What to do when I only have one booking?
What happens if you have only one booking tomorrow or if you’re waiting for the travelers at the meeting point but in the end, only one person shows up?
You want the traveler to have a satisfying experience, but you are afraid that the tour may not be profitable.
In this post, we will explain how to deal with this situation!
What should we do?
The ideal thing to do
The best option is to always do the tour, regardless of the number of travelers. Since you’re doing a favor to walkers, they will be more likely to leave you a super five-star review that will be shared with many other travelers who will want to book your tour in the future. You should look at it as an investment.
Case 1: only one booking for tomorrow
You’re taking a look at your bookings for tomorrow and you realize that you have only one.
If you are worried about not receiving enough money, you can get in touch with the travelers who booked and explain the situation and let them know that the tour will be done anyway. Perhaps knowing this, travelers decide to cancel themselves, as they don’t want to feel bad leaving you only a bit of money. If travelers cancel, it’s not such a bad experience since it was their decision.
| Sample message Hi Pablo, I’m Juan, your guru in Valencia, nice to meet you! ? We’ll see each other tomorrow, on April 6th at 10:30 for my Legends Tour. Thank you very much for choosing my guruwalk! At the moment I only have your booking for tomorrow, but it doesn’t change anything: the tour is still on and you can just tip me what you think is fair. Here’s my WhatsApp again in case you need anything: XXXXX I hope you like stories, secrets and fun facts, because that’s exactly what my tour is all about! See you tomorrow! Best, Juan |
You also have other options:
- Modify the event and add it with another: If the event with one booking is close to another with lots of booking, you can ask a favor to travelers of the only booking if they could do the tour at the same moment of your other bookings. If they accept, that’s wonderful! But make sure to modify the booking in our system, as we send an automatic reminder to travelers with all the tour information. To learn how to change the event here).
| Sample Message Hi Pablo, I’m Juan, your guru in Valencia, nice to meet you! ? You booked my Legends tour for tomorrow April 6 at 10:30. I’m really sorry to write this, but since I only have your booking in the morning, would it be possible for you to do the tour in the afternoon, at 16h00? At this time, I have other travelers interested in doing the tour and it would be great to include you all together for a better experience. Thank you very much for understanding and for choosing my guruwalk. I’m looking forward to receiving your answer. Here’s my WhatsApp again XXXXX Best, Juan |
- If you don’t have another booking close to the date, you can explain the situation to travelers. You can tell them that it’s not profitable for you to do the tour if you don’t receive a minimum amount of money, because you have transport costs such as gasoline or parking. Perhaps for travelers it can be too much money, and that’s why you will suggest canceling the tour. See what they say. Watch out! This is a very delicate offer and some travelers may be offended by the fact that you ask for money since they are booking a ‘pay-what-you-want” tour. So it’s always important to apologize and explain the situation very clearly as we just explained.
| Sample Message Hi Pablo, I’m Juan, your guru in Valencia, thanks for booking the tour with me. I’m sorry to write this, but I may have to cancel the tour because no one else booked for tomorrow or the rest of this week. It’s low season and there are not many tourists in Valencia. Moreover, I live far from the city and have some fuel / parking costs, so I can’t do the tour if I receive less than X €. Since you are the only one for tomorrow’s tour, this could be too expensive for you, so I think it’s better if we cancel the tour. Please let me know your what you think. Best, Juan (WhatsApp: XXX) |
If in the end, you decide to cancel the tour, it’s always important to give other alternatives to the traveler, such as another guruwalk or similar free walking tour at the same time. You can also prepare a template with your best recommendations about places to see and visit while they are in your city. But as we said before, it’s not recommendable for you to cancel the tour because it might cause a bad experience that will impact the ranking of your tour on the platform.
Case 2: only one booking shows up at the meeting point
So far we have seen the alternatives for the case where you realize that you have just one booking for tomorrow. But what should you do in case only one person or a small group of walkers with the same booking show up at the meeting point and you’re afraid it will not be profitable for you.
In this situation:
- Explain the situation to travelers: that the other people who had booked the tour did not show up.
- And then there are several options you can choose from. As we have said before, the best thing is to do the tour since the traveler is already there.
- You can also suggest doing a shorter tour with only the key stops of the tour, or asking what traveler are most interested in visiting.
- If they want a full tour, you can explain what we said before, that you have some costs and recommend a minimum price.
- If there is another similar free walking tour that starts nearby, you could also recommend it to them. You could also give your best recommendations on what to see and visit in your city or take them to the tourist office and explain what they could see.
| In brief, it’s important to keep the traveler happy. By either: – Doing the tour or a shorter tour – Suggesting a minimum price – Giving other options such as another free tour or your own recommendations |
You’re used to received one booking? Why is this happening?
If you keep getting only one booking, it may be because your profile on GuruWalk doesn’t look professional enough. You may also be new on Guruwalk and you don’t have enough reviews. To improve the quality of your page, we suggest you check out this post.
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