Bus tour operators should look for a reservation system that offers:
- Features to sell tours directly on your website, including online booking engine widgets and integrations with popular payment processors.
- Booking management tools, such as real-time availability management and a central calendar to view reservations from all sales channels.
- Channel management to sell bus tours through a variety of sites and partners, beyond just your website. Key features here are native OTA integrations (partnerships are an even bigger perk), in-built distribution networks, and affiliate programs.
- Native resource management that allows you to track buses, drivers, and tour supplies in the same system you use to manage availability and plan upcoming experiences.
- Customer management tools typically include convenient mobile tickets and portals, but some systems also feature native CRM and automated emails to support customer communications.
- Check-in tools, which include mobile tickets, but you should also look for user-friendly ticket scanning features and mobile app access.
- Reporting tools to analyse business performance and know what’s winning you bookings, and identify improvement areas.
To make comparison shopping easier, we’ve compiled this guide of the most popular reservation systems for bus tour operators — covering background on each brand, feature lists, and pricing — so you can review all of the best options in one place.
Best Bus Tour Reservation Software
We kick off our guide with a review of Bókun, explaining how it checks the boxes above to support bus tour operators.
If you’re interested in exploring Bókun further after reading, please take advantage of our 14-day free trial (no credit card required!) to see if our solution is right for you.
1. Bókun
All-in-one bus tour booking system for small & scaling businesses
Bókun is an all-in-one tour operator software system to manage your bus tour bookings, distribution network, customers, tour supplies and equipment, staff, product line, and business performance in a unified system. It serves as your central command centre to run a smooth (successful) operation.
Our integrated solution is one of the top-rated tour operator software in the market (at 4.7 stars on review sites like Capterra) because:
- It consolidates everything you need so you aren’t working out of (and paying for) a dozen software programs — connecting all staff members in a single hub and keeping everybody organised.
- It’s user-friendly and requires no formal training, so anybody, from office managers to drivers, can learn the platform quickly and easily.
- We’re a Tripadvisor brand and a Viator Preferred Partner, and offer exclusive perks when selling on those channels. For example, Viator suppliers enjoy free subscription checks (12, 24, or 48 annually) and 0% Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations.
- We offer some of the most advanced growth-accelerating tools available — premium integrations with many of the top OTAs (Viator, GetYourGuide, Google Things to do, and Airbnb), and our in-built distribution network is the largest among competitors, with 27k+ travel industry partners. We’ve also released Referral Tracking, allowing you to extend partnerships beyond our network and work with any affiliates.
- Bókun supports you at any growth stage; it’s accessible for small one- and two-person operations, and we offer packages to scale with you. Our team also provides complimentary strategy calls to help scaling teams drive continued growth.
But what customers really love about Bókun is our low costs. We offer one of the most comprehensive systems at the most affordable rates in the market. Our booking fees are the lowest available (between 1% and 1.5%), we don’t charge for Viator bookings, and subscription costs are significantly lower than those of competitors.
Bókun consistently outperforms competitors in Value for Money — and while other brands continue to raise rates, ours remain low.
The following sections will review our core features in more detail, but you can also start our 14-day free trial to test these features yourself.
Bókun’s tools to power direct website bookings
Whether you’re working with an existing site or need to create a booking site from scratch, we’ve got you covered with:
Online booking engine widgets compatible with all website builders — you can create “Book Tour” buttons and add a booking system to your website in a few clicks.
A one-click website builder — with a gallery of drag-and-drop templates — to create a professional, branded booking site with ease.
Our builder requires zero website development or HTML knowledge, so anyone can design a stunning site. That said, we also provide advanced customisation and SEO tools for teams that want to build out their site and optimise it for search engines.
We cover all website and domain registration costs, so there are no additional fees to use our website builder.
Read more: 7 steps to create a booking website
Bókun integrates with over a dozen online payment processors — Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Worldpay, Braintree, Klarna, and more — so you can provide customers with (multiple) secure payment options at checkout. Users can select from the available options in their region and complete their purchase on a protected booking page.
Bókun booking management module
The Bókun central calendar is the source of truth for all booking management tasks. It:
- Aggregates bookings from all sales channels — your website, OTAs, partner sites, affiliates, etc. — so you can see all upcoming reservations in one view.
- Automatically updates reservations if anyone (tour staff or customers) modifies or cancels tours, and notifies all parties of confirmed changes.
- Feeds real-time availability and inventory to all connected calendars — so you can avoid double bookings and travellers can see accurate, up-to-date availability no matter where they reserve your bus tours.
