.png)
Last-minute and same-day bookings are no longer a niche trend; they're a significant and growing part of the travel landscape. For savvy experience creators and tour operators, this means a golden chance to fill more seats and maximize revenue.
But it also brings a critical question for many: How do you flexibly manage your day to welcome these eager, on-the-go customers without disrupting your planned operations?
Introducing new Cut-off controls
GetYourGuide is putting more control directly into your hands. We've recently updated how you set booking cut-off times to offer more flexibility for partners that do not use an external reservation system to manage their bookings on GetYourGuide.
The main change allows you to move away from a single deadline and instead set specific cut-off times for each time slot. This gives you smarter levers to manage your day, and capture last-minute demand.
What do we call cut-off time?
Think of a cut-off time as the latest possible moment a customer can book your activity before it starts. For example, if your tour starts at 11:00 AM and you set a 3-hour cut-off time, bookings are possible until 8:00 AM on that same day.
Setting the right cut-off times when creating your activity is important. It can really help you get more bookings and sell more.
Why use different cut-offs?
Moving beyond a single deadline simply means smarter planning. It lets you protect prep time when needed, while strategically opening the door to capture more bookings when you have the capacity. Let's look at two key ways this plays out:
Secure preparation time when it matters most
Some departures, often early morning slots or those requiring complex logistics, need more preparation time. Unexpected late bookings for these periods can disrupt workflows and potentially impact service quality.
For example, you might want a 10-hour cutoff for your 9:00 AM tour, meaning customers need to book by 11:00 PM the night before. But for your 2:00 PM tour, you might be happy with a 10-minute cutoff, letting people book up until 1:50 PM.
With the new settings in the cut-off page, you can set longer cut-offs specifically for these demanding time slots (up to the system maximum) and customize your setup.
By setting an earlier deadline just for your 9 AM tour, for instance, you guarantee your team the necessary lead time, without affecting availability for your less demanding slots later in the day.
Recommended read: Setting up cut-off times for your product
Maximize revenue with targeted last-minute availability
On the flip side, maybe your afternoon walking tours or mid-week museum entries can easily accommodate guests who decide to join closer to the start time. Closing these slots off hours in advance could mean missing out on bookings, especially given how many travelers make decisions on the go.
This is where shorter cut-offs do well. For time slots where you have more flexibility, set a much shorter deadline – maybe 60 minutes, 30 minutes, or even less before the start time.
To take it a step even further, if you're certain a specific departure is running and you have empty seats you'd love to fill, you can enable the zero-minute cut-off.
Once the very first booking comes in for a specific time slot (confirming that departure is running), the system automatically overrides your default cut-off and sets it to zero minutes. This means your product remains bookable right up to the start time of your experience.
For example, let’s say you’ve selected a default cut-off of 3 hours or your 2:00 PM tour. As you as a traveler made a booking for that time slot, your original cut-off time is removed and becomes 0 minutes. This means other travelers can now book that same 2:00 PM tour right up until the last minute, 2:00 PM.
This allows you to capture impulse purchases and fill seats right up until the start time, which is particularly effective for boosting occupancy during traditionally slower periods.
Recommended read: Setting up cut-off times for your product
Making cut-offs part of your daily strategy
Think of your cut-off settings not just as deadlines, but as adjustable levers within your overall strategy. Consider how you can integrate them in your daily plan:
- Match resources: Does staffing fluctuate during the day? Align your cut-off times accordingly. Allow later bookings when you have more hands on deck.
- Meet demand: Use shorter cut-offs to capitalize on known peak times for last-minute bookings (e.g., weekend afternoons when travelers are on the go).
- Stand out: Offering flexible, last-minute options can make your products more attractive compared to competitors with long cut-offs.
- Improve efficiency: Clearer, slot-specific rules, mean less guesswork for your team and smoother execution overall.
Try it out
Ready to experiment? Here’s a practical way to approach it:
- Analyze your schedule: Identify which specific time slots consistently need more prep time versus those that could handle (and benefit from) later bookings. Where are your operational pressure points? Where is an opportunity?
- Start incrementally: You don't have to change everything at once. Pick a couple of key time slots – maybe your earliest morning one and a typically quieter afternoon one – and adjust their cut-offs first.
- Observe: Keep an eye on how things go. Are operations smoother for the early slot? Are you seeing more last-minute bookings for the afternoon one? Are cancellations affected?
- Refine: Based on what you learn, continue adjusting cut-off times across your listings until you find the balance that works best for your operation.
Important note: Remember that these customer, per-slot cut-off controls apply to options managed directly within our platform. If your availability is connected via an external reservation system (API), your cut-off settings will continue to be managed through that system.
The takeaway
- Move beyond a single cut-off setting for the whole day and set different cut-offs for different time slots – it gives you more control.
- Set longer specific cut-offs for early or complex departures to guarantee smooth operations when you need it most.
- Use shorter cut-offs for flexible slots. Even better: use the zero-minute cut-off feature to automatically allow last-second bookings to help fill remaining seats.
- Tap into the growing trend of spontaneous bookings to fill more spots, and open doors to new revenue streams.
Ready to give it a try? Head over to your products in the Supplier Portal and adjust your cut-off times.
Get started.
Connect with travelers looking for exactly the kind of experience you offer by signing up today.
