How Calypso Star Charters Consolidate Offline, Online, and Agent Bookings with Software

How Calypso Star Charters Consolidate Offline, Online, and Agent Bookings with Software

There’s no bigger adventure than swimming with the sharks, and Calypso Star Charters provides travelers in Port Lincoln, South Australia to do just that.

Their state-of-the-art fleet is equipped with Wi-Fi that streams live footage of guests swimming in cages and encountering the sharks of the open waters.

As a fully-licensed and eco-certified company, Calypso Star Charters focuses on safety and providing customers with the experience that they crave.

As the office manager, Natasha Becker is in charge of managing the bookings, and with several different booking systems in place for offline, online and agent bookings, her job was becoming more difficult than it needed to be.

She knew there had to be a way to streamline their booking process. Here’s how she did it.

1. Identify the issues with their current booking process

The company had an online booking system in place, but it wasn’t designed specifically for tour and activity providers. In fact, the more she worked with it, the more she realized it was built for ecommerce businesses.

“It was a shopping cart setup, not an actual booking system, so it didn’t give us the functionality we needed. For example, we couldn’t access it externally, and there was no customer management because no database was maintained in the system.”

Knowing her company’s reputation was on the line, Natasha began to look for other options.

2. Find a tour and activity booking program

Natasha knew that she needed an online booking system in order to make it easy for her customers and for agents to book their tours and activities, but she wanted to find one that was built specifically for these types of companies. She gave one system a try, and quickly grew frustrated.

“We tried a booking program, but it was absolutely terrible and very expensive, so we reverted back to the old system while I conducted research for around 6 months on different booking systems.”

After discovering Rezdy, she knew her research was complete and she had found the right system for her company.

3. Implement the new system

Rezdy was easy to implement, and Natasha wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The company’s staff found the program easy to use, and it didn’t take long to train everyone on the system.

“I like that Rezdy is simple and easy to use — both for our customers, and for agents making direct bookings. We can access it from anywhere, add unlimited users, and get most things that we need out of it.”

This online booking system has not only increased online bookings, but it has improved the company’s reputation amongst travel agents. Now, agents prefer to book their company over others, and their business continues to grow.

“Rezdy has been very beneficial for our business in terms of time and cost, so I can see that it works quite well for our industry. I would definitely recommend that other tour operators give it a go.”

If your company is spending more time finalizing bookings than it is on enjoying time with your guests and travelers, then now is the time to streamline your booking process.

Managing offline, online and agent bookings can be complicated and overwhelming.



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