Different online booking systems offer different functionality. It’s important to select the booking system which best matches your business needs.
An online booking system can help you manage visitors who arrive without a booking. Think of spur of the moment visits whose numbers you cannot control.
These systems are a tool to control the area / radius where visitors come from. For example, within X miles of the visitor attraction, or within certain postcodes.
You can use this tool to manage visitor flow around the attraction / experience in a controlled and safe manner.
With an online booking system, you can ensure that visitors are aware of all terms and conditions at the time of booking. You can also use it to set timeslots for visits by date and time and durations for each visit. And it can support your business for contactless payment.
An online booking system can help you maintain records of visitor numbers and demand (you will have to base staffing requirements on both).
With an online booking system, you can put arrival checks / procedures in place as appropriate. Think of ticket scanning devices, queueing etiquette and staffing requirements.
An online booking system can help you maintain contact with customers post-visit and request feedback as necessary.
Please make a note of everything you need from a booking system, using our checklist.
Capterra is a useful source of information on booking systems. Plus, it contains lots of customer reviews. You can use it alongside your online booking system's details.
Check out CapterraCreate a shortlist of your top five solutions and then do some more research. It may be useful to speak to other similar businesses at this point. Ask them about their experiences of using a specific booking system.
Once you've got a good idea of what's on offer, you can decide which booking system is right for you.
Speak to each of your shortlisted booking systems and negotiate rates / prices. They may have special offers aimed at businesses in particular areas or for specific business types.
Some suppliers offer free trials which can help ease anxiety and make the switch a bit easier. At first, you may wish to keep things simple with only one or two booking options. For example, don't use any complex packages / multi-ticket options until you’re more confident with the system.
Make your decision and select a booking system. It’s always easiest if you change to a new system outside the main visitor season so plan accordingly. Ensure you communicate the changes to all staff members especially those who you will expected to use the new system. Organise staff training sessions with your selected supplier.
As part of the sign-up process, ensure that you’re happy with the supplier terms and conditions. Think about stuff like contract renewal, cancellation policy and payment terms.
Reassess your choice regularly (at least annually) to ensure that:
You’re getting value for money
You’re receiving an appropriate level of customer support
There are no solutions available more suited to your requirements
Check which online booking system best meets your business requirements.
We don’t endorse or recommend any system over another. The following list represents only a small fraction of booking systems available. The ones included have Scottish clients or account managers working in Scotland.
Website: www.theaccessgroup.com/visitor-management-system
Key contact: Matt Edwards
Telephone: 07876 874967
Email: matt.edwards@theaccessgroup.com
All forms of attractions and tours
Access Gamma has a wide range of features including:
By arrangement
Incorporates new business rules/logic around locality and postcodes
Download the free post-lockdown operations planning guide at pages.theaccessgroup.com/hospitality-checklist
Various pricing models available
Full payment can be made online or via EPOS (integrated Chip and Pin or PDQ)
Compatible with many leading payment gateways including WorldPay/VeriFone and SagePay
Website: www.appointedd.com
Key contact: Madeline Fish, Product Solutions Executive
Email: maddy@appointedd.com
Tours, attractions, activities and events
The same functionality applies as above. For attractions, tours or activities that are free of charge, you can set the price to £0 and no payment will be taken at the time of booking. If you wish, you can set a small price to act as a booking fee. Please note: Appointedd does not take booking fees (see pricing model section).
Appointedd is an evergreen solution which means all customers have access to all features. In light of COVID-19, this includes:
Additionally, enterprise organisations can benefit from a bespoke setup service. This includes:
Standard pricing is £15 per month or £144 per year, per bookable calendar. For businesses with more than 20 bookable calendars, they offer bespoke pricing. They do not charge a fee per booking and do not take a percentage of the transaction fees. The transaction fee will come directly from the payment provider that you choose to use.
Online with credit/debit card, pay upon arrival in card or cash. They work with Epos Now POS and Square POS if you’d like to take payment via a till.
Stripe, Square and Braintree
Website: www.beyonk.com
Phone number: 08009 804517
Email for new businesses: sales@beyonk.com
Email for existing businesses: support@beyonk.com
Experience providers and attractions
Beyonk offers:
4% booking fee (+VAT and payment processing fees).
Option to pass booking fee onto the customer.
Stripe Express
Website: www.bokun.io
Key contact: Sam Jefferies, Growth Marketer
Email: scotland@bokun.io
Tours, attractions and activities
Bokun offers:
You can set the price of a free attraction to £0 and it will transact with no payment methods attached to the checkout process. Any reservation made non-direct is 0% commission owed to Bokun.
To avoid no-shows, using a payment provider Bokun allows you to receive payment. This is either in a percentage or full payment in advance during the checkout process. You can choose from paying upon arrival or accepting payment at the time of booking.
1.5% service for direct online bookings only + $49 per month
Credit card, pay upon arrival and cash
Trust My Travel, Pay Pal, Stripe, Braintree, and many more - access the full list of payment providers
Website: www.bookinghound.com
Email for new businesses: sales@beyonk.com
Email for existing businesses: support@beyonk.com
Telephone: 08009 804517
Tours, activities, experiences and attractions
Free ticket options are available as standard with the same functionality as paid bookings
Usage charge options include free whereby the charge is passed to the guest to monthly usage plans. These are charged according to the volume of bookings processed starting from £25 + VAT per month. No setup fee.