The calendar also provides simple tools to update bookings and availability — tour operators can quickly and easily change existing reservations, assign or reassign drivers, block out tour dates or time slots, and more, directly from the calendar.
Check it out below:
Product & resource management
Bókun’s Experiences tab is your hub for creating and managing your bus tour offerings. Here, you can:
- Create high-quality listings for your bus tours — including descriptions, day-of details, pick-up and drop-off locations, media from past tours, add-on offers, and more.
- Set pricing and availability for all tours.
- Assign required resources per product, establish allocation rules, and maintain an inventory of your buses, drivers, and other necessary equipment.
- Build combo packages from your product line.
- Link Tripadvisor to sync traveller reviews between sites.
Our system includes an interactive product builder that guides you through the steps to design listings. You can also save templates to simplify this process.
Pro tip: Viator users can also auto-import products to skip the set-up in our system and instantly display bus tour experiences on their website.
For bus tour operators where inventory management and resource optimisation are essential, Bókun’s resource management tools provide exceptional flexibility and control.
Our resource management module supports a variety of allocation rules — including manual, automatic orderly, automatic sticky, automatic round robin, and private — and allows you to combine rules to optimise the use of available inventory. Here are some common scenarios:
- Use an automatic round-robin schedule for your main bus fleet to distribute wear evenly across all buses.
- Set manual allocations for specialised vehicles, such as wheelchair-accessible buses or luxury coaches, to reserve them for specific bookings.
- Apply automatic sticky allocation to keep your most experienced drivers consistently assigned to challenging routes.
- Combine automatic round-robin scheduling for your bus fleet with manual allocation for drivers, ensuring even vehicle wear while allowing you to assign your best drivers to VIP tours.
- Use automatic sticky allocation for driver-route pairings, in conjunction with round-robin allocation for buses, to keep experienced drivers on mountain tours while rotating vehicles evenly.
Read more: 5 best tour operator software with powerful inventory management
Growth drivers: Channel management, OTA partnerships, & The Bókun Marketplace
As mentioned above, Bókun offers an impressive suite of tools to help you reach new customers, expand your online presence, and fuel business growth.
In addition to the partnerships we mentioned above, our system connects with 50+ major global OTAs — BeMyGuest, Trip.com, Klook, Hotelbeds, Headout, Civitatis, Tiqets, TourRadar, and more — so you can sell bus tours across all of the popular sites travellers use to book vacations.
Bókun also natively integrates with many niche-specific travel sites, allowing you to find sites that are specifically tailored to bus tours and get in front of highly targeted audiences.
Our Marketplace and Referral Tracking let you get even more creative when expanding your distribution network.
The Bókun Marketplace, our in-built partner network, comprises a diverse mix of travel industry professionals, enabling you to create strategic partnerships with other businesses.
Our network includes tour and activity operators, travel agents, destination management companies, lodging providers, hotel and resort chains, attractions, educational institutions, transportation services, and more, so you can forge partnerships across the entire travel ecosystem — from cross-promotional deals with hotels to combo packages with activity providers.
- Partner with resellers to drive new bookings and fill your calendar.
- Resell others’ travel experiences to earn commissions (this is also a nice way to add to your site offerings with complementary products like lodging or attractions).
- Create comprehensive travel packages that combine your bus tours with partner accommodations and activities — increasing your average booking value while simplifying trip planning for customers.
We provide all of the partner and contract management tools you need to manage outreach, negotiate terms, and renew agreements. We even send alerts about renewals so you can stay on top of partnerships and negotiate more beneficial terms as you develop stronger relationships.
Then, Referral Tracking lets you work with affiliates outside of the Bókun Marketplace — anybody of your choosing. You can partner with neighbouring businesses, social media travel influencers, bloggers, and more.
Our system allows you to choose how affiliates earn bookings for you (via a dedicated booking engine or tracking link) and provides performance reports to show which affiliates generate the most business.
See the results other tour operators are achieving with Bókun’s growth tools:
- The Diving Centre experienced a 40% surge in bookings after joining the Marketplace
- Venice Tours increased revenue by 400% via the Bókun Marketplace
- Tour Marbella pulls in 54% of their bookings through connections via the Bókun Marketplace.
We’ve also written guides with our tips to increase bookings and revenue, which you can find below:
- 10 ways to get more tour reservations
- Best travel distribution channels for tour operators
- How to sell tours online + increase bookings
Bókun CRM & customer management tools
Bókun also includes comprehensive customer management tools to streamline operations for your team and enhance travellers’ experiences.
Our CRM automatically collects customer information when travellers contact you or start the booking process, organising it all in a centralised database. We back our CRM with an automated communications tool (and gallery of email templates) to dispatch essential emails and power retargeting campaigns.
