you drive more bookings and increase revenue without additional effort.
Integration capabilities
No business operates in a vacuum, and the best tour operator software seamlessly connects to the tools you already use. Integrations with CRMs, marketing platforms, accounting software, and CMSs (like WordPress and Joomla) provide a unified workflow. This connectivity means you can promote your business more effectively, manage your finances with ease, and maximize your exposure through trusted third-party platforms.
Customer management
Building and maintaining customer relationships is essential for repeat business. Tour operator software helps you track customer details, manage communications, and personalize the guest experience. From automated follow-up emails to loyalty programs, these tools allow your customers to feel valued and increase the likelihood that they will book again or recommend your services to others.
Mobile-friendly interface
Tour operators and activity providers are often on the go, and mobile access means you can manage your operations from anywhere. From checking bookings to updating schedules, a mobile-friendly interface keeps you connected to your business. It’s a must-have feature for busy suppliers who need flexibility.
Reporting & analytics
Data-driven decisions are essential for growth. Comprehensive reporting tools provide insights into your business performance, from sales trends to customer preferences. By analyzing this data, you can identify opportunities for improvement, optimize pricing strategies, and focus your efforts on the most profitable aspects of your business.
The right software will not only simplify your day-to-day operations but also help your business scale efficiently. As we’ll see in the next section, Checkfront checks all these boxes and more.
Top benefits of using Checkfront as your tour operator software
Checkfront stands out as the leading tour operator software because of its powerful features, flexibility, and user-friendly design. Here are the top benefits of using Checkfront:
Simplify bookings
Checkfront’s intuitive online booking software allows your business to accept reservations 24/7, giving travellers the freedom to book anytime, anywhere. With customizable widgets, you can embed the system directly into your website, delivering a smooth and professional customer experience. Real-time availability updates eliminate double bookings, while automated confirmations, reminders, and notifications streamline operations and improve guest satisfaction.
Powerful automations
Automation is at the heart of Checkfront’s efficiency. By automating tasks such as booking confirmations, payment reminders, and follow-up communications, you save countless hours otherwise spent on repetitive administrative work. It also ensures that no detail is overlooked, which increases operational accuracy and leads to a more polished customer experience.
Integrated payments
With Checkfront, you can accept secure payments globally through trusted gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Square, as well as local merchants. With support for multiple currencies and flexible deposit options, Checkfront helps you simplify transactions for your customers while reducing your payment processing overhead. Plus, built-in reporting gives you clear insight into cash flow and revenue trends.
Comprehensive reporting
As mentioned above, Checkfront arms you with robust reporting and analysis tools. Monitor key metrics such as booking volume, revenue growth, and customer preferences to make data-driven decisions. With customizable reports, you can analyze sales trends, identify your best-performing tours, and optimize resources for greater efficiency.
Maximize your resources
Checkfront helps you make the most of your resources with availability and inventory management tools. It doesn’t matter if you’re managing limited spots, seasonal plans or complex multi-day experiences: Checkfront can update availability across all sales channels in real time. This reduces the risk of overbooking and under-utilization while maximizing revenue.
Flexible integrations
Integrate Checkfront with the tools you already rely on without missing a beat. You can easily connect to CRMs, accounting software like QuickBooks, marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, and even CMSs like WordPress. Plus, use the built-in Channel Manager to push your inventory to OTAs such as Expedia, GetYourGuide and Viator: there’s no better way to increase your reach and get more bookings.
Waivers and guest management
Checkfront simplifies your guest management processes with integrated digital waivers and guest forms. This allows you to easily collect important customer information, manage consent forms, and track participant details prior to each activity. By digitizing this process, you ensure compliance, minimize paperwork and offer a seamless check-in experience.
Mobile-friendly interface
Checkfront’s mobile-friendly interface lets you manage your business on the go. From verifying bookings to processing payments and managing schedules, the platform keeps you in control of your workflows from any device. This flexibility is especially valuable for tour operators and activity providers who are constantly on the go or travelling between locations.
Exceptional support
At Checkfront, our powerful platform is backed by dedicated customer support. We’re always available to help you set up the system, troubleshoot issues or optimize the integration of our booking widget on your website. You can request assistance via live chat, email or one-on-one consultations with our experts.
Take your business to the next level!
Online bookings. Flexible pricing. Outstanding support.
How Checkfront compares with other tour operator software
Choosing the right tour operator software can be overwhelming, with so many options available. In this section, we’ll compare Checkfront with other leading solutions to help you understand why our booking system is the best choice for scalability, flexibility and ease of use.
Peek Pro vs Checkfront
Peek Pro specializes in streamlined booking management for small to mid-sized tour operators. Its intuitive interface excels at handling simple timeslot-based bookings, making it particularly effective for walking tours, day activities, and fixed-schedule experiences. Its simplicity speeds up initial setup and day-to-day operations, but the platform’s rigid structure poses challenges for businesses that require complex booking rules, variable durations, or sophisticated pricing models.
Checkfront stands out for its exceptional adaptability and depth of functionality. The system accommodates virtually any booking scenario, from simple hourly rentals to complex multi-day expeditions with variable pricing and custom rules. Operators can precisely control availability patterns, implement dynamic pricing strategies, and automate complex operational workflows. This flexibility extends to customer communications, where automated notifications and reminders can be tailored to specific booking types and customer segments. For more details, visit our dedicated comparison page.
FareHarbor vs Checkfront
On the other hand, Checkfront excels at delivering enterprise-level functionality through an accessible, easy-to-use interface. Its intuitive dashboard presents complex booking management tools in a clear, organized manner that reduces training requirements and accelerates team adoption. This thoughtful design approach maintains powerful features while eliminating unnecessary complexity, making it suitable for operations of any size.
