‘Setting up Recras wasn’t really much work’

Europe’s largest plant nursery for potted and container plants

“Emsflower is Europe’s largest plant nursery for potted and container plants,” José says  proudly. “Because so many people came by wanting a behind-the-scenes look, we created a visitor area. With our tropical garden, butterfly house, show greenhouse, playground and restaurant, we offer visitors a fun day out. On weekends and during holidays we welcome lots of families with children, and during the week we see many buses with groups booking a complete programme, including a guided tour and meals.”

Own system

“Processing bookings and reservations used to take quite a bit of time,” José recalls. “My brother had built his own system for it. It worked fairly well, but it was very time-consuming. On the website, visitors could fill out a form with their preferences for a day out. That form would arrive in our inbox as an email, and then we had to manually retype all the contact details. That took up quite a lot of time. I had googled for a different management system before, but I couldn’t find anything that offered all the features I needed.”

Good advice

“Just across the border is a company called Actief Twente,” José explains. “My brother knows them. He pointed it out to me, and I asked what system they were using. It turned out to be Recras. I immediately looked up their website and watched the explainer video on the homepage. It was exactly what I was looking for!” she says enthusiastically.

Setting things up didn’t take much time

Saving time

José is happy with how much time the system saves her. “When people book online now, they fill in their own details and immediately see what’s available. If someone books a guided tour, the guide gets an automatic email request and can confirm whether they’re available at that time. If not, we get a notification and know we need to find someone else. Our guides — all freelancers — can set their own availability, so they don’t get unnecessary requests. That makes things a lot easier for them and for us.”

Bookings, ticket sales and gift vouchers

“Since December, our ticket sales have also been handled through Recras,” José adds. “We used a different system before, but now it’s not only cheaper — it’s also really nice to have everything running through one system. After that, we also started selling gift vouchers through the website, and visitors can now request annual passes online. It really saves a lot of time. We used to enter everything manually, but now it’s all done automatically. If a customer fills in that they want a guided tour, followed by coffee and cake, and then some free time to look around, it’s just one click for us. A confirmation email is sent and that’s it. It can all be fully automated, but I personally like to do a quick check before sending it out, so I set it up that way. But honestly, it takes me hardly any time at all.”

Recras in Germany

Recras was originally developed for recreation businesses in the Netherlands, but it now works just as well in Germany. José says, “Using the software in German has never been a problem for me. The fact that it’s Dutch software hasn’t caused any issues with German regulations either. Recently, the management software even added a Datev export option, so our accounting doesn’t require any extra work. Payments through Mollie work perfectly. It might be a bit less known in Germany — many people still pay on-site or by invoice — but our online tickets are paid for using iDEAL, PayPal or credit card without any trouble.”

Great collaboration

Although Recras’ biggest competitor in Germany charges much higher rates, that wasn’t the reason Emsflower decided to go with the company from Groningen. “No, I just had a hard time finding something suitable. And when this system was recommended to us by Actief Twente, we didn’t look any further. I really like the management software, but the collaboration is also great. The team is always easy to reach. I often come to them with small questions or ideas to fine-tune how we use the system. When I send an email, I usually get a reply within half an hour. That’s really fast. They’re great at thinking along and finding solutions.”

Also great for smaller businesses

“I really like the financial setup of Recras too,” José concludes. “They take a small percentage of our sales. I think that’s very fair and transparent, and it makes the system much more affordable for a small business. And for smaller recreation companies, the setup process really isn’t a big time investment. I’d definitely recommend it to them.”