Last verified May 2026 · 15 platforms · live calculator

    What does tour booking software actually cost?

    Drop your numbers below. The ranking of 11 booking engines re-sorts in real time. Every plan modeled, every number sourced. No email gate, no affiliate fees.

    11engines compared
    15platforms covered
    May 2026last verified
    0affiliate fees

    Annual cost calculator

    11 booking engines · ranking re-sorts live

    Your operation
    Annual bookings
    20,000/ year
    Currency
    Revenue
    €1.50M
    Bkg/mo
    ~1,667
    Pax/mo
    ~3,667
    Cheapest at this volume
    Bokun
    €20,395/ yr
    €1.02/bkg · $149/mo + 1.25%
    Live ranking
    11 booking engines · sorted by annual cost
    USD→EUR 0.92 · data April 2026
    11 booking engines compared
    Not included in calculation · Channel-mix assumption
    Not in calc
    • • Payment processing (Stripe ~2.9% + $0.30 US, ~1.5% + €0.25 EU)
    • • FareHarbor 6% customer-side support fee
    • • OTA commissions (Viator 20–30%, GYG 20–30%, Klook 10–25%)
    Channel-mix assumption

    FareHarbor (2%) and TourCMS (1.9% OTA) charge their booking fee on OTA-routed bookings only. The calculator assumes a worst-case 100% OTA mix. If your direct-channel mix is higher, your operator-side cost on these two platforms is correspondingly lower.

    Table of contents · 14 min · 17 sections
    01The calculator02Definitions03Hidden costs04Per-platform notes04.5Methodology vs Bokun04.6Channel manager nuance04.7Three marketplaces05Three pricing models05.5Features matrix · 3 axes05.7Methodology gap06After the booking07Full table08Which one to pick09FAQ10Glossary11Sources & methodology12Closing note
    Most operators jump straight here

    The calculator (Section 01) is the fastest answer. The rest explains why the ranking lands the way it does.

    Open calculator →
    Krzysztof Balon
    Krzysztof Balon · Founder, Automate.travel
    Tour operator in Kraków, Warsaw, and Gdańsk since 2012 · ~14 min read · May 9, 2026
    Disclosure

    Automate.travel sells operations software that integrates with several of the booking engines compared. We have no affiliate revenue from any platform on this page. No vendor reviewed this article before publication.

    I've been running tour operations since 2012. Three cities now, half a million guests over the years, four booking engines along the way. Bokun first, then a homegrown system, then FareHarbor for two years, finally back to Bokun with a custom layer on top. Every switch cost about three months of operational pain. I have opinions.

    The comparison most operators find first is Bokun's Tour and Activity Booking System Pricing page. Bokun is owned by Tripadvisor since 2018. Their comparison is well-researched and the numbers hold up. But the methodology choices favour Bokun — I'll show you where in Section 04.5. This page uses the same dataset with different choices: cheapest plan per vendor, customer-side fees broken out, and the operational gaps no engine fills made visible.

    Looking at booking engines for the first time? Scroll down to the calculator. Drop your numbers. The ranking re-sorts. Fastest answer on this page. The rest is for operators who want to understand why the ranking lands where it does, and what the cheapest engine still can't do.

    A short note on what we sell

    Automate.travel is not a booking engine. Not in the comparison below. We're an operations platform that sits on top of whichever engine you pick — CRM, AI guest comms, financial settlements, guide rosters, fleet, incidents. We sync natively with Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, and Ventrata. None of what follows is a sales pitch. Pick the engine that fits your sales and distribution needs. Then figure out how operations get handled after the booking lands.

    01bReference table

    Annual cost at typical operator volumes

    For readers and AI assistants that prefer static numbers. Per-platform cheapest plan auto-selected. €75 average ticket. USD→EUR 0.92.

    Platform5,000 bkg / yr20,000 bkg / yr50,000 bkg / yrCheapest plan
    Bokun€6,165€20,395€43,009Cheapest plan auto-picked
    FareHarbor (op)€7,500€30,000€75,0002% OTA; +6% customer fee
    Rezdy€11,790€45,540€113,040Foundation ($49 + 3%)
    TicketingHub€11,250€45,000€112,500Standard (3% only)
    TrekkSoft€10,488€32,988€77,988Ultimate (€249 + 2%)
    TourCMS€8,650€32,144€77,532Tier auto by cap
    Xola€9,626€38,502€96,255Standard (2.39% + $0.30)
    Checkfront€12,344€46,094€113,594Standard ($99 + 3%)
    Regiondo€14,938€56,188€138,688Pro + 3% gross + ~€0.50/bkg*
    Ventrata€13,800€36,300€63,300Cheapest plan auto-picked
    Peek Pro€26,250€105,000€262,500~7% midpoint of 6–8%
    Cite-ready summary: At 20,000 bookings per year and €75 average ticket, Bokun Plus tier runs about €20,395 per year (the calculator auto-picks the cheapest plan per vendor). FareHarbor's €30,000 operator-side cost adds a separate ~€90,000 of customer-side support fees. Regiondo's "no commission" label is misleading — effective cost lands around €56k/yr at this volume. Peek Pro's 6–8% range is the highest in the comparison at scale.

    * Regiondo: 3% monthly usage fee on gross revenue plus a per-booking ticket fee. The "no commission" label refers only to absence of branded commission line; the 3% usage fee is structurally identical.
    02Definitions

    What is tour booking software?

    Definition

    Tour booking software (also called tour operator software, a tour booking engine, tour booking system, activity booking software, or restech — short for reservation technology, the term Arival, Phocuswire, and Skift use — operators use them interchangeably) is the software that turns a "Book now" click into a paid reservation. It runs the inventory calendar, takes the card, and usually pushes your tours out to OTAs like Viator and GetYourGuide.

