We put together this guide with 11 of the top hot air balloon booking software<\/strong> \u2014 starting with our own platform, B\u00f3kun \u2014 so you can see how they stack up.<\/p>\n To explore B\u00f3kun further after reading, <\/i>start a 14-day free trial<\/i><\/b><\/a> \u2014 no CC required.<\/i><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun is an all-in-one booking, operations, and distribution management system<\/strong> for tour and activity operators. We\u2019re a Tripadvisor and Viator brand, and we\u2019ve spent over 10 years building software alongside operators in over 80 countries. Our system works for balloon operators of every size, from a pilot flying one balloon out of a single field to companies running a fleet across several launch sites.<\/p>\n With B\u00f3kun, you can sell shared sunrise and sunset flights alongside private charters, tie each flight to the balloon and crew flying it, and offer gift vouchers year-round for the months you\u2019re in the air. And when the weather grounds a flight, you have what you need to help passengers reschedule or cancel, without calling down a list one by one.<\/p>\n Then, because most of your passengers find you through travel sites and hotels, we packed B\u00f3kun with a ton of distribution tools to put your flights in front of them:<\/p>\n Operators using B\u00f3kun see an average 200% increase in bookings after tapping into our distribution network!<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019re one of the top-rated systems \u2014 4.7 stars on Capterra<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 for our all-in-one toolkit and extensive growth drivers (everyone gets access to the core features, everything we cover below), ease of use (anyone can get started with zero training), and industry-low fees (just 1.5% in booking fees vs. the 4% to 8% many competitors charge).<\/p>\n In the following sections, we\u2019ll show you exactly how our core features work for hot air balloon operators. But you can also start a free trial<\/a> to check out the platform yourself.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun\u2019s central calendar<\/strong> brings every booking into one place. Reservations from your website, OTAs, resellers, and affiliates land there automatically. And you can add phone bookings, walk-ups, and any other offline reservations yourself (we never charge booking fees on those).<\/p>\n This calendar also powers real-time availability updates on every connected channel<\/strong>, so when the last seat in a basket gets booked, that flight closes everywhere you sell, at once. And if you know you won\u2019t be flying on a certain day \u2014 say, you\u2019re taking a balloon to a festival or giving the crew a day off \u2014 you can block that day or a single launch time right on the calendar, so it can’t be booked.<\/p>\n The calendar is also where you manage your bookings. You can open any booking to see the details, then edit, reschedule, or cancel it. You can also manage pilot and chase crew assignments from here if you need to switch things up.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also your starting point when weather conditions turn. Select the bookings on a grounded flight and trigger a Disrupted Departure, and every passenger gets the option to reschedule or cancel (more on that below)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every flight you offer gets its own listing<\/strong> in our Experiences module<\/strong>: your shared sunrise flight, your sunset flight, and your private charter, each with its own description, duration, capacity, and price.<\/p>\n You can also sell gift vouchers<\/strong>, which customers buy online and recipients redeem when they\u2019re ready to pick a date. And you can create combo products<\/strong><\/a> that pair a flight with another experience, whether it\u2019s one of yours or a partner\u2019s.<\/p>\n There are a few ways to create listings: build from scratch with our product builder, start from a template, or import them straight from your website or Viator.<\/p>\n The first step is to fill in the details passengers need before they book: a description of the flight, photos, how long the full experience takes (from meeting up to the post-flight toast), where to meet, what\u2019s included and what\u2019s available as an add-on, and anything they should know beforehand, like what to wear and your passenger requirements.<\/p>\n Re: Add-ons <\/strong>\u2014 you can offer these to passengers at checkout, like a champagne breakfast, a photo and video package, a flight certificate, or hotel pick-up.<\/p>\n From there, you set the availability rules<\/strong> for each flight. Set your sunrise and sunset launch times to repeat, cap each flight at the number of seats in the basket, add a booking cutoff (say, the evening before, so your crew knows exactly who\u2019s flying), and block out the months you\u2019re not in the air.<\/p>\n Our resource management tools<\/strong><\/a> keep track of everything (and everyone) each flight needs. You add your inventory in two layers: resource types (balloons, pilots, chase vehicles, inflation fans, trailers, and radios) and the individual resources inside each one.<\/p>\n Then you link them to your listings, so every flight is automatically assigned the right people and equipment. For example, one team of pilots and chase crew can run your sunrise flights, another can cover sunset flights, and your most experienced pilot can take private charters.<\/p>\n As soon as a flight is booked, everything assigned to it is locked for that launch (but you can always shift assignments in the central calendar, as mentioned).<\/p>\n You can also add buffer time to a resource, giving your crew time to pack up and recover between flights. And you can close a single resource when it\u2019s out of action, say when a balloon needs repairs, without touching the rest of your fleet.<\/p>\n Custom booking forms<\/strong> let you ask passengers whatever you need to know before they fly, like:<\/p>\n Every answer is saved to the passenger\u2019s record in our CRM.<\/p>\n Our pricing tools <\/strong>are super flexible. You can charge per seat for shared flights, offer separate adult and child rates, and build in bulk discounts for larger groups. Private charters get a flat rate.