Credit Card, Debit Card, Invoice, PDQ, Paypal and BookingHound gift vouchers
Stripe and PayPal
Website: www.checkfront.com
Email: sales@checkfront.com
Tours, activities, rentals, attractions, accommodation and adventure parks
Free products can be set up and offered
Overall capacity can be controlled across multiple products
Annual or monthly flat rate, no hidden fees. Flexible pricing for businesses of all sizes. Flex Plan available - a newly added 'per booking', commission-based plan. Full details of pricing models.
Credit card, PayPal, gift certificate, voucher/discount code. Offline POS options: cash, bank transfer, cheque.
E-commerce settings:
Stripe, PayPal,Square, Authorize.net, Braintree, NMI and more. Full details of payment gateway options.
Website: www.digitickets.co.uk
Email: info@digitickets.co.uk
Telephone: 01392 826980
Attractions, tours, festivals, party bookings and events
By arrangement
Enabling limited capacity options and controlling how many visitors the attraction has on site at certain times.
Set-up fee of £1,950 which includes:
There are no renewal or upgrade fees. After the set-up fee there are three options available based on tickets sold:
Debit, credit, invoice, cheque and DigiTickets Gift Voucher
DigiTickets integrates with 35 payment gateways including:
Website: https://fareharbor.com/gb/
Key contact: Tyler Sindel, Enterprise Strategic Partnerships Manager
Email: tyler.sindel@fareharbor.com
Telephone: +31 20 245 7322
Tours, activities and attractions
Features include, but are not limited to:
Same functionality as paid attractions
FareHarbor works with each client to determine their specific needs and alter the system to their desires. In the wake of COVID-19, this may include:
Free attractions: various pricing models to be discussed with each attraction.
Paid attractions: credit card processing rate of 2.2% + 0.30 per transaction. FareHarbor charges a small service fee to the online customer which is not paid for by the attraction.
OTA Bookings and back-office/offline bookings are free.
Credit Card, Debit Card, SOFORT, IDEAL and PayPal
Stripe
Website: www.fusemetrix.com
Key contact: Callum Knight
Telephone: 07469872334
Email: cknight@fusemetrix.com
Suitable for all types of attractions from single site soft play centres to large scale visitor attractions.
Free products can be set up and offered.
The FuseMetrix platform is continuously being developed. This has lead to a number of new features being developed following the COVID-19 pandemic including:
Do you have any other specific needs? FuseMetrix are also open to bespoke development for customers.
Small implementation fee followed by a flat monthly license fee with no booking or transaction fees.
Credit Card, Debit Card, Vouchers, Telephone Payments, Invoice, Deposits and Cash through the POS.
FuseMetrix integrates with a wide a range of payment gateways including Windcave, World Pay, Payment Sense, Stripe etc.
Website: https://futureticketing.ie/
Key contact: Ronan Burns, Business Development Manager
Event types:
Ticket types:
Guest communications:
Ticketing options:
Access control:
Capacity management:
Upselling:
Ability to capture and manage data on GDPR compliant cloud based ticketing provider. This includes additional information of customers.
Access to full Future Ticketing system.
Various options available include but not limited to:
Website: www.gatewayticketing.co.uk
Key contact: Andy Povey, Managing Director
Email: apovey@gatewayticketing.co.uk
Tours, activities and attractions
Free tickets/bookings are fully supported
Timed/capacity controlled bookings to control volumes, in and out scanning to control numbers of people within venue
Booking fees that can be passed onto the guest
Card, PayPal, Direct Debit (for memberships/recurring donations)
Worldpay, Global Payments, Barclaycard, PayPal
Website: www.palisis.com / www.tourcms.com
Key contact: Gallen Hawkins, Business Development Manager (UK & Ireland)
Email: gallen.hawkins@palisis.com
Tours
Transportation
Attractions
Online Shop
Box Office
Validation
Backoffice
Additional functionalities (especially post-COVID):
Example: https://examplewebshoppalisis.palisis.com/
Paid tours and attractions:
Free tours and attractions:
Volume discounts negotiable
*Does not include credit card processing fee
Adyen, Stripe, PayPal, TrustMyTravel
Website: www.regiondo.com
Key contact: Genevieve Smith
Telephone: 01224 003606
Email: genevieve.smith@regiondo.com
Guided tours, attractions, indoor/outdoor activities, workshops & classes, water sports, group tours, escape rooms, museums, biking tours.
Inventory / upsell options.
Customer communications and ticket shops can be easily customised. Do so to deliver bespoke information and messages regarding the operator and the activity/tour. Inventory option can all for group limits to be managed.
Monthly Subscription, Transaction fee.
The following payment options are suported:
Website: www.rezgo.com
Telephone: +353 51 347204 (Ireland)
Email: support@rezgo.com
Website: www.toristy.com
Key contact: Steve Jackson, Head of Sales EMEA
Email: steve.jackson@toristy.com
Attractions/events, tours, activities, rentals, accommodation, adventure parks/farms, charters
Free attraction offer works with one of our paid plans. 0% paid to Toristy, reservation is booked into the calendar to avoid overlaps.
Website: www.trekksoft.com
Key contact: Noemi Oreglia,Business Development Manager
Email: noemi@trekksoft.com
Contact page: https://hubs.ly/H0qsCz60
Attractions, tours and activities
For free tickets sold online, there will be no commission charged. For free tickets sold on spot, there will be fixed value charged per booking. Option for free attractions available to add a booking fee to be covered by the final customer.
No subscription fee
Commissions vary according to the channel where the booking is made from:
Offline booking fee: 0.55 euro
OTA booking fee: 2.5%