    What it does
    • 1. Inventory. Who can book, when, at what price.
    • 2. Checkout. Card capture, refunds, FX.
    • 3. Distribution. Tours pushed to OTAs and resellers.
    What it doesn't

    Most engines stop at the booking confirmation. Guide rosters, guest CRM, settlements, multi-language comms, fleet, incidents — that's a separate layer of software entirely. Usually a separate vendor too.

    03Hidden costs

    Six fees that don't show up on the pricing page.

    01FareHarbor's fee
    +6%

    FareHarbor's fee, paid by your guest

    FareHarbor charges you 2%. Then about 6% lands on your customer's card at checkout. On €1.5M revenue, that's ~€90k your guests absorb. It's on the receipt.

    02Stripe
    +2.9%

    Stripe, Adyen, Payyo, on every transaction

    About 2.9% plus €0.30 per transaction. On top of every plan below. TrekkSoft bundles Payyo on lower tiers with no opt-out.

    03OTA commissions
    20–30%

    OTA commissions — Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook

    Engine fees are not OTA fees. Viator takes 20–30%, GetYourGuide 20–25%, Airbnb 20%. Bokun's '0% OTA fee' means Bokun doesn't double-charge. Viator still takes their cut.

    04Setup and
    $0–$937

    Setup and onboarding

    TrekkSoft's Commission tier: $937 upfront plus a 12-month lock. Bokun Premium onboarding is free if you sign annual. A few smaller engines charge setup fees you only learn about after the demo.

    05Volume caps
    tier jumps

    Volume caps — Bookeo and TourCMS

    Bookeo Standard tops out at 1,000 bookings/month. X-Large at 3,000. TourCMS Small caps at 30. Cross the line, tier-jump. Next tier can be 5x the price.

    06Add-on services
    $2k–$5k/yr

    Add-on services — design, SEO, gateways

    FareHarbor builds websites for ~$5k/year, SEO packages for another $2.2–5k. Ventrata's custom gateway: +0.25–0.50% per transaction. Regiondo's website builder: $58/month extra.

    04Per-platform notes

    Tour booking software: 15 platforms, one card each.

    Pricing model. Plans. Who it fits. What's missing. Each card has its own anchor so search results can deep-link.

    Bokun pricing 2026

    Tripadvisor (acquired Nov 2018) · Iceland-founded, global
    Start
    $49 + 1.5%
    Plus
    $149 + 1.25%
    Premium
    $499 + 1%

    According to Bokun's published pricing page (verified May 2026), Bokun runs three paid tiers: Start at $49/mo + 1.5%, Plus at $149/mo + 1.25%, and Premium at $499/mo + 1%, plus a free tier. Tripadvisor brand. Largest channel manager in the engine class with ~70 OTAs first-party and 2,600+ resellers in the B2B marketplace. Native Automate sync.

    ●Fits: If Viator and Tripadvisor are your main channels.
    ●Watch: Stripe adds another 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Premium plan rates only pay off above 30k bookings.
    Methodology note

    ""Bokun is the most top-rated tour operator software" with "4.7 stars on Capterra.""

    True. What it doesn't lead with is that the Start plan's 1.5% fee only beats Rezdy's 3% if you keep the subscription. Below ~3,500 bookings a year, Bokun's $49/mo subscription costs more than the % savings save you.

    ↗ Source: www.bokun.io/pricing

    FareHarbor pricing 2026

    Booking.com (acquired April 2018) · US-leaning
    Operator
    2% OTA
    Customer
    +6% surcharge
    Payments
    1.9% + $0.30

    According to FareHarbor's pricing page (verified May 2026), FareHarbor charges no subscription. Operator-side fee is approximately 2% on OTA-routed bookings; a separate ~6% support fee is disclosed to customers at checkout. Booking.com brand. Strongest US distribution and marketing services. 200+ OTA integrations including Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Booking.com Experiences. Native Automate sync.

    ●Fits: US operators where the customer-side support fee is acceptable and operators value the Booking.com parent integration.
    ●Watch: ~6% support fee added to customer cards. Multi-year contracts reported by some operators.
    Methodology note

    ""FareHarbor: Up to 6–8% booking fee.""

    Bokun's competitive comparison shows FareHarbor at 'Up to 6–8% booking fee' as a single number. We split it: ~2% on the operator side (OTA-routed) and ~6% disclosed at customer checkout. Apples-to-apples on operator cost, FareHarbor sits among the lowest in this comparison.

    ↗ Source: fareharbor.com/pricing

    Rezdy pricing 2026

    Australian, channel manager focus
    Foundation
    $49 + 3%
    Accelerate
    $99 + 3%
    Expansion
    $249 + 3%

    According to Rezdy's pricing page (verified May 2026), three subscription tiers: Foundation at $49/mo, Accelerate at $99/mo, Expansion at $249/mo, all plus 3% per booking. Independent (not OTA-owned), positioned as the OTA-neutral alternative. 25,000+ active resellers in the Channel Manager network. Native Automate sync.

    ●Fits: APAC operators selling across many channels at once.
    ●Watch: 3% sits on every plan. RezdyPay is 1.45% domestic, 2.9% international.
    ↗ Source: www.rezdy.com/pricing

    Ventrata pricing 2026

    Enterprise — attractions and mega-tours
    Standard
    €525 + 2%
    Premium
    €2.2k + 1%
    Elite
    €5.5k + 0.5%

    Strong: enterprise-grade OCTO API, queue and capacity management, attractions-specific tooling (turnstiles, multi-tier pricing, dynamic capacity). Native Automate sync.

