The tourism industry accounts for over 10% of the world’s GDP and supports millions of small businesses. It’s an ever-growing industry that consistently stays in demand.
Within this booming sector, small scale travel agencies make up a significant portion. They cater to niche markets, personalized experiences, and local adventures.
However, over 70% of travel agencies cite operational inefficiencies as a top obstacle. Plus, over 60% of those struggle with managing bookings and payments efficiently.
This is why choosing the right travel agency software can be a game-changer for small businesses. A well-optimized management system can help make operations efficient while enhancing customer experience.
But, with so many platforms readily available, finding the right fit for your small business can be tiresome. Every travel agency software in the market right now has their own unique perks. But, making the wrong choice is a detour you should rather avoid.
The good news? You don’t have to navigate this alone.
In this guide, we’ve analyzed the 12 best travel agency software designed specifically for small businesses. We’ll break down their features, benefits, and how these online booking systems can help your travel business grow.
Let’s begin!
Important Things To Keep In Mind
Before getting into the best booking platforms for small travel agencies, these are some things that you should look out for.
- Be mindful of the pricing for the platform. Consider any hidden fees, extra costs, or tiered pricing that could impact your long-term expenses.
- An intuitive interface and straightforward setup minimize the need for extensive training. This ensures that you and your team can adapt to the system without delay.
- Look for a platform that can grow with your business. Scalability ensures your investment remains relevant over time.
- Strong integration capabilities simplify workflow and enhance efficiency. Your choice should be able to integrate with, such as payment gateways.
- Reliable and accessible customer support can make all the difference. Choose a provider with the best support and comprehensive documentation.
Small businesses start out with limited funds! Check out our guide on how to promote your travel business at any budget.
Our Top Picks
Keeping all that in mind, we’ve selected 3 of the best from the list. We will talk about them in detail but let’s take a look at why we chose them.
First Pick
Tripcart
Pricing: $29/month
- Most cost efficient
- Easy to use and manage
- Multiple payment gateways
- Abandoned cart recovery
Second Pick
WP Travel Engine
Pricing: $12/month
- Best customization
- Optimized for Core Web Vitals
- Create unlimited itineraries
- Numerous integration capabilities
Third Pick
Peek Pro
Pricing: 2.5% credit card fee + 6% per booking
- Dedicated mobile app
- Built-in CRM system
- Popular payment gateways
- Integration with marketing tools
Best Travel Agency Software For Small Businesses
Tripcart
Tripcart is an online tour booking solution designed to help small travel agencies grow and scale their businesses. It is a booking management platform and website builder combo in one.
With a 30-day free trial, you can explore its features risk-free. After that, the price reverts to its original price. Plus, hosting is included, so you can focus on your business without the hassle of setting up external hosting services.
Tripcart is also easy-to-use and doesn’t have a steep learning curve. You can create and manage a fast and eye-catching platform that can aid in growing your business.
It is schema-friendly and SEO-ready from the get-go. This plus its fast loading times help your travel portal rank higher in search results. It also offers email automation to help you communicate with customers without much effort.
You can also offer extra services, group discounts, and booking fees to increase your tours’ Average Order Value (AOV).
To add to that, the abandoned cart reminders feature helps you capture lost sales adding even more to your revenue.
It also enables you to offer accommodation options straight from your platform. This allows you to create multi-day tour packages that enhance customer experience and boost your revenue.
In our opinion, Tripcart’s customer support and documentation is the cherry on top.
They offer detailed instructional videos and documents about optimizing your trip portal. Their support team is always reachable if you have any questions or need any kind of assistance.
Standout Features:
- A website builder and a booking engine combo for a low price.
- Tools like group discounts and add-ons to maximize Average Order Value (AOV).
- Comprehensive customer support and detailed tutorials to simplify operations.
- Email automation for efficient customer communication.
- Accommodation management tools.
WP Travel Engine
If you own a WordPress website and want affordable functionality for your small travel business, WP Travel Engine is your answer.
WP Travel Engine combines powerful travel management tools with an efficient booking system. It helps small-scale businesses with niche tour activities thrive.
WP Travel Engine is free to use. The free version offers powerful features such as unlimited tour listing pages, advanced trip search, itinerary builder, discount coupons, etc.
The paid version starts at $12 per month and supports even more powerful features like additional services, group discounts, and more.
Want a full breakdown of the features in the free and paid versions? Check out the detailed comparison in WP Travel Engine Free Vs. Paid article.
It doesn’t even charge any booking or service fees. You get to upsell your packages with extra services that add even more to your revenue.
You can also integrate WP Travel Engine with other WordPress extensions to maximize your travel portal’s functionality.
Additionally, the plugin features a lot of customization options. You can create unlimited itineraries, use custom widgets, and enjoy its built-in SEO tools. WP Travel Engine is also core web vitals optimized making your agency platform load faster and operate without a glitch.
Standout Features:
- Create unlimited itineraries to showcase your tours.
- Integrate with multiple payment processors for seamless transactions.
- Accept bookings directly from your website with no fuss.
- Manage your entire booking process efficiently from one platform.
