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Tourplan: What is tour planning software for hotel groups?

  Posted in Resources  Last updated 30/10/2024

What is Tourplan?

Tourplan is a comprehensive hotel software solution that simplifies itinerary planning, booking management, and communication between hotels and tour operators. It automates these tasks, allowing properties to reduce manual effort and ensure that bookings are processed accurately. For hotel groups like yours, Tourplan is an essential tool to ensure smooth operations across all your properties.

Tour planner software vs tour scheduling software

While tour planner software is primarily designed to manage the entire guest experience and itinerary, tour scheduling software focuses more on logistics and timing. Tourplan combines these functionalities, offering you a complete solution to work efficiently with tour operators.

In this article, we’ll explore why Tourplan is important for hotel groups like yours, how it works, and how integrating it with SiteMinder can transform your booking management process.

Table of contents

What is the importance of Tourplan for hotels?

If you’re managing multiple tour operator relationships, keeping up with real-time reservation updates is critical. Tourplan automates this process, reducing your manual workload and ensuring bookings are confirmed and updated in real-time. Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder can significantly boost your efficiency, allowing you to focus on providing great guest experiences – not your admin requirements – while growing your revenue.

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How does Tourplan software work?

Tourplan simplifies your booking process by acting as a central hub that connects you with Inbound Tour Operators (ITOs) and Destination Management Companies (DMCs). It automates the flow of booking information between you and the tour operator, ensuring that all reservations are accurate, up-to-date, and confirmed in real-time.

Tourplan’s role in automation

Tourplan automates many of the processes that would otherwise require manual input. By reducing the need for manual updates, you can free up staff to focus on guest-facing tasks, improving your hotel’s overall efficiency.

  • Automated booking imports: Tourplan automatically captures reservations from ITOs and DMCs, eliminating the need for manual input and preventing overbookings.
  • Real-time updates: Any changes to itineraries or bookings are instantly reflected in your system, reducing errors and keeping availability accurate.
  • Instant confirmations: Tourplan confirms bookings in real-time, notifying your team and tour operators without manual follow-ups.
  • Centralised communication: It automates the exchange of reservation details and updates with tour operators, streamlining communications across your system.

Connecting with ITOs and DMCs

Tourplan simplifies the connection between your hotel and ITOs and DMCs, by automating the flow of real-time booking information. 

It ensures that reservations, itinerary changes, and availability updates are instantly reflected in your Property Management System (PMS), reducing manual input and preventing errors. The system syncs your room inventory (whether that’s from direct bookings or from the 1,350+ OTAs we connect with) and rates with operators, allowing them to make bookings based on accurate, up-to-date data. 

Tourplan also manages group bookings efficiently, centralising all reservation details in one place and automating communication, including booking confirmations and availability updates. This ensures seamless coordination with wholesale tour operators, while also supporting invoicing and payments, making the entire process faster and more transparent.

Example

A medium-sized hotel group integrated Tourplan to manage reservations from over 10 tour operators. As a result, they reduced their manual work by 40%, saving valuable time and allowing their staff to focus on enhancing the guest experience. 

Not only that, but they solidified their own place as a strong partner in their local tour operators’ business plans, providing an excellent position for supporting long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

Tourplan

Tourplan integration: Everything you need to know

Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder is seamless and ensures that you can manage reservations from multiple tour operators efficiently. This integration removes the need for manual data entry, keeping your Property Management System (PMS) up-to-date without added effort.

Tourplan API

Integrating Tourplan with SiteMinder’s API enables you to automate booking management and communication between systems. The setup process is straightforward, and the API supports a variety of popular PMS solutions, ensuring compatibility across your tech stack.

Here are the key steps:

  1. Access API credentials: Contact SiteMinder to enable the Tourplan connection and receive your API key for secure integration.
  2. Connect to your PMS: SiteMinder’s API supports popular Property Management Systems (PMS) like Opera, RoomMaster, Protel, and Cloudbeds. If you use a custom PMS, the API is flexible for bespoke integrations.
  3. Configure API settings: Set up the data flow between SiteMinder and Tourplan. This ensures that bookings from ITOs and DMCs sync in real-time with your PMS through SiteMinder.
  4. Test the integration: Run test bookings to confirm the data flows correctly, ensuring rates, availability, and reservations are properly synced.
  5. Activate live management: Once testing is complete, your systems go live, and all Tourplan bookings are automatically synced with your PMS.

Tourplan pricing

Tourplan operates on a flexible pricing model, which includes several key costs:

  • API fees: Tourplan charges for API access, the exact price depending on the number of properties and the volume of bookings you handle.
  • Integration costs: There can be a one-time integration cost, covering the technical setup and connection between Tourplan and your other systems.
  • Subscription fees: Tourplan charges ongoing subscription fees, starting from USD$900 per year, depending on the size and needs of your hotel group, the number of users, and additional features.

While there are upfront and ongoing costs, the benefits of using Tourplan often outweigh these expenses. The software automates many manual processes, significantly reducing administrative work, cutting labour costs, and minimising errors that could result in revenue loss. Additionally, improved booking efficiency and real-time inventory management help optimise room occupancy, directly impacting your revenue potential.

For a hotel group handling high booking volumes from ITOs and DMCs, the time and cost savings from reduced manual work, along with enhanced operational efficiency, often make Tourplan a cost-effective choice.

Tourplan login

When you log into Tourplan, you access a comprehensive dashboard to manage bookings, update availability, and track real-time reservation data. Compared to its competitors like Rezdy, TourConnect, and Ventrata, Tourplan stands out due to its unique features:

  • Superior automation: Tourplan excels in automating the entire booking process, reducing manual effort more effectively than its competitors, making it ideal for handling high volumes of reservations.
  • Real-time updates: Unlike many competitors, Tourplan provides seamless, real-time updates directly to your PMS, minimising the risk of booking errors and ensuring smooth operations.
  • Wide integration options: Tourplan integrates with a broader range of systems, including SiteMinder’s Channel Manager and popular PMS solutions, providing you with flexibility that competitors often lack.
  • Scalability: Whether you’re managing a small hotel group or expanding into new markets, Tourplan scales effortlessly, offering greater operational control than most competing platforms.

Tourplan’s deep integration with SiteMinder, advanced automation, and real-time updates make it a superior choice for hotel groups looking to streamline operations and boost efficiency.

Tourplan system

Tourplan helps you scale your operations by managing large volumes of group bookings efficiently. Whether you’re dealing with multiple properties or increasing your market reach, Tourplan ensures that your growing reservation numbers are handled smoothly.

What is the benefit of Tourplan for hotels?

Tourplan offers several key benefits, including the optimisation of your revenue management. With detailed booking data, you can make smarter pricing decisions and improve overall efficiency. In combination with SiteMinder, you gain access to valuable data insights that further enhance your booking automation and decision-making processes.

Tourplan is also flexible, allowing you to adapt to the latest trends in the travel industry. By using SiteMinder and Tourplan together, you can offer more customised experiences to your guests, staying ahead of the competition and meeting changing travel expectations.

By Dean Elphick

Dean is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist of SiteMinder, the leading technology provider delivering hoteliers unbeatable revenue results. Dean has made writing and creating content his passion for the entirety of his professional life, which includes more than six years at SiteMinder. Through content, Dean aims to provide education, inspiration, assistance and value for accommodation businesses looking to improve the way they run their operations achieve their goals.

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