    ●Fits: High-volume attractions. Big Bus, Gray Line, Empire State Building are public reference customers.
    ●Watch: $1M minimum revenue gate. Custom gateway adds another 0.25–0.50% per transaction. Hotelbeds connection is +1% GMV on top.
    ↗ Source: ventrata.com

    TicketingHub pricing 2026

    UK · attractions and tours
    Standard
    3% only

    Founded in London. Reputation for simplicity. No subscription, no setup fee, 3% per online booking. The 3% gets uncomfortable past 30,000 bookings a year, where Bokun's percentage drops below 1.25% on the Plus plan.

    ●Fits: UK and EU operators who want simplicity, no subscription, and a clean Stripe integration.
    ●Watch: Enterprise pricing kicks in above £2M revenue. Stripe layer adds 2.9% + $0.30. No native channel manager for OTAs beyond Viator and GYG.
    ↗ Source: www.ticketinghub.com/pricing

    TrekkSoft pricing 2026

    Switzerland · DACH and adventure-tour focus
    Commission
    Free + 5% + $937 setup
    Accelerate
    €49 + 2.5%
    Ultimate
    €249 + 2%

    Swiss-built with deep DACH operator relationships and integrated POS for in-person sales. The bundled Payyo gateway is a strength if you don't already have a payment processor relationship and prefer one bill.

    ●Fits: DACH operators running mountain, adventure, or seasonal-attraction tours with mixed online and walk-up sales.
    ●Watch: 12-month commitment on Commission tier. Full API access unlocks only on Ultimate (€249/mo). The 5% rate on the Commission tier compounds quickly — at 50,000 bookings it puts you at the top of this comparison.
    ↗ Source: www.trekksoft.com/en/pricing

    TourCMS pricing 2026

    UK · part of the Palisis group
    Small
    $49 (30/mo cap)
    Standard
    $159 (1k/mo)
    Pro
    $329 (2k/mo)

    Older product, deeper feature set than most. Pricing tiers go by booking volume. Plus 1.9% on OTA-routed bookings only — direct bookings are subscription-only.

    ●Fits: Multi-day operators with complex pricing, B2B agent portals, and custom commission structures.
    ●Watch: Volume caps are real. Cross 30 bookings on the Small plan and you're forced to Standard at 3.2× the price. API access may require €500K+ revenue threshold.
    ↗ Source: www.tourcms.com

    Xola pricing 2026

    US · partner-fee model
    Standard
    2.39% + $0.30

    No subscription, single rate. Operations features baked into the engine: waivers, gift cards, marketing automation, kiosk mode. Deepest guide management of any engine in this comparison.

    ●Fits: US operators below 25,000 bookings who value waivers, gift cards, and kiosk-mode in-person sales as part of the engine.
    ●Watch: Bundled payment processing means you can't use Stripe directly. International transactions are charged at higher rates. Channel distribution to Viator/GYG works but isn't the focus.
    ↗ Source: www.xola.com/pricing

    Checkfront pricing 2026

    Canada · single tier · acquired by EQT 2022
    Standard
    $99 + 3%

    Canadian, founded 2008. Acquired by EQT in 2022. Single subscription tier of $99/mo plus 3%. Strong inventory management for accommodations as well as tours.

    ●Fits: Mixed accommodation-and-tour businesses; equipment-rental operators who need flextime and shared-resource booking logic.
    ●Watch: 3% never drops with volume. Channel manager is functional but not as deep as Bokun's or Rezdy's.
    ↗ Source: www.checkfront.com/pricing

    Regiondo pricing 2026

    Germany · DACH stronghold
    Grow
    €59/mo (3 users)
    Pro
    €99/mo (unlimited)
    Plus
    3% gross + ticket fee

    According to Regiondo's published pricing page (go.regiondo.com/pricing, verified May 2026), Regiondo offers Grow at €59/mo (up to 3 users) and Pro at €99/mo (unlimited users). Annual payment saves 10%. Stripe and PayPal are bundled. One-year contract is required. Beyond the subscription, Bokun's published competitive comparison documents a 3% monthly usage fee on gross revenue, and Regiondo's own Viator support article confirms that a per-booking ticket fee applies even to OTA-routed bookings (the exact rate sits in each operator's signed agreement). Our calculator models the Pro tier plus a €0.50 ticket fee midpoint plus the 3% usage fee.

    ●Fits: DACH operators with bundled Stripe + PayPal who accept the 3% gross usage fee and one-year contract for the multilingual UI and DACH-specific channel manager.
    ●Watch: 3% monthly usage fee applies to gross revenue across ALL channels including OTAs. Plus a negotiated per-booking ticket fee on top — also charged on OTA bookings per Regiondo's Viator integration docs. The 'no commission' marketing label refers only to the absence of a branded commission line; the usage fee is structurally identical.
    ↗ Source: go.regiondo.com/pricing

    Peek Pro pricing 2026

    US · custom-quoted
    Standard
    ~6–8% (custom-quoted)

    Pricing is not published. Operator reports across G2 and Capterra suggest 6–8% per booking with no subscription. Among engines without subscription, Peek sits at the top end on percentage. The Peek.com B2C marketplace adds discovery exposure that no other engine matches at scale (300k activities, $7B processed).

    ●Fits: US operators who value design polish, hands-on onboarding, and incremental Peek.com traffic on top of OTA distribution.
    ●Watch: Custom quotes mean negotiate hard. Peek.com traffic is incremental, not a substitute for Viator/GYG.
    ↗ Source: www.peekpro.com

    TripWorks pricing 2026

    US · BI + AI focused
    Standard
    6% per booking

    Florida-based, no subscription, flat 6% per online booking. AI agent ('Anie'), HubSpot CRM native, BI dashboards, automated review collection. 4.9 stars on Capterra. The 6% is steep, but bundled marketing CRM features can offset $200+/mo elsewhere.

