New feature: run a tour or class only when a minimum number of participants is reached

It is a fairly common requirement for many tour companies: you offer a very special, unusual tour, which may not always attract many visitors. To run the tour costs time, money, fuel, etc.

Or you may have a one-off class or a course, and you are not sure about how much interest it will attract, and you only want to run it if there are enough participants.

So how do you make sure that you remain profitable, by running a tour or class only when a minimum number of participants is reached?

This is now easy with Bookeo.

It has always been possible to enable the "Accept/deny" feature for a tour or class. When this is enabled, customers do not make a booking online, but only a "Request". It is up to you then to accept pending requests. When you accept, an email is sent to the customer, and if there is a payment required, the customer must pay within a certain time to confirm the booking.

It is now possible to go even further. You can tell Bookeo to automatically accept pending requests for a tour or class, when a minimum number of participants (across all bookings and pending requests) has been reached.

This makes the handling of special tours and classes with minimum participants requirements totally automatic:

• bookings are just pending requests (not confirmed)
• when the minimum number of participants is reached, bookings are automatically confirmed, pending payment

As tour operator/school manager you can now set all this in auto-pilot, and focus on running your business rather than tracking requests, pending payments, and all the boring administration!

New features released

As part of our ongoing development, we've just introduced several new features in Bookeo.

• added option to enable/disable a resource so that it cannot be seen or booked by customers. This is useful for example when a staff member resigns. For a full tutorial, see http://help.bookeo.com/customer/portal/articles/1087998-what-should-i-do-when-a-staff-member-resigns-
• added in gift vouchers settings an option to allow customers to purchase vouchers for events even if there are no future dates scheduled yet
• Bookeo will now show a customer his money credits when he signs in to the Customer area
• added an option to automatically accept all bookings in a tour/class when a minimum number of participants is reached. This will be illustrated in more detail in the next post.
• added application periods for taxes. You can now tell Bookeo that a tax only applies during certain periods (ex. a new tax being introduced, or an existing tax being removed)

As usual, all these improvements were suggested by our customers over time.

Thanks for your ideas, and keep them coming!

New Mobile Booking Interface

Bookeo now sports a brand new mobile booking interface!

Your customers can make and change bookings, check their profile, enroll in memberships, and much more, all from their smartphone and tablet devices.

Bookeo will automatically detect mobile devices and will present them an interface designed appositely for the device's capabilities and screen size.

The new interface sports large controls, simplified navigation, and an overall "mobile" feel with which your customers will be immediately familiar with. And all this without sacrificing any of the powerful features offered by Bookeo, such as secure online payments and deposits, booking cart, prepaid credits, promotions, gift vouchers, photo and video galleries, options, and so much more.

As for the desktop version, the new mobile interface is so easy to use that there is no need for instructions on how to use it. Just try it by visiting your booking page using your smartphone or tablet!

Do I need to change anything in my settings or in my web site to use the new mobile interface?
No. You do not need to change anything. Bookeo will automatically detect mobile devices and will automatically display the interface optimized for the device.

I embedded the booking widget in my web site. Does the widget still work for mobile devices?
Yes. If the widget detects a mobile device it will automatically "zoom in" so that the booking interface takes full screen on the device, allowing larger controls, and easier navigation for your customers.

Following are some random screenshots that show the various functionalities in mobile devices. But best of all... try making a booking using your smartphone yourself, to see how it works!


The new mobile interface has been in beta testing for a while, and was progressively rolled out to our customers around the world during March. Thanks to all the customers that provided feedback and suggestions to improve the interface!

booking a personal appointment

choosing a tour

viewing a list of upcoming classes

accessing the customer area