TL:DR: Online booking software keeps everything in one place from reservations and payments to guest communication, so you can avoid overbookings and focus on delivering great experiences. This guide explains how it works, what features to look for, and how to choose the right platform in 2025.
If you’ve landed here, then you probably already know that managing bookings by hand only works for so long. Eventually, the spreadsheet breaks. Overbookings happen, and customers get upset. That’s where online booking software comes in.
Online booking software is the backbone of any modern tour, activity or attraction business. It lets you manage reservations, accept payments, and communicate with guests, all within one centralized platform. The best part? It runs in the background so you can focus on what you do best: creating unforgettable experiences.
In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about online booking software in 2025, including how it works, what features to look for, and how to choose the right platform for your business.
- What is online booking software
- Why booking software still matters in 2025?
- Key trends shaping online booking tools this year
- Must-have features for modern booking software
- Top picks: best online booking software for 2025
- How to choose the right tool for your business
- Common traps to avoid when picking an online booking platform
- Switching platforms: What to know before you migrate
What is online booking software?
Online booking software is the primary tool used by tours and attractions to manage reservations, accept payments, and communicate with guests online. Booking software lets you do it all in one place.
When you first launch your tour or attraction, you might find yourself tracking bookings by hand, perhaps on a spreadsheet. But there comes a point where managing bookings manually is no longer feasible. It gets harder and harder to track equipment inventory and avoid overbookings—at which point, operators start looking for a better solution.
That solution is booking software. The right platform automates the online booking process for you, whether you run an escape room game, a TV studio tour, or a zipline adventure. Yet the best systems, like Xola, offer even more features tailored specifically for tours and attractions.
Think: built-in tools for managing tour availability and real-time capacity, making sure overbookings never happen. Xola also syncs with your website and third-party sellers like Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), collects and stores guest information, and even sends automated follow-up emails or review requests after a visit.
If it sounds like the right booking software can make an operator’s life a whole lot easier, it’s because it does. In short, online booking software replaces time-consuming manual tasks with an easy-to-use platform that helps you run (and grow) your business with ease.
Why booking software still matters in 2025?
Booking software isn’t just relevant in 2025. It’s essential. Travelers are booking differently now: They’re finding inspiration on their phones and making more spontaneous decisions (more on that below).
Online booking software allows guests to make last-minute reservations whenever they want, including from the comfort of their hotel bed the night before. They don’t need to wait until 9 a.m. to call you, nor do they need to wonder if their payment went through.
A modern booking system manages your tour and attraction availability in real-time, processes payments, and sends email confirmations as soon as a guest checks out—no matter the time of the day.
Some booking software tools go even beyond that, acting as a strategic partner more than just a means to an end. Systems like Xola, for instance, are evolving alongside traveler behavior, helping you capitalize on trends like shorter booking windows. With Xola, for example, you can profit from those spur-of-the-moment bookings by offering special pricing to fill last-minute slots, maximizing revenue without disrupting your core pricing strategy.
In other words, your booking software can help you stay relevant through industry shifts and changes.
Key trends shaping online booking tools this year
Last-minute bookings are on the rise. As mentioned earlier, travelers are becoming more spontaneous in their booking decisions. In June, 40% of hotel bookings were made within seven days of arrival. Globally, that number is 21%, up from 18% in 2019. Research also shows that travelers are willing to pay those higher fees associated with booking closer to their travel dates.
And this trend is carried over to the experiences space, too, with more travelers booking experiences just before or after arriving at their destination. This all presents a real revenue opportunity for operators—if you have the right tools in place.
Dynamic pricing is gaining momentum in the tours and attractions space. This is something airlines and hotels have used for years—as demand rises, so does pricing. Now, this pricing strategy is finally becoming more accessible to the tours and attractions space.
While 70% of operators still rely on static pricing, meaning they set a price at the beginning of the year and leave it at that, many are expressing interest in more flexible, demand-based strategies. This is especially true among larger businesses. According to Arival’s 2025 data, just 7% of operators use dynamic pricing today, yet 16% say it’s a top priority for the year ahead. And that figure jumps to 26% for bigger, enterprise-level operators.
Attractions like museums, zoos, and amusement parks are specifically leading the trend, using dynamic pricing to manage visitor flow and boost revenue. With booking platforms like Xola and others now offering built-in dynamic pricing tools, it’s becoming easier for tours and attractions to use this long-held pricing strategy to their advantage.
