Inventory Control

Managing Inventory – Control at the Tour Level or at the Vendor Level?

Control Inventory by Tour & “Max Pax” Setup

 You’ll likely recall our training discussion about inventory control offered in TourTools. To summarize, inventory control can be managed at the tour level, which provides a broad overview, or at the vendor level. If you choose to inventory your contracted service records at the vendor level, your packages may include multiple inventoried options.

As you know, if the inventory is depleted, it will lead to bookings being waitlisted. Alternatively, you can allow tour control to manage the inventory. The question of whether to do this is presented here. If you answer “yes,” the total number displayed will represent the control limit for the number of passengers you can book. For instance, if you attempt to book a 51st passenger in this scenario, that booking would indeed be waitlisted.

We introduced the concept of a Max Pax record several years ago. This record essentially acts as a sole inventoried service included in your package, or it may be one of several inventoried options. To set this up, you would return to the vendor section. The coach linked to the package that I pre-created for this tour is associated with Compass Coach, a charter service. I will navigate to the product and pricing section and open the product record for the year 2025.

In the fixed cost tab, you will notice a capacity field; however, this field is purely for reference and does not exert any control over inventory. This observation is what prompted the creation of the Max Pax record.

To establish the Max Pax record, you will need to create a new contracted service record. I recommend naming it “Max Pax” and possibly tagging it with the tour code or another relevant reference, although this is not strictly necessary. Be sure to match the dates with the charter exactly.

Once in the per-person tab, you can disregard most fields. The primary purpose of creating this record is to utilize its inventory control feature. Follow the usual prompts and enter “55” as your inventory control number.

Finally, associate the Max Pax record with the package or packages you have created. It could be the only service you’ve inventoried or one of several. This setup will effectively prevent you from overbooking your motor coach.

If you have any questions that are not answered here Contact TourTools Support for assistance.