5 Ways To Give Parents A Better Booking Experience For Your Educational Tours

Educational tours are not only fun but also a valuable part of students' learning experience. While there's a lot to learn in the classroom, getting a first-hand feel of the material can have a lasting impact that other study methods simply don't quite replicate.

Leading up to the educational trip, though, is the pivotal booking process. From experience, it can be a frictional point for the parents making the reservations, as well as an administrative nightmare for the tour operator who’s organizing the travel.

As WeTravel is all for creating the perfect customer journey, we have some insights to help educational tour operators improve the tour booking experience for parents. Continue reading to find out how to increase conversions and streamline the reservations process to impress clients long before the trip has even taken place.

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How To Improve The Tour Booking Experience For Parents

1. Provide a Beautiful Booking Page

Having a beautiful booking page is crucial for converting tour sales. It can be as much of a selling point as the tour highlights. If a parent hasn't quite made up their mind as to whether or not to make a reservation, linking them up with an eye-catching and engaging tour page can be the sign they were looking for.

The booking page also provides the detailed overview they need before taking the decision further. It should, therefore, contain information such as dates, an outline of the itinerary, reviews from past parents and students, as well as images and video to make the decision that much simpler.

Naturally, the easier it is for the tour operator to build and then share this – the better. Should there be any adjustments to the offering, these need to be edited on the page as soon as possible too.

2. Ensure Seamless Registration

Once a parent decides to proceed with a reservation for their child, the next stage is registration.

At this point, information such as the student’s details and contact information need to be submitted and then securely stored.

The best way for this to happen is for the parents to continue straight off the booking page where they create an online profile or account. From there, they make a reservation by clicking a button and filling out a connected form. It ensures that the operator receives all the details they require and neatly organizes information according to client in a place where it can be found.

The alternative of emailing or calling in details to the tour operator or school creates a disconnect between submission and receipt of the information. In turn, this can result in details getting accidentally lost in the pipeline, not to mention that everything then needs to be manually collated and entered into a database.

3. Offer Easy Payment Process

After registration, securing a spot on the educational tour is typically done by making a deposit payment.

Tour operators need to make this process as simple and secure as possible, as the reality is no one is going to hand over their hard-earned cash unless the online payment system meets their standards for security and legitimacy.

Like registration and the booking page before this, handling everything online in a continuous flow of transactions helps to greatly improve the tour booking experience for parents. This means transacting on mobile or desktop at any time from any location without any restrictions.

There are also the payment methods to consider – are both card and transfer options available to suit parents' preferences?

Furthermore, are the fees for transacting reasonable on both sides? Hefty charges can be offputting for both the clients and tour operator, leaving everyone feeling a little thinner in the pocket.

4. Collect Documents In One Place

With the registration and payment information submission taking place in one booking, it makes sense to collect any trip-related documents at the same time and store it in the same place too.

Ask parents to submit copies of their child’s passport or sign and submit payment agreements or liability waivers right away through the online booking page.

In the case that documents are only required later down the line, parents will have already created an online account which acts as the dashboard and progress meter for everything that they have submitted so far.

From the tour operator perspective, accessing all the information from one dashboard lightens the admin load. With a central point of reference for everything, it becomes simpler for the team to track registrations as well as get an idea of what the parents still need to submit.

5. Set a Schedule For Timely Follow Up Communication

There will be points in time leading up to travel when the tour operator has to communicate or send information to clients. This may be to send out a deposit receipt, issue payment reminders, or forward on regular trip information.

Of course, this is especially important for clients paying on a payment plan. Regular reminders help both client and operator to stay on track and keep on top of the trip financials.

Automating this process saves a lot of time. Work out the dates that reminders or communication need to be sent out, then set it up once to action.

Try An Online Payment System That Gives Parents a Better Booking Experience

Did you know that you can improve the tour booking experience for parents by signing up to use WeTravel, an online payment system that will better your customers' journey from start to finish? Our solution offers a trip page builder, payment processing, booking management, and so much more to delight parents and your team alike.

Ready to find out more? Schedule a demo or try it out for free on our website.