Making a new Group
From the Groups nav item, click + New Group. A modal opens with the four required-to-get-started fields:
Group name — what you (and the client) call it. "Gaylaska 2027", "Amalfi October", "Corporate Retreat — Cabo". Up to 255 characters.
Start date / End date — the departure window. Optional at creation, but nothing about the public page or the Financials rollup works well without them.
Brand color — hex color that drives the public booking page primary button, the portal tile accent, and (as a fallback) the internal cover gradient. Defaults to Trips cyan.
Click Create group and Trips writes the row, mints a public_id + slug, and drops you on the Group's Overview tab. All the rest of the fields (destinations, description, roommate matching, capacity) live on the Settings tab and can be filled in whenever.
The five status states
Every Group has one status at a time. The status drives what the public page shows and how the client portal treats the group.
Draft
Hidden from clients. Public URL 404s. Use while you're still building — cover, options, itinerary, hosts. The Members tab still works; you can add people ahead of time.
Open
The workhorse status. Booking page live at /g/{slug}, accepting real bookings. Tile on the client portal is bookable.
Sold out
Public page still renders but the Book now CTA becomes a disabled "Sold out" button. A "See next trip" link appears when a future Open group exists. Waitlist submissions can still be enabled per-option.
Waitlist
The whole page becomes a waitlist collector — Name / Email / party size — instead of the full booking wizard. Waitlist submissions attach to the group with Waitlist role.
Archived
Hidden from your Groups index (toggle to Archived chip to see them) and from every client portal. Public URL 404s. Every underlying Trip, member, and message stays intact. Reversible.
"Past" is different
Past isn't a status — it's derived from the end date. Groups whose dates are in the past show a Past chip on the index (behind the Past filter) and never rewrite their status.
Destinations — the shared itinerary skeleton
The Destinations section on Settings holds an ordered list of legs (city + optional country code + arrival/departure dates + notes). It behaves exactly like a Trip's destinations tab — drag to reorder, sort by date, add rows with the + Add destination button.
The important part: these entries auto-copy onto every Trip that gets created from a Group booking. A member who books your Amalfi group ends up with a Trip whose destinations tab is pre-populated with Positano, Italy → Capri, Italy → Ravello, Italy.
Roommate matching (optional)
Toggle Enable roommate matching on the Settings tab if this is a cruise / tour where solo travelers might share cabins to avoid the single-supplement. When on, members see a Roommates tab on their client portal with a compatibility questionnaire; mutual matches wait for your approval before pairing.
You can leave it off for groups where it doesn't apply (family reunions, corporate incentives). Turning it on later is safe — members see the new tab on their next portal visit. See Rooming and roommate matching.
Archiving vs deleting
Groups can't be hard-deleted from the UI, on purpose — attached member Trips would lose their group context and the Financials rollup would drift. Instead, Archive from the Settings tab (danger zone at the bottom). Archived groups:
Hidden from the main Groups index (visible behind the Archived filter chip)
Public booking URL 404s
Client portal removes the Hosted Trips tile
Every attached Trip, Contact, Payment, Message stays untouched
Un-archive with the same button any time
Frequently asked
Can I clone last year's group?
Not yet — that's on the roadmap. Today, create a fresh group, copy over the name / description / destinations / booking-page content by hand. The booking page editor takes about 15 minutes to re-fill.
What if I change the destinations after members have already booked?
Existing members' Trips are not back-filled. Only Trips created after the destination edit pick up the new legs. If you need to sync destinations onto already-booked Trips, edit each Trip's destinations tab manually.
Can I switch a Group from Open to Sold out and back?
Yes — freely. No data is lost either direction. The public page and portal tile respond in real time.
How do I know if members will see the group tile on their portal?
Members see the group's portal tile whenever the group's status is Open, Sold out, or Waitlist AND the group hasn't been archived. Draft and Archived groups are invisible on the portal.
Related
Related guides
Groups in Trips — what they are, when to use them
Groups are Trips' primitive for hosted cohorts — cruise groups, escorted tours, themed trips, corporate incentives. This article explains what a Group is, when to reach for one instead of individual Trips, and how the pieces fit together.
Group financials — sales, commission, and per-member payment tracking
How the Financials tab on a Group rolls up sales, commissions, and per-member payment status across every attached Trip's invoices. The three sub-tabs (Overview, Per member, Commission), how "days behind deposit" is calculated, and how the numbers flow into your regular Sales and Commission reports.
The public booking page — cover, options, add-ons, itinerary, hosts
The public /g/{slug} booking page editor: hero and cover images, room/cabin options with per-occupancy pricing, per-traveler add-ons, itinerary, FAQs, "Meet the host" agent + group-lead pickers, terms, and the deposit + final payment schedule.