Operators leveraging AI are ahead of the game. Only 12% of operators reported actively using AI in 2024. Those who are? They’re generating marketing content, automating customer service, and managing online reviews much faster than usual. Some booking platforms, like Xola, have AI-powered booking assistants that handle guest inquiries in real time, which helps convert more website visitors into paying customers.
As more travelers use AI tools to plan their trips, operators that embrace these tools now will be better positioned to capture their attention.
Must-have features for modern booking software
Not all booking software is created equally. Here’s a list of the key features every tour and attraction operator should look for in a booking platform today. Tip: Bookmark this page and come back to this list as you’re doing your research.
Real-Time Availability and Capacity Management
Your booking software must keep up with your fast-paced operations—that means showing only what’s actually available, as it happens. Xola updates your inventory in real time, so whether a guest is booking on your website or through an OTA, your tour calendar stays accurate. That’s how you avoid double bookings, last-minute scrambles, and some very disappointed guests.
Seamless Website Integration
Look for software that integrates directly into your website with a clean, mobile-friendly checkout flow that keeps guests on your domain. No redirects, no confusion. The easier it is for guests to reach the final checkout page, the higher your conversion rate will be.
Automated Guest Communication
If the booking software isn’t sending confirmation emails for you, then you’re paying to do the work yourself. You want to invest in a platform that automates every step of communication with your guests. When they start a booking but don’t finish it, you want your software to send them an email reminding them to come back, like Xola’s Abandoned Booking Recovery emails.
This, as well as other booking updates, reminders, and post-trip review requests, can all be automated. Not only does this save you hours of admin work, but it also makes your guests feel cared for, which results in better reviews for your business.
Mobile-First, User-Friendly Design
Over half of online travel bookings now happen on a mobile phone, and that number is only going up. Operators with a mobile-friendly checkout system will easily outperform those with a clunky, slow mobile site. Your software should make it so that guests can book your tour from any device, at any time, with little to no effort. If your checkout doesn’t work well on a phone, guests are likely to bounce off your site to the nearest competitor.
Built-In Reporting and Analytics
Look for built-in dashboards and customizable reports that help you identify what’s working and what’s not. These can include revenue reports, capacity utilization management, guest experience data like NPS surveys, and in-depth tour analytics. These tools will make all the difference when it comes to making important business decisions, like adding a new tour slot or opening a second location.
Flexible Pricing Tools
As dynamic pricing becomes more common in this space, having software that supports flexible pricing is key to staying competitive. Ideally, your booking software allows you to create promo codes and seasonal discounts, which lets you experiment with different pricing strategies.
Payment Processing and Secure Checkout
Guests expect a seamless, secure checkout process, and as an operator, you want to get paid fast. You want your checkout to offer integrated payment processing, where guests can pay with their preferred method, whether that be with a credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) or an online payment gateway like PayPal. On your end, you want to be protected against chargebacks and fraud.
Customer Support You Can Count On
Even the best systems need a support team behind them. Is the booking software familiar with the tours and attractions space? Are there real people you can talk to, who actually understand the challenges of running a tour business? These are the right questions to ask when shopping around.
Top picks: best online booking software for 2025
Here’s a breakdown of top-rated online booking platforms for 2025. The list includes all-in-one reservation systems built for tours and attractions, as well as the best scheduling tools for small businesses. Whether you’re running a full-scale experience operation or simply looking to manage appointments more efficiently, there’s a solution here for you.
1. Xola
Built specifically for tours and attractions, Xola is the most comprehensive platform on this list. It handles everything from online reservations and real-time availability management to payment processing, guest communication, and post-experience follow-ups. Unlike generic tools, Xola was designed to solve the specific challenges operators like you face, including no-shows, overbookings, and capacity limits. At the end of the day, Xola’s features help you drive more direct bookings through your website as well as streamline reservations coming from elsewhere.
Best for tour and attraction operators
2. Calendly
Calendly is a simple and effective tool for scheduling one-on-one meetings, consultations, or appointments. While it’s not built for managing group experiences or taking payments at scale, it does allow operators to automate availability, sync calendars, and eliminate back-and-forth emails.
Best for appointment-based service businesses
3. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity offers powerful features for service-based businesses, like yoga instructors, coaches, and salons. You can customize appointment types, accept payments, and even create intake forms. It’s a step up from Calendly for solo entrepreneurs who need more flexibility in managing bookings.
