Set up your tour availability: Events without bookings, group size, booking limit, and payment commitment reservations (PRO only)

Set up your tour availability: Events without bookings, group size, booking limit, and payment commitment reservations (PRO only)

In this article, we explain three key points to configure your bookings:

  1. Block events without prior reservations
  2. Maximum number of walkers per event
  3. Maximum number of walkers per reservation

You can find them in My Tours > Edit > Availability



Block events without prior reservations

This option helps you organize better and prevents you from having to do the tour if no one has signed up before a certain time. You need to define how much in advance you require at least one booking for the event to remain active.

The platform’s default setting is 2 hours in advance. This means that if you don’t receive a booking 2 hours before the tour starts, the event will remain invisible to travelers and no one will be able to book it.

Example: If you set the block for 3 hours and your tour is at 10 a.m., if you don’t receive at least one booking by 7 a.m., the event will automatically become invisible to travelers and they won’t be able to book it for that day.

Warning
Keep in mind this limit only applies to the first booking. Subsequent bookings can come in until the last minute.

Maximum walkers per Event

Here you define the maximum number of people who can attend the tour in the same event.
This is a total limit: it sums all the bookings (individual or group) made for that time.
  1. If you have a Hobby account, this value is limited to 5 people.
  2. If you have a PRO account, the default value is 100 people, but you can freely modify it according to your availability or the type of experience you offer.

Example: If your maximum group size is 13, you can fill it with these bookings:
2 pax + 4 pax + 1 pax + 4 pax + 2 pax = 13

Idea
This limit helps guarantee the quality of the tour, especially if you prefer small groups or if there are restrictions in your city (for example, Amsterdam or Barcelona).

Maximum walkers per Booking

This setting is only available for PRO accounts. It determines the maximum number of people allowed in a single booking. The default value is 6 walkers per booking, but you can adjust it.

Info
If a traveler tries to book more people than allowed, the system won’t let them

Example: If the maximum number of people you accept in a single booking is 6, for the previous example, you could fill the group with these bookings:
6 pax + 2 pax + 5 pax = 13

Accepting bookings with payment commitment

Bookings with payment commitment are an option exclusive to PRO accounts. The default value is 20 people, but you can change it at any time.

Example: Suppose we have limited the maximum size of the entire group to 20 people and set the maximum number of people per single booking to 6, but we are willing to accept a booking of up to 8 people if it comes with a payment commitment. We could fill the group with these bookings:
6 pax (without payment commitment) + 7 pax (with payment commitment) + 2 pax + 1 pax + 4 pax = 20

Traveler obligations for bookings with payment commitment

When a traveler tries to book more people than the allowed limit per booking and you have the payment commitment active, the platform informs them that if they want to proceed, they must accept to pay a fixed amount at the start of the tour. The default amount is €12 per adult and €5 per child, although you can change these amounts at any time.

Idea
You decide the maximum size per booking. Accepting larger groups per booking could help improve your metrics (average booking size) and, therefore, the positioning of your tour.

How to identify bookings with payment commitment?

They will be marked with the label Payment Commitment. You can see this in your calendar by clicking on the event.


How to manage bookings with payment commitment from the calendar?

Just like you manage any other booking.

  • Marking attendees (you must mark them as you do with any other booking in your calendar)

  • Use of credits (only adults are deducted)

Warning
Remember: The traveler must pay at the start of the tour. You are solely responsible for collecting the agreed amounts. The traveler will NEVER pay anything in advance to GuruWalk.

Frequently Asked Questions (PRO cases only)

What happens if a walker tries to book for more people than your set limit?

The system shows them a blocking warning and does not allow them to complete the booking.



What happens if they bypass my maximum per booking limit by making two separate bookings?

The platform detects most of these cases and identifies them as group bookings, with a distinctive icon.



What should you do if the system has detected two bookings that actually belong to the same group?

You can explain to the walker that you do not accept groups (as indicated during the booking process) and you have 2 options:

  • Accept the group if they agree to your conditions

  • Do not accept the group, and in this case:

    • Mark them as attendees from your calendar

    • Report the travelers negatively

    • Contact your Account Manager to request a credit refund

Warning

For the credit refund to be possible, the system must have identified the bookings with the icon.



What happens if a group booking cancels or doesn’t show up?
  1. If a group cancels their booking less than 12 hours before the tour:
    Contact your Account Manager to let them know and get support with the next steps.

  2. If a group doesn't show up to the tour:

    1. Mark them as attendees from your calendar

    2. Report them negatively

    3. Contact your Account Manager to inform them and get support with the next steps.

And if the system doesn’t detect 2 bookings as a group but you are sure those bookings actually belong together?

You can explain to the walker that you do not accept groups. If they deny being a group, we recommend that you proceed with the tour as usual.

If you later have problems with the travelers, report them negatively and contact your Account Manager to get a solution tailored to what happened.

What happens if a booking identified as "Payment Commitment" refuses to pay at the meeting point?

If the booking is identified and the walker refuses to pay at the meeting point, you can remind them that they accepted the tour conditions in the confirmation email.

If they still refuse to pay:

  • Mark this booking as "attended" from your calendar to avoid harming your metrics

  • Ask them to leave the tour and report this walker negatively

  • Contact your Account Manager to let them know and get support with the next steps


And what if I want to deactivate the payment commitment?

You can do it whenever you want.

Warning
Keep in mind that bookings already made with payment commitment remain active under those conditions, even if you later deactivate the option.

Does a reservation with payment commitment also pay GuruWalk?

Never.

GuruWalk takes the traveler’s card data only as a preventive measure and to try to maximize the chances that the group shows up for your tour. They are only informed that if they do not show up, a charge of €15 will be made, but no amount is held.

Warning
If the traveler tells you they have already paid the platform, this is FALSE. They are not charged anything during the booking process, at the start of the tour, or at the end of it.

 

    • Related Articles

    • Free Tour creation and approval process on GuruWalk

      To create a tour, you must first be registered as a guide on GuruWalk. If you haven’t done it yet, you can start the registration process through our Official Page Fill out the form with your details and start your draft by following all the steps. ...
    • How to set a limit time to accept the first booking of an event?

      Travellers can book your tour up to the last second before the tour start time. This can cause problems, as you may not have received a booking before, meaning that you may not have seen a last-minute booking in time, and you could end up not show up ...
    • How to set a maximum limit of tour attendees?

      We are going to explain how to put a maximum number limit of travelers who can attend your tour, in other words: the maximum group size in each event of the tour. Once the limit is reached, the event will no longer be available to book. If there is ...
    • Availability of the tour How to block events and not receive reservations?

      For travelers, when they are browsing for a tour, they can filter by dates, and expect that if a listing is shown as available for the chosen dates, they could attend, if it appears in the search. That's why you must block the event or time range in ...
    • How can I get more bookings?

      The most important things to consider that we know to be most effective in increasing your bookings are: First, think about the scheduling of your guruwalk. Is it available at a time when the traveler is looking to do a tour? Is it offered at the ...