Best way to grow our business

If you run a small tour operation I would certainly recommend getting onto Bokun, it gets you started faster and at the same time set you up for bigger stuff in the future.

Pros

Bokun delivers a system that integrates just about every functionality we need as a Food Tour company. I particularly like how we can easily find new partners to hook up to the same functionality. Using bokun we can give our clients a seamless experience and at the same time keep administration on our end as lean as possible.

Cons

Cons isn't the right word, the company has a few places to work harder on. - Support could respond faster - Support and new feature roll-out has to get more transparent - E-commerce integration has to be enhanced. Up selling, down selling, cross selling are all in its infancy at this moment. - Partner integration needs more work, the software currently doesn't work well with a model where brick-and-mortar tour agencies sell tours on behalf of us. (Ticketing displays incorrect messages to the end user, invoices can only be sent to one party, not to a different invoicing department, payments are not assumed to come in just before or just after the tour date).

The only booking software with options to match all needs

We used it as an operator (selling our products), as a reseller (selling others products) and through the API which we used in the software we were building. It was very easy to use and set up and offered help whenever we needed. As we were using the API we talked to both developers and customer support often and they were kind and helpful.

Pros

Whatever we needed it to do, it did. Rare were the cases when we could not set up products as we wanted them and then the developers listened and made the options available. If you are looking for software to offer your tours or sell other companies' products, Bókun is the way to go.

Cons

Sometimes it had down time that lasted for longer periods of time.

Online Booking with Bokun

Once you are familiar with Bokun it's a superb tool and the support team is awesome, always just a few minutes away to help you solve your issues.

Pros

When we decided for Bokun it was the mix of an online booking system for accommodation, activities plus the all Bokun Marketplace where you could connect with suppliers and vendors from all over the world and resell their products or have them resell yours.

Cons

It was rather complex to get acustomed with the product. Bokun is not a simple "plug & play" solution. You will have to own a good amount of time, dig in, get to know it and then strategically plan what you want to get out of the system and how, before doing it. A clear con today is that Bokun no longer has a focus on the accommodation section, unfortunately. Because we were on it from the beginning we still have access to the tool, which is sadly our most important tool. But Bokun is no longer putting any effort into developing the accommodaton part.

Where shall one begin...?

Bókun is hard to avoid in Iceland if one is working in tourism - sadly, there is way more room for it to improve than would be desirable after so many years, especially when accommodation and transport also come into play... Still, hopefully, the current down time has been used to efficiently improve the program.

Pros

In the Icelandic tourism industry, in which I used to work for 5 years, Bókun seems to be insurmountable when it comes to booking activities related to a trip, be it individual or (small) group excursions. It is a wonderful attempt at pooling all operators into one platform.

Cons

Maintenance during business hours without any notification toward operators, resellers, and administrators. Synchronisation issues between Bókun and operators on what is available and what is not (group size/vehicle capacity etc.) resulting in extremely iffy situations with clients as well as between operators and resellers. Less enthusiastic customer support, available only during banking hours, definitely not on weekends. No updates on changes regarding bookings in the system - unless one does everything in triples: updating Bókun, notifying the operator, wait for confirmatiom from operator, notify client. Key-word search is quite cumbersome. Software getting less and less user-friendly with every update. Inability to edit certain aspects of bookings and the invoice, so one has to cancel everything, and re-book, while keeping their fingers crossed that the re-booking will work and no one will take the seats while Bókun is thinking its life through.

Great service that constantly improves

Using Bókun, either through the API or through their own booking channels is easy and straightforward. The pricing is in range of other booking systems out there. We used Bókun for a few of our clients and for a few websites we made ourselves, and it is always very easy to deploy. If I had to give one reason for you to use Bókun it would be because they have a solid customer support for an already easy to use system. If you need a booking system, Bókun should be the one.

Pros

The redesigned user interface is great. It is now simpler to use and product management is much better than a few years back when I first used Bókun. I like the ease of finding historical bookings for customer service issues.

Cons

I used to like their pricing policy until they changed it recently. Now it became much more expensive than it ever was before (ever since there was a flat fee paid per account, thankfully that is no longer the case). In general, other than the price surge, I think it is still one of the best booking systems out there. There were some issues with availability and accessibility to service some time ago but less since they switched owners. I worked with a company that used Bókun's API to book tours and setting the API was a bit challenging due to their API documentation being a few iterations behind the actual code.

A great tour booking software

I used Bókun as a reseller, as an operator, and through an API, so from all possible angles. They did have issues, but worked on them and resolved them in a timely manner. All in all, the best tour booking software I worked with to this day.

Pros

The ease of use, the number of tour operators available through the platform, constant updates, and a solid customer support. Their UI is user friendly now that they remade most of it and is actually a massive upgrade from what it used to be.

Cons

Sometimes, they would break the API and not inform anyone about it, creating massive problems until fixed. They also had some cache issues with availability, but that has since been fixed.

