Xola

Avantages

I love the reporting and simplicity of the user interface .

Inconvénients

Multi day booking feature is a little rough . You have to book each day individually instead of just clicking number of days .

Avantages

Seems to be really dialed in to rentals and inventory management. There is a lot of information to juggle, and Xola has done a fairly good job of organizing the interface accordingly. Anyone on our team can operate the dashboard.

Inconvénients

No POS integration means I'm running two sets of transactions in our retail shop. Would love to have a POS and Rental/Reservation system that was unified.

Avantages

Flexible to switch experiences, ease of booking on back and front in,

Inconvénients

Gift Certificates: not able to purchase multiple certificates for different experiences, one person can't buy multiple gift certificates for different people in same transaction

Back office: can't override booking capacity, can't book one group with different experiences have to book separately

Accounting: would be nice if you could be compatible with Quick-books, daily transactions are confusing and not clean cut

Avantages

When my company first started using Xola it was and is still easy to use. They have an easy to use app, a very easily navigated website, but what I appreciate most of all is their customer service.

Inconvénients

One thing I don't like is I am not able to see as much information about my customers who book on the app as I am the website, but I am not a master a design myself so I'm just grateful for it in general. One other thing that is slightly annoying is I have to refresh the page or close then open the app to get it to refresh to see if there are any other bookings.

Avantages

Xola is the simplest booking software out there. I have tried several, and this is hands-down the best there is! Easy to understand and a breeze to navigate through. One of the strongest points is how easy it is to train your staff on.

Inconvénients

I wish there was a way to customize things a little bit more than what is available.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Xola 

Logiciel antérieur 

Pourquoi passer à Xola

Avantages

The overall structure of the back-end and UI is exceptional.

Inconvénients

Xola promised a feature to handle varying degree of taxes that come with using discount vouchers like Groupon... That was 2 years ago.. Still haven't seen it and they fail to acknowledge that without it, my company must eat a percentage of the taxes. total fail.

Avantages

Im a huge fan of the new features that will be coming soon. The scheduling and upgraded analytics will help with our daily operations

Inconvénients

The mobile app needs a little work so booking people mobile is easier. If some of the features from the desktop could come over to mobile, i would be excited.

Avantages

I love how great the software looks! Xola is very user friendly and easy to customize. I love that it is able to link up with other interfaces to create a more seamless experience.

Inconvénients

Sometimes the software can run a little slow and can make it hard to give our guests the best possible experience. I am not sure if it is because of how many users we have but that is my only concern with the software and it isn't the biggest issue.

Avantages

Flawless execution; never had to deal with any major issues. Their customer support team is top notch - if you have a question they will ALWAYS respond immediately

Inconvénients

They need to add functionality (worker scheduling & automated pre-trip texting and emailing). For what the software is though, it's excellent.

Avantages

Customer service is responisive 24/7 and understands quickly what the issue is when describing the problem. They have had almost zero downtime in the 5 years I have used this software

Inconvénients

I use this software everyday and do not have compliants

Avantages

Ease of use for updates to listings and schedules.

Inconvénients

I do not like the updated pricing structure of 3%. I do not like the idea of "passing" this costs along to my guests, so I am stuck with this large cost increase.

Avantages

Anyone new can learn the basics of entering an order. Its a very simple system that in a lot of cases is also intuitive.

Inconvénients

It took a bit of time last summer to have some issues resolved. Also the recent price increases to pay for all of the functionality that you might not use is very expensive.

Avantages

The abandoned booking rescue. The ability to schedule my staff on certain days to cover events. The picture of the event in the actual booking is quite nice, alot of them are text only and that is very boring.

Inconvénients

Honestly every time we contact the company with a feature request, we've been lucky and most of them have been added! now its just minor things like i wish the calendar was monday through sunday instead of sunday through saturday.

Avantages

The love customer support and the I really like how easy it is to learn new features.

Inconvénients

I have had difficulty with the phone app. My employees have a hard time getting to to work.

Avantages

XOLA provides a polished experience for our clients. It's simple to book -
online, over the phone, and in store. Everything is customizable to our brand, and the straightforward dashboard makes operations easy for our staff.

