Xola

Avantages

- Ease of registering a new group
- Flexibility in creating different tour experiences
- Usability across different check-in platforms (phones, computers, tablets, etc.)

Inconvénients

- Mobile app: Adjusting a group size or editing a booking is not always possible/typically buggy, which can be stressful when a tour is about to begin within a few minutes and a group is trying to check in for their tour.
- Heavy focus on financial info: While this is undoubtedly useful information for tour programs that sell merchandise or charge for their experiences, I would like to see more detailed analytics on attendance info rather than just financial info.

Avantages

Xola is very easy to use for both the customer and business owners; making changes to email notifications, changing listings, etc.

Inconvénients

No issues - any time I have had a question Xola customer service is excellent.

Avantages

Everything about Xola is great - their service, feature set, support, and total value. We've been using them for a few years now. I can't imagine doing business without them.

Inconvénients

Their mobile app hasn't been updated in a bit and it would be nice to have that working a little more fluidly.

Avantages

Simple and clean, very customer friendly, easy to make changes

Inconvénients

I don’t really have any complaints about Xola

Avantages

Ease of use and upgrades. Been using this system for the past two years and am impressed with the constant upgrades and intuitive thinking towards client booking.

Inconvénients

There are very few cons as the dev team are very responsive to my issues that spring up,

Avantages

Customer service is phenomenal. Has many valuable features. Constantly improving. We have use this software for a little over one year and have really enjoyed it.

Inconvénients

Occasionally, there are features that I would like to see that are not offered. But Xola is always improving and adding features, so many of these issues have resolved over time.

Avantages

For our usage, it costs the least compared to competitors. I do like the follow-up email for customers who don't book. Let's keep the good ideas flowing.

Inconvénients

The day of schedule. It's non-existent. Other companies have the ability to visually see a day of schedule vs. looking at a list. On top of that, I would love the ability to assign guides to a virtual day of schedule and color code the schedule manually.

Also, scheduling guides is very hard to manage with your software. I'd love to come out there and go over some ideas that can improve your software. We've been with you guys for a long time and would love to see it grow to be bigger and better.

Avantages

My wife you handles most of the reservations has been helped many times by Xola's wonderful customer service. Without Xola's real time service, she would not have selected Xola!

Inconvénients

At the moment none with the exception on cost for the service. We preferred a lower cost structure of small volume users.

Avantages

Easy to manage and to add products. Information about our customers is also very easy to access - very useful to contact them.

Inconvénients

Tracking can be better. For example, we need to use Google Analytics to track the landing page where the bookings have been made. It would be more accurate if it was native in Xola.

Avantages

The responsive team at Xola has listened to any suggestions I have made and acted on them. They understand the importance of listening to their customers needs so both our business and theirs can grow together.

Avantages

Many features and easy to configure... Easy to merge booking buttons into website... Presents nice user interface to outside world... Excellent customer support and assistance for setting up the application... Many booking options available and easy to add and update... Add-ons feature works well for adding water toys which we rent with our boats... Incredibly flexible for setting up multiple outing and pricing schedules...Coupon feature works well for us... So far we have been able to do everything that we want to implement...

Inconvénients

Wish there was a better method to look two or three weeks out and quickly see what boats (experiences) are booked or available each day... Wish there was a way to place an authorize only charge on a credit card... We have been able to define our boat rental experiences in the Xola App but it does seem that the system was designed to handle tour type experiences much easier than boat rentals... The many available features makes for a bit of a learning curve and setup can be somewhat complex...

Avantages

Honestly too many to count. There’s not one thing we don’t LOVE about XOLA! We initially weren’t too thrilled with the price, but after using it for a few months it’s worth the cost. On average the abandoned booking feature makes us over $1000. The customer service is great! They have helped us so much in things that they never needed to help with. It’s super easy to use and makes our booking process way more user friendly for customers.

Inconvénients

Honestly, we have not one complaint about Xola.

