User guide
Travelers, tour companies and guides — three sides connected by one booking. This page walks through the whole flow, how each side uses AnnaiDesk, and the rules for being listed on the home page.
Who uses what
Four roles, three screens
Everything runs in the browser. Nothing to install.
Travelers
annaidesk.comTour pages
Find a tour, pick a date and group size, and send a booking request.
LoginNo login
Tour companies
Company dashboardadmin.annaidesk.com
Admins and staff run tours, bookings, guide assignments and payouts.
LoginUsername and password
Guides
Guide appguide.annaidesk.com
Answer requests, guide with the tour sheet on the day, and send expenses.
Login6-digit code sent by email
AnnaiDesk team
Company dashboardPlatform menu
Reviews and approves company sign-ups and looks after the service as a whole.
LoginUsername and password
One booking
The road one booking travels
From the first request to paying the guide: eight scenes, each with who does it and on which screen.
Traveler · annaidesk.com
Send a booking request
Pick a date, time and group size on the tour page and send. For shared tours, choose a departure with seats left. A confirmation email arrives.
Booking statusNew
Tour company · Company dashboard
Reply with a quote
The request lands in the inbox. Build a quote (PDF, Japanese or English) and reply by email.
Booking statusQuoted
Tour company · Company dashboard
Confirm and record payment
When the customer agrees, confirm the booking and send the confirmation. Payments received are recorded on the booking.
Booking statusConfirmed
Tour company · Company dashboard
Ask a guide
AnnaiDesk suggests guides who are free and match the language and area, and warns about clashes with their other companies. Set the fee and a reply-by date, then send.
Guide · Guide app
Accept or decline
The guide sees the date, meeting point, group size and fee before answering. The company is notified right away.
Guide · Guide app
Guide the tour with the tour sheet
Meeting point, guest details and itinerary are on the phone. It opens without signal, and can show a name board for the pickup.
Booking statusCompleted
Guide · Guide app
Send expenses
Tickets and transport: snap the receipt and send it on the spot. The company reviews and approves.
Tour company · Company dashboard
Settle and pay each month
Guide fees, approved expenses and advances roll up into a payment statement. The guide can issue an invoice for the same amounts.
If a booking is cancelled, the fee is calculated from the company’s cancellation policy, and any assigned guide is notified.
For companies
How tour companies use it
Once approved, you can start the same day. After that, the everyday work happens on one screen.
The first three steps
- 1
Apply
Use the form on the home page: company name, contact person and a username for logging in.
- 2
Wait for approval
Our team reviews the application. When the approval email arrives, you can log in straight away.
- 3
Work through the checklist
Company details and logo → add guides → first tour → first booking → publish a tour.
01
Tours
Internal details (prices, guide fee, notes for guides) are kept apart from the public page (Japanese and English, photos, itinerary). Shared tours get departures, created in bulk.
02
Bookings & inbox
Requests from public pages and bookings entered by hand live in one place, tracked by sales channel (OTAs, agents and more), as a table or a kanban board.
03
Guides
Invite by email, import a CSV, or search for guides who have turned on “let companies find me” and invite them.
04
Calendar
Bookings by month, week and day, plus a guides × days timeline. Drag to change dates or guides.
05
Documents & email
Quote and confirmation PDFs, email templates in Japanese and English, and a history of what was sent.
06
Expenses, payouts & dashboard
Approve expenses, prepare monthly payouts and statements, and see revenue, profit, and page views through to requests.
Admins and staff
A company has two kinds of members. Money and settings are for admins only.
| Admin | Staff | |
|---|---|---|
| Tours, bookings, guide assignment, calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Create and send quotes and confirmations | Yes | Yes |
| Approve guide expenses and payouts | Yes | No |
| See profit | Yes | No |
| Add members and set roles | Yes | No |
| Company settings, public page, home page listing | Yes | No |
For guides
How guides use it
Free for guides. One account, linked to as many companies as you work with, and one calendar for all of them.
Three ways to connect with a company
Get invited by a company
Log in from the link in the invitation email and accept.
Sign up yourself
Use the form on the home page, then log in with the code sent to your email.
Be found
Turn on “let other companies find me” in your profile and companies can search for you and invite you.
01
Requests
See the company, tour, date and time, meeting point, group size, fee, advance and reply-by date, then accept or decline.
02
Calendar
Every company’s tours, colour-coded. Block days off or a regular weekly day off, and show it all in Google Calendar (iCal).
03
Tour sheet
Saved on your phone for the next 7 days. If the company changes something it is marked “Changed”, and you can tell them you have seen it.
04
Money
Send expenses, see earnings by month and company, create invoice PDFs, and export a yearly CSV for your tax return.
What each side can and cannot see
Companies only see “busy”
Work for another company shows as busy, nothing more. Not which company, not which tour.
Guides only see their own work
The tour sheets for bookings assigned to them, and their own fee. Selling prices, commissions and profit are never shown.
A company’s data stays its own
Customers and bookings are not visible to other companies.
Listing rules
Who appears on the home page
Each company decides for itself. When these three things are true, it appears on the annaidesk.com home page and in tour search.
01
The company is active
Approved by our team and not suspended.
02
Listing is switched on
An admin turns on “Feature our company on the home page” under Settings → Public page. It starts off and can be turned off again at any time.
03
There is a published tour
At least one tour that is on sale (not archived) and published. Publishing needs one photo plus a title and summary in Japanese or English.
Where things appear, and how
Home page map and tours
What is shown: Tours from listed companies
How many, in what order: Up to 9. To keep any one company from filling the row, tours are taken one per company in turn. Within a company, the company’s own order is used.
Home page companies
What is shown: Logo, description, areas, number of tours
How many, in what order: Up to 8 companies, earliest sign-ups first.
Tour search
What is shown: Every published tour from listed companies
How many, in what order: No limit. Filter by prefecture, city and guide language, and sort by price.
Company and tour pages
What is shown: Published tours
How many, in what order: Open to anyone with the link even when listing is off — use them from your own site or social media.
The order when three companies are listed
- A1
- B1
- C1
- A2
- B2
- C2
- A3
- B3
- C3
Tours from companies A, B and C alternate, one at a time.
- Switching listing on or off, or editing a tour, shows on the home page within about a minute.
- A tour with no translation in the viewer’s language is shown in the company’s default language.
- There is no way to pay for a higher position.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free for guides?
Yes. Every feature of the guide app is free. Only tour companies pay.
A guide also works for other companies. What can we see?
Only that the time is busy. Not the company name or the tour. Clashes are checked automatically when you assign.
If we turn listing off, what happens to our company page?
The company page and tour pages stay and open from their URLs. They are removed from the home page and tour search.
Do customers pay through AnnaiDesk?
No. There is no online payment. The company records payments it receives from the customer on the booking.
What can staff see?
Tours, bookings, guide assignment and the calendar work the same as for admins. Profit, guide payouts, members and company settings are admin-only.
Do we need to install anything?
No. Both the dashboard and the guide app run in the browser. Add the guide app to the home screen and it works like an app.
Which languages are supported?
The screens are in Japanese and English. Tour pages, quotes, confirmations and emails can also be created in both.