Tour guides

Knowing who leads each departure

Operators working with staff and freelance guides spend a surprising amount of time confirming who is on which departure, telling them who's coming and working out what each is owed. Tour guides keeps that in Tourtify. You create a profile for each guide and assign them to departures. A departure can have several guides, each with a role such as lead guide or assistant, and notes for that assignment. The plugin is available from the Growth plan.

Profiles can include a photo, bio, languages, skills, years of experience and certifications. Tour pages can show a “Meet your guide” section with the assigned guide; you choose which profile fields appear.

Assigning the right guide

When you assign a guide, Tourtify ranks the options for that departure. Guides who can't do it, because of a clash with another assignment, time off or being inactive, are listed last with the reason. Among the rest, a language match counts most, then skills, then the lighter workload. Dated certifications, such as first aid or mountain leader, are tracked too, and an expired one counts against availability.

With confirmation on, the guide gets an email to accept or decline from their schedule link. If they haven't answered after 48 hours, they are reminded. If there's still no answer 24 hours later, whoever assigned them is told, or the owners and admins. Departures less than two days away are flagged straight away.

What guides see

Each guide can have a personal schedule link: a mobile page with their upcoming departures, the manifest, check-in and waiver status, with no login. You can replace a guide's link at any time. Guides who need more can have a team login with the guide role, linked to their profile. They then see only the departures they're assigned to and haven't declined, and those departures' bookings, with no customer list and no money.

Guides can be emailed when a booking is confirmed for their departure, with the traveller count and booking details and an introduction you write. Cancellation emails are optional.

Guide pay

Give each guide a pay rate per departure or per day. A guide on $120 a day leading a 3-day trip earns $360 for it. An assignment can override the rate, for a long-haul trip or a public holiday for example. The payout report lists each guide's departures between two dates, with days and pay, and guide pay is counted in Costs & profit.

Setting up Tour guides

1. 1Turn on Tour guides. Switch the plugin on from Plugins (Growth plan and above).
2. 2Create guide profiles. Add photo, bio, languages, skills, certifications, time off and a pay rate.
3. 3Choose what travellers see. Decide whether tour pages show the assigned guide and which profile fields appear.
4. 4Set confirmation and reminders. Ask guides to accept each departure, and set the reminder and escalation times.
5. 5Assign guides to departures. Pick from the ranked suggestions and add a role and notes.
6. 6Share schedule links or logins. Send each guide their schedule link, or give them a guide login linked to their profile.