TripWorks is a popular booking management system for tour providers, activity operators, and attractions. Previously, they marketed to businesses of all sizes and offered a moderate fee-based pricing model.
However, over the past year, TripWorks has shifted its positioning and pricing, now targeting larger, faster growing businesses managing high-volume ticket sales.
We’ve compiled this guide with the latest TripWorks pricing details so you can decide if it’s the right fit — and see how it stacks up against alternatives if not.
TripWorks pricing breakdown
TripWorks’s pricing is as follows:
- Booking fees: 6%
- Merchant service fees: 2.9% + 30¢ for each booking
- Subscription fees: None
TripWorks booking fees are some of the highest across tour operator software. Here’s how they compare:
- Booking fees on the low end are typically between 1% and 2% — Bókun falls under this category with fees of 1% to 1.5%, depending on the package you choose.
- Moderate fees are usually between 3% and 4% — brands like Checkfront, BookingHound, and Beyonk fall in this category.
- High fees are anything above 6% — we see FareHarbor, Peek Pro, and TripWorks now charging these steep fees (with Peek Pro charging as high as 8%).
TripWorks lets tour operators decide who covers booking fees: business owners can absorb them and pay TripWorks 6% of each booking, or pass the fees on to customers at checkout.
While option B means tour operators can essentially use the platform for free, the risk is that passing steep fees on to customers may deter them from completing checkout.
If you only offer budget experiences, a 6% fee might not be that big of a deal for customers. What’s a couple of extra dollars?
But if you offer more expensive experiences (like boat charters, wildlife safaris, multi-day excursions, VIP experiences, or private tours), fees could majorly increase the prices of your experiences and drive customers away.
So tour operators face two not-so-great choices: pay high fees on every booking, or risk losing customers during checkout.
Not only that, but TripWorks charges some of the most expensive transaction fees in the market. Add in steep booking fees, and TripWorks takes nearly 9% of every booking (6% booking fees + 2.9% transaction fees).
TripWorks product overview
TripWorks is among the highest-rated tour operator software — earning an exceptional 4.9-star rating on review sites like Capterra. The platform offers a comprehensive, all-in-one toolkit to help tour operators boost bookings, streamline operations, and deliver five-star customer experiences.
Users like that the platform:
- Offers essentials to manage all of their business’s moving parts and back-office operations (with booking, availability, product, resource, and channel management).
- Packs in a variety of growth drivers (like OTA integrations and its in-built partner network) to help them scale smarter.
- Includes powerful analytics and reporting capabilities to understand where they’re winning and where they can improve.
TripWorks differentiates itself with a suite of sales and marketing tools — including abandoned cart recovery, tipping, and direct customer communications — plus a native digital waiver solution. This waiver feature appeals to adventure and excursion providers (like zipline, rafting, kayaking, paragliding, and horseback riding guides).
Users consistently praise TripWorks for its modern design, ease of use, and responsive customer service — particularly the ability to video call with dedicated account managers. They also note that the team regularly updates features based on client feedback, ensuring the platform continues to evolve.
This combination of user-friendly design and responsive development makes TripWorks especially popular with operators looking for better technology to support their operations and growth goals.
Notable TripWorks features
- Online booking widgets
- Booking & real-time availability management
- Reservation management
- Calendar & event scheduling
- Connections with OTAs & channel management
- Reseller network
- Product management
- Itinerary creation
- Dynamic pricing
- Resource management — including team scheduling, guide management, & equipment tracking
- CRM & customer management
- Automated communications
- Mobile tickets & ticket scanning
- Season ticket management
- Marketing tools & integrations with marketing software
- Native point-of-sale (POS)
- Integrations with Apple Pay & Google Pay
- Invoice & billing management
- Options to sell gift cards & vouchers
- Digital waivers
- Multi-currency & multi-language support
- Customisable reporting
Reviews of TripWorks’s booking platform
Positive reviewers of TripWorks appreciate its:
- Exceptional, personalised customer service with dedicated account managers available for calls and emails.
“The dedicated customer service with an actual account manager that I can talk to when I have an issue is one of the top features I love.”
- User-friendly design with a clean, attractive interface and a straightforward booking process.
- Strong feature set that integrates multiple resellers and booking platforms into one calendar.
- Flexible pricing options, including dynamic pricing and tipping features that can significantly boost revenue.
“The tipping feature is awesome. We used to get $250–$400 in tips per tour. Now we get $800–$1000 per tour group.”
- Efficient tour rescheduling features that save hours of work for weather-dependent operators.
- Easy product setup for tours, vouchers, and gift cards, coupled with fast payment processing.
- Frequent platform updates, driven by actual user feedback.
- Highly scalable platform designed to support growing tour operators with flexible tools for multi-location, multi-product, and multi-channel sales.
User reviews also mention some noteworthy drawbacks:
- Steep learning curve: While the comprehensive toolset has benefits, it can also feel overwhelming.