Helpful to manage and grow bussines tour and activities

I can grow my company and easy manage booking ,create product and also can be partner with others through this software.So I will keep use this bokun software.

Pros

The feature is very helpful to load,manage all of product we need.All of that is very easy to use also for beginner.This software can integrate with web and any and easy to create widget.

Cons

the feature always updating following our needs.All of step very familiar,no need expert to use this software.I can create own website in this software also they integrating with payment gateway like TrustMyTravel.

Making everyday work much easier

Pros

I like how the platform give both an option to buy the product now or just pay on the day.

Cons

It would probably how bookings are placed on the calender. I'd like it to show them by coming dates as the trend now is all new bookings will be displayed on top pushing old booking far below and it makes it a bit difficult to keep track.

Enjoyable experience

I have been extremely happy with Bokun and the customer service

Pros

Was with another software company since changing to Bokun my bookings have tripled

Cons

Calander for employees is not easily accessible. I would like to see weekly calendar that employees would see as a schedule

Bokun is amazing

Though haven't yet received guests through Bokun I appreciate their skills on several aspects.

Pros

Option for creating a web to advertise my company.

Cons

None seems to be list liked. I loved everything

Great features, with some annoying bugs

Good value for money, good connectivity, good support. Product owned by large OTA is a minus in the long-term when operators are fighting to minimize OTA dependence.

Pros

The best part of this reservation software is the marketplace that allows you to contract directly with other suppliers and resellers of tours and activities. Live support is also a good feature that most other reservation systems don't have. The help articles are quite extensive as well. Product import from Viator is a great feature.

Cons

There are some annoying bugs and features that can leave you clicking around furiously to find a solution for quite some time, eg. the setting up pricing was a mess. The software is being developed constantly and it's possible that these issues have been fixed since, but I got quite frustrated a number of times when setting up the products. Also, raising the commission from 0.1% to 2.9% without any prior notice was not cool -- I thought the agreement was that we were paying with data to Viator... and now we're paying both ways. The OTA-owned reservation systems are creating data oligopoly situations similar to that of Google which is not the right direction in my opinion.

Read their terms of service - their stance towards refunds of fees at the moment is disappointing

Mixed. In some ways it's great in others it's very frustrating. Their support is comprised entirely of non technical staff. In fact they're usually not even well versed in the software and you are told please wait 10 minutes while I get an answer for you. Sometimes they can't get you an answer. There are also some gaping limitations in for example their custom exports. One example is you can't output the amount of refunds you make in a month.

Pros

It's been good overall. What we use them for is a means to have an attractive booking calendar on our website for our customers to use to book our tours. Their platform allows for integration with some good sites like Expedia and Tripadvisor where we can also sell our tours. Platforms such as Airbnb experiences have to be dealt with manually but the booking desk on bokun.io allows for this pretty easily. It also manages availability of seats on our tours and has some good features such as automated messaging and custom exports for your sales data.

Cons

Right at this very moment my biggest gripe is with their Policy towards cancelled bookings through their platform. It's not like we've lost a crippling amount of money but it's that they're not taking a strong supportive stance towards their customers. How it normally works is if someone books through Bokun, then bokun will charge you 2.9% of the total amount of the sale. They add up all the sales for the month then charge you for it in the next calendar month. If someone books and cancels and your refunds policy allows for them to get their money back Bokun won't charge you. But if they book and then don't cancel till the month following or later then your fee is kept by Bokun. In the whole of 2019 we had this happen a total of 5 times. In March 2020 because of the lockdown on travel we had a total of 30 people cancel who had booked in February or earlier meaning we'd paid bokun fees for their bookings. it amounted to about 2,500 euro of sales refunded and bokun's fee at ~3 percent was something like 75 euro. I've been in contact with their support getting replies like 'Sorry this isn't refundable' to eventually a very vague 'we understand this is a difficult time but we deal with these issues on case by case basis' response. I'm sorry but it's not good enough. We've offered our customers all of their money back, PayPal is waiving their fees, Braintree is waiving their fees, the tax man is waiving their fees. It's about doing the right thing. They're not right now.

One of the best in its field

Booking widget right in my web site making bookings a piece of cake! And with the backend manager I have every detail and information right in my fingertip making my life much easier.

Pros

So many functionalities and features that can cover the demands of tour operators and travel agencies. Pricing is is very fair compared to alternatives. You can even find partnerships within the software. An overall very nice booking software. Ended up using it after a long market research. And can say I'm satisfied.

Cons

Since bokun was recently buyed by tripadvisor I believe it hasn't "settled" to what viator wants to provide. Things have been fixed and I believe that there are plenty more that will be included by viator to make this booking software the top one. Many hasitate knowing that this is not a privately heald software but viator being behind it but I personally can't see why this is something that bad? On the contrary this can be something really good making you feel safe being partners with one of the leading companies in the industry.

