The Latest Updates to Tour Amigo

Overview

Some hotel contracts price a room differently depending on whether a child is staying in it. For example, a double room sold to 2 adults for one price, or to 2 adults plus 1 child for a different (lower) child price. Previously, Tour Amigo had no way to hide a child rate from a booking unless children were actually part of the party, so a “2 Adults + 1 Child” rate could appear even when no children were travelling.

The Child Required toggle solves this. When it's switched on for a Capacity Type, that rate:

• Only appears in the booking journey when the party includes at least one child

• Cannot be booked unless at least one child is actually allocated to that room

Setting up a child required rate

Step 1: Check the contract has a child cut-off age

Before you can enable Child Required on a Capacity Type, the contract it will sit on must have a child cut-off age set (this defines the maximum age a traveller can be to count as a “child”).

• Go to Content Libraries > Global Contracts and open the relevant contract

• Confirm a child cut-off age is entered

Note: If no cut-off age is set, the system will block you from enabling Child Required, and it will also stop you removing the cut-off age later while a Child Required rate is still using that contract.

Step 2: Enable the toggle on the Capacity Type

• Go to Hermes Config > Capacity Types

• Create a new Capacity Type, or open an existing one to edit

• Switch on the Child Required toggle

• Set the usual occupancy fields - Min/Max Occupancy and Max Adults/Children - as you would for any other Capacity Type

• Save the Capacity Type, then attach it to a rate on the contract as normal

Example setup

The table below shows some Capacity Types you might configure, including one Child Required rate:

What this looks like in your booking journey

Once a Child Required rate is live on a tour, here's how it behaves through the booking journey:

Example: 2 adults, 1 child travelling

Using the example setup above, if a user starts a booking for 2 adults and 1 child:

• The Double Room will not be offered on its own, since it can’t accommodate the child

• The Triple Room and Family Room will both be offered, since each can hold the full party including a child

• On the allocation step, the Family Room will show a reminder that a child must be placed in it, and the booking can’t be finished until that’s done

Good to know

• Existing Capacity Types and rates are not affected. The toggle defaults to off, so nothing changes unless you switch it on for a specific Capacity Type

• A Capacity Type can have both Adult Required and Child Required enabled at the same time, if a room genuinely needs both (e.g. it can never be booked by children alone)

• If a booking is amended via Cancel & Amends and a child is removed from a Child Required room, the system will flag that the room's requirement is no longer met, but this will not block the amendment — the same approach used for other occupancy shortfalls during amendments

• Date Switches support Child Required rates

• This feature does not apply to cruise cabins, which don't use Capacity Types

FAQs

What happens if an agent tries to book only adults into a Child Required room?

The rate simply won't appear as an option if no children are in the party, so this can't happen through Quick Select. If a combination is selected manually and later becomes invalid (for example, during allocation), the system shows a clear error rather than allowing the booking to complete.

What if a child is older than the cut-off age set on the contract?

The system will show an error explaining the child is too old to be allocated to that room.

Do I need to do anything to switch this feature on generally?

No. There’s no global setting to enable. The toggle is available for every Capacity Type. It simply has no effect until you turn it on for a specific one.