# Managing bookings and availability for tourist routes

> A tourist transport operator managed bookings by phone and spreadsheet, with no clear overview of availability.

- Source canonique : [https://allaux.fr/en/realisations/reservation-transport-touristique](https://allaux.fr/en/realisations/reservation-transport-touristique)
- Langue : EN
- Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-30

## The context

The operator ran pre-booked tourist routes with limited capacity per departure. Bookings came in by phone or message and were logged manually into a spreadsheet shared among the team. This way of working made it hard to know in real time how many seats were left on a given departure, carried a real risk of overbooking during busy periods, and took up significant processing time for each request.

The goal was to enable direct online booking, with availability shown in real time and automatic confirmation, without removing the option of human contact for special requests.

## What I did

1. **Modelling departures and capacity** — Structuring the routes on offer with their time slots, maximum capacity and specific rules (operating days, period-based pricing).
2. **Online booking with real-time availability** — An interface for choosing a departure and booking directly, with the number of remaining seats updating immediately after each booking.
3. **Automatic confirmation and reminders** — Automatically sending a booking confirmation and a reminder as the date approaches, to reduce the number of no-shows.
4. **Overview for the team** — A dashboard centralising all upcoming bookings, replacing the shared spreadsheet with a single, reliable view for the whole team.

## Result

> Online booking cut the manual processing time for requests and closed the main route to overbooking on a single departure.

## FAQ

### Are phone bookings still possible?

Yes, the team can create a booking manually from the dashboard, which then counts against the same capacity as online bookings, to avoid any mismatch between the two channels.

### How are cancellations handled?

A cancellation automatically frees up the corresponding seat, immediately visible in the availability shown to the next visitors.

### Does the system handle different pricing by period?

Yes, pricing rules can vary by season or departure day, configured directly within the route setup.

### Can new routes be added easily afterwards?

Yes, adding a new route or a new departure is done from the admin interface, with no technical involvement needed.