An airport transfer is booked by someone who has not landed yet, usually on a phone, often from another country, who has to trust a driver they have never met. Airport transfer booking software has to make that trust easy: a clear price for the route and the vehicle, a time tied to the flight, and a confirmation the guest believes. We designed and built the website and booking system for Dushi Transfers in Aruba. This is what we learned.
Key takeaways
- Transfers are priced by route and vehicle size, not by the hour or per seat like a tour.
- The booking must capture the flight, the passengers and the luggage, and reassure the guest about late arrivals.
- The website and the booking system are one journey. Most transfer bookings are decided on the website.
- Dushi Transfers sells airport transfers, private tours and group transport, in vehicles for up to 14 passengers.
- NeoDimensional builds custom booking systems from $6,999 and transfer websites from $1,999.
How transfers differ from rentals and tours
A rental is priced by days and seasons. A tour is priced per person per slot. A transfer is priced by route and by vehicle: airport to Palm Beach in a sedan is one price, the same route in a van for ten is another. Return trips, waiting time, child seats and night pickups are extras.
Capacity is vehicles and drivers, not seats. Two families on the same flight need two vehicles, or one large one. The software has to know which vehicles are free at that time, which is a different question from which seats are free on a departure.
What the booking has to capture
Pickup and drop-off, the date and time, the flight number, passengers and luggage, and the vehicle. From those the system can quote a total, assign a driver and send a confirmation. Anything it does not capture becomes a WhatsApp conversation at midnight.
On the Dushi Transfers website each vehicle shows its seats and comforts with an instant quote, and the vehicles page compares the fleet, walks through booking step by step and answers the common questions, so the guest arrives at the booking already decided.
Related: booking systems for rental, tour and transfer companies.
Trust before the flight
Taxi-line travellers worry about the same things: what it will cost, whether someone will be waiting if the flight is late, and what the car looks like. A transfer website has to answer all three before the guest reaches the booking form.
Dushi's home page opens on "Arrive in Aruba. Travel in class." with its 5.0 Google rating and a live booking badge, then shows the three services, the fleet with instant quotes, six popular routes from the airport to Palm Beach and Eagle Beach and private island tours, three booking steps and guest reviews. The about page introduces the four drivers by name.
Dushi Transfers: the website and the booking
Dushi Transfers drives visitors from Queen Beatrix International Airport to their hotels and across Aruba on private tours, 24/7, in vehicles for up to 14 passengers. We designed the website in Figma and developed it in React. It is live at dushitransfer.com, with four main pages, five service pages and a travel blog for the searches visitors make before they land. Its booking system, at book.dushitransfer.com, is our work too, and a visitor can book a ride in under two minutes.
Dushi belongs to the same family as Real Deal Car Rental and Aventurova, whose booking systems we also built. Real Deal's system includes the airport and cruise port among its 5 pickup and return points, and its staff send secure payment links by email or WhatsApp that expire and cannot be paid twice, which is exactly what a transfer desk needs for phone and chat bookings.
Related: what tour booking software needs.
Platform or your own system
Tour platforms such as FareHarbor, Peek and Bókun are built around slots and seats, and transfers fit them awkwardly. There are transfer-specific platforms too, usually priced by month or per booking. Ask each for a current quote.
A system of your own prices routes and vehicles the way you do, takes payment through your own Stripe account with no booking fee, and sits behind a website designed for travellers who have not landed yet.
Cost
NeoDimensional builds custom booking systems from $6,999. Transfer and chauffeur websites start at $1,999 for up to 5 pages, $2,999 for up to 8 and $4,499 for up to 30, design and development together. Prices are fixed in writing after a 30-minute call. You pay 30% to start, 40% at review and 30% at launch, and the code and accounts are yours.
Related: website and booking system prices.