Additional features such as coupon codes, online gifts, and comprehensive analytics also ad value.

Amazing customer service, we've been with XOLA from the start and they've listened to our concerns when we've had them and made improvements based on our feedback.

Inconvénients

XOLA doesn't provide the option to have multiple locations on a single account, which makes it expensive as a business starts to grow.

Avantages

The customer support was fabulous. Felt like we were communicating with family. Xola went above and beyond in customer service and did their utmost best to provide us with what we needed in a reservation system.

Inconvénients

Most unfortunately, it was determined that Xola did not ultimately work for our offerings, primarily because it did not have duration based pricing for our bike rentals and lodging. This resulted in bikes (50% of our bookings) and lodging not being available to reserve online and to be somewhat complicated to reserve on the backend, including multiple emails being sent out for just one reservation (e.g. if a family rented four bikes, they received four emails).

Avantages

Xola is the most cost effective booking system on the market. It charges a reasonable monthly fee instead of taking a percentage of sales, and doesn't charge booking fees to customers. The mobile app has also been much improved over the past few years, allowing guides to do much more on the go.

Inconvénients

The reporting system is pretty bare bones. Despite all the information Xola is collecting on each customer (including questionnaires), there is no way to run reports on anything besides very basic information. This makes it difficult to build profiles on customers and better market services to them in the future.

Avantages

It is great to manage all our events at one place and accept bookings from all online distribution channels that we are present. Google Analytics integration is extremely useful to follow the success metrics directly from Google Analytics panel.

Inconvénients

Xola works definitely perfect for us, so far we haven't experienced any problem that deserves to be noted here. We are extremely satisfied with our experience with Xola Online booking System so far.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Xola 

Pourquoi passer à Xola

Avantages

I love Xola for so many reasons;
The mobile view from the customer pov is so clean compared to other options i looked at, this is important for conversions.
Cart abandonment emails, have a crazy high response rate, and we knock down so many deals.
Reservationsist can tag bookings, so we can pay them commission
Past customer data is all saved to expedite repeat bookings
Really easy to charge balance day off tour.
Software is flexible to change an customize specific day schedule.
Add ons can be hidden from customer view so we can
Most of all the Xola staff (particularly Delamon and Kelsey) is so cool, responsive, and they really get tour businesses, they are open to new features

Inconvénients

I wish it had two way sync with google cal intergration, we use this for driver view of schedule plus a few other things

Avantages

It does just what we need for online bookings. It's a great fit for a small business. My business doesn't need tons of customization or integration, but we do need a dependable, streamlined and affordable booking system and Xola fits the bill perfectly.

Inconvénients

We do a lot of different unique events (vs. the same few listings offered many times per day or week.) It would be great to be able to copy an existing listing to jump-start the creation of a new listing.

Avantages

Use of pictures for listings, timeline views, and short quick steps help in booking a reservation. Managing listings is intuitive and easy to access. Adding booking features to our website is accessible through their custom booking buttons which produces copy/paste codes. With 24 hr customer service we can access their chat line at some of the most inconvenient hours and solve most problems.

Inconvénients

We are a unique company with high volume so managing listings and availability is controlled through a schedule setting. We have worked closely to roll out package features which we look forward to fully integrating this into our system. All that to say, schedules can become laborious with our high quantity of listings. As with all software, there are always wonky items that arise, but all in all it hasn't been anything too much to handle or that they do not address immediately.

Avantages

Staff's support and interest in "my" software needs. Put this way, I'm constantly hounded by other company's booking software guys to "look" at their software and I keep telling them..."Nope, I'm using Xola and they serve my needs just fine!"

For whoever reads this review, I want them to know that I have used Xola for several years and I really appreciate how they have constantly kept up with my growth needs and seek to improve the software to help me grow. As we all know, what works today is outdated tomorrow! THANK YOU XOLA!

Inconvénients

Really? After what I wrote above, do you really think I have any "cons"?

For the record, ever since I first started using Xola I have received excellent support and anytime that I needed to "personalize" the software to meet my need, Xola was there to help me.

Avantages

Xola's reports and API are very convenient for us. The customer service is also great; my questions are answered quickly and professionally.

