TourOpp has now partnered with Xola, one of the leading booking software for tour and activity operators.
Xola transforms tour operator websites into 24/7 booking engines, making it easy for guests to book a tour or activity at their own convenience. Now with the TourOpp integration, Xola clients will be able to seamlessly communicate with their guests via SMS and maximize revenue and reviews per customer as a result.
In this post, we’ll explore all the ways that our partnership with Xola can benefit tour and activity operators.
What is Xola?
Xola is an award-winning booking system for tours and attractions. The software not only makes online booking convenient for customers but also makes it easier for operators to manage their tour business on the back end.
This is because Xola provides operators with sophisticated growth features beyond just online booking. The software streamlines staff scheduling, resource management, marketing, and in-depth BI reporting under one system.
With the TourOpp integration, Xola clients will now be able to send customers timely updates, recommendations, and review requests on the devices they use most: their mobile phones.
Drive more direct bookings
Booking software like Xola improves the user-friendliness of your website, which helps drive more direct bookings. Xola helps place the right calls-to-action in strategic locations on your homepage, which makes it easier than ever for guests to hit the “Book Now” button.
With Xola, your website becomes optimized to drive more direct bookings.
Your tour pages show real-time availability, giving customers all of the information they need to make a booking decision. A modern and mobile-friendly checkout provides the quick and breezy booking process that customers are looking for.
Marketing features like Abandoned Booking emails help operators rescue forgotten bookings. Did you know that boat tours lose on average 1,000 bookings per year? That’s more than $246,000 of lost revenue. Xola’s abandoned booking emails remind website visitors to return to your site and complete their reservations, helping them rescue a chunk of that lost revenue.
On top of that, if you have this integration set up within Xola, you’re able to set up discount codes that you can later share via text message with your customers for their next purchase. Customers can share this code with friends or use it to book their next activity on your website. As a result, you’ll be encouraging more direct bookings and referrals for your business.
Automated email and text notifications
Here at TourOpp, we know that guest communication is key to a great customer experience.
With Xola, everything from booking confirmation emails to reminder emails can be automated. Operators can customize messages with relevant information about the guest’s reservation, and send it to them at the right moment in their customer journey.
Furthermore, if you integrate TourOpp into your Xola account, you could go a step further and communicate through text as well. It could be a friendly reminder to arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour with a link to a map with directions to the meeting point, a recommendation to upgrade their experience prior to coming in, or a friendly request to leave a review on your Google listing. Whatever the message, Xola and TourOpp can help you deliver it to the best platform at the right time.
Built-in digital waiver solution
Asking customers to sign paper waivers on arrival can take up a lot of time. If all guests arrive at once, you might run out of pens or guests might feel cramped together in a waiting room while signing the forms. This can quickly ruin their first impression of a company.
The truth is, your guests are ready to get the tour going as soon as they arrive. With Xola’s digital waivers, operators can make that happen.
Now operators can save time at check-in by sending guests digital waivers before their arrival. Customers can electronically sign a waiver at checkout or in the confirmation email before the start date of their tour.
And just in case they forget to do so, by integrating TourOpp into your Xola account, now you can also remind customers to sign that waiver through a text message.
How to integrate
Xola is one of TourOpp's 12 integrations, alongside PeekPro, Bokun, Checkfront, Rezdy, Ventrata and others.
Once you're on the Xola platform, you can easily integrate it with TourOpp - if you've already got an account set up with us. To get started, log into your Xola dashboard, go to the App Store, and install TourOpp. The process takes less than a minute). TourOpp is one of more than 40 apps in the Xola App Store, alongside Google Things To Do, TripAdvisor/Viator, Expedia, and many more.
If you're not a Xola customer yet, you can try a Xola demo here. Signing up with Xola after that, is simple: You’ll create an account, set up listings for each of your products, and install Xola buttons on your website.
Now, if you don't have an account set up with TourOpp yet, you can go ahead and try TourOpp now or book a 30-minute demo to learn more about how automated SMS messaging can streamline your customer communication.
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TourOpp’s integration with Xola provides tour and activity operators with a seamless booking and communication solution.
With automated text reminders, operators can ask customers to sign waivers before their arrival — saving a lot admin time when guests arrive for the experience. They can also remind guests about the time and location of the tour, eliminating the need for guests to call in and tie up your staff at a critical time when other guests are arriving.
Xola’s extra features can also help operators make additional revenue. Abandoned cart emails, for example, help bring lost bookings back to the checkout screen. And TourOpp can be used to send automated texts with discount codes to past customers, encouraging them to book a new tour or send the code to a friend.
The text reminders can also be a great way to politely remind guests to leave a review. It can be as easy as texting them a link to your preferred review site.
Quickly get set up with Xola and TourOpp today to begin leveraging all of the tools that can help scale your tour business.