There are three methods to create an online booking system:

#1. Build it from scratch.

Use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build your booking system. AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude can help write code, but you’ll still need coding and web development skills to deploy and maintain it.

#2. Use a website builder with booking widgets.

These offer booking widgets or scheduling tools, or let you add a booking link to your existing site. Basic online appointment tools often include widgets for custom booking forms and direct bookings. Easier than option one, but they don’t handle booking management. Customers book and pay online, but there’s no calendar or backend to manage bookings afterward. Mostly a win for customer convenience.

#3. Use a dedicated, out-of-the-box online booking software like Bókun.

Available at various price points for all industries, these include booking widgets to enable direct website bookings and a suite of tools to manage bookings (e.g., a central booking calendar, channel management, automated availability management, tools to modify or cancel bookings, and more).

We might sound a little biased, but these systems are the preferred solution for a reason — they make life easier for both customers and business owners. With comprehensive toolkits, you can sell tours across multiple sites and manage all your bookings from one centralised platform.

Our guide will discuss #3 in more detail, explaining how you can utilise an online booking software to establish a sound system that benefits both you and your customers.

Keep reading or start your 14-day free trial of Bókun — no credit card required!

Online booking management software: What it is + the benefits

A dedicated online booking system encompasses all the tools necessary to make and manage bookings, benefiting both customers and business owners. There is obviously some variance in offerings between systems, but for the most part, these systems include:

  • Tools to enable direct website bookings, such as online booking engine widgets you can embed on your site. Some brands also offer website builders for teams who still need to create a branded site.
  • Advanced booking calendars that centralise reservations from all sales channels (your website, OTAs, partners, and offline or in-person bookings).
  • Real-time availability management that keeps all connected calendars up-to-date.
  • Channel management to connect as many sales channels as you desire and drive bookings outside your website; you can sell across multiple sites and reach new global audiences.
  • Product and resource management to design product listings, manage pricing and availability, and monitor available inventory.
  • Operations management tools to improve customer experiences, oversee staff schedules, gather business insights, streamline back-office tasks, and more.

There are dozens of online booking systems in the market. Some are broader solutions catering to many industries; for example, Bookeo offers booking management solutions for wellness and fitness studios, salons, consultants, and other service-based businesses. Others are developed for specific industries or users; for example, Bókun is tailored to tour operators and travel experience providers.

While these systems have unique rates and pricing structures, they’re affordable overall — even for small one- and two-person teams.

Plus, when you compare the time investment of designing a homegrown system (or developer fees to implement and manage it) vs. purchasing an out-of-the-box system, it quickly becomes clear that online booking systems are the more cost-effective and convenient option.

Many brands offer free trials, allowing you to test their platforms before making a commitment. (You can redeem your free trial of Bókun here.)

In the following sections, we’ll discuss the tools available to you in online booking systems in more detail.

Tools to enable direct website bookings

First, these tools provide everything you need to enable bookings from your website. As mentioned above, some even include website builders to help you take the first step of bringing your business online.

Online booking engine widgets make your site bookable and open for business 24/7. Customers can browse your offerings and availability, book, check out, and confirm reservations online — instantly — without the need for back-and-forth emails or phone calls with your team.

Cellar Door Wine Tour from London example

These systems integrate with online payment processing platforms — such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, Stripe, Klarna, Worldpay, Braintree, Rapyd, and more — to provide customers with secure payment options and encourage them through the checkout flow.

After choosing their preferred checkout option, customers are redirected to a secure booking page to complete their transactions. This way, customers aren’t deterred by any unfamiliar gateways, and business owners don’t have to wait to collect payment upon arrival.

Note: Integrations will vary system to system, so double-check that your preferred online booking system integrates with the payment processors you and your customers use most frequently.

Customers have come to expect the convenience of booking online in today’s digital world, but online booking options also benefit business owners by helping them secure customer bookings. Otherwise, customers would have to wait until regular business hours to call or submit a request form and wait to hear back, during which time they can easily book with somebody else.

Remember, simple booking widgets (option #2) only cover this base. They do not provide the essential booking management tools discussed below.