Best for solo service providers
4. Square Appointments
Square Appointments excels in retail and integrates seamlessly with the Square ecosystem, making it a go-to for small businesses already using it as their point-of-sale system. It offers booking, payments, and staff management features, especially helpful for businesses that operate on an appointment basis, like fitness studios.
Best for local service businesses already using Square
5. Google Calendar Appointment Scheduling
Here’s a low-cost option for sole operators or teams looking for a simple, no-frills solution. Google’s built-in appointment scheduling tool works directly with your Google Calendar. While it doesn’t support payments or advanced features, it is free, easy to use, and accessible to anyone with a Gmail account.
Best DIY free option for new businesses
How to choose the right tool for your business
Deciding to invest in booking software or switching over to a better platform marks an exciting step forward for your travel business. You’re committing to improving your guest experience with the understanding that their interaction with your brand online is just as important as the visit itself.
Now, there are a lot of great platforms out there—but one that’s just right for you.
Start by asking: What kind of experiences do you offer, and how do your customers like to book? A zipline park with hourly departures, for instance, needs different features than a private chef offering one-on-one classes. Think about group size, volume, staff scheduling, inventory management, and your current online traffic.
Here are a few other questions to help guide your decision:
- Do you need real-time availability updates across platforms?
- Will you be collecting payments or deposits up front?
- Do you want to automate emails or review requests?
- Does the tool integrate with your website, OTAs, or other third-party platforms?
- How much flexibility do you need for pricing and discounting?
It’s also worth considering scalability. A tool that works for you now should still work for you as your business grows, whether that means offering more tours, expanding to new locations, or adding staff. The right booking software helps you do that without friction.
Common traps to avoid when picking an online booking platform
No one purposely chooses the wrong tools for their business, yet it happens a lot more often than we’d like it to. Your booking software should fling you forward, not hold you back. That being said, these are some of the most common mistakes operators make (and how to avoid them):
- Prioritizing price over value. It’s tempting to go for the cheapest option, especially when starting. But, hopefully, your business will quickly outgrow a stripped-down platform as booking volume increases. This is a good time to consider where the real ROI lies, like a tool that helps you save time and drive more bookings right from the start.
- Overlooking mobile usability. If your booking flow doesn’t work smoothly on a phone, you’re off to a rickety start. Mobile bookings are only getting more and more common, so you want a booking tool that can deliver on that front.
- Ignoring integrations. Booking software isn’t the only tool in your toolbox, and your life will become a whole lot easier if your tools play nice together. Make sure your software integrates seamlessly with your website, marketing tools, and any third-party platforms you rely on, like OTAs or CRM systems.
- Underestimating support. Even the best tools come with a learning curve. Prioritize platforms with responsive, helpful support. Having a real, human team you can actually reach out to can make all the difference.
- Choosing a system that can’t scale. What works for a solo operator might not work when you’re running five tours a day across two locations. Plan ahead by choosing a flexible platform that grows with you, not against you.
Switching platforms: What to know before you migrate
If you’re starting to realize that your current system isn’t cutting it, your next step is probably to migrate. Yet switching booking software isn’t something to do on a whim. Here’s what to keep in mind:
- Do a full audit: Take stock of what’s working and what’s not with your current setup. Make a list of features you need (and the ones you don’t), so you can better evaluate your next platform.
- Plan for a clean data transfer: Choose a provider that will help you migrate guest data, booking history, availability schedules, and all other data that you don’t want to lose during the switch.
- Communicate with your team: Any change in software impacts your staff, so give them a heads up before going live.
- Minimize downtime: Look for a provider that allows you to set up the new system in the background before making a complete switch. That way, you won’t miss any bookings during the transition.
- Finally, treat it like an upgrade: Yes, switching platforms takes effort. But once you have the right tools working for you, it always pays off in the end.
Final thoughts: how to future-proof your online booking setup
The booking tools you rely on today should be built to grow with you. As traveler behavior and AI advancements reshape the industry, your online booking software should be able to keep up, not hold you back.
Again, focus on a platform that’s flexible and mobile-friendly. Look for partners that offer regular updates, strong customer support, and features that align with the future of bookings, like AI-driven pricing and last-minute inventory management.
In the end, future-proofing your setup is about more than features. It’s about choosing software that helps you adapt and stay competitive, whether guests are booking on their phones tomorrow or through an AI agent a year from now.
Watch a free demo and discover how easy it is to manage reservations, accept payments, and keep guests happy, all in one place.