The tool can handle simple communications, like booking confirmations and mobile tickets, but you can also schedule newsletters, discounts, review requests, product announcements, abandoned cart emails, and other marketing emails through our system and blast them to your entire customer base.
To simplify customer experiences, we provide user-friendly self-service portals that allow travellers to view, modify, or cancel tours without assistance from your team. Bókun dispatches another confirmation email and updates your calendar in the event of changes or cancellations.
Bókun check-in tools
Bókun desktop and mobile apps include straightforward check-in tools to streamline arrivals and departures — whether you’re rolling out from a central meeting point or picking riders up along the way.
As mentioned above, Bókun provides mobile tickets for customers, allowing them to easily save them on their devices instead of having to carry a printed copy.
Then we provide quick ticket scanning to check passengers in and verify they’re on board. Bókun also displays tour details and manifests, allowing drivers and guides to track passenger counts, note no-shows, and ensure everyone is accounted for before hitting the road.
Bókun analytics & back-office management
Bókun also provides a robust reporting dashboard, allowing you to keep an eye on how your business is performing. You can measure bookings and revenue in a variety of ways:
- By product to identify popular tours
- By sales channel to determine the most successful OTAs or partners
- By time of year, to determine when you’re busy vs. slow
Then you can use these insights to guide growth strategies and make more confident, informed decisions on how to steer your business forward.
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We also offer the Bókun App Store, where you can purchase additional modules to support our core features. We offer more advanced business intelligence reporting, SMS messaging, tip management, and more. |
Bókun packages & getting started
You can try Bókun free for 14 days to see if it checks your boxes before committing to a package.
After your trial period, you can begin with our START plan — one of our most popular packages, as it supports small and growing teams.
The START plan includes all of Bókun’s core features (everything discussed above) and full Marketplace access for only $49/month, with 1.5% online booking fees. We waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations. Offline and in-person bookings are always free.
Beyond our START plan, we offer PLUS and PREMIUM plans with enterprise-level features like agent portals, Zapier, and subvendor management. These plans also include a yearly strategy call with a Bókun expert to discuss your growth goals and ensure Bókun is optimised to support them.
You can compare plans here or start your 14-day free trial here!
2. Peek Pro
Peek Pro’s booking platform earns an exceptional 4.7-star rating (like Bókun) because it packs in a variety of tools, including its unique Peek Capital, to support scalability. Growing teams praise its marketing tools, reseller network, and OTA integrations for reaching new customers and encouraging returning business. Peek also provides options to sell memberships to help you see more ROI from your acquisition efforts.
The hang-up we (and many reviewers) have with Peek is the expensive booking fees — up to 6% and 8%.
While fees of 6% to 8% may be manageable for budget-friendly bus tours, they become substantial for high-end offerings, such as luxury entertainment coaches or private group charters.
Peek lets tour operators choose to cover costs or pass them to customers, but regardless of who’s paying, these percentages can significantly impact costs. An 8% fee on premium bookings can either price you out of competitive deals or take a serious chunk out of your profits.
You’ll need to consider the cost of your tours when deciding if Peek (and other high-fee options, such as many below) is right for you.
Check out more Peek Pro reviews here.
Features
- Online booking widgets
- Customisable booking calendar
- Reservation management
- Integrations with OTAs & channel management tools
- Availability & staff management
- Options to sell memberships, add-ons, bundles, gift cards & vouchers
- Marketing tools (including customer retargeting)
- Dynamic pricing
- Fast check-in features, including digital waivers, Kiosk mode & ticket scanning
- Customer portals
- Peek reseller network
- Peek Capital (to apply for loans)
- Inventory management
- Native POS
- Multi-currency support
- Integrations with online payment processors
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Peek Pro charges variable booking fees — up to 6% and 8% (and often higher for international transactions).
Read more: Best Peek Pro alternatives comparison guide
3. FareHarbor
FareHarbor is another online reservation software with a competitive feature set — but with high fees, up to 6% and 8%. The difference between FareHarbor and Peek, though, is that FareHarbor automatically passes fees to customers at checkout (tour operators don’t have a choice who covers them), and operators report that high fees often torpedo deals at checkout.
FareHarbor is a relatively well-known name because it’s a Booking.com brand and has been active in the industry for a while (since 2013). They initially gained popularity for their subscription-free structure, but now, pricing appears to be the primary reason why operators are leaving FareHarbor.
Fees aside, FareHarbor might appeal to you if you’re looking for professional website design and SEO services. They recently launched comprehensive website packages, where their team designs and maintains your site, along with tiered SEO services to help drive more bookings from organic search.
