Comparison

Tour guide scheduling software compared: 18 tools for 2026

Updated 5 November 2026 by Ravid Efroni, founder of GuidePing, which sends guide offers on WhatsApp. Read the tool comparisons with that in mind.

Short answer

Online tour scheduling software that assigns guides to tours falls into four groups: dedicated guide tools (TourDash, Partners by Elevate, automate.travel, Tourflows, Origin, Eguide, Koalendar, GuidePing), booking systems with a guide field (Bókun, FareHarbor, Rezdy, TrekkSoft, GetYourGuide's Guides feature), German tools built for museums and tourist offices (go~mus, click-around, MICE-Pilot), and general schedulers (Picktime, Teamup). They differ in three ways: how a guide is asked (an app, a web portal, email or WhatsApp), whether the next guide is asked automatically when one says no or stays silent, and how you pay (flat, per seat, per booking or a booking fee). GuidePing is the only one we found that sends the offer on WhatsApp, reads the guide's reply and asks the next guide by your rules.

The 18 tools at a glance

How each tool asks a guide, whether the guide needs an app or login, and what happens when a guide does not answer, from each vendor's own pages read on 31 October 2026.

Tool	Built for	How a guide is asked	Guide needs app or login	Guide does not answer	Published price
GuidePing	Operators with freelance guides	WhatsApp message, reply in own words	No	Next guide asked by your rule	€99/month flat, 30-day pilot
TourDash	Free walking tours	In its app	Yes	Manager sees it; a decline shows free replacements	By bookings, €53.10 to €64.90 per 1,000
Partners by Elevate	Tour operators (ES, EN, PT, FR)	Email and request chat	Browser area, no install	Not described	Free to 5 guides, then €79/month
automate.travel	Operators on Bókun, FareHarbor, Ventrata	Web portal, push, email	Portal login	Ranked list, first to accept	Not published
Tourflows	Sightseeing, hop-on hop-off	Real-time alerts	Not stated	Not stated	USD 349 to 899/month
Origin	US outfitters	In the system or by text message	Not for replies	Ranked auto-assignment	Not published
Eguide	Guide networks and city tours	Guide portal request	Portal	Staff choose the next guide	€2.50 per private booking
Koalendar	Bookable tours with a guide	Calendar sync	Not stated	Not described	Free plan, paid per seat
Bókun	Booking system	Departures in the Bókun app	Yes	Manual	USD 49/month + 1.5% and up
FareHarbor	Booking system	Email and push in its app	Yes	Manual	No monthly fee; booking fee
Rezdy	Booking system	Mobile manifest for resource users	Yes	Manual	See vendor
TrekkSoft	Booking system	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated	€49 to €249/month (listings)
GetYourGuide Guides	GetYourGuide suppliers	Not stated that the guide is told	Profile with photo and phone	Manual	Free for suppliers
go~mus	Museums (DE)	Email with accept and decline links	Guide login	Others declined once one accepts	Not on page
click-around	Tourist offices (DE, EN)	Email reminders, internal messages	Guide login	Not described	Not published
MICE-Pilot	Tours and visits (DE)	Staff app	Yes	Not described	Not published
Picktime	General appointment scheduling	Not described	Not stated	Manual	Free plan
Teamup	Shared calendars	A sub-calendar per guide	Calendar link	Manual	See vendor

Dedicated guide management software for tour operators

TourDash

Built around free walking tours: bookings imported by forwarded email, guide availability, assignments and confirmations in its app, and WhatsApp reminders for travellers. It promises scheduling "without chasing people on WhatsApp", which means moving guides into its app (TourDash). Priced by bookings (pricing). More in TourDash alternative.

Partners by Elevate

Suggests guides by language, availability and history, and each guide accepts in a browser area without installing anything. It says plainly that it does not send notifications on WhatsApp; guides are told by email (Partners vs WhatsApp). Free up to 5 guides, €79 a month standard (Partners).

automate.travel

Sits on top of Bókun, FareHarbor and Ventrata and dispatches by rule: one guide, a ranked list where the first to accept gets it, or the whole pool. Guides answer in a web portal, by web push or email (automate.travel).

Tourflows, Origin, Eguide, Koalendar

Tourflows pairs guides with drivers by qualification and hour limits for sightseeing operators; Capterra lists USD 349, 549 and 899 a month (Capterra).
Origin, for US outfitters, ranks guides and assigns automatically; guides can accept or reject in the system or by text message (Origin).
Eguide keeps the choice with staff: they pick suitable guides and send a request the guide accepts or declines in a portal; €2.50 per private booking (Software Finder).
Koalendar can assign guides automatically, by round robin, or let travellers pick a guide, and syncs guide schedules to calendars; it has a free plan (Koalendar).