- Complex configuration: Capacity and booking management settings can be difficult to fine-tune, especially for operators with complex resources or group sizes. Extra training or support may be required.
- Booking restrictions: Options like minimum/maximum party sizes or timeslot rules demand careful setup to avoid customer confusion or booking errors during checkout.
- Performance issues: The platform can be slow to load, with frequent glitches and system errors.
- Customer support drop-off: Customer support quality often declines after onboarding, with some users reporting major unresolved issues.
“We have regularly been reporting issues, but little to no progress is made on things that are having a major negative impact on our business.”
- Limited automation: Customer-initiated cancellations and commission payouts lack automation, creating extra manual work.
- Subpar scheduling flexibility: Resource and guide scheduling options are often described as insufficient.
“We’re using resources for guide scheduling, and this has proven to be a mixed bag as the resource settings aren’t as flexible as we need.”
- High booking fees: Many operators say steep fees deter customers from completing purchases, with some reporting significant drops in conversion rates after switching to TripWorks.
You can find more verified reviews of the TripWorks booking system on Capterra.
Read more: Best alternatives to TripWorks
Bókun vs. TripWorks
Bókun is one of the most popular tour operator software on the market because:
- Built for all business sizes: Designed to support teams of all sizes — especially small operators looking for tools to drive sustainable growth.
- All-in-one toolkit: Includes some of the strongest growth features in the industry (more on those shortly).
- Backed by Tripadvisor: Born and raised by Tripadvisor — one of the largest online travel directories — with exclusive perks that help operators reach global audiences.
- Powerful distribution network: Exclusive partnerships and integrations with Viator, GetYourGuide, Google Things to do, and Airbnb let operators sell tours across top platforms, increase visibility, and save money as they expand.
- Affordable pricing: Our START plan is just $49/month with only 1.5% booking fees for online reservations — helping operators keep more of what they earn. (Bókun is rated 4.7 stars for Value for Money.)
Here’s how our pricing compares to TripWorks:
| Bókun | TripWorks | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription Fees |
|
None |
| Booking Fees |
|
6% online booking fees |
| Merchant Service Fees | 2.5% transaction fee (when using Bókun Pay) | 2.9% + 30¢ for each booking |
| Additional Costs | Add-on modules are available for purchase in Bókun’s app store |
Our tour operator software system earns a glowing 4.7-star rating across nearly all categories: ease of use, ease of deployment and setup, functionality, customer service, and value for money.
Users like our system because it’s easy to learn, offers a comprehensive toolset to support operators at all growth stages, and is highly scalable to support you as your needs evolve.
Our key features include:
- Online booking widgets
- One-click website builder (with a free domain name!)
- Booking & real-time availability management
- Centralised booking calendar
- Connections with 50+ global OTAs & channel management
- Bókun Marketplace — our in-built reseller network
- Product management with the ability to create combo packages
- Dynamic pricing
- Resource management — including team scheduling, guide management, & equipment tracking
- CRM & customer management
- Automated communications
- Customer portals
- Mobile tickets & ticket scanning
- Integrations with dozens of online payment processors: Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Worldpay, Braintree, Raypd, Klarna, and more
- Options to sell gift cards & vouchers
- Multi-currency & multi-language support
- Customisable reporting
- Bókun App Store, where you can customise our software with add-ons like tip management, SMS messaging, Slack integrations, PaxFlow departure management, and more
What really sets us apart from our competitors (aside from our extremely low booking fees) is those growth drivers we mentioned above.
- Our system has countless OTA integrations — with both global names like Viator and Expedia, and more niche-specific sites — so you can get your tours and travel experiences in front of new customers and keep your booking calendars full.
- Our Marketplace features over 27k travel industry partners — travel agents, destination management companies, accommodations providers like hotels and resorts, transportation services, rental companies, attractions, educational institutions, and more.
- This Marketplace lets you easily create partnerships to grow your bookings and add revenue streams: partner with resellers to win new customers, work with suppliers to earn commissions, and even create comprehensive packages with partners to diversify your product line and target new audiences. We provide all of the partner and contract management tools to assist you here.
- Plus, our newest feature, Referral Tracking, lets you extend partnerships outside of the Marketplace and work with any business or professional of your choice.
- You can earn bookings from other businesses in your local area, travel bloggers, online influencers, and more — you can get as creative as you like with partnerships. Our system provides referral tracking codes and reporting tools, allowing you to see who brings you the most business and use these insights to guide your distribution strategies (and expand even further).
In addition to our START plan, we offer two enterprise plans — PLUS and PREMIUM — that include:
- Zapier connections
- Agent portals
- Sub-vendor management
- Dedicated onboarding
- A yearly strategy call with our team
You can compare plans here.
Want to explore Bókun further? Redeem your 14-day free trial (no credit card required!) to connect with Viator, add offline bookings, begin building products, and put our toolkit to the test.
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