As a tour operator, finding ways to streamline your business and improve efficiency is crucial. One way to go about this is through website automation, which will not just save you time and money, but you’ll actually increase bookings too because you’ll improve the customer experience. In this article, we’ll examine the benefits of website automation for tour operators, what you can automate on your website, and how to do it so you can grow your business without all the manual work. What Is Website Automation? “Website automation” simply means using technology and software to automate various tasks and processes...
Automating your marketing efforts is crucial in today’s fast-paced world of travel and tourism. And tour operators need to find innovative ways to reach their target audience without having to hire an additional staff member to take care of it. That’s where marketing automation comes in. It’s a great solution for tour operators to help automate their marketing processes as a small business (or large business, even). In this post, we’ll cover the benefits and strategies that tour operators can employ to automate their marketing efforts, streamline operations, and drive remarkable success. Table of Contents What is Marketing Automation? Create...
In the fast-paced world of tour operations, efficient document management is crucial to stay organized and compliant. With the advent of digital waivers, Google Sheets, and booking software, and the power of automation tools like Zapier, tour operators now have the opportunity to streamline their document management processes easier than they ever could. In this article, we’re going to explore how to automate document management, including digital waivers, Google Sheets integration, and using Zapier to establish automatic connections, ultimately helping tour operators save time, reduce manual effort, eliminate errors, and improve productivity. The Benefits of Automating Document Management Automating document...
It’s our goal to always be improving the Origin platform, and we’re excited to announce two new upgrades to Origin: QuickBooks integration and Lead Guides Category. Keep reading to learn more about both of these updates. Create a free account today to test these features yourself. Origin x QuickBooks Integration With our new QuickBooks integration, you’ll save even more time by automating bookkeeping tasks. Your office manager and accountant will thank you! Here's how it works: Connecting Origin to QuickBooks We’ve made it super simple to connect Origin to your QuickBooks account. When you're ready, you'll be prompted to sign...
You’re probably doing payroll wrong. If you’re using manual processes to pay your guides, then you’re definitely doing payroll wrong. According to Clutch, “25% of small businesses handle their finances on paper rather than a computer, and 45% don’t even have an in-house accountant or bookkeeper.” Automating payroll management is critical when running an adventure tour business. If you want to keep your guides motivated and your operations running smoothly, you need accurate and timely payment to your staff. Unfortunately, many tour operators still rely on manual payroll processes, which leads to errors, inefficiencies, and very unhappy guides. Let’s talk...
How much time do you spend scheduling your guides and staff per week? Too much probably? Nearly half of tour operators still do many of their processes manually, which means they’re wasting a ton of valuable time. It’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive task for adventure tour companies. It requires coordinating multiple factors, such as guide availability, skills, and experience to ensure you have the right guide leading the right trip every time. With manual scheduling, you’re prone to human errors and inefficiency which can lead to overbooking a guide, not having a guide at all to lead a trip, missed...
Most of the emails you get in your inbox are probably automated. As in, someone made that email long before it was sent, used tags to customize it, and scheduled it to send when you’re most likely to open it. Email marketing is still a powerful way for guiding companies to reach their target audience and promote their tours to potential customers. However, managing email marketing is time-consuming and takes a solid chunk of effort to make it worth using. Fortunately, automating your emails can help you save time, increase your efficiency, and improve the overall effectiveness of your email...
As a business owner, you’re well aware you need to provide excellent customer service as it’s crucial to the success of your company. You don’t have a business without customers. However, managing customer questions, support requests, and customer information can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. As a small tour guiding business, it makes it that much more challenging to stay on top of customer service while also managing the rest of the business. By automating some of your customer service tasks, you’ll free up your time and save yourself some money along the way. Jump ahead to a section What is...
Administrative, office work is the bane of everyone’s existence. It’s why there are actual roles at companies—so people who don’t want to do the admin work can pay someone else to do it. It’s especially challenging for small to medium-sized tour operators who don’t have the time to cover all the administrative work while also guiding or the money to pay someone else to do it. Even the big tour guiding companies who can afford front staff can benefit from automating mundane office tasks and instead, give their employees something more exciting to do. What you'll read: Hack #1: Automate...
“Moral of the story is, avoid this company at all costs unless you don’t mind being talked to like a piece of sh**.” Yes, this is what someone really said in a rant we found while researching this article. You know you can’t make everyone happy, but what do you do when a client leaves a scathing review out of nowhere? Knowing how to respond to negative reviews can turn a highly toxic, public-facing post into an opportunity to show what your tour guiding company is really about. How to respond to negative reviews Getting a negative review on one...
Travel trends are just that: trends. While they may be true right now, know that some (or all or none) may not last into 2024. But knowing and staying on top of the trends could help your guiding business tremendously by understanding what your potential customers want and are willing to pay for. We reviewed five different organization reports on 2023 travel trends and picked out what’s most relevant for outdoor tour operators. The No-Normal by Expedia points out that travelers want out-of-the-ordinary experiences this year. Condé Nast Traveler's "17 Travel Trends You'll See in 2023" shares that transformation retreats,...
Home to really long climbs and sometimes, even longer descents, Josh Whitmore, owner and operator of MTB Skills Factory, knows how to play in the dirt of North Carolina. The state is abundant in trails. From everything to flowy bike park trails to national forests with rugged backcountry terrain, a mountain biker will never get bored. Luckily, Josh’s company, MTB Skills Factory, can take clients wherever they want to learn how to clear a sketchy rock garden, shred downhill, or gain confidence in their bike handling skills. We sat down with Josh to learn more about him as a coach...
So you’ve found online reservation software you’re interested in using. It has all the features you’ve been looking for, more benefits than running your tour operations solo, and its team is competent. Another important component of online booking technology that shouldn’t be overlooked is its payment transparency. In other words, do you know how the online booking system collects your customers’ credit card information and deposits, what shows up on your clients’ bank statements, how you get paid out, what they charge to use their platform, and do they ever hold your money from you? These are our top five...
The Winter 2022/23 travel season is hurdling towards us with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Years plans on the horizon. With the “Summer of Revenge Travel” and a lackluster Fall, here’s what tour operators can expect this winter travel season. Online Bookings Drop For The Fall Season A new report by Similarweb used data from Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com to assess global web traffic and U.S. travel conversions and it seems like it’s in line with historical travel trends. Despite a murky economy and high inflation, summer saw the “revenge travelers” who spent their extra cash on travel. This...
Starting a guiding business doesn’t stop when you print your business cards. You need to consistently market your guiding company to travelers so you can sell your tours and continue to grow. There are a lot of aspects to marketing and we’ve written about a lot of them. Peruse the following articles based on your interests or start at the top and move through them all in order. Most blogs have additional resources for a deeper understanding of a topic. Intro To Digital Marketing For Professional Adventure Guides Digital marketing strategy is meeting your client at the right place at...