Peek Pro
Next on the list is Peek Pro. It offers an intuitive booking solution that helps small businesses streamline their workflow. This platform offers features ranging from automated communications to resource management.
Peek Pro stands out for its built-in Customer Relationship Management(CRM) system and mobile app. The CRM helps you manage and improve interactions with customers. The app helps manage your travel portal.
It also integrates with multiple payment gateways seamlessly. You can accept bookings using popular gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and more.
Furthermore, Peek Pro doesn’t have any monthly subscription fees. But, they do charge a 6% fee for every booking done through their platform. This means that you do not need to have a high budget to start off and the expenses take care of themselves.
But, this makes it a little heavy on your wallet when you scale to a larger business model.
Peek Pro includes built-in marketing tools like Google Ads integration and email remarketing campaigns. This makes it easier to promote your tours and reach a larger audience.
Standout Features:
- Mobile-friendly booking widget for seamless reservations.
- Automated customer communication to enhance the customer journey.
- Comprehensive reporting for insights into bookings and revenue.
Tashi
Tashi is a travel agency software designed to support business growth with advanced tools to enhance efficiency. It offers a comprehensive solution for small-scale travel businesses.
The platform features an intuitive interface, making it easy to use without technical expertise. Additionally, the built-in CRM tool allows you to track customer interactions.
The built-in CRM tool goes beyond simply tracking customer interactions. It enables businesses to create personalized experiences for their clients. This helps foster deeper connections and long-term loyalty.
It offers features like automated follow-ups and detailed interaction history. This makes managing customer relationships seamless and efficient.
What sets Tashi apart is its advanced reporting and analytics tools. These tools give insights into customer behavior, booking trends, and revenue patterns. This empowers small travel agencies to tailor offerings to meet customer demands effectively.
It also offers different plans for different purposes. You can get only the tour management system or choose a guest communication feature with a website builder.
This does mean you are going to be paying individually for all features though.
Check out their pricing page:
Standout Features:
- Advanced reporting and analytics tools.
- Built-in CRM to maintain strong customer relationships.
- Versatile pricing plans according to your needs.
- Reliable customer support.
Bokun
Bokun is another option that can help grow your travel business efficiently. You can say that it is designed to ease operations for small scale travel operators.
It features everything from managing availability to integrating pricing across various sales channels.
It offers dynamic pricing capabilities for all your listings. You can adjust tour rates based on seasonality, demands, or special events. For a small travel agency, this helps maximize revenue during peak times and adapt during slower periods.
Moreover, it is a pretty affordable option. Bokun charges $49 per month and a 1.5% fee per booking. This means when you scale up, the charges remain the same.
From what we’ve seen, Bokun’s best feature is their responsive customer support. Reviews point to their support team being polite and helpful with their users. It will be easier for you to set up and run your platform with Bokun.
Bokun is made by TripAdvisor, giving you the power of the website on your platform. It also integrates easily with other OTAs like Viator and Expedia.
Standout Features:
- Made by TripAdvisor, so you get all the perks it offers.
- Good customer support from the very start.
- Built-in marketing tools to promote tours effectively.
- Easy OTA integrations making your platform more accessible.
Want to learn more about distribution channels? Read our article on Best Distribution Channels for Tours and Travel.
Rezdy
Rezdy is yet another travel agency software that helps small businesses manage bookings with ease. It is particularly well-suited for tour operators and activity providers, but it is very versatile.
It offers an automated communication system that handles booking confirmation and reminders. This saves time and ensures consistent communication, helping customer satisfaction.
A standout feature of Rezdy is its integration with global distribution channels. This allows small travel agencies to list their tours on OTAs, and work with resellers to broaden their reach.
Its reseller and agent integration ensures your tours are visible on multiple platforms. This helps improve sales opportunities and your travel agency’s reach.
Rezdy starts at $49 per month with a 2% fee per booking. This is affordable for all the features that this platform provides.
Standout Features:
- Reseller and agent integration.
- Tools for analytics and insights.
- Global distribution channel integration.
FareHarbor
FareHarbor is a popular option among small travel businesses. It is ideal for tour operators who need a mobile-friendly solution.
It offers a centralized dashboard where you can manage bookings, update availability, and create a website. They also offer SEO tools for your platform to help optimize your tour booking for search rankings.
Moreover, FareHarbor includes a mobile app for managing your travel bookings on the go. This app allows you to track bookings, check availability, and respond to customer inquiries.
Its strongest feature is the point-of-sale (POS) system that you can use to receive in-person payments. This lets you take care of offline bookings alongside online ones.
FareHarbor offers a free-to-use version of their platform, but as far as we’ve seen, it has limited features. This does mean that you can see its capabilities before upgrading and start booking at 6% per booking with 1.9% + $0.30 flat-rate credit card fees.
Standout Features:
- POS system for offline bookings.
- SEO tools to optimize your tours.
- Convenient mobile app.
Want to learn how to benefit the most from mobile travel booking? Check out our article on How to Increase Mobile Travel Bookings for Travel Agencies.
TripWorks
TripWorks offers a modern trip booking platform for small businesses. It offers a user-friendly platform tailored for the needs of tour operators and travel planners.
