How much does tour guide management software cost?
When we checked the published prices in July 2026, they ran from $27 a month for Tour Agency App to $499 a month for Bókun’s top plan, which also adds a commission on each booking. Partners costs €79 a month for up to 50 guides and €149 a month for up to 100, with no commission and a free plan for up to 5 guides. Prices exclude VAT.
That range tells you little on its own, because it compares different things. What really decides your bill at the end of the year is the model you are charged under, and there are three in common use.
What pricing models are there, and who does each one suit?
Each model splits the risk differently between you and the provider. None of them is a trick: they simply fit different businesses.
| Model | How it works | Suits | Penalises |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission per booking | A percentage of each sale, sometimes on top of a monthly fee or with a minimum. | Businesses starting out and selling little, or those getting new sales through the platform. | Businesses that already had the sales: you pay more as you grow, though the software does no extra work. |
| Flat monthly fee | A fixed price per tier, usually by number of users, guides or services. | Medium and high volumes, and anyone who needs predictable costs to budget. | Very low turnover: the fee weighs heavily on a handful of services. |
| Price per user | An amount for each person with access to the system. | Small office teams, with two or three people using the tool. | Companies with many guides: if every guide needs an account, the cost multiplies. |
Is a commission or a flat fee cheaper?
It depends on volume, and the break-even point arrives sooner than most people expect. Take a worked example: an average service billed at €200 and a commission of 1.5%, which is the rate Bókun published for its entry plan.
| Services a month | 1.5% commission | Flat fee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 services (€4,000) | €60 | €79 | At this volume the commission is slightly cheaper |
| 60 services (€12,000) | €180 | €79 | The flat fee costs about 2.3 times less |
| 150 services (€30,000) | €450 | €149 (if you have over 50 guides) | The flat fee costs about 3 times less |
At twenty services a month the commission still comes out slightly cheaper. At sixty, the flat fee already saves €101 a month, more than €1,200 a year. And the asymmetry is what matters most: with a commission, every new service you win costs you money; with a flat fee, every new service lowers the cost of the software per service.
That is why a commission makes complete sense when the platform brings you the sale, as a marketplace does, and much less sense when the sale was already yours. That is exactly the position of a DMC working through programmes from tour operators, or a company handling shore excursions sold by the cruise line.
What does a full year cost under each model?
Monthly figures hide the difference. Put them over twelve months and it becomes clear. Take a worked example: a DMC with 30 freelance guides, three people in the office and an average of 60 services a month at €200 each, so around €144,000 of services in the year.
- Commission at 1.5%: €180 a month, about €2,160 a year, before any monthly plan fee that may sit on top.
- Flat fee of €79: €948 a year, whether the season is quiet or busy.
- Per-user pricing: here everything depends on who counts as a user. At a hypothetical €10 per user a month, three office users cost €360 a year; if the 30 guides need accounts too, it becomes 33 users and €3,960 a year.
The same company in a busier year, say 90 services a month, would pay 50% more under a commission, and the same under a flat fee as long as it stays within its tier. That is the point to keep in mind when a sales team tells you their entry price is lower.
What costs are not on the price page?
The licence is only part of what you spend in the first year. Three other costs are worth asking about before you compare quotes.
Getting your data in
Someone has to move your guides, operators and upcoming services out of the spreadsheet. If the provider expects you to type them in by hand, count those hours. Ask whether they import from Excel or CSV and whether they do it with you the first time. In Partners the Excel migration is included in the trial.
Training the office and the guides
Your office team needs a few sessions; your guides need to find their services and accept them without calling you. A guide portal that works in the phone’s browser keeps that short. One that needs a separate app, a login per agency and a paid account makes it longer.
The weeks of overlap
For a while you will run the old way and the new way side by side. Plan it for a quieter month, not the start of peak season, and the overlap costs you little. We set out a two-week plan in how to move from Excel to tour software.
What does it cost to run without software?
It is the comparison almost nobody makes, and the only one that gives you a real figure. Staying on spreadsheets and WhatsApp does not appear on any invoice, but it costs you in two places.
Coordination hours
Forwarding information you already wrote somewhere else, confirming guide by guide by phone, updating the spreadsheet and answering the same question three times. Measure it for a week rather than guessing. As an example: if it takes one person an hour a day, that is around 22 hours a month in a normal working month. Multiply by what that hour costs you, and compare.
Mistakes
A double booking means finding an emergency guide, often at a worse rate, compensating the client or simply losing the service and some of your standing with the tour operator. Work out what one incident costs you, then how often it happens. For many companies, a single bad incident a quarter is already more than a year of licence fees. We look at why they happen in the article on tour guide double bookings.
- a month, Partners Pro plan
- €79up to 50 guides, no commission
- for your guides’ portal
- €0guides do not count as users
- free trial
- 30 dayswith your real services, no card
On top of that, the first 25 agencies to join Partners pay a founder price of €49 a month for the Pro plan, fixed for as long as they keep the subscription. There are no annual contracts and no lock-in.
What should you ask about price before signing?
- Does the price include my guides, or does each one count as a user? This is the question that changes the final bill most.
- Is there a commission per booking on top of the fee? Sometimes both apply and only one is on the front page.
- What happens when I go over my tier? Ask for the price of the next tier in writing.
- Is there a minimum term or a set-up fee? And if there is, what exactly does the set-up include?
- Is the renewal price the same as the entry price? First-year discounts are common and the second year can come as a surprise.
- Which currency, and is VAT included? Many tools price in US dollars, so if your accounts are in sterling your monthly cost moves with the exchange rate. Check whether VAT is added on top.
These sit within the wider list of 12 questions to ask before buying tour agency software. And if you are still working out which kind of tool you need at all, start with the tour operator software comparison, which separates booking systems from operations software.