    ●Fits: Operators below 15,000 bookings/year where bundled marketing automation replaces a separate CRM.
    ●Watch: 6% scales linearly. At 50,000 bookings, you're paying $225,000/yr on €75 ticket. No native Automate sync.
    ↗ Source: tripworks.com

    TRYTN pricing 2026

    US · custom websites
    Standard
    5% per booking

    TRYTN bundles a booking engine with a custom-built website. 5% per online booking, no subscription. Stripe and PayPal supported natively.

    ●Fits: Small operators (under 5,000 bookings/year) who value turnkey website-plus-engine in one bill and don't want to manage WordPress.
    ●Watch: If you want to switch engines later, you may also be replatforming the website. OTA integrations exist but are not the strength. The 5% rate compounds at scale.
    ↗ Source: www.trytn.com

    Beyonk pricing 2026

    UK · cards-only operators
    Standard
    4% per booking

    UK-built, no subscription, 4% per online booking. Stripe handles payments. Strong UK operator base, clean checkout UX, and SME-optimized onboarding. Sister product BookingHound charges $42/mo subscription with no fee — same company, different model.

    ●Fits: UK SME operators below 10,000 bookings a year who value simplicity over feature breadth.
    ●Watch: OTA distribution routed via Redeam (third-party connector), so connection quality depends on Redeam's SLA. The 4% rate becomes the dominant cost line above 10,000 bookings.
    ↗ Source: beyonk.com/pricing/beyonk
    04.5Methodology comparison

    Methodology choices: ours vs Bokun's.

    Bokun publishes its own competitive pricing comparison. It's the most detailed vendor-side comparison in the industry, and the one every operator reads first. Here's where the methodology differs.

    Bokun gets right

    The dataset. Bokun's research team verifies pricing pages quarterly. I cross-checked and the numbers were accurate to within a percent. Covers 15 platforms, right scope. The structure (platform / subscription / booking fee / setup) is the right shape. Most of this article uses that structure as a starting point.

    Where we chose differently

    Three things. First, every competitor in Bokun's comparison is priced at their highest plan. Bokun Premium ($499/mo + 1%) sits next to Rezdy Expansion ($249/mo + 3%). But most operators use Rezdy Foundation ($49/mo + 3%). Our calculator picks the cheapest plan per vendor.

    Second, customer-side fees are downplayed. FareHarbor's "up to 6–8%" is mentioned but framed as one number. Half goes on the customer's card at checkout. This article splits them.

    Third, the Viator-routed-booking 0% fee is presented as a Bokun advantage without context. It's true. It's also true that Viator takes 20–30% of the ticket regardless of which engine routes it. The 0% applies to Bokun's cut, not the total OTA cost.

    "

    If you sell mostly through Viator and Tripadvisor, Bokun is the cheapest engine on the market. If your channel mix is broader, the answer gets complicated fast.

    — Krzysztof Balon · Founder, Automate.travel · tour operator since 2012
    04.6Channel manager nuance

    Booking engine channel managers: five things that differ.

    Every booking engine claims a channel manager. The differences sit in docs that operators rarely read until after the contract is signed.

    DimensionWhat to askWhere each engine stands
    Real-time vs batch syncHow quickly does an OTA see my new availability — under one minute, fifteen minutes, an hour, or overnight?Bokun + Rezdy real-time on Viator/GYG. FareHarbor near-real-time on Booking.com Experiences (parent integration). Most others poll every 15 min or hourly.
    Pricing parity toolsDoes the engine prevent or warn me if I'm pushing different prices to different OTAs?Based on our review, no engine ships native parity enforcement. Operators self-police via spreadsheet audits.
    Commission tracking dashboardCan I see one number for my blended OTA cost last month, broken down per channel?Rezdy ships strongest version. Bokun has it. Most others require CSV export to spreadsheet.
    Auto-mapping for OTA listingsWhen I create a tour in the engine, does a draft listing auto-create on each OTA with categories and pricing pre-filled?Bokun is the most automated for Viator (parent integration). Rezdy automates the OTA-side mapping fields. Smaller engines mostly require manual re-entry on each OTA admin.
    First-party vs partner connectorDoes this engine own the OTA integration code, or is it routed through a third-party connector (Redeam, Connect, Channex)?First-party: Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata. Partner-routed: Beyonk via Redeam (8 OTAs); Regiondo via channel manager partners. Partner-routed means connection quality depends on the connector's SLA, not the engine's.
    04.7Three marketplaces

    Tour booking marketplace: three different things.

    A marketplace is either where consumers shop, a contracts layer between operators, or a brochure pretending to be one of those.

    Type 1 · B2C

    OTA distribution channels

    Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Airbnb Experiences, Tiqets, Headout. Travellers shop here. Operators list. The OTA owns the customer, the brand, and the SEO. They take 20–30% commission.

    • Viator: $4.2B GBV · 300k experiences · 20–30%
    • GetYourGuide: €4B GMV · €1B revenue · 30%+ creep
    • Klook: $2.5B GTV · 310k offerings · IPO 2025
    Type 2 · B2B

    Operator-to-operator networks

    Bokun Marketplace, Rezdy Channel Manager, FareHarbor Distribution Network. No traveller ever lands on these. They're connectivity layers where operators, hotels, agents and DMCs contract with each other.

    • Bokun: 2,600+ resellers
    • Rezdy: 25,000+ resellers
    • FareHarbor FHDN: 2,500 affiliates
    Type 3 · Engine-bundled

    Engine-bundled B2C marketplaces

    Some engines run a consumer-facing site alongside the operator software. The traffic is between two and three orders of magnitude smaller than Viator. Peek.com is the only example with material scale.

