How to set a tour's schedule, start times and duration
Private and group bookings of a tour each have their own Schedule: the days and times they run, and how long they last. Open the tour under Tours → Manage, then Private tour → Schedule or Group tour → Schedule.
Fixed start times or open hours
A tour either starts at set times or sells tickets for opening hours. You choose when you create it, under Timing, and can't change it later.
Fixed start times
Each departure starts at a time you set, and customers pick one. The usual choice for guided tours.
Open hours
Tickets valid any time while you are open, for museums or attractions. You set Opening hours instead of start times, and no duration.
Most businesses sell fixed start times only, and don't see Timing. To sell open-hours tours, write to TourTask support.
Set the days and start times
- 1
Set the duration
Under Duration, set the Days, Hours and Minutes the tour lasts. While one of your vehicles is tracked, Expected distance below it says how far a vehicle drives on the tour, for distance tracking.
- 2
Choose Always or Periods
Under Schedule type, Always runs all year. Periods runs only between dates you set (below).
- 3
Add the start times
Click Add start time and enter the time. Each start time has its own weekdays: click a day to turn it off or on.
- 4
Limit the days if you need to
Under Days in month, choose Any day, Odd days only or Even days only.
- 5
Set the seats of a group departure
On a group tour, Capacity is the seats of each departure, shared by all its bookings, or Unlimited.
- 6
Save
Click Save, at the bottom right of the page.
Let customers choose the time of a private tour
On a private tour, Product type offers Established start times, where customers pick one of your start times, or a Time window: give each row a From and a To, and customers pick any minute in between.
Seasons and one-off dates
With Periods, click Add period for each date range. Each period has its own start times and Days in month, and on a group tour its own Capacity: set it on every period.
- Repeats every year, ticked: the dates come back each year, like a summer season.
- Unticked: the dates are in one year only. A tour for a single event, such as a festival, is one period of that day.
- Generate periods → By sun makes the periods from sunrise or sunset times, for tours timed by the sun.
Changing the duration later
Bookings keep the duration they were made with. When you save a new duration, TourTask lists the upcoming bookings and departures that still have the old one: Apply new duration updates them. Durations you changed by hand on a booking are kept, and customers are not told.
Questions we get asked
A start time that a private booking is on stays when you save, and can still be booked. Move those bookings to another time in the booking form, then save the tour again: cancelling them is not enough.
Yes. Each has its own Schedule, with its own times, days and duration.
Yes. The same dates and start times are offered on your website and on the agencies you connect. The cut-off and blocked dates are on another page.