GuidePing

GuidePing reads the booking emails you already get, from any platform, and offers each tour to a guide on WhatsApp, one tour per message. The guide answers in their own words. A clear yes books them; a no or no answer in the time you set moves the offer to the next guide in your order, or to several at once where the first yes wins. A reply with a condition or a question goes to you, never to the schedule. At 18:00 you get one message saying whether every tour tomorrow is covered. €99 a month flat after a 30-day pilot. It does not sell tickets or check travellers in. See tour guide scheduling on WhatsApp.

Booking systems with a guide field

If you already use a booking system, check its guide feature first. All of these let you put a guide on a departure; the guide then sees it in that system's app or account. None of them asks the guide whether they can do it, waits for the answer and moves on to the next guide.

Bókun: guides are user resources on departures, with bulk assignment, shown in the Bókun mobile app (Bókun Help). From USD 49 a month plus 1.5% per booking (pricing).
FareHarbor: crew roles on each departure, with email and push notifications in the FareHarbor app (FareHarbor Compass).
Rezdy: guides as resource users with a mobile manifest (Rezdy Support).
TrekkSoft: resource management with qualification tracking (FitGap).
GetYourGuide Guides: pick a team member per booking in the Supplier Portal; the traveller sees the guide (GetYourGuide Supplier Help). More in assigning guides to GetYourGuide bookings.

German-language tools

go~mus sends guides request emails with accept and decline links and declines the others once one accepts (go~mus). click-around links guides to tour types and languages, and guides log in to accept or reject requests, shown as a traffic light (click-around). MICE-Pilot gives each guide a login for their tours and handles fees (Softguide). All three are built mainly for museums, tourist offices and guide associations. In German: Guides für Stadtführungen einteilen.

General schedulers and shared calendars

Picktime has a tour guide page and a free plan; it assigns shifts and sends travellers confirmations, but the page does not describe guides accepting a tour (Picktime). Teamup gives each guide a sub-calendar and keeps new bookings in their own calendar until someone assigns them (Teamup). Both work when one person assigns everything by hand. If your guides also work for other companies, ask them to share one availability sheet with you: a free tour guide availability calendar template.

How to choose guide scheduling software for day tours

Will your guides install another app? Freelancers who work for several operators often will not. Then look at tools that use email, a browser portal or WhatsApp.
Who asks the next guide? If chasing answers is your evening, pick a tool that moves to the next guide on its own (automate.travel, Origin, GuidePing) rather than one that only shows you who has not answered.
Do you also need booking pages, payments or check-in? Then a booking system or TourDash covers more, and a guide tool sits next to it.
How do you want to pay? Per booking grows with your season; flat or per seat does not.
How do your bookings arrive? If they come from GetYourGuide, Viator and your own site at once, the tool has to read all of them, by connection or by booking email.

Questions

Do I need software to schedule tour guides?

Not with two or three guides and a few tours a day: a shared calendar or a spreadsheet works. It starts to pay off when you spend the evening messaging guides one by one, when a guide's silence leaves a tour uncovered, or when bookings come from several platforms at once.

Which tour guide scheduling tools work with WhatsApp?

On the pages we read, GuidePing is the only one that sends the tour offer to the guide on WhatsApp and reads the reply. TourDash uses WhatsApp for traveller reminders, and Partners by Elevate says it does not send notifications on WhatsApp. The others use their own app, a web portal, email or SMS.

Which booking systems let me assign a guide to a booking?

Bókun (guides as user resources on departures), FareHarbor (crew roles), Rezdy (resource users), Ventrata (dispatches), Zaui (staff schedule) and TrekkSoft (resource management). GetYourGuide's Guides feature lets you pick a team member per booking and shows the guide to the traveller. In each case the guide sees the assignment in that system's app or account; none of them asks the guide on WhatsApp.

Is there software for Gästeführer in German?

go~mus, click-around and MICE-Pilot are German-language tools, built mainly for museums, tourist offices and guide associations, with a guide login. GuidePing has German pages and guides can reply in any language.

What does tour guide scheduling software cost?

From free plans (Koalendar, Picktime, Partners by Elevate up to 5 guides) to around USD 349 to 899 a month (Tourflows on Capterra). Others charge per booking (TourDash, Eguide) or a booking fee (FareHarbor, Bókun on top of a monthly plan). GuidePing is €99 a month flat after a 30-day pilot.

See it with your own tours

Forward one booking email, a guide gets the offer on WhatsApp and answers in their own words. 30 days free, then €99 a month. No card.

Start free pilot

Sources

Features and prices are what each vendor published on the date read. Check the vendor before you decide.

Tour guide availability calendar (free template)
For freelance guides: one sheet of free days for every company you guide for, a free template, and how to share it read-only.
GetYourGuide commission for suppliers
The 20% to 30% rate, the 2% for twice-monthly payouts, the 25% fee when you cancel, payout dates, VAT and a worked example.
Assigning guides to Viator bookings
Viator has no guide field: how bookings reach you, its response and cancellation rules, and an order that gets every tour a guide.
Scheduling guides for free walking tours
How tip-based tours earn money, what GuruWalk and FreeTour.com let you do with several guides, and a fair way to give out slots.