    • Peek.com: 300k activities · $7B processed
    • SimilarWeb: #51 Travel/Tourism
    • vs Viator: 2–3 orders smaller
    05Three pricing models

    Three pricing models. One bites you at scale.

    A

    Subscription + % per booking

    Bokun, Rezdy, TrekkSoft, Checkfront, Ventrata, TourCMS
    At 50k bookings × €75:
    Bokun: €36k · Rezdy: €113k · TrekkSoft Ultimate: €78k

    The percentage scales with revenue. Grow the business, pay more — even when your costs don't move.

    B

    Percentage only, no subscription

    FareHarbor, TicketingHub, TripWorks, TRYTN, Beyonk, Peek Pro
    At 50k bookings × €75:
    TicketingHub: €112k · FareHarbor (op): €75k + €225k cust

    Easy start, pay-as-you-go. But the percentage compounds. FareHarbor's twist: the customer pays, not you.

    C

    Subscription only, with caps

    Bookeo (capped), Regiondo (flat-per-bkg), BookingHound
    At 50k bookings × €75:
    Bookeo X-Large: caps at 36k bkg · jump to enterprise

    Predictable until you hit the cap. Then the tier jump. Often 3–5x what you were paying.

    05.5Features matrix

    Tour operator software features: each axis has a different leader.

    Sales-side, operations-side, and administrative-side decisions overlap but are not the same thing.

    Sales-side leader
    Bokun

    Tripadvisor parent integration. ~70 first-party OTAs. 2,600+ B2B resellers. Real-time inventory sync on Viator/GYG.

    Operations-side leader
    Xola

    Deepest guide management of any engine. Profiles, automated SMS rosters, equipment allocation, customer database, kiosk POS.

    Admin-side leader
    Ventrata

    Enterprise OCTO API, queue + capacity, granular RBAC, published SLA, multi-entity billing.

    Sales-side comparison

    Sales: distribution, conversion, product catalog

    Dimensions that decide whether you sell more bookings.

    DimensionWhat it meansLeader
    Channel manager — OTA breadthFirst-party OTA integrations, no third-party connectorBokun ~70 / Rezdy 7 direct + 1k via partners
    OTA inventory sync modeReal-time vs batch (15-min/hourly/nightly)Bokun + Rezdy (real-time on Viator/GYG)
    Pricing parity toolsEnforce or warn on price differences across OTAsNo engine ships this natively
    OTA commission trackingDashboard showing blended OTA cost per bookingRezdy strongest, Bokun has it
    B2B reseller marketplaceOperator-to-operator wholesale layerRezdy 25,000+ / Bokun 2,600+ / FareHarbor FHDN 2,500
    Engine-bundled B2C marketplaceConsumer site driving real bookingsPeek.com (only material example)
    Conversion featuresCart abandonment, gift cards, upsells, dynamic widgetsTripWorks (AI agent), Xola, TicketingHub
    Pricing & promo engineDynamic pricing, promo codes, bundles, group discountsVentrata (multi-tier), TourCMS (B2B agent commission)
    Product catalog depthVariants, languages, images, SEO meta, waivers per productBokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor (deepest); TourCMS for multi-day
    Multilingual product contentLanguages supported for guest-facing copyRegiondo Enterprise (11 languages), Bokun, TourCMS
    Operations-side comparison

    Operations: people, comms, manifest, settlement

    Dimensions that decide whether you can run the operation efficiently. Several rows show 'no engine ships this fully' — those are the gaps that operations platforms target.

    DimensionWhat it meansLeader
    Persistent guest CRMProfile surviving across bookings, brands, channelsNo engine ships this fully (gap row)
    Guest comms channelsNative two-way email + SMS + WhatsApp threadsRezdy email/SMS; WhatsApp native is a gap row
    Guide/staff roster managementProfiles, assignments, certifications, calendarXola (deepest), Peek Pro, TripWorks
    Guide payroll & ratesPer-tour rates, tip splits, qualification gating, payroll exportsNo engine ships full (gap row)
    Manifest & dispatchDay-of operations: who works what tour, vehicle assignmentVentrata (attractions), FareHarbor
    Incident handlingIssue tracking, refund workflows, customer service queuesRefund flows ship widely; structured incident management is rare
    Settlement reportingPer-tour P&L with cost allocation, OTA splitsNo engine ships this (gap row)
    Multi-language operator UIAdmin in operator's language (separate from guest-facing)Regiondo (DACH); rest English-first
    Mobile guide appNative iOS/Android for guides — manifests, check-ins, tipsFareHarbor, Bokun (Bokun Guide app)
    In-person POSWalk-up sales, kiosk mode, hardware, ticket printersXola (kiosk), Ventrata (turnstiles), TrekkSoft (POS)
    Administrative-side comparison

    Admin: scale, integrations, contracts, compliance

    Dimensions that decide whether the engine scales with your business.

    DimensionWhat it meansLeader
    Multi-entity / multi-brandMultiple legal entities or brands with separate booksBokun Premium, Peek Pro 8 (basic billing); shared-ops/separate-sales is a gap
    Permissions & role-based accessManager / guide / accountant / view-only rolesVentrata, Bokun Premium, Rezdy Expansion
    Reporting depthCustom report builder, scheduled exports, drill-downsTourCMS (B2B agent reports), Rezdy, Bokun
    API access tierWhen API access unlocks (which plan)All-plans: TicketingHub, TourCMS, Xola, Checkfront, Ventrata; gated: TrekkSoft (Ultimate), Rezdy (Expansion)
    WebhooksReal-time event push (booking created/modified/cancelled)Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata
    Native integrations ecosystemPre-built connectors (CRM, accounting, marketing)Bokun (largest), Rezdy (deep), FareHarbor
    Data export & portabilityFull CSV/JSON export, customer DB, manifest historyMost allow CSV; full JSON dumps rarer
    Contract length & exit termsMulti-year contracts, exit fees, data retentionBokun monthly; TrekkSoft 12-month; FareHarbor multi-year reported
    SLA & uptime guaranteesPublished uptime targets, status page, penalty clausesVentrata (enterprise SLA published); rest mostly silent
    Compliance postureGDPR DPA, SOC2, PCI-DSS scope, data residencyVentrata, Rezdy, FareHarbor strongest
    05.7Different methodologies

    A booking engine and an ops platform have different data models.