Inconvénients

Xola does not let us easily navigate between multiple stores. When we need to access booking data for a different location, we have to log out, and then log back in to select a different store.

Avantages

Xola makes it easy for us to list and sell our tours. They've thought of every part of the booking process to ensure that our customers have no trouble booking, are reminded if they leave the process, and get a follow up after their tour. When we've needed help with processes or integrations, the Xola team has been quick to help. They've even listened to us and worked directly with our team to implement our suggestions into their system. When we expanded to a new market, there was no hesitation signing up for another Xola account to manage tour bookings.

Inconvénients

There are some things that need to be changed by Xola support instead of on my own. While this isn't ideal, every time I've needed changes, they were quickly resolved by the support staff.

Avantages

* tech support chat 24/7. We do most of our business in the weekend!
* great resource and guide management. We plan our boats and skippers without stress
* integrated Stripe payment
* great reporting to excel
* very easy integration in our WordPress site

Inconvénients

- app not 100% on all Android phones. IOS is great.
- no integration with our IZettle credit card readers

Avantages

We are a wine tasting tour company and our customers can easily navigate through the booking site launched from our website. They can choose the tour date and time, make their lunch selections, indicate their wine preferences, and comments.

Inconvénients

Unable to show photos of items we sell such as items with our logo, T-shirts, caps, etc.

Avantages

Customer support. Design. Analytics. New features rolled out regularly. Fixed pricing (no pass-through fees to customers or volume pricing).

Inconvénients

Some features still lacking- like scheduling based on inventory. No multi-account support with one login (switching back and forth).

Avantages

The customer support is incredible and instant.

Inconvénients

Xola is more expensive than some of the other options.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Xola

Avantages

The best software on the market for tour bookings and management. I’ve researched over 20 other competitors- don’t waste your time if you’re shopping around- get Xola.

Inconvénients

It doesnt have some of the nuances we would like to see, and they changed their booking layout in a way that I think is not an improvement. However, I think they will continue to make improvements

Avantages

- The User Interface is clean and simple for our customers.
- Customer Service is always available and has remedied any issues quickly.

Inconvénients

Reports could use some work and offer more options.

Avantages

The training and support staff have been extremely helpful and extremely patient with me! In fact, everyone with whom I've worked at XOLA has been the same ' incredible! Everyone seems to really care about making sure the program works just as it should. And they all seem to care whether it's helping to make my business run smoother. This means a lot!

Brennan got me started. Then I had my first on-line- training session with the very attentive woman whose name I don't remember. And now I have my own personal techie assistant ' Chris! He may not know he has this title but I'm pretty sure there are many XOLA users who would enthusiastically give him this title. This personal service is so important, both functionally and psychologically.

Inconvénients

I always have problems learning something new but this is definitely not the software's fault! It's user error!

Avantages

Bookings that can sync to a personal calendar, allowing easy viewing from anywhere.
Automatically generated Code makes implementing super easy.
Intuitive, easy to navigate design and layout.
Videos make learning easy.
Helpful Friendly Employees.

Inconvénients

Had one issue when coding my own buttons from scratch, but their button maker was super easy to use and their customer support was on top of it, making this a non issue.

Avantages

Easy to export rosters to Excel and print rosters. Keeps accurate customer records.

Inconvénients

Once had an issue with exporting a roster to Excel but was able to contact Customer Support and the problem was solved.

Avantages

Intuitive without being nerdy. Clients as old as 85 and as young as 18 could purchase and become informed without barriers to sale. Impressive feat.

Avantages

Abandoned cart capture, back office ease of use.

Inconvénients

Waiver integration with Viator.
Cancellations are difficult.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Xola 

Pourquoi passer à Xola

Avantages

The way it looks to customers and is reliable. Customer service is also awesome. App on iPad works great.

Inconvénients

They way the Ad-On's are not well seen. People get really confused with our Private Room option. The phone app could be a little better - I aways just use the browser on my phone which makes it difficult.

Avantages

A key feature for any booking system is the ease of use for my customers. It needs to be very easy for customers to use and make sense every step - this is Xola. Two steps, with no unnecessary log-ins or obvious data capture steps, and my customers have their booking confirmed. The backend is easy to use too and presents plenty of information to help me run my business.

