Add a tour for a guest

Let's say a guest comes to the Front Desk asking about a snorkeling tour for tomorrow. You will need some knowledge about the various tour operators, what they offer, their prices, and availability.

Required Steps

These are the required steps you would take (besides smiling at you guest and looking like a pro)!

Click the plus "+" button on the Planns dashboard and select "Tour."
Select the name of the guest from the Reservation dropdown.
Select the Activity Date.
Select the Activity (must be available from the Activity Admin database).
Select the Resource from the list
In this next example, Snorkeling was set up as a Parent tour, so there are several options to choose from
Select how many guests are going on the tour
Select a status.
- Planniac will automatically log the date and time. Is it just an inquiry that needs followup later? Is it requested but not booked yet? Tentative because of the weather? You can use up to twenty different status labels to keep your staff organized.
Remember to click "Save" when you are finished. Or "Discard" if you would like to start over.

Further Steps

Taking the detail a little further can save you steps in the long run, especially when there is an unfinished plan as the red time "Not Set" indicates in the example above.

So now you can reopen the plan from the dashboard, and then add more details.

Guest names

Check that you've added all the guest names if you know them. If you add the guest name here, it will also update the record on the Guests page. The number of tick boxes must correspond with the number of guests participating (above).

Note: You won't be able to update the childrens' ages from here. For that, return to the Guest profile page.

Public Calendar

This tick box means it's not a private tour and other guests can go on the same tour. If you have the optional Hotel TV Channel part of Planniac, any public tour will show up as available in the upselling window.

Tour Times & Details

This section is very important. It will appear on the guest's itinerary and it is information that's good for Front Desk or Concierge staff to know so that they can answer questions.

If it's a tour with pick up and return times that rarely change, it's best to set those in the Resources area. Then they will automatically populate the time fields shown here.

You can type the locations and transport methods directly in to these fields. But you can also create standard items in Settings > Pickup/Dropoff/Event Locations. That will save a little typing effort but more importantly, will ensure consistency in how your staff refers to these locations or transportation methods.

It the guest is driving themself to an activity, tick the box. This will help you remember to cancel any of the usual pickup and dropoff arrangements with the tour operator, or to contact the venue directly.

If the activity happens on your property, use the On-Site Activity tick box to indicate that.

Status & Notes

You can quickly and easily change the status of a tour. Click on the status field and a dropdown list will appear for you to select from.
This section also displays allergy/dietary notes which you can pass along to the tour operator.
And if you have included standard itinerary information when you set up the tour in the Resources section, that information will appear here, as well as on the guest's personal itinerary.
Guest Info gives you another opportunity to write-in good-to-know information for the guest's itinerary.

Resource details & vouchers

Here, you can review the commission details this particular tour operator has, as well as a summary of their cancellation policy. Both of those things would need to be set up in the Resources section.

You can also print a voucher/waiver for your guest to sign. This would be customized in the SETTINGS > TEMPLATES area on Planniac. The voucher would include details about the guest, date, cost, inclusions, as well as your standard waiver text.

A simple tick box can indicate that the guest signed the waiver and you have it on file.

Cost & payment

The Cost & Payment section is where you check to be sure the guest is being billed the correct amount. The amount should be correct if you have put the tour price in the pricing matrix in Resources.

For more details about applying a payment method, please see the Applying Payments section in the Help Center.

Duplicate this Plann

This is a huge time saver if you have a guest who wants to do the same tour as someone else.

These are the steps

From within the Tour Activity Management are, look at the bottom by the CLOSE button and you'll see a button that says "Duplicate this Plann." Click that.
This will open a little popup window. You can select another reservation that you'd like to schedule for the same activity.
After you've clicked to open the other reservation, you'll see something that looks like this:
Check that the information is correct, and click the "Create Duplicate" button.
Check the Planns dashboard to see the duplicated activity and edit as needed.

History

Accountability rocks! You can see "who did what" by looking at the Tour History log. This is a specific record of everything that transpired with this particular tour arrangement. In this case, no one to blame but me if something goes wrong!

Adding other kinds of activities that are not tours

The process for adding a new activity of a different type is similar to adding a tour. The exact activity types you would choose from include:

TOUR
ARRIVAL (for example a shuttle transfer from the airport to your hotel)
DEPARTURE (for example a shuttle transfer to the train station or another hotel)
FLIGHT (if you book flights for guests)
TAXI (for non-arrival and non-departure taxi trips)
SHUTTLE (for non-arrival and non-departure shuttle trips, including your own hotel shuttle if you have one)
RESTAURANT (for outside restaurant reservations that you make for your guests)
SPA (for onsite or offsite spa services including massage)
RENTAL (for car rentals, boat rentals, golf carts, or onsite equipment/facilities like conference rooms, venues, bicycles, kayaks, etc.)