How Rocks Walking Tours cut booking admin with TourConnect AI
Rocks Walking Tours spends less time on booking admin with TourConnect AI
From copying and pasting to reviewing a prepared booking—with more time for guests and day-to-day operations.
Introduction
Established in 1978, Rocks Walking Tours is Australia’s oldest guided walking tour operator, bringing Sydney’s history to life through guided walks in The Rocks. Its longstanding commitment to high standards across every part of the business makes improving day-to-day operations a natural priority—and Booking Automation AI a natural fit. Behind those daily tours, the office team keeps bookings moving between affiliate partners and FareHarbor.
For partners without a direct connection to FareHarbor, that meant entering each confirmed booking by hand and sending a confirmation email. Rocks Walking Tours introduced TourConnect’s Booking Automation AI to simplify that work while keeping the team in control of the final booking.
Before TourConnect AI
Each booking started with a message from an affiliate. The team copied the details into FareHarbor, edited an email template with the booking information, then sent the confirmation back.
It was a familiar cycle of copying, pasting and switching between windows. Handling several bookings alongside other daily responsibilities made the workload particularly time-consuming.
“The process was very time-consuming, particularly when confirming multiple bookings alongside our other daily responsibilities,” says Fiorella Gioia, Office Manager at Rocks Walking Tours.
With TourConnect AI
A simpler path from affiliate booking to FareHarbor
Booking Automation AI fitted the way Rocks Walking Tours already worked with FareHarbor and its affiliate partners. It reads the incoming booking details, matches the affiliate and tour product, checks availability and prepares the booking for review.
Single booking automation, with a human check
Booking Automation AI handles both bulk and single bookings. Bulk automation processes multiple confirmed bookings sent together in one spreadsheet or email—useful when a major buyer sends a large batch, and particularly valuable for operators handling high passenger volumes, including cruise and large-capacity tour operations. Single booking automation handles one booking group per email, a common day-to-day workflow for operators across the industry.
Single booking automation has been the most useful feature for the team. Instead of manually entering every detail, staff can focus on checking the prepared draft and making any necessary corrections before finalising the booking.
That review step is central to the experience: the team decides when the booking is ready to complete.
Booking details captured
The AI reads the details supplied in the affiliate booking.
Affiliate and tour matched
The booking is matched to the affiliate and tour product.
Availability checked
Availability is checked as part of preparing the booking.
A draft ready to review
The team receives a prepared booking to check before completion.
Details checked and edited
Staff review the draft and make any necessary corrections.
The team gives the go-ahead
Staff prompt the AI to complete the booking, then reply to the affiliate.
Easy to use, with a direct route for feedback
There were some unique requirements in the setup of affiliates and formats that were sorted out by the FareHarbor and TourConnect AI teams during onboarding. Once those were resolved, the team found the system very easy to use.
Fiorella particularly values being able to provide feedback directly if an issue arises while processing a booking. “That built-in feedback option really stands out for me.”
“The biggest change for our team has been spending less time manually entering bookings into FareHarbor, freeing us up to focus on our guests and day-to-day operations.”
Fiorella GioiaOffice Manager, Rocks Walking Tours
Future
More room for guests and daily operations
For Rocks Walking Tours, the value is practical: easier booking processing, less manual administration and more time to focus on other important business tasks.
Fiorella’s advice to other operators is straightforward: “We’d recommend Booking Automation AI to other tour operators looking to save time and simplify their booking process.”
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