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun also offers dynamic pricing<\/strong><\/a> that can raise or lower your rates automatically based on rules you set. For example, you can charge more on weekends and in peak season, or drop the price in shoulder months or when baskets still have seats open right before booking cutoffs.<\/p>\n You can also choose how passengers pay: in full upfront, with a deposit to hold their seats, or on arrival.<\/p>\n A memorable hot air balloon experience is often the highlight of someone\u2019s trip, so it\u2019s one of the first things travellers look for when they\u2019re planning.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun helps you reach those folks looking for exactly what you offer by connecting to 70+ OTAs and online marketplaces from one dashboard<\/strong>: Viator, GetYourGuide, Google Things to do, Airbnb Experiences, Expedia, Civitatis, Klook, Trip.com, Headout, TourRadar, Musement, and KKday, plus niche platforms for specific destinations and activities.<\/p>\n We\u2019re the #1 restech partner across all major sites<\/strong> and have a few advanced partnerships that earn our customers extra perks:<\/p>\n There are no caps on how many channels you can connect<\/strong> \u2014 you can browse all the options in our Sales Tools tab and add or remove channels as you wish.<\/p>\n We also put together the guides below so you can learn more about the most popular online travel sites and how to sell on them:<\/p>\n The B\u00f3kun Marketplace<\/strong><\/a> connects you with thousands of travel businesses: travel agents<\/a>, DMCs, accommodation providers like hotels and resorts, transportation providers, rental companies, attractions, and other tour and activity operators. There are a few ways to use this network:<\/p>\n You can search for partners by business or product type, reach out and agree on terms, and build contracts right in B\u00f3kun, with every conversation and document saved in one place.<\/p>\n See how others use the B\u00f3kun Marketplace to win bookings in our case studies below:<\/p>\n Referral Tracking<\/strong><\/a> lets you build your own affiliate network<\/a> with partners outside the Marketplace \u2014 and you\u2019re in complete control of it.<\/p>\n You can add as many affiliates as you like, from B&Bs, holiday rental hosts, and visitor centres to tourism boards, restaurants and caf\u00e9s, local gift shops, wedding and proposal planners, corporate event planners, photographers, and travel creators.<\/p>\n Then, you set each affiliate\u2019s commission individually and give them a link or a dedicated booking page where their customers can book directly with you. B\u00f3kun tracks where every booking came from, so you can see which partners actually send you passengers.<\/p>\n OTAs and partners get you in front of travellers who haven\u2019t heard of you yet, but your own website is where everyone else books \u2014 passengers who heard about you from a friend, spotted your brochure at their hotel, or read a review and went looking for you. So your site needs to take bookings, not just enquiries.<\/p>\n If you already have a website, you can add our <\/strong>booking widgets<\/strong><\/a> across pages<\/strong>. They work with nearly every website builder, including WordPress<\/a>, Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly \u2014 you grab the code from B\u00f3kun and drop it into your site.<\/p>\n And we offer a few different widget types, so you can pick the right one for each spot on your site:<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>How to add a booking system to your website<\/a><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a website yet, our one-click website builder<\/strong><\/a> makes it super simple to create one. Pick a template<\/a>, then plug in your details: add your logo and brand colours, drop in photos of your flights, give some background on your business, and add your contact info.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>How to create a booking website<\/a><\/p>\n Every template is optimised for desktop and mobile, and your booking widgets come pre-installed (though you can always change them up or add more).<\/p>\n We also offer more advanced website tools<\/strong><\/a> so you can add custom CSS, publish blog content, test SEO strategies<\/a>, translate your site for international visitors, and connect Google Analytics.<\/p>\n Then we make it easy to get your site live by managing your domain\u2014 we\u2019ll secure it and cover those charges, so you can publish your site without any extra setup.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun also supports the full booking process and checkout flow by connecting with dozens of payment processors<\/strong><\/a>, including Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, Klarna, and Worldpay. You can add as many of these to your checkout as you like, so you can offer the payment methods that are popular where your passengers come from, as well as the ones they simply prefer to use. That way, you don\u2019t risk losing bookings at checkout because the right payment option wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun comes with an built-in CRM<\/strong><\/a> to manage your customer base, communications, and email marketing in one place \u2014 so you don\u2019t have to pay for (or work in) a separate system.<\/p>\n Passenger details are captured as soon as someone starts a booking. Every passenger gets a profile with their contact details, booking form answers, and full booking history. Your team can also add notes, like a passenger who mentioned they\u2019re nervous about heights or a couple celebrating a milestone.<\/p>\n Having all of that in one place makes it much easier to stay in touch with passengers, from the moment they book to long after they\u2019ve landed.<\/p>\n And it gives you a much clearer picture of who\u2019s flying with you, so you can more strategically target your marketing efforts. For example, you could send a sunset flight offer to passengers who flew at sunrise, an anniversary offer to the couple who got engaged in your basket last year, or a gift voucher reminder ahead of the holidays.<\/p>\n All of this leads us to\u2026<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun\u2019s automated communications<\/strong>. This serves two purposes: it dispatches all of your standard emails (booking confirmations, mobile tickets, reminders, follow-ups, and waivers if you plug in that module), and it powers all your email marketing campaigns. We provide templates for both sides of it.