There\u2019s an array of OTA booking systems for different travel services \u2014 some designed for hotel groups or property management services, others for travel agents, airlines, car rental groups, and tour operators and activity providers.<\/p>\n
Before you can start comparing options, you have to narrow down the options for your niche.<\/p>\n
We put together this guide to review 6 of the best OTA booking systems for tour operators so you can compare options and find what\u2019s best for your business.<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ll start with our solution, B\u00f3kun. As a Tripadvisor brand and Viator Top Connectivity Partner, we\u2019ve been working with tour and activity operators (for 10+ years) as they begin selling online<\/a> and grow their distribution network. We\u2019ve designed our solution with the tools to keep your booking calendar and back-office operations organised as you grow.<\/p>\n To further explore B\u00f3kun, keep reading or <\/em>start a free 14-day trial<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun\u2019s booking system is tailored to tour operators<\/a> with features to:<\/p>\n Collectively, our tools allow you to keep your operations organised, increase bookings, and offer a better experience for travellers. They can book with you online 24\/7, confirm tours instantly, modify or cancel reservations, and check in with convenient mobile tickets.<\/p>\n What sets us apart from other OTA booking systems is our Viator partnership<\/strong> \u2014 Viator<\/a> is one of the most popular OTAs, with over 30 million monthly website visitors worldwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Plus, Viator listings are often featured at the top of Google when travellers search for tours and activities, pushing their users\u2019 online reach even further.<\/em><\/p>\n Our site seamlessly connects with Viator, so you can manage bookings in our system and even push Viator products over to B\u00f3kun<\/strong> so you can sell them on your booking website \u2014 you can import products with just a few clicks, so setup takes virtually no time.<\/p>\n We waive B\u00f3kun booking fees on Viator reservations<\/strong>, so you can minimise costs while using this channel to grow your business<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition, we\u2019re a Premium Connectivity Partner with GetYourGuide<\/strong>, which means our platform offers the highest API performance (less than 1% error rate) among the booking software that integrates with GetYourGuide. It also earns you better visibility on GetYourGuide\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n Our booking fees are the lowest amongst competitors<\/strong> (1% to 1.5%), so you can keep costs low regardless of the channel you sell on.<\/p>\n In the sections below, we\u2019ll review our core features so you can see how B\u00f3kun supports business growth and simplifies operations. But again, you can always <\/em>start a free trial to explore B\u00f3kun at your convenience<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t already have a website, or you have a website but no booking engine, we\u2019ve got you covered:<\/p>\n You can connect B\u00f3kun with unlimited OTAs<\/strong> \u2014 and we don\u2019t charge fees to add channels.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, our site connects with Viator, but it also connects with:<\/p>\n After you connect platforms, bookings across all websites populate in your B\u00f3kun calendar, and you can manage availability across all sites from B\u00f3kun. It\u2019s easy and effortless.<\/p>\n We charge the lowest booking fees<\/strong> \u2014 1% to 1.5% \u2014 for direct bookings and bookings from OTAs and partners. More on partners below.<\/p>\n We also offer B\u00f3kun\u2019s Channel Manager<\/strong>, a module designed for teams that already have a reservation system and want to use B\u00f3kun to connect with OTAs and manage bookings.<\/p>\n Acting as a middleman, our system integrates with your existing software and OTAs and communicates with all systems to centralise bookings, check availability, and update OTAs.<\/p>\n This way, you can see all bookings \u2014 from your website, OTAs, and other online or offline channels \u2014 in your existing system\u2019s calendar and continue to use your current calendar to manage availability across all sites.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Best channel managers for tour operators + reviews<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n In addition to OTAs, the B\u00f3kun Marketplace is home to thousands of businesses in the travel and tourism sector. When you start a subscription, you\u2019re automatically added to the Marketplace.<\/p>\n Within our Marketplace, you can establish partnerships with other tour and activity operators, hotels and resorts, rental providers, travel agents, DMOs, and other travel companies. You can also manage all communications and contracts in our system so they\u2019re easily accessible for you and your partners.<\/p>\n There are a few ways you can leverage our Marketplace:<\/strong><\/p>\n We suggest doing a mix of both to increase bookings and revenue together.<\/p>\n You can also create tour or travel packages with partners to offer travellers unique and convenient experiences.<\/p>\n You can combine forces with other tour operators for all-day excursions. For example, if you offer a bike tour<\/a> and an operator nearby offers a food tour<\/a>, you could incorporate the two and keep travellers busy all day.<\/p>\n You could also partner with a nearby hotel or car rental service to cover other parts of your customers\u2019 travel.