Add phone and office bookings in seconds

A phone booking from first ring to confirmation

Picture a caller who wants four places, two adults and two children, on a Saturday departure. Choose the tour and option, and the departure list shows only open, upcoming dates with their seats left; a sold-out departure is never picked for you. Enter two adults and two children and the summary reprices straight away, so you can quote the exact total while the caller is still on the line.

If your website runs in more than one language, the customer section also asks for the traveller's language. The confirmation, trip reminders and the traveller's booking page are then written in that language, which matters when the person on the phone is booking for relatives who read a different one. When a booking starts from an enquiry, the language the traveller used on your website is carried across for you.

Sales extras work the same way as online. With promo codes switched on in the Discounts plugin, the form has a promo code field, and with the Extras plugin it offers your add-ons, including any question an add-on asks. Promo code uses and add-on stock are claimed exactly as they would be at website checkout, so a limited code or a fixed number of rental bikes can't be oversold from the office either.

Recording the money the right way

The amount you enter must sit between zero and the booking total, and it decides the status. Zero means pay on arrival: the booking is still confirmed and the balance shows as outstanding. A part payment makes the booking Deposit paid, and a full payment leaves nothing to collect. If you use the Deposits plugin with instalments, a part-paid manual booking gets its instalment plan just like a website deposit.

Use the note field for the detail your accountant will ask about, such as a bank transfer reference or the receipt number from the card terminal. The note appears in the booking's activity with your name, so anyone opening the booking later can see how and when the money arrived.

Taking a booking and recording money are separate permissions. A sales agent can create the booking, but the form tells them the traveller pays later and that someone who can record payments will mark it paid. This keeps cash handling with the people accountable for it. If a caller reads out a gift voucher code as a promo code, Tourtify recognises it and explains that you should create the booking first and then pay with the voucher through Record payment.

When to untick the confirmation email

Leaving the confirmation ticked is right for almost every booking. Unticking it is useful when you are re-entering a booking the traveller already has written confirmation for, or when a group organiser has asked you to send nothing to their members. With the box unticked, no confirmation email, WhatsApp message, webhook or guide and hotel notice goes out.

Some things still happen quietly because the trip needs them. A part-paid booking still gets its instalment plan, and with the QR tickets plugin on, the tickets are still issued so travellers can be scanned at check-in. If you change your mind, open the booking and resend the confirmation, a trip reminder or a review request from its menu.

Edge cases worth knowing

Seats are held and confirmed in one step when you choose Create booking. If the last seats sold online while you were talking, or a promo code reached its limit, the form tells you what changed instead of creating a booking you can't honour. Archived tours don't appear in the tour list, so retire old products without worrying that someone will book them by mistake.

When you convert an enquiry, the traveller's original message is copied into the booking note, so the request about a vegetarian meal or a late pickup travels with the booking rather than staying in the inbox. Every manual booking is also written to the activity log in Settings with the amount recorded, which gives owners a clear trail of who added what when they review the office's work.