For guided tours & side activities
Use caseTIDEFORCE lets you sell guided tours, downwinders and side activities in the same checkout as your courses and rentals
Operational effectplan the tour, the guide and the boards on the same whiteboard your team already runs the day on.
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TIDEFORCE is the Commerce & Operations Platform for outdoor sports schools. So how do you sell and run guided tours and side activities? You sell them in the same real cart as everything else you offer — a guided downwinder, a coastal tour, a sunset paddle or a side activity goes into one checkout alongside courses, lessons and rentals, gets paid in one transaction, and lands directly in the operating layer where you plan the tour itself. The tour isn't a separate booking widget bolted onto your site; it's one of the 12 things you can sell in a single cart, on the same connected data as the rest of your day.
That's the point of running it on one system: the tour someone books, the capacity it fills, the participant data you collect, the guide you assign and the boards that go out are all the same connected data, not five disconnected tools. The sale and the operation behind it share one data layer — so when a tour fills up, when a guide is assigned, or when the plan shifts, you're working from one picture instead of reconciling a booking form against a spreadsheet.
What it does
Sell tours and side activities in the same checkout
Tours and side activities live in the same single cart as courses, lessons, rentals, camps, shuttles, accommodation, lockers, add-ons and vouchersa real 12-type checkout, not separate forms stitched togetherRead moreRead less→
Tours and side activities live in the same single cart as courses, lessons, rentals, camps, shuttles, accommodation, lockers, add-ons and vouchers — a real 12-type checkout, not separate forms stitched together. A guest can book a beginner course, add the guided tour later in the week, reserve a board rental and buy a voucher for a friend in one transaction and one payment. The checkout is built mobile-first, so someone deciding to join a sunset tour from their phone on the beach can actually complete it in the moment.
Capacity and participant data per tour
Each tour has its own capacity, set per slot, per activity, per day and per seasona guided tour fills to exactly the number of spots you can safely take outRead moreRead less→
Each tour has its own capacity, set per slot, per activity, per day and per season, so a guided tour fills to exactly the number of spots you can safely take out — and not one more. As people book, you collect the participant data you need for the group, and confirmations and reminders go out automatically so the people you're taking on the water actually show up at the right time and place.
Plan the tour and the guide on the whiteboard
A booked tour isn't doneit still has to runRead moreRead less→
A booked tour isn't done — it still has to run. The real-time whiteboard and timetable is where the tour becomes a real plan: you assign the guide or instructor to the tour, group the participants, and attach the boards and gear they'll take out. When the wind picks up or the calm-water window shifts, you drag the tour to a new slot, regroup paddlers and reallocate the guide, and everyone working sees the same board update. Wind and conditions are entered by your team — you stay in control of the call, the software just keeps the plan straight.
Tours linked to gear and the rest of the operation
The boards, paddles and equipment that go out on a tour are tied to real items in inventoryyou can see what's out on the water and what's free for the next walk-in or the next tourRead moreRead less→
The boards, paddles and equipment that go out on a tour are tied to real items in inventory, so you can see what's out on the water and what's free for the next walk-in or the next tour. Seasonal pricing — high, mid and low season by date range, per activity and per location — and Pricing Modes let a tour cost what it should across the year, and your team can take walk-in tour bookings at the desk that land in the same plan as everything booked online.
Surface partner offers and experiences in the Guidebook
Beyond the tours you run yourself, the built-in Guidebook is a curated guest layer where you share local spots, recommendations, partner offers and experiences in your own voiceIt travels with the bookingRead moreRead less→
Beyond the tours you run yourself, the built-in Guidebook is a curated guest layer where you share local spots, recommendations, partner offers and experiences in your own voice. It travels with the booking, so a guest exploring "what should we do today?" finds the side activities and partner experiences you'd actually send them to — presented as part of your school's experience, not a crowd-sourced directory.
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The recap
Read details →
| The tours & side-activities reality | How TIDEFORCE handles it |
|---|---|
| Selling a tour separately from courses and rentals | Tours and side activities in the same 12-type cart, paid in one transaction |
| Overbooking a tour you can't safely run | Capacity per slot, activity, day and season — fills to exactly your spots |
| Knowing who's coming on the water | Participant data per tour, with automatic confirmations and reminders |
| A guide and boards still have to be assigned | Plan the tour, guide and gear on the real-time whiteboard |
| Conditions move the tour | Drag the tour to a new slot, regroup, reallocate; everyone sees it at once |
| Side activities and partner experiences | Curated in the Guidebook as a guest layer (direct booking from an entry is on the roadmap) |
Pricing is a take-rate of 6.9% per processed transaction, payment fees included, with no setup or monthly fee. You can import your customers and material yourself by CSV, or we'll do a full migration from your previous system with you. Hosting is in the EU on Google Cloud, GDPR-compliant, and your data stays yours — TIDEFORCE is not a marketplace. You can go live with your core offer fast, with guided onboarding.
Frequently asked questions
01Can guests book a guided tour in the same checkout as a course or rental?
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Yes. Tours and side activities are part of the same single cart as courses, lessons, rentals, camps, shuttles, lockers, add-ons and vouchers — a real 12-type checkout. A guest can combine a tour with other things in one transaction and pay once, and it all arrives as one connected booking.
02How do I control how many people join a tour?
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Each tour has capacity set per slot, per activity, per day and per season, so it fills to exactly the number of spots you can take and not one more. You collect participant data as people book, and confirmations and reminders go out automatically.
03How do I plan the guide and the boards for a tour?
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On the real-time whiteboard and timetable. You assign the guide or instructor to the tour, group the participants by level, age and language with manual drag-and-drop, and attach the boards and gear they'll take out. When conditions shift you drag the tour to a new slot and everyone working sees the same update.
04Does TIDEFORCE track the tour route or show a live map on the water?
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No. TIDEFORCE sells and plans the tour — checkout, capacity, participants, guide and gear — but it does not do GPS route tracking, live tour maps or waypoint navigation. It runs the booking and the operation behind it, not on-water navigation.
05Can guests book a side activity or partner experience straight from the Guidebook?
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Not today. The Guidebook is a curated experience layer where you share local spots, partner offers and experiences in your own voice. Booking a recommended activity directly from a Guidebook entry is on our roadmap, not something the product does yet. The tours and side activities you run yourself are sold in the checkout.
06What does it cost, and is my data safe?
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A take-rate of 6.9% per processed transaction, payment fees included, with no setup or monthly fee. Hosting is in the EU on Google Cloud, GDPR-compliant, and your data stays yours. TIDEFORCE is not a marketplace sitting between you and your customers.
See how TIDEFORCE fits your school
In a short demo, we'll walk through your real workflows: services, booking, planning, team, guests, inventory, guidebook and shop.
We map your real school day first, then show only where TIDEFORCE actually fits.