Set up your booking widget and take your first direct booking

Step 1 Create the tour and its booking option

1. In the sidebar, click Tour Setup, then New tour.

2. Enter the Tour name and choose your City from the list.
3. Choose Group tour if bookings for the same departure join one tour, or Private tour if each booking gets its own tour.
4. If this tour sells only through TourDash, untick Receive bookings from platform emails. If it also sells on booking platforms, leave it ticked and enter the tour name exactly as it appears in their booking emails.
5. Click Create tour.

In Tour details, check the Short name and click Save operational details. It’s the name your Tours board and reports show, and TourDash shortens long names automatically, for example Lisbon Old T.

6. Scroll down and click Advanced booking settings to open your tour’s booking option. TourDash created it with the tour.
7. Enter the Duration (minutes) and the Capacity limit, the most travelers one departure can take.

8. Under Ticket categories, add one row per ticket type, for example Adult, Child and Infant. The boxes have no labels yet. In each row they are, in order:

Code

A short internal code, such as adult.

Name

What travelers see, such as Adult.

Minimum, maximum

How many of this ticket one booking can include.

Default

How many the booking form starts with.

Places used

How many places each ticket takes from the capacity. Use 0 for infants who don’t need a place.

Age note

Shown under the ticket name, such as Ages 6–11.

Required

Tick it when every booking needs at least one, as with adults.

9. Click Save option.

Step 2 Add departure times

Departures come from seasons: a date range with weekly times. Each time can run on its own days and in its own language.

1. On the tour page, find Schedule and click Manage.
2. Click Add a season. Name it, then set its First date and Last date.
3. Click Add time for each departure time.
4. In each row, set the Time, click the days under Runs on and choose the Language. Add a separate row for each language, even at the same time.

5. Optional: click More settings on a row to change that departure only, for example its Places, booking Cutoff or Minutes long. Empty fields use the tour’s defaults.

6. Click Save schedule.

Closed on a holiday, or adding a one-off departure? Use Exceptions below the seasons. They change single dates without touching the weekly pattern.

Step 3 Write the listing travelers see

Travelers read this under About this tour in the widget, and accept your terms before they book.

1. At the top of the tour page, click Website bookings.

Already describe this tour on your own website? Start from your website can bring the details and photos over. Check everything it fills in before you save.

2. Click Edit description. Write a Short summary of one or two sentences and a Full description, then click Save & update website.

3. Click Edit photos, then Add image. For each photo, write Alternative text describing it and click Save. Click Make cover on the photo travelers should see first.

4. Click Edit meeting point. Enter the Meeting point and the Meeting instructions, for example what the guide holds up. Both appear in the traveler’s confirmation email.

5. Click Cancellation & booking terms, then Add cancellation rule. Set At least minutes before departure (1440 is 24 hours), who can cancel and the refund, and write the Traveler explanation. Click Save policy.

6. Click Free or paid bookings, choose Free / tip-based and click Save booking settings. Selling tickets? Set up a paid tour instead.

7. In Settings › General, enter a Booking notification email and click Save.

Contact & confirmation in Website bookings isn’t needed for the widget. Travelers see your meeting details and reply to the address above.

Step 4 Turn on online booking

1. In Website bookings, click Manage website bookings. The checklist shows what’s left: fix each item with the button beside it, then click Re-check. When the only item left is about the widget channel, such as There is no live widget channel or The widget channel is “draft”, click Continue to widget settings.

2. In Widget settings, click Preview widget to try your saved setup on a sample page. Switch the Display mode and colours there. The preview creates no bookings or payments, and also shows tours that aren’t on sale yet.

3. Back in Widget settings, under Appearance, check the Default language and the Header logo. The header uses your company logo. To use another one, open Use a different logo for this widget.
4. Set the Accent colour for buttons, the Panel colour for the background and the Text and header colour.
5. Click Save changes. The button reads Saved when there’s nothing to save.

6. Under Online booking, click Enable online booking.

To stop new bookings for a while, click Pause bookings. Click Resume bookings to open them again.

Step 5 Share your link and add the widget to your website

Scroll to Website installation in Widget settings. There are two ways to sell: a direct booking link and a website embed.

1. Under Direct booking link, click Copy link. Share it on social profiles, in messages and QR codes, or link a button on your website to it. It works right away.
2. To embed the widget in your own website, first email support your website’s address, for example https://www.yourcompany.com. If your site also opens without www, send both. TourDash adds them for you.
3. Under Website embed, choose a Widget mode: Assistant (a floating corner window), Popup (a centered overlay) or Inline (inside your page).
4. Choose the Widget language. Automatic (website language) follows your page’s language and falls back to your default.

5. Optional: open More options to offer only some Departure languages, hide the floating booking button, send travelers to your own Confirmation page or link your Privacy policy.

6. Click Copy code and paste it into the HTML of each page that should offer booking, for example in your website builder’s custom HTML block.
7. Optional: open the widget from your own button. In Popup mode, or in Assistant mode with Show floating booking button unticked, the code starts with a Book now button that has data-tourdash-open. Style that button, or add the attribute to a button you already have, placed before the widget code.

To open one tour directly at its dates, use Add this tour to your website at the bottom of that tour’s Manage website bookings panel. Copy the tour booking code into the opening <script> tag of your widget code.

Step 6 Make a test booking

Book a free tour yourself to check the whole journey, then cancel it. Test a paid tour with support instead: completed payments are real.

1. Open your direct booking link, or the booking button on your website. Choose the tour, a date, a time and the travelers.
2. Enter a Name and an Email you can check. The phone is optional.
3. Tick the booking and cancellation terms, then click Confirm free booking.

4. In Tours, open the day and the departure. The booking shows your company logo, which marks a website booking.

5. Click the booking. Booking platform shows the same logo.

6. Open the link in the confirmation email, or View or change booking. On Manage your booking, travelers can change the date, cancel and update their contact details. Use Cancel booking to cancel your test booking.

Optional Paid tours

Travelers pay by card when they book. Payments go straight to your own Stripe account: you’re the merchant of record, and TourDash never sees card details.

1. In Website bookings › Free or paid bookings, choose Paid, check the Currency and click Save booking settings.

2. In the tour’s Schedule, open Prices, taxes & promotions. Click Add a rate period, set its First date and Last date to cover every departure, enter a price per ticket category and click Save pricing.

Prices are charged exactly as you type them. Tick Price already includes its taxes when it does. Use weekdays for a weekend rate, and Promotion codes for discounts.

3. In the tour’s checklist, click Go to payments. Click Connect existing Stripe account to use the account where you already receive payments, or Create a new Stripe account, and finish Stripe’s setup.

4. Wait for TourDash to approve payments. Until then, Widget settings shows TourDash approval pending. Free tours keep taking bookings meanwhile.