<\/p>\n You can get creative with packages in many ways \u2014 you can even design them for groups, like bachelor or bachelorette trips, or offer limited-time holiday packages when people are often travelling.<\/p>\n Here are a few more guides with tips on creating packages and leveraging partnerships:<\/em><\/p>\n Our system makes it easy to build engaging tour listings, set pricing, and manage availability.<\/p>\n The Experiences<\/strong> tab is your hub for setting all of this up, and our product builder will walk you through the steps so there\u2019s no confusion. You can even save templates after creating tour listings to easily create similar listings in the future.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a peek at our product builder:<\/strong><\/p>\n The screenshot above shows all the fields you\u2019re prompted to complete when designing your tour listing.<\/p>\n You want to add detailed itineraries, catchy photos and videos from past experiences, and any essential information travellers need for the day of. You can offer add-ons for customers to purchase extras for the experience. Our site also connects with Tripadvisor to feed customer reviews between platforms.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/em><\/strong> We suggest adding at least six images with each listing; this helps showcase experiences to travellers and can help you <\/em>earn Viator\u2019s Badge of Excellence<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Then, you can choose how travellers book with you \u2014 whether they select a specific day and departure time, reserve a day, or buy a visitor\u2019s pass \u2014 and manage availability.<\/p>\n You can set availability rules per product so these populate your calendar and reflect on OTAs automatically.<\/p>\n At this point, you\u2019ll choose pricing. Again, there are various routes to take here.<\/p>\n You can create tiered pricing categories, charge one flat rate, add separate rates for private tours, give a discount for children or seniors, and enable bulk discounts. We also have a dynamic pricing tool that adjusts rates automatically under certain conditions \u2014 during certain days or seasons or when the booking cutoff is approaching, for example.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s cover some of our features to keep your operations and staff running smoothly.<\/p>\n First, we have the centralised booking calendar we\u2019ve discussed throughout. This calendar consolidates bookings across all channels for you. It also simplifies availability management, as availability updates across all channels when new reservations come in or you make changes to your calendar.<\/p>\n Then, we offer integrations with online payment providers and POS systems so customers can pay at the time of booking (online or in person), and you can track revenue in our system.<\/p>\n Our system conveniently connects with Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Braintree, Worldpay, Raypd, and more. We even partner with Klarna to offer customers different payment options.<\/p>\n Our Klarna integration is especially beneficial for tour and activity providers with expensive experiences, as it can widen your customer base and make your tours accessible to travellers who wouldn\u2019t normally be able to book with you.<\/em><\/p>\n In addition, B\u00f3kun has a feature to create payment links for customers who don\u2019t book on an OTA or your website (e.g., walk-ins, phone, or email) to pay for tour reservations online.<\/p>\n Our system generates and sends a link, where the customer can enter their payment details and finish checkout securely. They don\u2019t have to share payment details with the operator team (in person, over the phone, or by email) to complete bookings.<\/p>\n Note:<\/em><\/strong> Operators can also choose to offer deposit options through payment links.<\/em><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun includes a CRM system that automatically stores traveller information (names, email addresses, phone numbers) when they contact you or book a tour. The CRM can also track customers’ booking history so you can spot repeat customers and the tours they prefer.<\/p>\n This lends itself to our\u2026<\/p>\n Our system can send customer emails automatically, so you don\u2019t have to send booking confirmations or tour tickets yourself. You can even use this system to send newsletters, retargeting emails, upsells, discounts, and more.<\/p>\n We provide a template library for you to customise and schedule, and then B\u00f3kun takes care of the rest.<\/p>\n Travellers can modify or cancel tours directly from the booking confirmation email without going back and forth with your team. Our system sends notifications and updates your calendar in real-time to show changes and cancellations; it also sends automatic email confirmations to travellers after they make changes.<\/p>\n Our system comes with mobile apps (for iOS or Android) so tour guides can access the booking calendar on the go. They can stay up-to-date with booking changes and see the details of reservations (like who\u2019s scheduled to arrive) to manage check-ins.<\/p>\n On that note, our apps also include a ticket scanning functionality to streamline customer check-in.<\/p>\n We also offer an array of apps to customise B\u00f3kun and supplement our core features. Many of these apps are free, but we include a few paid add-ons.<\/p>\n You can explore the B\u00f3kun app store here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n B\u00f3kun includes a native reporting suite to measure bookings and revenue.<\/p>\n Our reports let you see big-picture metrics<\/strong> (like the total number of bookings in a certain period) and details of reservations<\/strong> (like who is booking and how many tickets customers book at once), so you can:<\/p>\n As we\u2019ve mentioned throughout, we offer a free 14-day trial for all customers to explore our platform and determine whether it fits their processes and goals.