A WhatsApp AI agent for independent tour guides, day-trip and activity operators: answer itineraries, prices, pickup points, what to bring and weather questions, and take booking requests while you are out guiding

A guide spends the day with one group while tomorrow's enquiries pile up: how long is the tour, where is the pickup, is it suitable for a seven-year-old, what if it rains, can you do Tuesday for six people. Each is a booking waiting for a reply that cannot come until the current tour ends, by which time the traveller has booked a competitor on a marketplace.

By Ritchie, ReplyKit · Published 5 October 2026 · 6 min read

The questions, and the notes that answer them

• Itinerary and duration. A short paragraph per tour with the stops and timing.
• Price. Per person, child rate, private tour rate, what is included (transport, tickets, lunch) and what is not.
• Pickup and meeting point. Exact address, a landmark, what the guide will be wearing or holding, and the latest arrival time.
• Suitability. Minimum age, walking distance, stairs, wheelchair access, pregnancy and heart conditions for adventure activities.
• What to bring. Shoes, water, sunscreen, passport for border crossings, cash for optional extras.
• Weather and cancellation. What happens if it rains, when you cancel, refund or reschedule rules.
• Availability. A note of full dates and seasonal closures.

Taking the booking request

1. The agent asks which tour, which date, and how many adults and children.
2. It checks the full-dates note and says if the date is available, then collects names, hotel or pickup point, phone and any dietary or accessibility needs.
3. It quotes the total and your payment method or deposit rule from the knowledge base, and records the request in your leads list; you confirm by hand, or the agent books into a real slot if you set tours up as bookable services with capacity handled per departure.
4. The day before, it sends the pre-tour details: meeting point, time, what to bring, your number.
5. Private, custom or large-group requests are handed over with the details already gathered.

For marketplace bookings (the big travel sites), keep those conversations in the marketplace; the agent handles your own number, which is where direct and repeat bookers come from, with no commission. Payment collection is covered in bookings with deposits.

What the guide keeps

What stays with a person:

• Custom itineraries and private tour pricing.
• Accessibility questions that need judgement about a specific person.
• Same-day changes while a tour is running (the agent can relay, you decide).
• Complaints and refunds.
• Anything safety-related for adventure activities.

Everything else, which is most of the volume, the agent handles, and when it is unsure it says so and offers a human rather than guessing; see why the agent says it is not sure.

Travellers in every language

Travellers write in their own language and expect an answer in it. The agent replies in whatever language the message arrives in, from your English notes, which for a guide is the difference between answering the Italian family and losing them. Keep names of places as you would say them to a guest, since the agent will use them. The honest limit: the agent cannot judge whether a nervous first-time hiker should attempt the hard route; it hands that over. Set-up takes an afternoon, as in how to automate WhatsApp replies.

One honest note before the setup. ReplyKit connects to your number by QR pairing, the same linked-device mechanism as WhatsApp Web. It is live in minutes and needs no Meta approval, but Meta does not sanction automation this way, so a number can be restricted. We enforce limits of 30 replies an hour and 200 a day per number with a warm-up ramp for new numbers, reply to inbound messages only, and recommend a dedicated number rather than your main line. The full picture is in our ban guide.

Starter at $29 a month covers one number, one agent, one website assistant and 1,000 AI replies; Growth at $49 adds two more numbers, five agents and follow-up nudges; the 7-day free trial needs no card. Replies you receive and messages you send yourself are free; only the agent's own messages count. Pricing is in USD and the service works in any country where WhatsApp does. What it costs in practice.

Frequently asked questions

ReplyKit is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta or WhatsApp. This article is general guidance for running a small business, not legal, financial or regulatory advice.