FIT vs groups: two agency models, one platform

The FIT (Free Independent Traveller) model

Individual customer or couple looking for a 3-7 night trip with tee times at 2-4 courses. The agency quotes a custom package, closes it with the customer, and operates the booking.

Real pain: - Quoting takes 2-3 days (hotel rate query + per-course rate query + package assembly + VAT + commission). - Booking is manual: hotel extranet + tee-sheet extranet + email to the wholesale agency to reconfirm. - Customer changes require redoing half the quote. - Commission arrives 30-60 days later and is reconciled by hand.

How GolfStay solves it:

GolfStay V2 exposes a 4-step FIT wizard on top of the reservation engine. The agency enters, searches combined availability (hotel + courses available at the destination), applies its negotiated rate with each provider (configurable as flat or as percentage discount), generates the PDF quote, and books. Commission is calculated and shown on screen on every cart line.

When the customer changes, the agency opens the booking, adjusts, and the system redoes the math. Commission reconciliation is done via the payment processor API (Stripe), not by email.

The groups model

10 to 120 people travelling together to a destination, typically 3-7 days, with coordinated tee times at 2-4 courses. There's a group leader (the organiser), a rooming list that changes up until the day before, and a tee-off assignment that has to respect handicaps, pairs, threesomes, foursomes.

Real pain: - Rooming list managed in Excel until 48h before the trip. - Tee-offs assigned by hand, fitting handicaps + pairs into course grids. - Charging the group leader and reflecting it on each room + each GF is an admin thriller. - Individual cancellations (one of the group doesn't show up) recalculate the whole grid.

How GolfStay solves it:

The Groups module (P2, inside P1) adds on top of the engine: leader portal with rooming list upload (CSV or manual entry), automatic tee-off assigner that respects handicap + preferred pairings + course capacity, and cascading financial reconciliation. Individual cancellations only recalculate the affected tee-offs, not the whole group.

The intuition we got wrong

We initially assumed FIT and groups were different products needing different UIs. Once we started working with IAGTO agencies we discovered the opposite: a good agency does both and needs to switch between models without changing screens. A FIT travelling with a friend becomes a group of 4 when two other couples join. A big group has 3 guests arriving 2 days early — they're FIT during those 2 days.

That's why GolfStay V2 treats FIT and groups as modes of the same booking, not separate products. The same booking can have one room with 1 guest or 60 rooms with 120 guests. The same booking can have 1 tee time or 28 tee times spread across 5 days.

The agency coming to IAGTO Málaga

The first 6 IAGTO agencies already have trial access. If you run an agency and you'll be in Málaga on May 18th, book 30 minutes with us. What we'll show: on-screen quoting, a real booking against Costa del Sol, and commission visible to the cent.