WeTravel Academy: Learn how to grow your travel business

5 Ways You Can Use WeTravel to Grow Your Travel Business

Written by Keri Pfeiffer (she/her) | Jul 28, 2022 8:00:00 PM

What exactly is WeTravel, and how can it help you to grow your travel business? WeTravel has been a trusted brand in the multi-day travel industry since 2016, delivering payment & booking solutions that support 5000+ travel businesses worldwide. If you’re wondering how your business can grow with WeTravel, you’re in the right place!

What is WeTravel?

WeTravel is a booking & payments platform designed for travel companies offering multi-day tours. 

WeTravel’s booking software is integrated with merchant processing through Stripe. Customer payments may be made via bank transfer (ACH, BACS, SEPA) or by credit card.

Information from customers (e.g. questionnaire responses, document uploads, and eSignatures) is collected seamlessly during the booking process. Up-to-date customer data is easily referenced or exported from our powerful trip management dashboards. 

When the time comes to pay funds out of WeTravel, the platform provides a variety of flexible options that enable key stakeholders within your business to access cash where and when needed.

But WeTravel’s value-add isn’t limited to its operational capabilities: we consistently see these five tangible benefits driving greater growth and profitability in our clients’ businesses. And here they are!

1. Convert more leads to bookings

Offering secure, mobile-friendly, and instantaneous online booking is a “need-to-have” rather than “nice-to-have” capability in today’s market. 

Beyond basic payment functionality, your booking system should allow customers to view your available itineraries; select the dates, packages, and add-on options that work best for them; and proceed through their buying journey in as few steps as possible. WeTravel makes this easy with two major ways to market your offerings.

The first is via customizable booking pages that are beautifully designed, laid out in an easy-to-understand format, and able to incorporate a wealth of important details. These pages can easily be shared via email or social media, as proposals in response to inquiries and/or as final invoicing tools.

For WeTravel clients who offer public tours, many prefer to sell their offerings directly on their websites. Our variety of booking widgets make on-page booking easy while keeping you in total control of design and branding.

In either case, the quicker and easier you can make your customers’ discovery, decision-making, and purchasing process, the more leads you’re bound to convert.

2. Make your offerings more accessible

WeTravel can also help grow by making your trips more accessible to a wider audience. 

Do this by pricing your offerings with a variety of different packages and “a la carte” add-on options. WeTravel’s package and add-on availability counters make this a win-win: you allow each customer to purchase exactly what they’re looking for and can afford, while you automatically stay on top of managing your inventory so you don’t oversell. 

Provide further accessibility by offering payment plans (with or without auto-billing) or enabling contribution pages, allowing those traveling to fundraise for their trips with zero effort or extra cost incurred on your part. 

Finally, strategically utilize discount codes based on your business and your customers’ needs.

3. Communicate effectively with your customers

Great customer service is an important aspect of any successful business, and this is especially true when you’re helping people realize their travel dreams. 

Your customers are placing a great deal of trust in you, so it’s imperative to communicate effectively with them. There’s so much to share: transportation & accommodation details, terms & conditions, booking & payment information, travel preparation tips…just to name a few!

WeTravel allows you to automate a wide variety of email communications with your participants, including booking confirmations, payment reminders, review requests, and more. With just a few clicks, you can also send more customized emails to all or certain subsets of your travelers as you see fit.

Clear, proactive, and helpful communication is the key to meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Happy customers are repeat customers (and hopefully those that will send new business your way).

4. Manage bookings efficiently

Especially in travel, an industry that’s subject to seasonality and sensitive to economic ups and downs, the decision to take on extra staff to fuel growth can be a tricky one. 

Luckily, WeTravel has helped countless businesses grow bookings without having to hire more staff.

WeTravel’s integrated booking software collects and organizes participant information so you don’t have to get lost in endless spreadsheets. Our trip management dashboard makes cancellations, refunds, communications, and other admin easy. These booking actions can be carried out individually or in bulk, saving time and reducing the risk of human error. 

Do these efficiency gains sound too good to be true? Don’t take our word for it – read these case studies for firsthand accounts from our clients.

5. Save on payment-related costs

We’ve addressed a lot of ways you can grow revenue and save time with WeTravel, but you’re also likely to save on payment processing & fund transfer costs.

WeTravel has a variety of account types to fit your needs, whether they align best with our Basic (free), Pro ($79/mo), and Enterprise service tiers.

WeTravel payment processing offers some of the most competitive rates in the industry. Incremental credit card fees, if card payment is enabled, are an additional 1.4% - 3.9% depending on the currency of payment and card type. They may be set up to be incurred by the seller or the buyer.

Finally, WeTravel makes paying your suppliers both faster and cheaper. Use traditional wire transfers, or remit payments instantly and free of charge by using the WeTravel Card or our Supplier Transfer network.

If you want to grow your travel business, WeTravel is an all-in-one solution for taking your business to the next level.

Accept customer bookings online 24/7, make your offerings accessible to a wider audience, improve customer communications, manage admin efficiently, and reduce payment-related costs: these are just a few of the ways we can deliver on this promise. 

Learn more about our pricing and features or book a demo with us today. We hope to welcome your company into the WeTravel community soon!