A good online booking form should make it as easy as possible for customers to book your activities, lessons or rentals. For surf schools, watersports centers and other activity businesses, small improvements to the booking process can reduce friction and help turn more website visitors into actual bookings.
Keep the booking process simple
Every extra step or unnecessary question gives a customer another opportunity to leave the booking process.
Only ask for information you actually need to process the booking. Details that can be collected later don't necessarily need to be part of the initial reservation.
Create a booking form for the activity being booked
Instead of sending every visitor to one large booking form, create dedicated booking forms for individual activities or products where possible.
For example, someone viewing your kitesurfing lessons should be able to start a booking for kitesurfing directly, rather than having to find the activity again in a long list.
Activity page → booking form → completed booking
Give customers the information they need before booking
Questions and uncertainty can prevent someone from completing a booking.
Use the area around your booking form to answer the most important questions customers have before making a reservation, such as:
- What is included?
- What experience level is required?
- What happens in bad weather?
- What should I bring?
- What is the cancellation policy?
- Which payment methods are available?
You can also use additional text within the booking form to explain important information at the moment it becomes relevant.
Don't ask for too much personal information
Long forms create unnecessary friction.
Review every field in your booking process and ask whether you actually need that information before the customer can make the booking. If not, consider collecting it later.
This is particularly useful for activity businesses where additional participant information may be required eventually, but doesn't always need to stand between the customer and the initial reservation.
Make payment options clear
Customers should know how and when they are expected to pay.
Clearly communicate whether customers can pay online, pay a deposit or pay the remaining balance later. Showing accepted payment methods on your website can also remove uncertainty before customers begin the booking process.
Test the complete booking journey
Don't only look at the settings of your booking form. Regularly make a test booking yourself as if you were a customer.
Check the complete journey from the activity page through the booking form and confirmation.
Pay particular attention to mobile devices, as customers may be booking lessons or activities while travelling or already at their destination.
Ask yourself: Is there anything in this process that makes the customer stop, think or search for information unnecessarily?
If so, that's usually a good place to start optimizing.
Optimizing your booking forms in Viking Bookings
Viking Bookings allows you to create different booking forms for different activities and configure the information customers see during the booking process.
You can use these settings to create a booking journey that matches the activity the customer is trying to book, while keeping the process as clear and simple as possible.