Overview
Learn how to set up a group trip, build your itinerary and pricing, create beautiful landing pages, manage sub-trips, and enable self service signup for clients.
Tern will continue to release new features for groups throughout 2025. To learn more about our roadmap, check out this article.
Creating a group trip
When you create a new trip in Tern, you'll see a new "trip type" toggle. Change that to Group Trip, and fill out the rest of the details for creation.
You'll immediately land on the group trip overview tab, where you can now create sub trips and manage group-level actions and settings.
Configuring group trip settings
First, take a look at your Group Settings on the right. These are the same settings you'll see for regular trips in Tern. But think of group-level settings as a "template" for creating new sub trips -
Any sub-trips will automatically copy these settings when they are created.
If you change these settings later, they will not automatically update your sub-trips.
Trip settings
Collaboration settings
Collaboration settings work the same way - trips created under this group will be automatically shared with the same people as the group trip.
Group itineraries
Setting up your itinerary
Next, set up your group itinerary. Just like settings, think about the group itinerary as a "template" that can be used for creating sub-trips.
Any sub-trips you create will automatically copy the group itinerary.
Any sub-trips created through self service client signup will copy the group itinerary.
If you make changes to the itinerary later, they will not automatically update your sub-trips.
Building your group itinerary is very similar to regular trip itineraries. The main differences to keep in mind are:
There isn't a concept of "itinerary status" - that will be managed on a sub-trip level.
Multiple itinerary options are not supported at the group level. You can configure multiple options or further tailor sub-trips, once created.
Creating group activities
Group activities serve as "templates" that will be copied to sub-trips. For the most part they work like any other activity in Tern. The main differences to keep in mind are -
They don't have a 'status' / ability to 'book' or mark 'paid' - those things will happen at the sub-trip level.
You won't see travelers on group activities - the activity will be copied to the sub-trip, and you can add travelers from there.
Room options
Tern recently released 'Room Options', which let you set up room selections for lodging items on any trip in Tern. This can be a great option for your group itinerary. To learn more, check out this article.
Pricing & packaging
Because group itineraries don't have travelers, you'll also notice that pricing will show "rates" not "totals".
Landing pages
Setting up your landing page
If you're interested in marketing out your group trip, you can set up and enable a landing page for it. If you want to jump right into tips & tricks for creating and customizing beautiful pages, check out this article.
From here you can add a page title if you want - otherwise we'll use the name of the group. You can also fill in overview content.
Scrolling down, you'll see the option to add featured images. Add as few or as many as you'd like - your landing page will look great with any number. We'll display up to 5 at the top of the page, and show a carousel to cycle through others if you add more than that.
You can also add additional content sections. These let you break up the page with structured content, and you can add as many as you want!
Once the content of your page is ready, we recommend enabling self service signup. More on that below.
You can also add a secondary call to action, if you'd like! This can be any link you choose to add. Check out our tips & tricks for ideas. And make sure to click 'enable call to action' when you're done.
Once your page is ready to go, make sure to enable it in the top right, and hit publish! This will publish all of the latest updates you've made to your group trip settings/itinerary, as well as landing page.
When you publish, you'll see the option to grab a direct link to your landing page, or link directly to the group itinerary
Client experience for landing pages
Clients will see all of the content you've added - featured photos and content sections. They'll also see the signup / custom call to action buttons.
They see a dynamic itinerary preview that gives them a feel for the trip, and any custom content sections you have added. They can click through to view your full group itinerary to learn more.
Self service signup
Enabling self service signup
Self service signup lets your client fill out a signup form, make any available room selections, and authorize any payments you have set up on your group trip itinerary. Once they submit a sub-trip will automatically be created for them.
To enable this, go to your landing page and turn on sign up. You can customize the button label, or edit the signup form directly.
Group trip request forms have many of the same details as regular trip request forms. The main differences to note are -
They aren't a "template" in your forms library - it's a direct signup form for your trip. Today there isn't a way to save group signup forms as a template, but it's something we plan to add in the future!
They don't have a required "basic details" section - the name and dates of the sub-trip are automatically determined by your group trip name / dates.
We require the form element "traveler details" - which is an important component for self service signup selections that are coming soon
Client experience
Clients will see the option to sign up from your landing page and group itinerary
They'll then fill out the form details -
Next, they'll be prompted to verify their email
If they don't have a Tern account yet, we'll automatically create one for them for future approvals and authorization needs.