Features
- Website-building services — FareHarbor charges an extra fee for this service
- Online booking widget
- Customisable booking calendar
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Distribution network (FHDN)
- Product management
- Availability management
- Staff management
- Native POS
- Integrations with Stripe
- Customer portals
- Fast check-in features & online waiver tools
- Options to sell memberships
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
FareHarbor charges travellers a variable booking fee (as high as 8%) at checkout.
Read more:
- Best FareHarbor alternatives comparison guide
- Bókun vs. FareHarbor vs. Peek Pro
- Bókun vs. FareHarbor vs. Rezdy
4. Rezdy
Rezdy is another name you’re bound to run into when comparing top-rated tour operator software, as it (currently) earns 4.5 stars on review sites and works with teams worldwide.
Rezdy is a global brand — also merging with Checkfront and Regiondo — offering packages for all business sizes. However, pricing is also an issue with all three of these brands. Users rate Rezdy 4.2 stars for Value for Money, which is lower than the category average of 4.5 stars.
Rezdy doesn’t charge super high booking fees like we see with Peek and FareHarbor above, but their subscription fees are a pretty penny. For example, their Accelerate package, which contains all the same features as Bókun’s START plan, is $50 more than what we charge ($99/month). You can simply get more bang for your buck with other booking solutions.
Features
- One-click website builder
- Online booking engine
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Reseller network
- Product management
- Reservation management
- Live availability
- Automated customer communications
- RezdyPay — Rezdy’s native payment gateway — and integrations with solutions like Stripe, PayPal, Google, and Apple Pay
- Integrations & API
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Rezdy offers:
- A 21-day free trial
- Three paid plans
- Custom packages for enterprises
Rezdy charges 3% online booking fees across all standard packages. Packages are as follows:
- Foundation ($49/month): This starter plan includes basic feature access (online booking widgets, guest manifests, mobile apps).
- Accelerate ($99/month): This is Rezdy’s recommended plan because it unlocks access to more advanced tools and integrations.
- Expansion ($249/month): The enterprise package grants access to Rezdy’s API and webhooks — for teams that need more advanced customisation options.
Read more: Best Rezdy alternatives: 2025 comparison guide
5. TripWorks
TripWorks is another name that frequently appears in tour operator software reviews, boasting a glowing 4.9-star rating and earning positive remarks for its comprehensive functionality, responsive customer support team, and affordable subscription-free pricing model.
As you can see from the snapshot above, TripWorks online booking software is targeted at enterprises and larger teams, offering advanced growth features such as marketing tools and integrations with digital marketing platforms.
However, like Peek and FareHarbor, TripWorks charges high booking fees of 6% for all online bookings. This might work for enterprises with flexible budgets or operators running low-cost tours, but for cost-conscious teams or those with expensive offerings, the 6% fee can significantly impact profitability.
Find more TripWorks reviews here.
Features
- Online booking widgets
- Reservation management
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Reseller network
- Product management
- Inventory management
- Availability management
- Marketing tools & integrations with marketing software
- Dynamic pricing
- Native POS
- Integrations with Apple Pay & Google Pay
- Options to sell gift cards & vouchers
- Digital waivers
- Reporting
Pricing
TripWorks charges a 6% online booking fee; tour operators can choose to cover this or pass it on to travellers at checkout. TripWorks also charges an (undisclosed) credit card transaction fee.
Read more: Best alternative to Tripworks comparison guide
6. TrekkSoft
The next name on our list is one our European readers might be familiar with: TrekkSoft. The brand was born and raised in Switzerland, and has a large customer base throughout Europe and the UK.
It’s also particularly popular among adventure guides and outdoorsy activity businesses, such as zipline operators, white-water rafting guides, kayak tour and rental companies, horseback riding guides, cavers, paragliding businesses, and more.
Now, we don’t want to harp on pricing with every competitor on this list. We understand that’s repetitive and probably makes us sound biased. But you’ll notice TrekkSoft charges the most expensive pricing of all options in our guide (and really industry wide), with both expensive subscription and booking fees.
While TrekkSoft offers a few standout features for bus tour operators, such as strong resource management capabilities, it’s not a cost-effective option that we can strongly recommend.
Features
- Customisable booking calendar
- Custom website builder
- Booking widgets for existing sites
- Availability management
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Partner network to establish contracts with suppliers & resellers
- Integrations with payment processing tools (Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay)
- Payoo (TrekkSoft’s native payment gateway)
- Resource management
- Reporting
- Mobile apps
Pricing
Trekksoft offers three plans and custom enterprise packages:
- Commission Model (the “free” plan): This includes the booking engine, channel and resource management, limited access to the partner network, and the integrated payment gateway. This package requires a 12-month commitment, and Trekksoft charges a one-time setup fee of $937 for this plan. Users also pay the highest booking fees in this plan (5% for direct online bookings, 3% on bookings from OTAs, and a 64¢ fee per offline booking).