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it works:<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve worked with teams big and small across the globe. Our team can even offer consulting as you start to increase bookings and need guidance on taking steps forward or choosing new sales channels.<\/p>\n Start a free 14-day trial of B\u00f3kun today<\/em><\/a> and explore our OTA booking system for your business.<\/em><\/p>\n Travelotopos<\/a> is a popular OTA booking system because it has a preferred connectivity partnership with GetYourGuide. This brand was born and raised in the UK and has been historically popular among European-based tour operators.<\/p>\n This OTA booking system is a fine option for teams at all growth stages \u2014 it\u2019s easy to use and scalable. The only note is they don\u2019t offer a website builder, only booking widgets, so teams at very early stages may need something more entry-level.<\/p>\n Overall, Travelotopos booking fees are moderate \u2014 charging 3% for bookings from OTAs.<\/p>\n Travelotopos charges a one-time set-up fee of $270. Then, they charge booking fees on each reservation: 3% for online reservations and 1.5% on agent and reseller bookings.<\/p>\n Bookingkit<\/a> is another favoured software option for tour operators in the UK, but this option is typically reserved for larger tour companies (due to both the features and pricing).<\/p>\n As far as OTA-specific benefits go, bookingkit doesn’t offer any dedicated partnerships, but the platform connects with dozens of travel sites and offers convenient, user-friendly channel management.<\/p>\n Users praise<\/a> the platform\u2019s ease of use and intuitive feature set \u2014 but warn that customer service can be hard to get a hold of and less than helpful if you have questions or run into challenges.<\/p>\n Bookingkit charges moderate booking fees, at 3% per booking. This isn\u2019t as steep as competitors like FareHarbor<\/a> or Peek Pro \u2014 whose fees can be as high as 6% \u2014 but bookingkit ends up being a pricey platform because they also charge monthly subscription fees plus transaction and ticket fees with every booking.<\/p>\n Bookingkit offers three packages, but you have to opt for the Businesskit to access channel management.Their plans include:<\/p>\n Xola<\/a> offers modern, advanced tour operator software with extra tools to help drive new bookings and grow your customer base. It\u2019s unique from other solutions in that it offers an \u201coptimised booking engine\u201d that supports travellers through the entire checkout flow to increase booking conversions from your website.<\/p>\n Tour operators also like Xola\u2019s eCommerce features and Xola Bot \u2014 an automated tool that can help win new reservations and revenue by retargeting customers, promoting upsells, or adjusting tour rates.<\/p>\n Like bookingkit, Xola doesn’t have partnerships with any one site and offers standard channel management to centralise bookings and update availability. But they can be an appealing option for tour operators selling on OTAs because they don\u2019t charge typical booking fees. (Instead, they charge a small \u201cpartner fee\u201d for each booking.)<\/p>\n Xola\u2019s partner fee is 1.9% + 30\u00a2 per booking (but this fee can vary outside the United States).<\/p>\n Checkfront’s<\/a> OTA booking system includes more than 100 features to sell tours online, expand your online reach, and efficiently manage reservations, staff, and customer experiences. It connects with unlimited OTAs and supports unlimited bookings.<\/p>\n The platform is easy to set up and get started with, and tour operators enjoy Checkfront\u2019s straightforward pricing structure. As with Travelotopos and bookingkit, Checkfront charges moderate booking fees at 3%. (They don’t charge subscription or transaction fees.)<\/p>\n Checkfront (along with Regiondo<\/a>) recently merged with Rezdy<\/a>, a larger booking software brand, to broaden its network and work with tour operators in dozens of countries. It now offers a standard package for smaller and growing teams \u2014 so all users have access to Checkfront\u2019s 100+ features \u2014 and custom plans for enterprises.<\/p>\n While this merger brings many benefits, it also comes with drawbacks: it\u2019s worth mentioning that users have noted various changes to the platform and functionality since. We should also note that Checkfront only integrates with Stripe\u2019s online payment solution and is, therefore, only available in the countries that support Stripe.<\/p>\n Checkfront offers one plan \u2014 Growth \u2014 and custom enterprise packages. All customers can access Checkfront\u2019s full (100+) feature set.<\/p>\n They don’t charge subscription fees for the Growth plan, but instead, 3% booking fees on every reservation. You can pass these to travellers or cover them on your end.<\/p>\n Checkfront offers custom pricing for enterprise packages.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Best Checkfront alternatives + comparison guide<\/a><\/p>\n The last option on our list, TripWorks<\/a>, is a more common software solution for larger tour companies that already have some experience selling online and are interested in digital marketing strategies to earn new customers. They also appeal to global brands with multi-location features.<\/p>\n In addition to OTA connections, channel management, and other essential features to manage staff and operations, TripWorks includes a suite of online marketing tools to create pay-per-click advertising campaigns, send newsletters, and monitor social media performance. You can also integrate with your marketing software to push data between systems and see where you earn leads.