Fly a Spitfire becomes world's largest spitfire flight operator with help of BookingHound
Discover how Fly a Spitfire has become the world’s largest spitfire operator with the help of BookingHound booking solution
Background
Fly a Spitfire was founded 11 years ago and initially started as a company that restored aircrafts. Since then, the company has developed into delivering passenger flights, tours, experiences and displays from the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar, at Biggin Hill Airport in Kent.
They operate genuine, original, two seater Spitfires which offer once in a lifetime experiences.
The challenge
Fly a Spitfire recognised the crucial necessity for an online booking solution tailored to their niche market. Darren Day, the Commercial Manager, drew upon his experience from a previous role in an activity voucher company to spearhead the search for an ideal booking system. Their goal was clear: finding a platform that not only facilitated online bookings but also catered to the intricate needs of their flight operations.
The key challenge lay in identifying a system that offered specialised features essential to their unique market. Fly a Spitfire sought a solution that provided not just customer booking flexibility but also an array of operational functionalities and robust reporting capabilities.
BookingHound emerged as the prime choice due to its comprehensive suite of features perfectly aligned with flight operators' requirements. Beyond being a mere booking system, BookingHound presented itself as a holistic business management solution. Its adaptable nature and extensive functionalities perfectly suited the specific demands of Fly a Spitfire's experiences, making it the most suitable fit for their operations.
How we helped
From the outset, Fly a Spitfire experienced a level of professionalism and friendliness with BookingHound that cemented a strong partnership. The personalised support, where names matched faces, offered immediate assistance with impressive response times, fostering a sense of trust and loyalty.
A standout feature for Fly a Spitfire was BookingHound's detailed reporting capabilities. These reports provided invaluable insights into their flight experiences' performance, offering clear ticket sales data and a view of earned revenue versus untapped potential. The customisable nature of the reporting allowed them to extract essential information for stakeholder presentations.
Once experiences were set up, the system's automation streamlined day-to-day operations. Automatic emails for booking confirmations, timely reminders leading up to event dates, and post-event review requests were seamlessly managed. Additionally, the software's ability to send SMS texts played a crucial role, especially in urgent situations like notifying customers about rescheduled experiences due to weather changes.
BookingHound was the first and only choice for Fly a Spitfire due to the well matched booking systems features for their niche market.
We’ve done some very different things this year than we’ve been able to do in previous years with regards to the way we’ve scheduled the availability of experiences and where we’ve had a new product, it’s been very easy to roll out and blend in with existing activities.
Darren Dray, Commercial Manager at Fly a Spitfire
The results
BookingHound's software not only streamlined operations but also enhanced customer communication and service, becoming an indispensable tool for Fly a Spitfire's business management.
By adopting BookingHound, Fly a Spitfire efficiently sells extras and upgrades during booking or upon arrival, resolving previous issues of poorly recorded sales that led to discrepancies in financial records. Now, BookingHound's features have significantly improved this process, enhancing upselling opportunities and enabling more accurate business reporting.
BookingHound has become a seamless part of our organisation as the system delivers the everyday structure of the business, allowing us to focus on creating the best flight experiences possible.
Darren Dray, Commercial Manager at Fly a Spitfire
Fly a Spitfire have credited BookingHound for their fantastic support over the years. Automation is the key to success, with the booking system working away in the background, you can almost forget it’s there!
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