Sea Saffron increase direct sales by 50% and reduce marketing expenses by 75% with TrekkSoft.
Beginning as a startup in 2017, Sea Saffron, with the help of the TrekkSoft brought their food tour business online. Quickly, they were able to attract a wider audience, reduce the time spent for administrative tasks and overall, increase the number of bookings received to their own website.
Sea Saffron offers guided food tours and tastings by local hosts in Valencia, Spain. They aim to provide an authentic and real experience to guests.
Currently, Sea Saffron offer two tours; The Shore Excursion, and The Flagship City Tour. In total they have organized over 500 tours with around 1,500 clients from 26 nationalities.
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Challenge
Before using TrekkSoft, it was difficult for Sea Saffron to increase direct sales. There was a lack of alignment as they were using various marketplaces and did not have one calendar available to view all bookings. This meant that around two hours each day was spent on administration to check and input bookings.
They were using Google Sheets to manage all incoming bookings. This hindered their ability to grow the company. The process as they say "handmade" and demanded too much resource for a low return.
Sea Saffron required to optimize their booking process and offer their customers the ability to book online. They also needed to put in place systems that would allow them to keep growing.
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Solution
First Sea Saffron researched several booking solution in the market that would suit their needs. They decided that TrekkSoft was right for them as they required a booking solution provider that not only supports startups but enterprise companies too. Having a strong support team was also very important. The key tool for the business, however, was TrekkSoft's channel manager, where they could connect all their marketplace, reseller and direct bookings in one place.
Eduardo said: "TrekkSoft was by far the best option at all levels (flexibility, personal guidance, technological solution etc.)."
They company liked that TrekkSoft would provide them with online videos and tutorials. Additionally, the marketing webinars and content from TrekkSoft Academy gave precious tips to better understand the market and how to further boost their business.
Results
At Sea Saffron, their main objective was to boost direct reservations through their own website, while also expanding their reach. Upon collaborating with TrekkSoft, they have experienced a remarkable 50% year-on-year increase in bookings on their website.
They have now connected their tours to two new marketplaces by using TrekkSoft's Channel Manager. By doing this they have reduced their marketing expenses by 75%.
With the TrekkSoft POS-Desk and the calendar synchronization, Sea Saffron connected four hotels that sell their tours on their behalf. Besides the marketplace and the google calendar synchronization Sea Saffron's favorite features are the notification system and the tracking reports.
Their most popular tour is their Valencia City of Arts and Sciences with Rooftop Wine Tasting and Tapas, bookable on their website.
Eduardo's advice to others
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"TrekkSoft is the way to grow sustainably, in an agile way in order to increase sales. In short, it is the way to turn a tour into a company. For us, this partnership is not an option, it's a must. From our point of view, business owners running tours must focus on generating unique tours, satisfying client's need and increase their sales. TrekkSoft is what allows us to control the back-end of these processes!" – Eduardo Aguilar - CEO Sea Saffron