Avantages

Our customers have appreciated a smooth checkout process, that links them quickly to their pre-trip information and integrated online waivers (with Smartwaiver). And for us as customers, the support team is fast, courteous, and helpful

Inconvénients

We would like some additional flexibility around some features, like setting the number of days before a trip or setting a specific date for collecting final payment (after deposit) to assist with consistency for guests, certainty for us, and cash flow relative to expenses.

Avantages

Clean design both on backend and customer facing
Tons of customizable options, but well thought out and usable
Customer service is friendly, responsive and good at fixing issues

Avantages

I am most happy with Xola's ease of use. On both the customer's and the business's end, Xola is very straightforward and well organized which allows for easy, question free bookings by my customers, and a fast, easy check-in and payment process for my employees.

Xola's cross platform reliability is also a huge plus for me. With other booking software I've used in the past, I frequently experienced "down-time" on one or more of my devices. In well over a year of use on Xola, I am yet to experience any similar issue.

Inconvénients

Product improvements and app updates have been a little slow. In particular the mobile app is in dire need of updating. But for the most part, critical updates that are missing have been few and far between because most of the features you need are already there and already work well.

Avantages

Customer support is the best. Helped me set everything up and are there 24/7 if I have any questions. Been using it for a little over a year and so far never had a question that took them longer than 10 minutes to answer.

Inconvénients

To me, as a web developer there is lack of software features software like this should have. Most likely it is not needed for other 99.5% of Xola customers though :)

Avantages

Easy to set up. Excellent capture of data

Inconvénients

No comments but if there were anything it would be minor

Avantages

Xola is a versatile system for many different types of recreational businesses-- we use it for many different activities and products. It is helpful to keep our schedule in order!

Inconvénients

Maintenance is done at inappropriate times. There have been at least four occasions (on days that I have worked) that the service was completely unavailable when we are trying to sell tours and check guests in (keep in mind this is our busy season). It is a very important part of our business and it really hurts when the software is unavailable.

Avantages

Xola just works. The UX is relatively intuitive. Daily use functionality is smooth and simple. Customers find it easy to navigate and very little customer service contact is necessary completing bookings.

Inconvénients

There is no method for applying percentage discounts to gift certificate products without creating dedicated gift certificate listings.

Avantages

Xola easily tracks reservations and helps us check in guests. Edits are easy, reports are easy, integration into our website is easy, it's really everything you need in booking software.

Inconvénients

I would prefer if edits show up automatically. Often times if we cancel a guests, it doesn't show up unless we refresh a certain page. Other times, we need to click off the tour and then back on again.

Avantages

Many Options when working with onsite and reservations

Inconvénients

Credit Card On site Processing. Need a better way to integrate secondary credit card terminals with computer systems.

Avantages

Definitely the best option for escape rooms. Easy to provide guest credit whether it be for reschedules or bad experiences. Unmatched customer service that you can easily suggest features that would improve the experience. Easy to search for customers and charges. Integrated very easily with groupon and with our internal coupons!

Inconvénients

Switching between reserved, available, and all bookings can be a hassle when trying to easily see what is coming up. The calendar option for viewing bookings does not help when we have a very high quantity of bookings for peak days. When searching for coupon codes in our purchases, I wish it was easier to search though all instead of scrolling.

Avantages

The interface was very intuitive and easy to navigate. Able to import customers into the Xola database was simple. The ability to view and print activity and profitability reports was very helpful.

Inconvénients

I did not need very much technical support for the product, but when I did, it was a next day response via email. That could be improved.

Avantages

Flexibility and user interface. We are able to embed forms anywhere needed and tour operators have no trouble using front end. Support has been great.

Inconvénients

We have very specific reporting needs and would like the ability to customize reports at a very granular level. This is currently being done after downloading raw data, which is ok.

Avantages

Customer support - I call for help, and get answers immediately.
Ease of use - Once the setup is complete, inputting the reservations is very straight forward.

Inconvénients

there are certain basic items that they don't do. For example, if I have 100 visitors for a group, I can't type in 100, I need to arrow down to 100. Another example is that United States is where all of my customers are located, but I have to scroll down to the U's.