- Accelerate ($138/month): This is Trekksoft’s recommended package because it includes access to all features and the entire reseller network. Booking fees are 2.5% for direct online bookings, 2.5% on bookings from OTAs, and a 59¢ fee per offline booking.
- Ultimate ($275/month): The top-tier plan includes additional business intelligence tools to create a sales network and increase bookings. This plan also provides access to the developer API. Booking fees here are 2% for direct online bookings, 2% on bookings from OTAs, and a 59¢ fee per offline booking.
Read more: Best Trekksoft alternatives
7. Bookeo
Next, Bookeo offers booking management solutions for a variety of industries — not only tour operators but also fitness studios, salons, photographers, schools, consultants, law firms, and more.
The tour booking software offers all of the essentials tour businesses need to run an organised, streamlined operation — advanced booking and availability management, product and resource management, staff management, and business intelligence reporting.
However, it lacks on the growth side of things. While it includes channel management and OTA connections, it doesn’t offer any exclusive integrations or partnerships, nor an in-built distribution network. You can sell on sites like Viator and GetYourGuide, and route bookings back to Bookeo, but the improved operational efficiency is the only benefit there.
While it’s not the most advanced system, pricing is reasonable, and they’re one of the most affordable options on this list. Bookeo doesn’t charge booking fees; only a flat monthly subscription. Packages are based on booking volume.
You can find more Bookeo reviews here.
Features
- Online booking widget
- Customisable booking management calendar
- Channel management & OTA connections
- Product management
- Availability management
- Staff management
- Native POS
- Integrations with online payment processors (e.g., Stripe)
- Automated customer communications
- Customer portals
- Waiting lists
- Upselling tools
- Options to sell merchandise, gift cards & vouchers
- Reporting
Pricing
Bookeo offers three packages:
- Standard plan ($39.95/month): This plan supports 20 product listings, 20 staff logins, and 1,000 bookings per month.
- Large plan ($79.95/month): Bookeo’s upgraded plan supports 40 product listings, 40 staff logins, and 2,000 bookings per month.
- X-large plan ($199.95/month): The most advanced plan supports 60 products, 60 staff logins, and 3,000 bookings per month.
Read more: Best Bookeo alternatives for activity & experience providers
8. Distinctive Systems
The last option on our list, Distinctive Systems, offers a complete software ecosystem for bus tour operators. You can purchase all three of their software solutions to use in tandem:
- A Tour Booking System for managing tour and day-trip reservations
- A Coach Manager charter and contract booking system
- A Vehicle Maintenance System for planning equipment and workshop maintenance
Overall, Distinctive Systems is a small brand, only working with ~300 tour businesses globally. They mostly appeal to other small businesses as well, since their solutions lack many of the growth tools we discuss with other systems.
The tour booking system offers a standard toolkit; it allows you to enable direct website bookings and view reservations in a central calendar, but it doesn’t let you expand to other sales channels or establish partnerships. However, it could be a good option for operators running multi-day bus tours since it supports detailed itinerary planning for each day.
Read Distinctive Systems reviews here.
Features
- Online booking engine widgets
- Custom website builder
- Booking & availability management
- Channel management
- Partner network
- Payment gateway integrations
- Product management
- Resource management
- Client & agent portals
- Mobile apps
- Reporting
Pricing
Distinctive Systems offers pricing per product, with breakdowns by the number of annual passengers you serve. It doesn’t charge booking fees, but it has expensive subscription fees. You can see the full details here.
Read more: Best online booking system for UK travel experience providers
Getting started with Bókun
Many of these top-rated options cater to bus tour companies, offering the necessary features and benefits to meet the criteria we discussed earlier. So when it’s time to make the decision, it really comes down to pricing. That’s why we emphasise our low fees so much.
The difference between 1.5% and 6% booking fees can be substantial when booking hundreds of tours weekly or offering expensive experiences, such as heritage and culinary journeys, VIP small-group sightseeing excursions, and luxury city sightseeing bus tours.
For example, a bus tour operator processing $75,000 in annual bookings would pay $4,500 in fees with a 6% platform — but only $1,125 with Bókun. Saving $3,375 per year, that goes straight to the bottom line.
See how Bókun can transform your operations without breaking the bank by starting a 14-day free trial.
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