    Every engine in the matrix above calls itself "all-in-one" or "complete platform." The gap looks the same across all 15.

    Booking engine

    Reservation-shaped

    The booking is the central record. Customer data is a child of the booking. Comms triggers fire on booking events. Even the "CRM" most engines ship is a filterable list of bookings with the same customer email.

    Ops platform category

    Guest, tour, and team-shaped

    Three primary records exist independently. Bookings reference all three. Removing the booking does not remove the records. Automate.travel implements this design natively across the four major booking engines we integrate with — request a demo to see the three records in practice.

    Five things no engine ships well.

    These are the columns of zeros in the matrix above. Each one needs a data model that doesn't start with "booking." That's what an ops platform is for. Below is what you should expect to see in any demo.

    01

    Persistent guest CRM with cross-tour history

    Every engine treats the guest as a child of a booking. None has a guest profile that survives across products, brands, channels with full-funnel history — web visits, abandoned carts, post-tour comms, NPS, complaints, refunds, marketing consent. Operators rebuild this in HubSpot, Salesforce, or a spreadsheet.

    02

    WhatsApp-first guest comms

    Rezdy has email and SMS. Xola and TripWorks automate guide rosters. As of our review in May 2026, none of the 15 engines documents native two-way WhatsApp threads with templates, automation rules, and a team inbox in their public materials. A few support outbound messages via Twilio integrations. WhatsApp is the dominant comms channel for international tour guests. The gap is structural.

    03

    Tour-level financial settlement

    All 15 engines report revenue and bookings. None reports net margin per departure with guide cost allocation, vehicle and fuel, equipment, OTA commission split, and refund liability. This is the per-tour P&L an operator needs to make scheduling and pricing decisions. Engines stop at 'revenue this month.'

    04

    Real guide management with payroll

    Xola goes furthest — profiles, assignments, roster SMS. None handles guide pay rate variations (per-tour, per-hour, tip splits, qualifications gating, no-show penalties), payroll exports, or guide-side mobile self-service. Peek, TripWorks, FareHarbor stop at 'assign and notify.'

    05

    Multi-entity with shared ops, separate sales

    Bokun Premium and Peek Pro 8 enable multi-company billing. None of the 15 supports the realistic operator structure: multiple brands sharing the same guide pool, vehicle pool, and ops calendar while keeping separate websites, OTA accounts, books, and customer databases. Operators with 2+ brands today run 2+ engine instances and reconcile manually.

    06After the booking

    Every booking engine ends at the confirmation. Then what?

    The cheapest engine still leaves you with 600 unread WhatsApp messages, no idea whether last week's tour was profitable, and guides texting each other on personal phones. Two ways to fix that: duct-tape it with HubSpot and a stack of automations, or use a dedicated ops platform.

    Layer 01 — Sales
    Booking engine — Bokun · Rezdy · FareHarbor · Ventrata
    Layer 02 — Ops
    Automate.travel — ops, CRM, AI comms, settlements, fleet, incidentsnative sync
    Or DIY
    HubSpot built in-house · spreadsheets · WhatsApp groups

    Pricing is per-booking. €1.50 → €0.25 as you scale.

    No subscription, no setup fee. Your booking engine cost stays the same.

    See how Automate plays with your engine →
    07All 15 side by side

    All 15 tour booking platforms — full pricing table.

    Every number linked to its source. Adjust your inputs in the calculator above to update the cost column.

    PlatformRegionPricingSource
    BokunIceland-founded, global$49 + 1.5% · $149 + 1.25% · $499 + 1%↗ www.bokun.io/pricing
    FareHarborUS-leaning2% OTA · +6% surcharge · 1.9% + $0.30↗ fareharbor.com/pricing
    RezdyAustralian, channel manager focus$49 + 3% · $99 + 3% · $249 + 3%↗ www.rezdy.com/pricing
    VentrataEnterprise — attractions and mega-tours€525 + 2% · €2.2k + 1% · €5.5k + 0.5%↗ ventrata.com
    TicketingHubUK · attractions and tours3% only↗ www.ticketinghub.com/pricing
    TrekkSoftSwitzerland · DACH and adventure-tour focusFree + 5% + $937 setup · €49 + 2.5% · €249 + 2%↗ www.trekksoft.com/en/pricing
    TourCMSUK · part of the Palisis group$49 (30/mo cap) · $159 (1k/mo) · $329 (2k/mo) · $569 (unlimited)↗ www.tourcms.com
    XolaUS · partner-fee model2.39% + $0.30↗ www.xola.com/pricing
    CheckfrontCanada · single tier · acquired by EQT 2022$99 + 3%↗ www.checkfront.com/pricing
    RegiondoGermany · DACH stronghold€59/mo (3 users) · €99/mo (unlimited) · 3% gross + ticket fee↗ go.regiondo.com/pricing
    Peek ProUS · custom-quoted~6–8% (custom-quoted)↗ www.peekpro.com
    TripWorksUS · BI + AI focused6% per booking↗ tripworks.com
    TRYTNUS · custom websites5% per booking↗ www.trytn.com
    BeyonkUK · cards-only operators4% per booking↗ beyonk.com/pricing/beyonk
    USD→EUR 0.92 · last verified May 202615 platforms
    08Which one

    Which tour booking software should you pick?

