Chapter 5: Tour Master

TM records link Packages together and store the details of payment deadlines, cancellation penalties, and departure and return points

Before starting, let’s examine the relationship between TM and Packages. For every departure you have scheduled you will have a TM record, and linked to that record you will have at least one and probably more Packages, the Package being the repository for all the Vendor services that are included in the trip. Using a cruise as an example, you will create a TM record that will reflect the departure and return dates, the ship, etc.; and will create Packages to represent the various cabins and costs: Category A at $1,000, Category B at $1,200 and Category C at $1,400. When you eventually take reservations for the cruise, you will associate—by code—a TM to the Booking record, and will then select a Package to assign a specific deck category to the traveler.

To begin building the Tour Master record, go to TM and click on the “new” button. The first field of entry is the tour code which must be unique and should not be imbedded in another (by example, don’t use CRUISE as a code and subsequently create another code of CRUISE2) Doing so will ultimately cause lots of problems with linked Booking or Operations records getting co-mingled when you do a “find” on one code or the other. Another suggestion is that codes be no longer than 12 characters or digits combined since anything longer starts to wrap in many of the fields where the tour code displays. Finally, it is advisable to avoid using punctuation in the codes. Note: The code will “lock down”, in other words become un-modifiable as soon as you leave the record so be sure you like it before you leave it.

Enter the name of the tour. This name will print on invoices and receipts sent to clients.

Enter the date that the tour begins. Even if you have pre-trip options, you will probably want the TM dates to be the dates of the “core” package.

Enter the number of days for the tour. The number of nights will set based on your input there, and the return date will drop in automatically at that point.

Pick a Destination Category from the value list that presents.

The Tour Type fields use the same value list. Assignment is optional.

Seats & Rooms

In the Number of Seats field, enter the maximum number of passengers, drivers, staff singles and staff doubles you can accommodate on this tour. When you begin making reservations, the “utilized” gray fields will reflect the actual number of participants booked.

Under Number of Rooms enter in the rooms you anticipate will be utilized.

Note: The number that you enter in the Number of Seats fields will provide inventory control, if you set TM to control inventory. In other words, if 40 is showing as the Total (number of seats), adding together what you’ve allocated for Passengers, Drivers and Staff, your 41st booking will waitlist.

If TM is not controlling inventory, control is left to the various Price/Inventory records included in the Package(s). Whichever is depleted first will cause the Booking to waitlist.

Factors: This is the cost factor on which the tour has been priced.

# Pax: This is the number of passengers you told your client the tour price was based on.

Account Manager/Travel Counselor/Program Designer/Operations Officer: These fields are for entry of staff you will be handling different areas of tour development. Use as necessary and re-label the fields if appropriate.

Tour Notes: This field is for entry of notes about the tour which you would like the reservation staff to see when they make bookings. For instance, if you need to ask for special information—such as a meal choice—when taking a booking, this is a good place to put that reminder.

Tour Status Fields: All new tours are given an “Active” status. Use the “Hold” value to temporarily stop-sell a tour; Non-Op” will be autoloaded at the point you cancel a tour; “Proposal” is how you designate TM records that have been created for purposes of making a Proposal; and “Template” is what you will use when you want to duplicate the TM record. Note: The codes of tours marked “Active” that are still to travel are the only ones you see to select when making Bookings.

Business/Group: To associate an entire departure with a group leader or agency, click on the “Select New Group, Company, or Agency Name. Enter a contact or company name, make a selection from the list that presents, and the group name, client #, and client’s first and last name will appear in the corresponding fields in TM.

Inclusions & Policies

If your tour has a cruise component, you can reference the ship and some related information on this layout. The fields at the bottom of the screen are used when TourTools™ is interfaced to a website.

Deadlines

Two types of deadlines can be accommodated here; payments and cancellation. If it helps, use the “Date Calculator” at the bottom of the page.

For instance, if your first cancellation date is 120 days prior to departure, type 120 in the “Enter # Days Prior” field. Then click on the “load button” (preceding the field at top right, marked with a blue arrow). Set each of the other dates in the same manner, or simply type the date if you know what it is.