If your group trip has any option block selections to make, they'll see those choices next
If you've set up room options, they'll make those selections next
Learn more about room options
If you've set up your group itinerary to make things 'ready for authorization', they'll see that screen next
This uses Tern's robust credit card authorization process. Learn more here.
At any point when they are finished with the signup flow, they'll land on this confirmation screen
From there they can view your beautiful itinerary - customized with their selections and authorizations - immediately
How sub-trips are automatically created
When a client signs up, it automatically creates a sub-trip within the group - copying group itinerary (with any specific selections / authorizations they have made), and any travelers added via the form.
When a sub-trip is created this way, you'll also see the specific form answers logged on the 'forms' tab of that sub-trip.
Creating and managing sub-trips within a group trip
Creating a sub-trip yourself
You can also create sub-trips yourself! The experience is almost identical to creating a regular trip in Tern. The main difference you'll notice is that group settings are automatically copied into the trip creation modal. Don't worry - if you need to adjust something specific, like the 'travel end date' if this particular client plans to stay longer - you can do so without a problem.
Once you create your sub-trip, you'll see it appears immediately in the table. For now you'll be able to see the name, lead client, dates, and status for all of the sub-trips in this table. In the future Tern will support additional management and reporting views, to help you easily look across all your sub-trips.
Managing a sub-trip
If you click into a sub-trip, you'll see it looks a lot like a regular trip in Tern. That's because it is! There are a few specific differences we'll call out in this article, but for the most part it functions the same way as any other trip.
All of your trip planning tabs - the itinerary, tasks, pricing, authorization, and more - work just like any other trip.
You can customize the settings and dates for this sub-trip at any time, and it won't impact the group trip or other sub-trips.
Previewing, publishing, and the client experience will function just like any other trip.
A few group-specific differences -
When you duplicate a sub-trip, it will be duplicated into the same group trip the sub-trip is in
You'll see a new option to move this sub-trip out of the group trip, if you'd like to do so. This won't impact any of the details of your trip.
Managing your group trip
As of right now, Tern supports group-level tasks, emails, notes, and activity. These are just the first versions of these experiences for groups, and Tern plans to enhance them over time.
One important note is that your workflow auto-apply logic will not apply to group trips. It will still apply to sub-trips within your groups. We do plan to support group-level workflows in the future.
Group tasks
Group tasks work like any other trip task in Tern - they are just on your "group trip", instead of sub trips within your group.
Group emails
Group emails let you send an email to any traveler on a sub-trip, right from your group trip inbox. In the future we plan to introduce improved ways of targeting travelers and tailoring your emails/variables across your group. For now, this can be a great shortcut - but there are a few things to keep in mind -
If you have an email integration set up with us, emails send as one thread to everyone selected. Keep that in mind for the types of emails you send.
Variables currently queue off the group trip, not sub trips. So we don't support variables to avoid confusion. (Eg if you tried to send a trip link, it would use the group trip itinerary link in this case - which doesn't exist yet).
In this example, Mary and Molly are from two different sub-trips, but I can send an email to both of them at the same time.
Also please keep in mind that emails sent from the group-trip level won't show up at the sub-trip level, unless you change their trip categorization on the right. Currently an email thread can only be associated to one group or sub-trip.
Group notes
Group notes work like any other note in Tern - they are just on your "group trip", instead of sub trips within your group.
Group activity
For now, group activity just lists specific activity at the group-trip level. So things like when the group trip shell was created, when notes are added, and when status changes.
Moving regular trips into groups
When viewing one of your regular trips in Tern, you'll see a new option to "move to group" in the menu. Please keep in mind that regular trips moved into group trips retain all of their current settings and itinerary items. If you'd like to use the default settings or itinerary from your group, we recommend creating a sub-trip from the group directly instead.
When you do so, you'll be able to add it to any group trip you've created.
After moving the trip into the group, you'll see it listed as a sub-trip:
Organizing group trips and sub trips
When looking at your trip board or table, you'll notice a few new things for groups!
First, in your trip filters -
You'll see new options to filter by trip type. Many of you may choose to hide sub-trips, and then just use the group trip as the entry point to manage sub-trips.
Next, as you create group trips and sub-trips, you'll notice they look a bit different on your board/list. On the trip board, you'll see that group trips show the number of sub-trips they have. And sub-trips list the group trip they are associated with.
On the list view you'll also see the number of sub-trips associated with your group, and the associated group trip for your sub-trips.