Its intuitive dashboard provides real-time analytics and insights about your trip portal. This can help you track performance to make data-driven decisions about your business.
TripWorks’ key feature is its customizable booking flow, which helps create a seamless experience for customers. This includes options for upselling extra services and experiences during the booking process.
Furthermore, it also includes tools for automated email campaigns to send reminders and follow-ups. This helps you connect with your customers more.
TripWorks also offers multi-channel booking capabilities. It integrates with OTAs, social media platforms, and direct booking widgets.
This travel agency software doesn’t charge monthly fees but rather booking fees of 6% per booking. This does mean that you can start without a budget and pay only when you receive a booking.
Standout Features:
- Customizable booking flow with upselling options.
- Automated email campaigns to improve customer engagement.
- Real-time analytics and insights for better decision-making.
- Multi-channel booking support for broader reach.
Ezus
#9 on the list is Ezus. It is a tour booking platform made for small businesses that focus on creating detailed itineraries and proposals. Its aim is to simplify workflow for travel agencies, from planning trips to managing client communications.
The proposal creation tool enables you to create professional-looking proposals for your customers. This helps you close deals and bookings faster.
One of Ezus’s key features is its ability to generate eye-catching itineraries quickly. You can customize these itineraries to fit the specific needs of your clients, giving your tour agency a professional edge.
Additionally, the platform also integrates with various tools like Google Workspace, making team management easy. Also, its dedicated support team ensures you get the help you need whenever you run into issues.
Moreover, Ezus’s plans start at $85 per month per user. This means that Ezus doesn’t charge any booking or hidden fees making it easy for your small scale travel agency to scale up.
Standout Features:
- Create itineraries with ease.
- Easy proposal creation to close deals.
- Integration with team management tools.
- In-built data tracking for your website.
Bookeo
Bookeo comes in at #10. This travel booking platform allows you to manage your tours, schedules, and customer interaction.
Like any other platform on this list, Bookeo includes all the basic stuff. These include things like easy integration with existing websites, a booking system, etc.
The one thing that Bookeo excels at is custom booking forms. This helps you gather very specific info from customers and generate leads. It also includes an analytics tool that can make your website more efficient.
Moreover, it also features tools for group bookings, automated email notifications, and much more. This gives you the ability to manage recurring tours, private events, and larger parties in your trips.
Bookeo comes in at $14.95 per month. It doesn’t charge any additional fees. This helps budget-focused tour operators start off and scale up as well.
Standout Features:
- Custom booking forms to help gather customer info.
- Automated email notifications.
- Easy embedding booking widgets into your website.
- Website metrics and user analytics.
Checkfront
Checkfront is a feature-rich platform that helps manage your offerings. It is a versatile booking management system that helps small businesses streamline operations.
With its website builder, you can create and customize a travel portal where you can receive bookings and reservations. Its inventory management tools and availability tracking help organize your platform and tours.
One unique feature Checkfront offers is its digital waivers. This feature reduces paperwork on both your end and the customer’s. Your trip agency can enjoy easy management while being paper-free.
Moreover, it offers dynamic pricing as well. You can set rates based on different criteria like seasonal demands, group sizes, and more.
Checkfront also supports third-party integration with tools such as Zapier, Google Analytics, QuickBooks, etc.
You can use Checkfront for the one-time fee of $255 and 3% per booking from the platform. This makes it expensive at first but manageable as you scale up.
Standout Features:
- Digital waivers to reduce paper-work.
- Integration with third-party tools for better management.
- Inventory management for better organization.
- Extensive dynamic pricing options.
TrekkSoft
TrekkSoft simplifies booking processes for small businesses. This platform is made for travel agencies looking to make operations management efficient.
This platform offers you a centralized booking management system. This helps handle bookings across multiple channels like OTAs and social media platforms. It ensures you never miss a booking opportunity.
TrekkSoft excels when it comes to payment gateways, allowing you to accept payments directly through their platform. This helps stop reliance on third-party payment processors.
It also features tools for resource, reservation, and pricing management. This helps you keep your platform organized and running smoothly.
According to the reviews we have seen, TrekkSoft’s customer support is highly praised. You will likely get all the assistance you need to run a successful travel agency.
Moreover, TrekkSoft actually offers a pretty decent website builder. You can customize your tour booking website without having to think too much about the technical stuff.
TrekkSoft offers a commission-based plan with 5% per booking but $0 to start with. Unfortunately, paid plans start at almost $1500 annually. That is why it is the last on the list.
Standout Features:
- Payments made directly on their platform.
- Dedicated customer support.
- Integrate across multiple OTAs.
Conclusion
The decision of choosing the right software for your travel agency can be a bit overwhelming at times. But, it ultimately comes down to understanding your business needs and what each software offers.
Whether you prioritize affordability, ease of use, feature-list, or scalability. There is a platform on this list that can meet your requirements.
Carefully evaluate your agency’s goals, budget, and clientele to find what fits you best. Investing in the right tools can transform how you manage your travel agency.
Leave us a comment down below about the option that you like best. If you need any further assistance, reach out by creating a support ticket.