Avantages

It was super easy to explain how my business works and map it to Xola. Their sales and implementations team were experts with a wide range of businesses and uses for the software, and they got me set up in no time. The turnaround was very fast - It was also a cinch to make updates on the fly and install Book Now buttons on my website. The payouts were set up automatically and the pricing was transparent to me and to my customers (no hidden fees like on Eventbrite!). Overall Xola was very professional and the software is clean and simple to navigate. Also their Support team are incredibly fast, knowledgeable, and caring when you ask them for anything!

Inconvénients

No major problems so far - Sometimes I forget where things are located in Xola, but it's just a matter of slowing down.

Avantages

I liked that it is easy to use for both our team members are for our guests. I love that it saves guest and CC information, so it makes it very easy to reserve returning guests.

Inconvénients

I really dislike that when a guest is reserving online it does not hold the spots for them. We have had many upset guests because the game they were about to pay filled up! I also really hate the integrations with 3rd parties, because we can not move or change anything to those reservations.

Avantages

Pros:
- great visuals on booking calendar
- ease of use for customers in booking and making deposits
- live chat customer service folks - I used this feature several times with awesome results!

Inconvénients

Cons:
- maybe the gap was in my own knowledge, but I'd like the option for the program to block out availability on activities B,C,D when a client makes a booking on activity A - with only one guide, we only do one thing at a time, and I found this process to be very manual (ie. going into every timeslot of the day and reducing availability to 0)
- minimal functionality of the mobile app to manage bookings on the go/look at the calendar with ease

Avantages

The customization to suit the variety of needs for our little company. Once everything is plugged it only minimal administration is needed to keep everything flowing.

Inconvénients

The inability to not be able to make a tour private and only accessible via a password for guests.

Avantages

Reservations and customer contact information.

Inconvénients

Deposit time posting, Other than that no real concerns.

Avantages

I love the usability features for our guests and the emails and design features are pretty cutting edge.

Inconvénients

I wish it was more customizable as far as reporting and booking. For instance, we would love the questionnaire to be filled out prior to processing cards. We find the new report functionality less helpful than expected, but hope it'll eventually be more useful.

Avantages

Fairly easy to use. Clean, professional looking layout. Easy to make changes to orders and update patrons.

Inconvénients

Terrible reporting and lack of customization for reports made bookkeeping a nightmare. Adding buttons and show listings online was not as intuitive as it could be. Simple features like having event rosters be in alphabetical order are absent.

Avantages

The ease of use for customers... not a lot of things to muddle through before the transaction is complete... that increases sales.
The backend use is easy once you learn everything. Learning how everything works was not as hard as other booking software that I had previously used.

Inconvénients

Financial reports need to be easier to read. Needs to be easier to glance at to tell what totals are with or without sales tax and sales tax totals. That part needs some work.

Avantages

Invoicing, checkout ease for customers, clean look, customer support is wonderful, and I appreciate the new option for opening up the booking window when a group has already booked.

Inconvénients

Would like to be able to fully delete a game on a day or time and not have to zero it out and still see it on the back end, multiple room invoicing so we don't have to create a million multiple game listing option, and the gift certificate option needs to be customized to not show the blue presents on top.

Avantages

Customer Service
Fees
Listings options

Inconvénients

Changing things like individual trips, customers, and fees can be a challenge.

Avantages

Xola's quick and easy to use for processing credit cards. Also, I have had great experiences with the support team on the rare occasion that something doesn't work as planned or when I have a question. They are very helpful and always prompt. I love Xola! Also, one of the customer's representatives is the coolest, smartest, hardest-working, totally most absolutely rad guy on Earth :)

Inconvénients

The statements and receipts are a bit confusing to my customers sometimes. I wish there could be a way for it to show up on their credit card statement without saying "booking" (I sell print newspaper ads, not tour bookings), same with the receipts. However, I don't use the software necessarily as intended, so that's more on my end. Still, it would be nice to be able to change the way the statements and receipts appear to my clients.