There are two ways to establish your initial deposit date and amount. If you take reservations over the phone and allow a “grace period”, during which the deposit can follow, then click the button labeled “1st Deposit Relative to Booking Date”, enter the number of days of grace in the “1st Deposit Date Factor” and do not make an entry in the “First Deposit Date” field. If you require a deposit at the time of booking, you can enter today’s date (the date you create the TM record) in that field or, better yet, click the “1st Deposit Relative…” button and set the number of days to zero.

Cancellation amounts can be reflected in dollars or in percentages. For percentages, use .25 to represent 25 percent, by example; 100% will be input as 1.

All of the payment fields are referenced from the Bookings database. Whenever a payment is not received on time, the delinquent traveler will appear on a “Late Payment List”.

The same is true for cancellation penalties. When a cancellation is processed in Bookings, TourTools™ will calculate the penalty due based on your input in TM (which amounts can be overridden for special circumstances).

The dates entered in the Cancel Tour By, Air Ticketing and Tour Cut-Off fields are used by reports that can be run from the Reports menu.

Load Defaults / Business Rules

If your payment and cancellation deadlines and amounts tend to be the same for each tour, it is possible to set “Business Rules” which will be used to set the various deadline fields by clicking the “Load Defaults” button. Establishment of the rules is usually done before your system is delivered and will be reviewed as necessary with management.

Prices & Availability

Once you publish a Package, it becomes visible on this screen. In this example we have Packages typed as Option and as Cruise and since CRU has been selected, those details are listed.

If the Package contains Price/Inventory records inventoried on a per person level, you will see a reflection of the least amount of inventoried items reflected in the column labeled “Inv Blk”; the column adjacent will show the total Sold, and the Sts Av column reflects the total still available. When there are inventoried rooms in the Package, you see the lowest inventoried record represented in the S(ingle) Av and D(ouble) Av fields.

Clicking on the question mark to the far right will allow a quick look at the Package.

Origin

This screen is for entry of the meeting points, pick-up and drop-off times for the tour. These details are available to pick from in Bookings and are the basis for the Departure and Return Bus Manifests.
Click on the “Detail” button to the right to log additional information about the meeting spot. For example, you may choose to enter in directions for your drivers, specific address and telephone information.

To Do

Create To Do records here. To Do’s created in Ops or in Bookings that are related to this TM will also be visible here.

Additional “Buttons” in TM
In the “buttons bank” here in TM, you will find—in addition to the usual find and “back to’s”—one labeled “Cancel”. Use this when you need to cancel a departure. By clicking this button, you initiate a script which enables you to cancel all bookings, send cancellation letters, and change the trip to a “Non Op” status.

Use the “Proposal” button marked with the “new” icon to begin creating a Package (next chapter).

Reports Menu

Reports generated from this database are generally related to sales reports, revenue and deadlines and are compiled in the same way. Upon clicking the icon, you will be asked if you want to include all of the tours from this day forward or make a specific selection or “find”.

Tour List: An overview of tours by date, showing number sold and gross income. The report is grouped by the Destination Category.

Booking Status: Similar to the Tour List but lacking in financial information.

Sales Summary: Also similar to the Tour List but lacking detail as to whether Packages are attached.

Revenue & Expense Summary: Receipts from Bookings and payments from Ops and the difference between the two are captured on this report.

Next 7 Days Reports: These reports compile using the dates entered on the Deadlines Screen.

Profit/Loss with A/P Update; Profit/Loss by Product and Profit/Loss by Salesperson: These reports are all essentially the same, but are sorted or grouped in different ways. The first is best used to get a “big picture” look at all tours during the first quarter, by example. The second will group and present totals based on the Destination Category. The last will group by salesperson (which means the Client associated with the TM record has a Salesperson associated with it).

Labels: These labels are for your tour file folders.

If you have any questions that are not answered here Contact TourTools Support for assistance.