Best free CRM for tour operators and DMCs

For luxury tour operators and destination management companies (DMCs), client relationships are everything.

This article compares the best free CRM options available today and explores why travel management software is often a smarter first investment.

Skip to the CRM Comparison table → 

Why tour operator software should come before a CRM

Luxury travel businesses rely on fast, detailed responses and high-touch service. While a CRM tracks leads and communication, a travel management platform helps you deliver what you’re selling: unforgettable trips.

What Is Travel Management Software?

Travel software is built for itinerary creation, pricing, documentation, and supplier collaboration. Platforms like Tourwriter go beyond contact management—they power every operational step in building custom travel experiences.

• Itinerary builder for complex, multi-day trips
• Automated pricing updates based on itinerary changes and your unique supplier rates
• Supplier and margin tracking
• Operational workflows from enquiry to final docs

If you work in the luxury travel sector, there’s a good chance a free CRM will only get you so far. High-end tour operators often need tools that go beyond contact management — delivering itinerary planning, booking automation, and client experience personalisation. In that case, you may find our guide to choosing between a CRM and full tour operator software useful.

Best Free CRM for Tour Operators and DMCs

The best free CRM for tour operators and DMCs depends on your stage of growth and the features you need.

For small luxury travel businesses, Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM are the most versatile free options, offering built-in forms, lead tracking, and contact management. Freshsales is another strong choice for simple pipelines and built-in calling. Pipedrive and Bitrix24 are better suited for scaling teams but have more restrictions in their free or entry plans.

However, a CRM only supports the sales process. It does not replace the role of a tour operator platform (also called a travel management platform), which is designed to handle itinerary creation, pricing, supplier coordination, and client documentation. Investing in the right travel platform before a CRM ensures your sales activity translates into high-quality, quickly delivered trips.

CRM Comparison Table

How to Choose

• Start with free tools like Google Sheets and Forms if you have fewer than 20 active leads
• Move to a free CRM like Zoho or HubSpot when you want to centralise contacts and standardise follow-ups
• Upgrade to paid plans when lead volume, team size, or automation needs justify the spend
• Integrate with a tour operator platform early to ensure you can deliver trips as quickly and accurately as you sell them

A CRM improves sales tracking, but it does not build or deliver the product your clients buy. For luxury travel, that means the ability to create personalised itineraries, update pricing in real time, and issue beautifully branded documents—capabilities found in a dedicated tour operator platform.

Using Google forms + sheets

For early-stage businesses, free tools like Google Sheets and Google Forms can replicate basic CRM functionality without the complexity or cost.

Google Sheets and Google Forms are very flexible, allowing you full control over what fields you collect. They can be tailored to collect the unique information you need that will allow you to craft a deeply personalised trip.

In your from and in your spreadsheet or CRM you should include all the key information you need , for example contact details such as first name, last name and title, email address, phone, number of travellers, dates, ages, destinations, special interests, etc.

Best practises for travel enquiry forms

To make sure your forms are easy for travellers to complete, there a few core principles you can follow:

• Provide clear labels outside the input fields to prevent issues with screen readers and to allow users to check their work.
• Clearly mark any optional fields.
• Where possible, be specific about error messages e.g. “you must enter a year” for date.
• Give users clear information after they submit the form about what will happen next e.g. “Thank you for your query. Our team will review this and get back to you within 2 days.”
• Make sure you from text and background are different enough to meet contrast requirements for readability.
• Ample whitespace improves readability and helps users focus on the form fields.

When to Move from Google Sheets to a CRM

You’re ready for a CRM when:

• You’re managing more than 20 to 30 active enquiries at once
• You need to track different salespeople or trip types

Pair your CRM with travel management software to ensure you are set up to deliver on the increase in leads without compromising on quality.

Summary

If you’re a luxury DMC or tour operator, client experience should drive your tech decisions:

• Start with a travel management platform to power itinerary delivery, automated pricing, supplier and rates management and more
• Use Google Sheets and Forms to handle simple lead tracking whilst you grow and to help you prepare for a CRM
• Add a CRM once your sales process needs automation and scale

Tools like Tourwriter are built for high-touch travel professionals, giving you the ability to respond faster, build better trips, and grow your brand. If you’re just starting out, invest where it counts: in delivering an experience worth recommending.

Tourwriter is built for the best, not for everyone. Get in touch to see if it would be right for you.

Frequently Asked Questions / FAQs