Inconvénients

There are some missing elements that would make some of my business processes simpler, but my use is outside the core Xola booking area and so I can manage these slight niggles.

Avantages

Easy access with different views. Reports are pretty good and easy to use.
Help team is great.

Inconvénients

Unable to book with different email if same name (problem when working with concierge bookings)
Cannot assign guides if turn around time is tight from one event to the next
Can be cumbersome with lots of listings and having to edit schedules/seasonal pricing one item at a time.
Gift certificate location and use is awkward.

Avantages

XOLA allows us to easily receive reservations for activities and communicate with customers. All of the information a customer needs to participate in an activity is available online including maps, what to bring and wear, and liability waivers. XOLA sends reminders to customers before their event and allows self-service rescheduling and cancellation. It also permits the scheduling of staff.

Inconvénients

XOLA could offer better integration with the WIX platform. Currently, it is best to redirect with a link to the WIX site rather than embed in the host site.

I would also like to see more native integration with financial software such as XERO and CRM siftware such as Insightly.

Avantages

Xola is overall a very user-friendly. It's straight-forward, has minimal learning curve, and functions well. We've used other booking systems in the past that were significantly more complex, and nowhere near as functional. They do regular updates to the software that are responding to the market, and providing new, useful tools.

Inconvénients

We've had some issues, and response times for these resolving issues isn't Xola's strongest trait. One problem with a button not functioning on mobile (Xola app or browser) wasn't resolved for months, despite continually checking in with customer support on the issue. It has also taken a long time for connections with OTAs to be implemented.

Avantages

Customer support, and the TCO is the reason I am with Xola. The features, functionality and analytics are adequate.

Inconvénients

Limitations, and not as rich in features for my particular industry (escape room) as I'd like. The calendar view could be better.

Avantages

Xola's customer service is absolutely tremendous, the business I run sometimes needs unique orders filled, and they are always immediately available to chat online and answer what I have.

Inconvénients

I think in an effort to continue to improve, they have overcomplicated the menu to view availability of inventory.

Avantages

Xola is extremely user-friendly, both on the customer-facing side and the administrative side. One specific perk is the dynamic pricing feature where the price automatically updates based on the date & time selected.

Inconvénients

The one weakness we have come across so far is the inability to effectively interact with a guest post-visit. Their review is emailed to our administrative email, but we have no easy way to respond to the guest without searching for their contact information. There is also no good way to go back and look at review history.

Avantages

I like the rescue for bookings and interface. The ability to connect to other resellers and some of the customization features.

Inconvénients

It is a bit expensive compared to other programs. Some features need to be included such as invoicing and easier methods of applying open discounts.

Avantages

We use this daily for booking guests in an escape room style VR experience. It's intuitive, user-friendly, and professional looking. This makes it easy to train our front line team on its features and provide instruction when things go wrong. Great support team as well.

Inconvénients

I enjoy everything about this software, there is nothing I consider a con.

Avantages

The online chat feature is amazing. Help is always at my disposal. I was making some changes to our listings on xola and encountered several questions. Each time I reached out for help via the online chat tool, I always got my answer. I even got a call to verify that things were working the way I wanted. First rate!

Inconvénients

Nothing comes to mind at this time. We have been very happy with the platform.

Avantages

Xola's functionality is so user-friendly. I'm not the most tech-minded person, and I can usually click my way through to a solution in Xola!

Inconvénients

Occasionally, there are random bugs that cause the seat count to glitch. I also would like if switching between our accounts didn't require logging out and back in.

Avantages

Massively easy to use. I can get an invoice sent out in less than 90 seconds.

Inconvénients

It seems like they are pushing towards a % of revenue plan instead of a flat fee. If that happens, I will have no choice but to find an alternative.

Avantages

I like the guides notification. It keeps everyone updated.

Inconvénients

That you have to double check your date because it defaults to current date.

Avantages

My customers are able to schedule very easily with Xola. The back office has all the info i need to change, book or move people around

Inconvénients

Cant get the beta app to work with wordpress, worked with a Xola person a few months back - no luck, would be nice to smooth the process out and not have customers go to a different page to schedule