Xola

Vorteile

Without a doubt this is a smooth app that knows what silk feels like. The UI has gone through some great improvements that have improved the silkiness to a degree even silkworms would be jealous of, but it's clear that they're taking the time to listen to their users in the development process and that's important. Performance is more than just good, it's Tony-the-tiger great. Smooth and well executed interface. It's missing features - some of them might be important to you, it's hard to say - but the devs do a great job of listening to feature requests and we've seen real, significant improvements all around. That's the sign of a maturing application.

Is it best-of-breed? Hard to say, and I'm sure there's arguments for and against, but I'll give them this: their support is out-freaking-standing. That alone is worth a few awkwardly implemented features or some gaps in how things are executed. If there's a problem, you connect to a staff that takes their support work seriously. I'm surprised they don't hop in a plane and come to your computer and help you out - they legitimately take every step just shy of that in an effort to find a solution. It's impressive and it outshines any downsides you might find in the app itself. Is there always a solution? No, that's unrealistic. But they often find a workaround and if they can't they'll make sure the devs know there's a gap that's been discovered and that needs to be looked at. Great, great support team.

Nachteile

There's feature gaps. Depending on any number of factors the software just doesn't quite fit - but it's close. Usually close enough - there's often a workaround that is... well, good enough. And you hope the devs close up the gap or shore it up and it won't get any worse. For the most part that happens, but when there's a 'feature release' you hold your breath and a lot of times you're left thinking to yourself "what? there's so much better things to have spent man-hours on than that..." To be fair, I've often found the implemented features to be useful once I've worked with them but there's still features - things I would consider fundamentally necessary - that haven't been implemented. It's a fail, but a relatively minor one. At least, for us - ymmv.

Vorteile

XOLA has incredible flexibility when compare to other escape room booking software I've compared it to in the 2+ years I've used it. I have comparison shopped all the other booking software out there and haven't found anything that compares to what you can do with XOLA. From the visual presentation to the customer, to creating coupons and discounts, to arranging pricing and schedules for rooms. Nothing comes close. XOLA is PACKED with integrations with other software and gives you access to data from your bookings that I haven't found anywhere else.

Nachteile

I will admit I'm not a fan of the 6% booking fee passed on to my customers. Our bookings actually increased when we implemented it, and it does give me access to all of XOLA's features. Yes, Americans are conditioned to tacked on taxes, fees and other charges for online transactions, but that doesn't mean I have to like passing on cost to my customers.

Vorteile

Xola just works. The UX is relatively intuitive. Daily use functionality is smooth and simple. Customers find it easy to navigate and very little customer service contact is necessary completing bookings.

Nachteile

There is no method for applying percentage discounts to gift certificate products without creating dedicated gift certificate listings.

Vorteile

This platform is definitely affordable and in the beginning the customer service was great. From a clients prospective the interface is user friendly and visually appealing.

Nachteile

We started using Xola over 2 years ago and although a rough start, the service was on point and customer support was helpful and speeds when it came to fixing bugs and problems. Since then it seems as if they have restructured their company drastically. Getting customer support has become a challenge. In the beginning they assigned account managers, which was great. When you called Xola you could speak directly to your account manager who knew everything there was to know about your account. Fixing problems was straight forward and right to the point. Now, it's a bit different... You can either call a get an answering machine or someone who has little to no experience or you can chat online with an agent they have outsourced in a foreign country.

Regardless of who you speak with you must first catch them up again on everything you're trying to accomplish. This part is the most frustrating, When speaking to the 4 person I found it easier to just copy and paste the previous chats we had rather than trying to explain. We have been having trouble with our buttons implemented by Xola over 1.5 weeks ago. Meanwhile our clients have not been able to book online. Through pages and pages of correspondence and having the luxury of catching at least 6 of their employees up to speed on my issue. They might "might" have it done by tomorrow. We're talking about simple buttons. I would definitely do my research before plunging into a commitment with Xola. Very frustrated so far with this experience. If it wasn't so time consuming setting up a whole new platform, I would have switched to Fare Harbor long ago.

Vorteile

The chat feature is indispensable, questions answered/problems solved on the spot. If the tech on chat can't fix or answer a question I get connected with someone who can solve the problem within 24 hours.

The updates are pretty much instant, if I make a change, its on my site immediately.

Nachteile

I would like to be able to add more review links than just one on follow up emails.