Central booking calendar & real-time availability management

Online booking systems feature user-friendly, unified booking calendars that allow business owners to view and manage upcoming reservations.

The central calendar displays bookings from your website and all other online sales channels — including online travel agencies (OTAs), online marketplaces, and partner sites — allowing you to manage all reservations in one place. You can also add offline bookings to these calendars with just a few clicks.

Booking Calendar GIF

This calendar then serves as the source of truth for updating all connected calendars. As new reservations are routed to the central calendar, it updates availability and inventory and then feeds this information back to connected calendars.

This calendar sync ensures all calendars are consistent and current, enabling business owners to sell across multiple sites while avoiding tedious calendar management and errors, such as double bookings.

Most of these calendars also offer simple tools to edit or cancel reservations, modify availability, close out days or products, and assign staff members to bookings.

Channel management to expand your reach beyond website bookings

Now, what really makes online booking systems appealing for teams switching to digital strategies is channel management — a.k.a., the ability to sell across multiple sites and manage all bookings in one place.

We briefly mentioned this above when discussing the booking calendar: this calendar shows all bookings, from all sites.

Additionally, most online booking systems offer tools to integrate online sales channels easily. For example, the Bókun Sales Tools tab lists all the OTAs our system natively integrates with, so users can easily connect channels and route bookings back to Bókun.

Online Travel Agencies GIF

Some solutions also include built-in distribution networks that enable their users to connect with other businesses and establish mutually beneficial partnerships.

This helps business owners get even more creative in their distribution strategies because they’re not limited to promoting their business across online platforms. They can partner with resellers to earn new bookings, create packages with partners and diversify their offerings, or add revenue streams by reselling others’ services for a commission.

Many systems also provide sales performance reports, enabling you to identify which sites or partners generate the most bookings and utilise these insights to drive continued growth.

Read more: 10 ways to get more reservations & earn new customers

Tools to manage products & inventory

Online booking systems also provide simple tools to create product listings, specify pricing and availability per product, and track the supplies and staff needed for your day-to-day operations. All features work together smoothly: product listings automatically display neatly on your website, and the availability rules populate your booking calendar.

Here’s how this looks in Bókun:

Give your experience a short but descriptive name

Our product builder walks you through the steps to:

  • Design listings with all of their details, such as descriptions, durations, itineraries, high-quality media, things to know for the day-of, and cancellation policies
  • Offer add-ons with products
  • Set rates and pricing categories
  • Define availability by selecting the days and time slots each product is available
  • Specify required resources and allocation rules

You can also save templates to create future products more easily.

Tools to manage customers, staff, and back-office business processes

Then, of course, these systems provide modules to manage business processes and administrative workflows. Many of these tools include:

  • Customer portals: These enable customers to reschedule or cancel bookings independently, giving them complete control over their reservations.
  • Automated emails: Many tools will handle the tedious task of sending booking confirmations, tickets, reminders, and follow-ups. Some tools also include email templates or allow you to save templates to fuel other email marketing initiatives.
  • Fast check-in features: Most systems offer customers mobile tickets and provide ticket scanning tools for business owners to check customers in upon arrival and monitor no-shows. Some systems also have mobile tap-to-pay features or online payment links to collect payment for in-person bookings or from customers who opt to pay upon arrival.
  • Mobile apps: These keep all team members connected, regardless of location or device.

To top it off, many of these tools include advanced reporting dashboards that help business owners understand where they’re generating revenue and identify areas for improvement.

Bókun Reports: Experience Sales

These tools enable you to analyse bookings and revenue across various categories to pinpoint the most successful products, sales channels, partners, times of year, and more. Then they can use all of these learnings to guide future decision-making.

So, why invest in an online booking system when free alternatives exist?

