Start with the jobs that repeat for each booking: watching bookings for changes, building shifts, answering guest questions, sending guest updates, handling trip changes, and following up after the trip. Agents do each one from start to finish in the software you already use.
Where the hours go
A tour company's office spends its day between the booking system, the schedule, the phone and the inbox. Each booking turns into a shift, a waiver, a reminder text, a few guest questions and a follow-up. The booking system handles the booking itself, and that is where it stops. Checkfront gives your team logins, not a guide schedule: its own help says to print the Daily Manifest, or email it as a PDF, for guides who don't have access. Sling, a common schedule app, lists connections to restaurant and shop tills, not to booking systems. The apps FareHarbor lists as connected cover marketing, waivers, photos and accounting, but no staff schedule. A Zapier link can start when a Checkfront booking is new or changed, but someone still has to build what happens next. And FareHarbor's own developer notes say booking alerts can arrive twice, or go missing if the system on the other end is down. So the office types each booking into the schedule, checks it again when it changes, and answers the same guest questions by hand. None of it is hard, but it grows with each booking.
6 jobs to hand off first
These six jobs repeat for each booking, so they free up the most hours first.
1Catch each booking change
A moved time or a bigger group gets caught on the next pass, not on the day of the trip.
- ✓Reads new and changed bookingseach 5 min
- ✓Catches a changed time or guest countnext pass
- ✓Sends any booking missing staff to the scheduleright away
A changed booking gets caught that day, not on the day of the trip.
Checkfront
Sling
Slack2Build the shifts
Each booking that needs a guide or driver gets its shifts, checked against the booking, with tomorrow's run sent at five.
- ✓Creates the missing shiftsper booking
- ✓Checks each shift against the bookingevery shift
- ✓Sends each guide and driver tomorrow's runevery day at five
Each guide and driver knows tomorrow before they go home.
Sling
Google SheetsSlack3Answer guest questions
Prices, times and where to meet, answered at any hour on WhatsApp. The hard ones go to your team, written up.
- ✓Answers prices, times and where to meetany hour
- ✓Takes and moves bookingsas they come
- ✓Sends the hard ones to your team, written upright away
Guests get answers. Your phone stays quiet.
WhatsApp
GmailCheckfront4Get guests ready
Waivers, guest details and the meeting time and place, sent by text before the trip.
- ✓Sends the waiver and collects guest detailsafter booking
- ✓Texts the meeting time and placeday before
- ✓Sends any change the minute it's madeas it happens
Every guest shows up ready, at the right place and time.
Twilio
Smartwaiver5Handle a trip change
Cancel or move a trip once. Each guest on it is offered a new time or a refund, and the staff hear about it.
- ✓Finds every booking the change hitswhen a trip changes
- ✓Offers each guest a new time or a refundper guest
- ✓Updates the schedule and tells the staffright away
Cancel a trip once. Every guest and staff member hears about it.
SlackCheckfrontTwilio6Follow up after the trip
The thank-you and review request go out the day after, and guests are invited back next season.
- ✓Sends the thank-you and review requestday after
- ✓Invites them back next seasonafter the trip
- ✓Bills the trip and matches the depositper booking
More reviews, more repeat guests, every trip billed.
Mailchimp
QuickBooks
StripeA day with agents
Here is what a day looks like once the six agents are working.
- OvernightGuests ask about times and prices on WhatsApp and get answers. Two new bookings come in.
- 7:00The booking agent has caught a group that grew from 6 to 9. The shift agent adds a second vehicle and checks it.
- 10:00Wind closes the afternoon boat trip. One message to the trip change agent, and each guest is offered a new time or a refund.
- 2:00Tomorrow's guests get their waiver and meeting place by text.
- 5:00Each guide and driver gets tomorrow's run. Yesterday's guests get a thank-you and a review request.
The software they work in
The agents work in the booking, schedule and guest software tour companies already use. Nothing to install on your computers.
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Each agent sees only what its job needs, in your own accounts. Guest details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
We use FareHarbor, not Checkfront. Does this still work?
Yes. The same jobs work with FareHarbor, Peek Pro, Rezdy, Bókun and Xola. We go over your setup on the call.
Which job should we start with?
Usually the one that takes the most office hours in season, often booking changes and shifts. We look at it with you on the call.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.