Price transparency is a key distinguishing factor between these platforms. FareHarbor’s booking fees can be as high as 6% per transaction, significantly impacting margins or forcing higher prices on customers. Checkfront’s simple 3% online booking fee provides greater flexibility, as operators can choose to absorb this cost or pass it on to customers without impacting conversion rates.
Checkfront’s comprehensive toolkit includes sophisticated features such as customizable digital waivers, an advanced booking calendar and detailed analytics. These tools enable operators to track performance metrics, improve customer engagement, and optimize operational efficiency. While FareHarbor provides essential functionality, it lacks the adaptability and depth of Checkfront’s feature set, potentially limiting business growth and customization options.
Overall, Checkfront emerges as the more balanced solution, combining robust functionality with intuitive design and competitive pricing. For more details, click here.
Xola vs Checkfront
Xola is a straightforward booking system designed to meet the needs of small to mid-sized tour operators. It focuses on core features such as reservation management and payment processing, making it a good choice for businesses with basic operational needs. However, Xola’s pricing structure can become costly over time. With a fee of 1.9% + 30 cents per booking, expenses can quickly escalate for operators managing a high volume of reservations.
Checkfront differentiates itself through both pricing transparency and payment processing flexibility. The platform’s simple 3% booking fee provides predictable costs and allows operators to make informed decisions about fee absorption or customer pass-through. Furthermore, Checkfront’s open approach to payment processing enables integration with numerous trusted payment providers, allowing operators to choose solutions that best fit their financial requirements, regional needs and customer preferences.
Bókun vs Checkfront
Bókun targets enterprise-level tour operators with a comprehensive software solution designed to manage complex inventory and high-volume operations. While its rich feature set effectively handles complex business needs and multi-location coordination, the platform’s complexity often presents significant onboarding challenges.
Checkfront stands out for its balanced approach to functionality and user experience. The system delivers powerful booking management tools through an easy-to-use interface that emphasizes efficiency. Its thoughtfully designed system allows for quick mastery of essential features, from centralized calendar management to automated customer communications, without sacrificing depth of functionality. This focus on usability ensures that teams can quickly implement and optimize their booking operations, which is especially beneficial for organizations prioritising rapid deployment and minimal training requirements.
TrekkSoft vs Checkfront
TrekkSoft has built a strong reputation serving European tour operators through its region-specific capabilities. The system is particularly adept at handling multi-lingual bookings and local market requirements, making it particularly valuable to companies focused on the pan-European leisure market. However, TrekkSoft’s complex pricing structure, which includes various usage-based fees and potential hidden costs, can create financial uncertainty for operators. This lack of pricing transparency makes it difficult for companies to accurately forecast expenses and maintain consistent profit margins.
Checkfront provides both pricing clarity and superior customer support. The platform’s simple 3% booking fee for online reservations eliminates pricing ambiguity, allowing operators to make informed decisions about cost allocation. This transparency is especially valuable for growing businesses that manage variable booking volumes. More importantly, Checkfront’s customer support consistently delivers responsive, knowledgeable assistance whenever you need it, including initial setup and ongoing optimization. While TrekkSoft users have reported inconsistent support experiences, especially during peak periods, Checkfront maintains reliable service levels that help operators minimize disruptions.
With its intuitive interface, advanced analytics tools, global integrations and exceptional support, Checkfront stands out as the most versatile and scalable solution for tour and activity operators. It combines the best of usability, automation and growth-ready features, making it the clear choice for businesses of all sizes.
Customer success stories: why tour operators love Checkfront
Nothing illustrates the value of Checkfront better than the real-life experiences of the companies that use it. These stories highlight how Checkfront’s innovative features and reliable support have transformed operations, streamlined processes and increased revenues for tour operators worldwide. For example:
“Checkfront takes the pain out of managing our customer bookings, and allows us to focus on delivering our customer experience instead.” – Shaun Hurley, Co-owner & IT Director, Urban Axes
“I use [Checkfront] on my phone, I use it on my iPad, on my computer at home, my laptop, I even dream about it.” – Rachel Solberg, Reservations Manager, Eagle Wing Tours
“I’m pretty happy with Checkfront. I’m probably the biggest fan because I keep telling people to use it.” – Adam Walker, Owner, Canmore Cave Tours
“If you compare Checkfront now with what it was 4 or 5 years ago, it’s a completely different system with hundreds of new features. That’s what I like with Checkfront, that it’s moving in the right direction.” – Patrick Gruenbacher, Founder, Zrce.eu
How to choose the best tour operator software
As we have seen throughout this comprehensive guide, choosing the right tour operator software is a crucial decision that can significantly impact the success of your business. To make the best choice, focus on your specific needs and evaluate software options based on these key factors:
- Must-have features: Prioritize essential tools such as online booking, payment processing, availability management, and integration capabilities. This will ensure that the software you select effectively addresses your operational needs.
- Scalability: Choose a solution that can grow with your business. Whether you’re expanding services, managing multiple locations, or entering new markets, the software should be able to adapt to your evolving needs.
- Usability: A well-designed, intuitive interface eases onboarding and reduces the learning curve for your team. Look for software that is both powerful and easy to navigate.
- Cost-effectiveness: Compare pricing structures and ensure transparency. Avoid hidden fees that could affect your profitability.
- Support and reliability: Make sure the software vendor offers exceptional customer support and consistent performance. This will minimize disruptions and ensure smooth operations.
These factors will help you find a tour operator software solution that will increase efficiency, streamline processes, and ultimately help your business thrive.
Ready to see how the right booking system can transform your business? Book a demo with Checkfront today and discover why it’s the ultimate choice for tour and activity providers.
Take your business to the next level!
Online bookings. Flexible pricing. Outstanding support.