First and foremost, they support both customer experiences and business operations. In addition, online booking systems:

  • Enable 24/7 availability so customers can book with you at any time.
  • Reduce no-shows and cancellations by allowing customers to complete checkout, confirm bookings, manage reservations online, and receive automated reminders.
  • Increase bookings and revenue by simplifying the customer experience, enabling upsell opportunities for add-ons or upgrades during the booking process, and introducing new sales channels. On that note…
  • Create opportunities to reach new customers (all around the world), add revenue streams, and strategically grow your business.
  • Maintain organisation across all areas of business by keeping booking calendars current, ensuring inventory for experiences, keeping staff working together smoothly, and centralising all booking and customer information for easy access and reporting.
  • Enhance operational efficiencies and reduce administrative overhead to free up time for more value-adding work.
  • Offer more convenience and security than spreadsheets, with secure, cloud-based storage and payment processing — while being less time-consuming and error-prone.
  • Gather better insights on business performance; easily analyse bookings and revenue, see what is booked most often, pinpoint busy and slow seasons, and use these insights to improve marketing and customer service.

While most online booking systems aren’t free, business owners tend to see ROI quickly after investing. For example, Bókun users who sell tours through the Marketplace saw an average Gross Booking Value (GBV) increase of 43%. Others report revenue increases up to 400% after joining Bókun.

Check out our case studies below to see how other business owners have benefited from Bókun:

Bókun’s online booking system, optimised for tour operators & the travel industry

Bókun homepage: More Bookings. Better Experience.

Bókun is a Tripadvisor brand delivering top-rated online booking management solutions for tour operators and the travel industry. Customers rate our system 4.7 stars for ease of use, functionality, affordability, customer service, and scalability. We work with businesses of all stages and sizes in over 80 countries.

We’ve fine-tuned our system over the past decade (plus) of working with tour and travel businesses to cover all areas of their operations and facilitate actual business growth. Our system includes:

  • Online booking engine widgets (compatible with all website builders)
  • One-click website builder for teams who still need to create a booking website
  • Central booking calendar
  • Real-time availability management
  • Channel management
  • Connections with 50+ global online travel agencies (OTAs)
  • Exclusive partnerships with Viator, GetYourGuide, Google Things to do, and Airbnb Experiences to expand your reach globally
  • Bókun Marketplace, our global distribution network with 27k travel industry partners
  • Partner and contract management tools
  • Product management
  • Resource management
  • CRM software
  • Email templates & automated communication tools
  • Customer portals
  • Check-in tools like mobile tickets & ticket scanning
  • Business intelligence reporting
  • Mobile apps (for iOS and Android)
  • App store to purchase additional modules like SMS messaging & tip management

We prioritise accessibility with affordable subscriptions and the industry’s lowest booking fees — 1% to 1.5%.

Our START plan includes all of Bókun’s core features (listed above) for $49 per month, plus 1.5% online booking fees. Offline bookings are always free, and our preferred Viator partnership allows us to waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations — which is why we’re the #1 online booking system for Viator users.

We also offer enterprise-level packages to support you as you grow; our team provides dedicated onboarding and yearly strategy calls in these plans to ensure Bókun is optimised for your evolving business needs.

You can test out Bókun for free by starting your 14-day trial!

Here’s a quick sneak peek of our software:

Additional online booking systems for your consideration

As mentioned, there are dozens of online booking systems available. You might also consider these names:

  • Xola: An advanced online booking system with proprietary online booking engine widgets developed to improve booking conversions — great for teams interested in driving website bookings. Explore Xola reviews.
  • Rezdy: A scalable reservation system with a comprehensive toolkit to manage all business areas, used by tour operators worldwide. Find Rezdy reviews here.
  • Peek Pro: Another subscription-free option with unique growth drivers like Peek Capital to secure business financing (also be wary of fees here). Find Peek Pro reviews here.

You can also compare other systems in our guides below:

Getting started with the right online booking solution for your business

Creating an online booking system doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. While you could build a system from scratch or use basic booking widgets, dedicated booking software offers the most comprehensive solution for businesses serious about organisational growth.

The right online booking system will transform how you operate — enabling 24/7 bookings, centralising reservations, expanding your reach through multiple sales channels, and providing valuable business insights to make data-driven decisions. Most importantly, it frees up your time to focus on what you do best: delivering exceptional experiences to your customers.

Ready to see how an online booking system can grow your business? Start your free 14-day trial of Bókun — no credit card required!

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