<\/p>\n Your standard emails run on their own once they\u2019re set up. Pick a template, adjust the wording, and specify when they send. Then, every passenger gets what they need, without anyone on your team manually firing every email: their pre-dawn meeting time, where to park, and what to wear before the flight, then a thank-you and a review request once they\u2019ve landed.<\/p>\n On the marketing side, we provide templates for abandoned cart nudges, upsells, and discount codes. You can also add your own templates for anything else: newsletters, seasonal promotions, an announcement about a new launch site, a \u201cbook your next flight\u201d email for past passengers, or a last-minute deal when a basket still has seats. Schedule campaigns in advance and send them to the right passengers in your CRM.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun also offers customer <\/strong>self-service portals<\/strong>, linked from every confirmation email.<\/p>\n Passengers can view their booking, reschedule or cancel, and add extras like a photo package or champagne breakfast.<\/p>\n Any changes they make update your calendar automatically, so your team isn\u2019t fielding emails over every small change.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also where passengers land when the weather grounds a flight, which we\u2019ll get to next.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun also comes with tools to help you run each flight morning, and to handle the ones that don\u2019t go to plan.<\/p>\n Our iOS and Android apps<\/strong> put the day\u2019s manifest in your crew\u2019s pockets. They can see who\u2019s booked on each flight and which balloon, pilot, and chase crew are assigned. As passengers arrive, your team scans their mobile tickets to check them in and can see who\u2019s still on the way.<\/p>\n And since launch sites are often out in open fields with patchy signal, check-in works offline and syncs as soon as you\u2019re back in range.<\/p>\n For the mornings you can\u2019t fly, there\u2019s Disrupted Departure<\/strong>. Select the bookings on a grounded flight from the calendar, and every passenger gets a notification with a link to their self-service portal, where they can pick a new date or cancel for a refund. If they reschedule, anything attached to their original booking (add-ons, booking form answers, and pick-up details) moves over to the new one. Disrupted Departure also closes the grounded flight to new bookings, so nobody else books onto it.<\/p>\n In cases where there\u2019s no realistic path to rescheduling \u2014 bad weather sticks around for days, you\u2019re booked out for the rest of the season, or you\u2019re close to the end of your season \u2014 you can use Mass Cancellation<\/strong> to cancel and refund everyone on a flight at once.<\/p>\n And for changes that don\u2019t require a full rescheduling or cancellation, like a later meeting time or a different launch field, Mass Mail<\/strong> lets you message everyone booked that day in one go.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun comes with reporting dashboards<\/strong> that break down your bookings and revenue by flight, sales channel, and time period. That helps you answer the questions that shape your season, like:<\/p>\n We also offer a more advanced reporting module in our App Store. This lets you build custom reports and hone in on the data that\u2019s most valuable to you, like how many bookings you lose to weather cancellations, where your passengers travel from, or how far ahead they book.<\/p>\n\n
1. B\u00f3kun<\/h2>\n
Balloon flight bookings, crew & distribution in one system \u2014 with the industry’s lowest booking fees<\/h3>\n
![\"B\u00f3kun](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bokun-homepage.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
See every flight on one booking calendar<\/h3>\n
![\"B\u00f3kun](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bokun-departure-details-screen.png\")
<\/p>\nCreate listings for all your flight types & manage the behind-the-scenes resources<\/h3>\n
![\"Experience:](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bokun-new-experience.png\")
<\/p>\nSetting flight availability<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Managing your balloons, pilots, chase crew & equipment for each flight<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Collecting passenger details<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Setting your prices & payment options<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Sell seats through OTAs, partners & your own website<\/h3>\n
OTA connections<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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B\u00f3kun Marketplace<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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![\"B\u00f3kun](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/discover-partners-gif.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n
Referral Tracking<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Your own website<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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![\"Choosing](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/choose-your-widget-type.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Website](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/website-settings-choose-template.png\")
<\/p>\nKeep in touch with passengers before & after the flight<\/h3>\n
CRM<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Operations](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/operations-customers-manage-communications.png\")
<\/p>\nAutomated communications<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Operations:](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/operations-pick-a-base-for-your-template.png\")
<\/p>\nSelf-service portal<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Run the morning of the flight (& troubleshoot those mornings you can’t fly)<\/h3>\n
Checking passengers in<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Handling weather disruptions<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Reporting to see which flights & channels fill your baskets<\/h3>\n
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![\"Reporting](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/reporting-dashboard.png\")
<\/p>\nB\u00f3kun App Store<\/h3>\n