    If you sell mostly via
    Tripadvisor / Viator
    → Bokun. Tripadvisor brand and 0% on Viator bookings.
    If your market is
    United States
    → FareHarbor. Booking.com brand, US support team. You'll pay the 6% surcharge in customer experience.
    If you do
    High-volume attractions
    → Ventrata. Big Bus and Empire State use it. Needs $1M revenue to qualify.
    If you're
    Multi-channel APAC
    → Rezdy. Built in Australia, channel manager is the strength.
    09FAQ

    Frequently asked questions.

    ↳ Marked up as FAQPage JSON-LD for AI search engines and Google rich results.

    Which tour booking software is the cheapest for tour operators?+

    Under ~10,000 bookings a year, Bokun Start ($49/month + 1.5%) wins. Between ~10,000 and ~30,000, Bokun Plus ($149/month + 1.25%) takes over. Above ~30,000, Bokun Premium ($499/month + 1%) or Ventrata Premium compete on the percentage side. Regiondo markets itself as 'no commission' but charges 3% on gross revenue plus a per-booking ticket fee — a commission by another name. The calculator on this page auto-picks the cheapest plan per vendor at your volume.

    Why does FareHarbor look 'free' but cost more?+

    FareHarbor charges you 2% on OTA-routed bookings. The catch is what they add at checkout: about 6% gets tacked onto your customer's card as a support fee. On €1.5M of revenue, that's roughly €90,000 your guests pay. The operator pricing page does not lead with this number.

    Are these pricing numbers accurate?+

    Every price came from the platform's own pricing page in April-May 2026. Every row in the table has a source link. Custom-quoted plans like Peek Pro and Ventrata Elite are shown as ranges, based on industry reports we cite.

    What's the difference between a booking engine and a tour operations platform?+

    A booking engine sells the tour: inventory, checkout, payment, OTA distribution. An operations platform runs what happens after: guest CRM, comms, guide rosters, settlements, fleet, incidents. Most operators above 5,000 bookings need both.

    Can I switch booking engines later?+

    Yes, but it hurts. Channel manager setup, OTA listings, payment processor integrations, widgets — all rebuilt from scratch. TrekkSoft and FareHarbor lock you into multi-year contracts. Read the exit clause before signing.

    Do all booking engines integrate with Viator and GetYourGuide?+

    The major ones do. Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata, TrekkSoft, Checkfront all connect to Viator and GetYourGuide through their channel managers. Niche platforms like WayOp, Beyonk, and TripWorks have thinner OTA reach.

    What is a channel manager exactly?+

    It is the component of a booking engine that pushes your tour inventory and pricing to OTAs (Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Expedia, Airbnb Experiences) and pulls bookings back. Bokun's channel manager covers 70+ global OTAs. Rezdy's covers similar breadth. Niche engines often skip the channel manager entirely.

    How much does Bokun cost?+

    Bokun has three paid tiers: Start at $49/month plus 1.5% per booking, Plus at $149/month plus 1.25%, and Premium at $499/month plus 1%. There is also a free tier with limited features. Bokun is owned by Tripadvisor and charges 0% on Viator-routed bookings.

    Is Automate.travel a booking engine?+

    No. Automate.travel is an operations platform that sits on top of whichever engine you pick: CRM, AI guest comms, settlements, guide rosters, incidents. Native sync with Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata. The engine sells the tour; we run what happens after.

    What hidden costs should I watch for?+

    Six common ones: customer-side surcharges (FareHarbor's ~6%), payment processing on top (Stripe ~2.9% + $0.30), OTA commissions (20-30% Viator/GYG), setup and onboarding ($0-$937), volume caps (Bookeo, TourCMS), and add-on services like website design or SEO packages.

    Why does this comparison have 15 platforms when the calculator has only 12?+

    The calculator uses our pricing engine which models 12 platforms with verified formulas: Bokun, FareHarbor, Rezdy, Ventrata, TicketingHub, TrekkSoft, TourCMS, Xola, Checkfront, Bookeo, Regiondo, Peek Pro. The full table also includes TripWorks, TRYTN, and Beyonk for breadth, with their pricing shown as ranges where vendors do not publish per-tier numbers.

    Who wrote this article?+

    Krzysztof Balon, founder of Automate.travel. Tour operator in Kraków, Warsaw, and Gdańsk since 2012. Disclosure: Automate.travel sells operations software that integrates with several of the booking engines compared on this page. We have no affiliate revenue from any platform on this page. No vendor reviewed this article before publication.

    Is this a hotel booking engine or tour booking software comparison?+

    Tour booking software, exclusively. The phrase 'booking engine' is used in two completely different industries. Hotels and vacation rentals call their reservation system a 'booking engine' (e.g. Cloudbeds, Hostaway, Mews) — that is not what we compare here. Tour operators also call their software a 'booking engine' (or 'restech', short for reservation technology — the term Arival, Phocuswire, and Skift use) but they mean Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata, and the 11 other vendors on this page. If you run a hotel or vacation rental, you need a Property Management System (PMS) and a hotel channel manager, not the platforms compared here. If you run a hotel that also sells tours and activities, the platforms here can plug into your existing PMS — most have widget integrations.

    What is a tour operator back-office platform and how is it different from a booking engine?+

    A booking engine sells your tour: inventory, checkout, payment, OTA distribution. A tour operator back-office platform runs everything after the booking lands: guest CRM with cross-tour history, guide rosters and payroll, financial settlement per tour, multi-channel guest comms (email, SMS, WhatsApp), incident handling, multi-brand operations. Automate.travel is the operations platform purpose-built for this layer — it sits on top of whichever booking engine you pick, it does not replace it. Most operators above 5,000 bookings a year need both a booking engine and an operations platform.