Immense value for money

In my opinion BOKUN is the market leader for tour software that would suit ANY sized business. Their support is terrific and they are helping us grow our business with their channel manager functions. We have direct connections to major OTAs including Trip Adivsor/ Expedia and can also offer private booking areas for hotels and small retail travel agents with personalised pricing & currency. So far anything that I've wanted when I started, or decided along the way that I've wanted- they've delivered. I'm obviously stoked with the product.

Pros

We have been using Bokun for roughly six months now. I spent 12 months trying and discarding other online platforms for tour sales because they were either too hard to use (even for a techie like me) or they lacked functionality. We were starting with almost no online sales and as a small business our budget was quite low. I was looking for a system with lots of functionality, connections to the OTA's and scaleable pricing. AND BOY did I find it!

Cons

There's nothing I don't like- just take note that with an amazing array of functions comes many moving parts. You need to be quite good to manage it all- but if in doubt their support is terrific and can take the hard parts off your hands.

Bad response rate in technical support

In most part good, the response time of technical support, mainly regarding the API is ridiculous. It's almost never shorter then 4 days and if I don't get an answer in about 10 days then I'm not gonna get answers. I would say about 70% of the queries I send to the support that need technical are not answered. But I would like to point out that when I get answers from the programmers then the service is always good.

Pros

nothing in particular some parts are good others not so good. Nothing on the top of my head I can think of.

Cons

The API is often changed without letting us know. That extras was changed so that each product has its own extra instead of many products can have the same extra. We rent out equipment in about billion tours, imagine if we need to change the picture of lets say the hiking shoes.

Support team is the best

It really helps us in our internal communication and organization. It would be great if it would help us in our marketing in the future. We have made contracts in the marketplace but none of them really brings us much business so far.

Pros

The customer service! Very quick, very clear, very helpful for all kind of questions and problems.

Cons

For example it should be more easy to make bookings for travel agents or clients which are not in the marketplace. It is a bit complicated to first set them all up as affiliates or agents and then make the bookings for them. Imagine, often hotels or booking offices call in to make a booking and I have to be much quicker to put the booking in. The software is therefore in my opinion too limited to the marketplace. I usually use the booking desk to put new bookings in but unfortunately it does not safe the commission here. I have to put it in as discount after I finished the booking.

Review of Bokun Software

Bokun makes the management of reservations and finances much easier and much more efficient for us.

Pros

Great API connectivity with key partners to ensure that our reservation information is up-to-date and accurate. Easy to add schedules, make modifications and update as necessary.

Cons

Still missing important features with incoming bookings that are necessary for our work: notably we receive no information on the language of the activity of the reservation. We also cannot create one-off bookings/reservations of on request services; if we were able to create orders with one-time products/services instead of being restricted to selecting something form the catalogue, Bokun would satisfy all of our reservation needs.

Finally found a Online Booking Hosting that fits all my needs

Online Booking was basically my main reason why I joined Bokun. I create my own webpages and I had used other online Booking Hostings in the past but none gave me so much as Bokun has done for me. I can connect/linked my products from Expedia, Viator, tripadvisor to Bokun a worryless of keeping track of my allotment since Bokun does it for me. I am 100% satisfied with Bokun.

Pros

It is easy to use if instructions are followed, Support Service is always there to help you or willing to get the work done for you, they are very courteous and attentive. Bokun has so many features to helping optimize Online Booking according to your customization. One gets so much for so low of charge. Helps a lot to interact and create partnerships with other users and companies from all over the world. Definitely 100% satisfied with Bokun.

Cons

I cannot think about anything that I like the least, perhaps at the start of becoming a new user I might had found it a little too much of information to learn, especially because it was also a new software and lots improvements were done to make it functional, but now it works flawless for me.

Amazing digital platform to offer tours & activities

It's a perfect tool to focus all your experiences of the different suppliers and sellers in one system. At least with all sellers listed in the platform. Everyday we are having more sellers that were already selling our products in Bókun, so we have changed our agreements and made new ones through Bókun. It's easier for us. And above all, the possibility to contact new sellers registered in the platform.

Pros

The opportunity to get in touch with so many suppliers around the world. The function of the system to connect seller and supplier.

Cons

When the system forwards the booking confirmation to the supplier, the supplier doesn't receive the contact details of the customer.

Best value for money reservation

At the beginning I was a bit struggling, but now as I know the system, it works very well. When I have a problem I get support very quickly.

Pros

It is cheap and works very closely with Viator (TripAdvisor Experiences) and Expedia

Cons

The fact that it is owned by the biggest player, i.e. Tripadvisor. First of all it is a big advantage but at the same time a risk with regards to GetYourGuide (another very strong partner of mine). So I use two Reservatins System. I work with bokun and have Viator, Expedia, Musement, Holibob, TourHQ etc. connected and on the other side I use GYG directly.