Avantages

Xola made it easy for us to take online reservations and send professional confirmations. Easily share information with our guides and guests. Tracks reservations that still owe a balance. Use of coupons codes is a nice feature. As well as the rescue emails to people that abandon their cart. Xola was a nice step up for our business to add some professionalism to our reservations.

Inconvénients

Our company takes a broad range of reservations. It doesn't work well for an activity that has slight changes to locations for a given activities. When it comes to shuttle reservations that typically have variations it's hard to make it work in the system .

Avantages

I like the look. It's clean and modern with an intuitive feel.

Inconvénients

I dislike that actions aren't tracked enough. Anyone is able to modify events and there is no record or accountability.

Avantages

Product is intuitive and easy to use. It also embeds easily with my website. Customer service is quick and responsive.

Inconvénients

As a tour operator we have multiple items to sell that are similar. Not being able to copy listings or create a template is very time consuming.

Avantages

It is easy to use, easy to teach to staff, and I enjoy most features.

Inconvénients

I haven't found anything I don't like thus far.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Xola

Avantages

I'm a local guide in Mexico City and use Xola to get notifications about a booking and send my invoices at the end of the month for recieve the payment for my services. The software is clear and good designed, easy to use, almost intuitive and have a system for check it out the data send. Even have a sophisticated sense of humor during the load of the home page.

Inconvénients

Once I tried to use it in my ipad have problem to see it properly. I recommend to use it in laptop or desk computer to enjoy all the features.

Avantages

Easy to set up multiple tours with multiple timeslots. User friendly with minimum questions from clients.

Inconvénients

We would have loved if there was a way to setup an automated email to send out to our tour groups after their tour. Almost like the reminders the syst sends out before the tour.

Avantages

Accessible for multiple users in the field and in the office

Inconvénients

Some features that could be considered basic or standard are not present, such as notifying an assigned guide that their timeslot has been booked. Feature requests never seem to make an impact.

Avantages

The program is incredibly easy to use form back end admins and our front desk. There are several helpful reports and embeds easily into our existing web platform.

Inconvénients

We would like more customizability of specific reports. However, we can easily organize the report output in Excel to suit our needs.

Avantages

Keeps me updated with any changes that might happen during the day. It also gives me all information I might need. Like name, age, height, if they booked any add one and any special notes I might need to make the clients happy.

Inconvénients

Mobile app I can not see if they signed a waiver. My computer I can see if they signed a waiver. When I'm not in cell range I can not get updates. When day goes by it is hard to find information on past bookings. Like email adress.

Avantages

I like the ease of ordering products and how they are laid out in the calendar format. I like that I can check information about individual customers and see their purchase history through the "customers" search engine.

Inconvénients

I do not like some of the limitations of searches (having to click over to "customers" before searching a name in order to find it anywhere besides upcoming bookings), I do not like the number of "click throughs" I have to go through in order to get to certain information (i.e. having to click on the settings of a booking after searching, and then clicking on the customer's name to pull up their information, rather than just being able to directly click their name and get their information).

Avantages

It's very customizable and easy to teach to employees. It has a very nice, clean look on the front end and easy for my customers to navigate.

Inconvénients

The app needs some more features. I would like to be able to do more to each reservation with the app. Sometimes you're away from your computer and need to make adjustments to your tour. The app isn't too capable of handling all the needs.

Avantages

Flexibility and ease of use. The pace in which new features are being added and the amount of interaction we as customers can have with the business.

Inconvénients

Does not have a robust CRM or outbound data connection. Having this would allow better targeting and follow-ups to existing and return customers.

Avantages

It’s user friendly... my staff can quickly learn how to use it. It’s customizable... I can easily adapt it to the needs of our business. It’s constantly evolving... it seems as we identify a feature that would be useful it’s released or they confirm they’re already working on it!

Inconvénients

There is the off glitch but the team are quick to address it!