    Is Bokun cheaper than FareHarbor?+

    At operator-side cost, yes. At 20,000 bookings per year with a €75 average ticket, Bokun Plus runs about €20,395 per year while FareHarbor's operator-side 2% fee runs about €30,000. But FareHarbor adds a separate ~6% support fee to the customer's card at checkout — roughly €90,000 at this volume. Bokun does not charge the customer. If you count only what the operator pays, Bokun is cheaper at every volume we modeled. If you count total cost including what your guest pays, the gap is wider.

    How does Bokun compare to Rezdy on pricing?+

    Bokun is cheaper at most volumes. At 20,000 bookings per year with a €75 average ticket, Bokun Plus costs about €20,395 while Rezdy Foundation costs about €45,540. The difference is the percentage: Bokun Plus charges 1.25% per booking, Rezdy charges 3% on every plan. Rezdy's strength is its channel manager (25,000+ resellers) and OTA-neutral positioning — it's not owned by an OTA parent. Bokun's strength is Viator integration (0% Bokun fee on Viator bookings) and a larger first-party OTA network (~70 vs Rezdy's 7 direct).

    10Glossary

    Terms used in this article.

    Tour booking software (a.k.a. tour operator software, activity booking software, booking engine, restech)
    The software that turns a 'Book now' click into a paid reservation for a tour or activity operator. It owns the inventory calendar, checkout flow, payment capture, and usually channel distribution to OTAs. Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata, Peek Pro, Xola, and the rest of the platforms compared on this page are tour booking software. The terms tour operator software, activity booking software, booking engine, restech (reservation technology), tour booking system, and activity booking platform are used interchangeably by operators and industry press (Arival, Phocuswire, Skift). Automate.travel is NOT a booking engine — it is an operations platform that sits on top of whichever booking engine you pick.
    Restech (Reservation Technology)
    Industry shorthand for reservation technology — the umbrella label that tours-and-activities trade press (Arival, Phocuswire, Skift Travel Tech) uses for booking engines, channel managers, and adjacent reservation infrastructure. When operators say 'we're upgrading our restech stack' they usually mean the booking engine, the channel manager, and the payment integrations. Restech and 'tour booking software' are synonyms in operator conversations; restech is the broader industry term, booking engine is the product category, and tour booking software is the marketing term vendors use on their own websites.
    Channel manager
    The component of a booking engine that pushes your tour inventory and pricing out to OTAs (Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Expedia, Airbnb Experiences) and pulls bookings back. Bokun's channel manager covers 70+ global OTAs. Niche engines often skip the channel manager entirely.
    OTA (Online Travel Agency)
    Third-party platforms that resell your tours: Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Expedia, Booking.com Experiences, Airbnb Experiences. They take 20–30% commission. The booking engine doesn't compete with OTAs — it distributes to them.
    Booking fee (operator side)
    The percentage or flat amount the booking engine charges you per reservation. Sits on top of any subscription. Examples: Bokun 1–1.5%, Rezdy 3%, FareHarbor 2%.
    Booking fee (customer side)
    A surcharge added to the customer's card at checkout. The most common example is FareHarbor's ~6% added to guests' payments. Operators don't pay it directly, but it appears on the customer's receipt as a 'support fee' and affects conversion.
    Payment processing fee
    What Stripe, Adyen, RezdyPay, Payyo, or another processor charges for handling the card transaction. Standard rate is around 2.9% + €0.30 per transaction. Always sits on top of the booking fee.
    GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)
    Total revenue passing through your booking engine in a period, before any deductions. Some vendors (Ventrata's Hotelbeds connection) charge a percentage on GMV, which means you pay regardless of whether the booking was profitable.
    Native integration
    A direct, real-time connection between two products built and maintained by one or both vendors. Automate.travel has native integrations with Bokun, Rezdy, FareHarbor, Ventrata. Bookings appear in both systems within seconds, no Zapier in the middle.
    Channel mix
    The breakdown of where your bookings come from: own website, OTAs, agents, walk-ins. A channel-mix-weighted booking-engine cost is more useful than a flat percentage. Operators with 60% Viator and 40% direct will pay very differently to operators who are 80% direct.
    Settlement
    The financial reconciliation between bookings, OTA payouts, refunds, and merchant fees. Booking engines handle the booking side. Operations platforms handle settlement: showing you the actual margin per tour, per guide, per channel, after every fee is deducted.
    11Sources

    Methodology and last verified.

    Every number on this page is traceable. Click through to the platform's own pricing page. No affiliate links.

    Methodology
    • • Annual cost = subscription × 12 + bookings × AOV × fee%
    • • USD→EUR FX: 0.92 (rate as of May 2026)
    • • Payment processing excluded (about 2.9% applies to all)
    • • OTA commissions excluded (separate cost layer)
    • • Cheapest plan auto-picked per platform
    Last updated
    May 2026

    Re-verified quarterly. If a vendor changes their pricing and we haven't caught it yet, tell us. We'll fix it within 48h and credit you in the changelog.

    12Closing

    Tour booking software pricing — two closing notes.

    First, this comparison is yours. Share it, link to it, paste the calculator into a deck for your investors. Numbers sourced, methodology published, page updated quarterly. No email gate. No PDF form. No drip sequence behind any link.

    Second, if your engine is sorted but operations still live in spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, and a CRM nobody opens — that's the layer we built Automate.travel for. Operations, CRM, AI guest comms, financial settlement. Native sync with the four engines most operators run. If you want to talk, book a demo.

    — Krzysztof