<\/p>\n TripWorks offers a standard package \u2014 all users have access to all features \u2014 and custom enterprise plans. Its booking fees are on par with other competitors listed above: you pay a 2.9% + 30\u00a2 fee when travellers book and pay online.<\/p>\n The platform is user-friendly and easy to learn, and the TripWorks team offers a free consulting call before starting to answer your questions and show you how their system works.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, TripWorks offers a free trial, one standard package, and custom enterprise plans; however, they don\u2019t disclose their subscription fees online \u2014 only the booking fees we mentioned above \u2014 so you have to request a demo to learn more.<\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s why we say pricing mostly appeals to larger teams: TripWorks requires you to process at least $5k in credit card transactions each month (or $30k in six months), or they charge a $49\/month \u201cinactivity fee\u201d for not meeting the minimum.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> During your research for OTA booking systems, you may find solutions like Travelopro, SiteMinder, and OTA Sync that cater to other types of travel businesses (to manage flight bookings, hotel bookings, etc.). Sometimes these larger software providers will have solutions for tour operators, so you may want to check their overall offerings, but these solutions are typically expensive or overly complicated to use for tour operator software.<\/em><\/p>\n Start a free 14-day trial of B\u00f3kun<\/em><\/strong><\/a> to explore our platform and reap the benefits of our Viator partnership.<\/em><\/p>\n Related reads:<\/strong><\/p>\n An \u201cOTA booking system\u201d is a system that allows you to manage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,38,39],"tags":[98,29,44,13,14],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grow-your-bookings","category-otas-and-resellers","category-streamline-operations","tag-distribution","tag-ota-booking-system","tag-ota-bookings","tag-tour-distribution","tag-tour-operator-software"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n6 Best OTA Booking Systems<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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1. B\u00f3kun<\/h2>\n
Scalable OTA booking system to support tour operators at all growth stages<\/h3>\n
![\"B\u00f3kun](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bokun-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
Selling Online & OTA Connections<\/h3>\n
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![\"Online](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bokun-online-travel-agencies.gif\")
<\/p>\nChannel Manager<\/strong><\/h4>\n
B\u00f3kun Marketplace<\/h3>\n
![\"Sales](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/sales-tools-contracts.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
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Managing Experiences, Pricing & Availability<\/h3>\n
![\"Give](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bokun-experience-descriptive-name.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/add-availability-rules-v2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Tiered](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tiered-pricing-adult-vs-children.png\")
<\/p>\nB\u00f3kun\u2019s Suite of Back-Office Tools<\/h3>\n
Booking Calendar<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Booking](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/booking-calendar-2026.gif\")
<\/p>\nIntegrations<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/add-payment-provider.png\")
<\/p>\nNative CRM<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Automated Communications Too<\/strong>l<\/h4>\n
![\"Pick](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/operations-pick-a-base-for-your-template.png\")
<\/p>\nCustomer Portals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Mobile Apps<\/strong><\/h4>\n
B\u00f3kun App Store<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Reporting<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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![\"B\u00f3kun](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bokun-reports-experience-sales.png\")
<\/p>\nPricing & Getting Started<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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2. Travelotopos<\/h2>\n
![\"Travelotopos](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/travelotopos-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\nFeatures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Bookingkit<\/h2>\n
![\"bookingkit](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bookingkit-homepage-2026.png\")
<\/p>\nFeatures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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4. Xola<\/h2>\n
![\"Xola](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/xola-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\nFeatures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Checkfront<\/h2>\n
![\"Checkfront](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/checkfront-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\nFeatures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. TripWorks<\/h2>\n
![\"Tripworks](\"https:\/\/www.bokun.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tripworks-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\nFeatures<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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