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Departures and availability
A departure is one date and time of a tour option, with a fixed number of seats. Travellers can only book departures that are open and have seats left. Tourtify holds seats while a traveller pays, so you are never overbooked.
Where to find it
Add dates: Console › Tours › tour › Departures tab All departures across tours: Console › Bookings › Departures
Add departures
- Open the tour and go to the Departures tab. You need at least one option first, see Pricing.
- Under the option, set:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| From | The first date |
| To (optional) | The last date, to add a series |
| Weekdays | Pick the days of the week to include, e.g. Mon, Wed, Sat. Leave all off for every day. |
| Time | Start time, in the tour's time zone |
| Seats | How many travellers each departure can take |
- Choose Add departures. The button shows how many dates will be created.
Example: From 1 Nov, To 31 Mar, weekdays Sat, time 07:00, seats 12 creates a Saturday departure every week of the season.
Manage a departure
Each departure shows its start, seats booked and status (Open or Closed). From the Departure actions menu:
- Passenger manifest: who's travelling, see Manifests and check-in.
- Download CSV: the manifest as a spreadsheet.
- Change seats: edit the seat count. Other departures keep their own capacity.
On Bookings › Departures, the same menu offers Open manifest, Change capacity, Stop sales / Reopen sales and Edit tour dates.
Stop sales without cancelling
Stop sales closes a departure on your website. Existing bookings stay; nobody new can book it. Use Reopen sales to open it again.
The Departures overview
Bookings › Departures shows every departure across all tours, in a List or a monthly Calendar layout.
- Next 7 days: travellers booked and average load.
- Full or nearly full: upcoming departures 80% or more booked.
- Views: Upcoming and Past 60 days; filter by tour, or show Only departures with bookings.
Block dates
Use blocked dates for holidays, closures or when a guide is unavailable.
- On the tour's Departures tab, find Blocked dates.
- Enter From, To and a Reason (only you see this).
- Choose Block dates.
Departures on blocked dates show Closed and stop selling. Existing bookings are never touched. Remove the block to reopen them.
Booking cut-off
Stop online bookings shortly before departure, so you have time to prepare.
- Go to the tour's Policies tab, Booking window.
- Set Online booking closes: Until departure, 1 hour, 3 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week or 2 weeks before.
- Save.
The cut-off applies to online bookings on your website. To add a late booking taken by phone, see Manual bookings.
How seat holds prevent overbooking
- When a traveller continues to checkout, their seats are held for 30 minutes.
- Held seats count as taken: nobody else can book them.
- If payment succeeds, the hold becomes a confirmed booking.
- If the traveller doesn't pay in time, the hold expires and the seats go back on sale.
Seat counts are checked inside the database at the moment of booking, so two travellers can never buy the last seat at the same time. If a payment arrives after the seats were already gone, the booking is flagged as "Payment arrived after the seats were gone: refund needed" in the booking's activity.
Sold out?
When a departure is full, travellers can send a sold-out date request to Enquiries. With the Waitlist plugin Growth+, they can join a waitlist instead and are emailed when seats free up.