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Step-by-step guides for organizers, chaperones and families: setting up a trip, getting parents linked, attendance, buses, rooms and more.
Start here
- Getting started: your first tripA new organizer's path from sign-up to a published trip: create it, add travelers, invite chaperones, bring in families, build the schedule.
- 10 things to set up before a band tripA checklist for band and choir directors: travel days, roster, chaperones, groups, buses, count-off numbers, rooms, luggage tags, parents and alerts.
- Trip code or personal code: how travelers and parents joinThe shared 6-character trip code, the traveler and parent doors, 8-character personal codes, and approving people who are waiting to join.
- The code or invite email never arrivedSchool and district email often holds or blocks mail from new senders. Here is what parents, students and organizers can do instead.
- Take attendanceStart a head count, mark travelers present on any phone or computer, choose Present-only or Present / Tardy / Absent, and tell staff the result.
- Working offline: what works with no signalOn the phone app, the roster, emergency contacts, schedule and attendance keep working with no signal. Changes wait on the phone and sync when you reconnect.
All topics
Getting Started
- 10 things to set up before a band tripA checklist for band and choir directors: travel days, roster, chaperones, groups, buses, count-off numbers, rooms, luggage tags, parents and alerts.
- Getting started: your first tripA new organizer's path from sign-up to a published trip: create it, add travelers, invite chaperones, bring in families, build the schedule.
- Try the demo trip firstAdd a ready-made sample trip with made-up travelers and staff, explore every feature, then remove it when you are done.
- Website or phone app: what differsOne account and the same trips everywhere. Here is what only the phone app does, what only the website does, and which to use when.
- Who The Trip Binder is forOrganizers, co-organizers, chaperones, travelers and parents: what each person sees and does in The Trip Binder.
- Working offline: what works with no signalOn the phone app, the roster, emergency contacts, schedule and attendance keep working with no signal. Changes wait on the phone and sync when you reconnect.
Trips
- Create, edit and delete a tripHow to create a trip, change its details and status, publish it, hand it to a co-organizer, archive it, and delete it.
- Duplicate last year's tripCopy a trip's schedule, buses, groups, hotels and settings into a new draft with every date shifted, instead of rebuilding it by hand.
- How to join a tripFor chaperones, travelers and parents: accept an emailed invite, or enter the trip code from your organizer, and what to do if it does not match.
- Invite a parent or guardian to the appEmail a parent a link from the traveler's page so they can see the trip, and what happens when they open it with a different email address.
- Invite chaperones and co-organizersInvite trip staff by email from Staff & permissions, share the link yourself, approve sign-ins from a different address, and remove people.
- Multi-date trips and travel daysRun a season of competitions or away games as one trip with many travel days, and mark who is not traveling on a given day.
- The trip photo albumOne shared album per trip: who can see it and add to it, approving photos first, downloading, reporting, and how many photos each plan allows.
- Trip code or personal code: how travelers and parents joinThe shared 6-character trip code, the traveler and parent doors, 8-character personal codes, and approving people who are waiting to join.
Roster
- Health informationThe six health headings on a traveler's record, who can read and change them, notes only staff should read, and when it is deleted.
- Import your roster from a spreadsheetBring in travelers from a CSV or Excel file, map the columns, re-import to update, and export your roster at any time on any plan.
- Manage a traveler's profileWhat is on a traveler's page, how to edit it, add photos, unlink an account and remove someone from a trip.
Attendance
- Away from the groupMark a traveler or staff member as away (left early, at the nurse, stayed at the hotel) so attendance stops counting them, and bring them back later.
- Bus count-offCount a bus face by face on your phone, set count-off numbers, mark attendance as you go, and send the result to every chaperone.
- Chaperone groupsSplit the trip into groups led by a chaperone, assign travelers, and optionally limit a chaperone to their own group.
- Take attendanceStart a head count, mark travelers present on any phone or computer, choose Present-only or Present / Tardy / Absent, and tell staff the result.
Communication
- Ask the staff: the chat every traveler can always useEvery traveler has a thread that reaches all chaperones and organizers at once. It is always open, whatever the trip's chat settings.
- Notifications: turn them on and fix themHow trip notifications work on iPhone, Android and the website, which kinds you can switch off, and what to check when they stop arriving.
- Send announcementsPost an update for everyone on the trip, mark it urgent or pin it, and share it with parents, who also get it by email.
- Trip chat: Everyone, Staff only, Ask the staff and direct messagesThe kinds of trip chat, who can post in each, how organizers control messaging, and how to edit, react, reply and report.
Itinerary
- Build the scheduleAdd events to the trip schedule, import a PDF, Word file or spreadsheet with AI, and pull in a school calendar that stays in sync.
- Subscribe to a trip's calendarCopy the trip's private subscribe link from the website and add the schedule to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook.
- Trip time zonesWhy schedule times show on the destination's clock, how to set or change a trip's time zone, and how to handle flights across time zones.
Portal
- Buses, hotels and the family signup pageWhere to set up buses and hotel rooms, and where families choose them. The full guide to room and bus signups lives in its own article.
- Room and bus signupsLet students and parents choose hotel rooms and buses with private links. Four room modes, signup dates, locked choices and change requests.
Account
Billing
- Cancel Pro or request a refundCancel Pro where you bought it: Apple, Google Play or the website. What happens when it ends, and how refunds work for each.
- How to upgrade to ProStart Pro from Plan & billing or from the upgrade prompt. It costs $149.99 a year and covers every trip you create.
- Plans and pricingDay trips are free at any roster size. Overnight and multi-date trips need Pro, $149.99 a year for every trip you create.
- Usage limits: AI drafts, photos, storage, emails and file retentionWhat the free plan and Pro allow for AI drafts, photos, documents, signup emails and file retention, and what has no limit at all.
- Why is my overnight trip asking me to pay?Day trips are free at any size. Publishing an overnight or multi-date trip, and adding hotels and rooms, needs Pro.
Privacy & Security
- Delete your account or get a copy of your dataDelete your account yourself on the website or in the app, what to do first if you own trips, and how to ask for a copy of your data.
- How we handle your dataA plain summary of how The Trip Binder protects trip and student information, who can see what, and what we never do.
- Who can see what on a tripWhat organizers, chaperones, travelers and parents can see, including health information, and how to keep a note for staff only.
Troubleshooting
- I can't find a featureWhere everything lives on the website and in the phone app, how to search for a tool, and why some tools only show for certain roles.
- The code or invite email never arrivedSchool and district email often holds or blocks mail from new senders. Here is what parents, students and organizers can do instead.
- Troubleshooting common problemsQuick fixes for sign-in trouble, missing codes, invite links that fail, trips you cannot see and upgrade prompts.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does The Trip Binder cost?
- Day trips are free, with unlimited travelers and chaperones. Overnight trips, multi-date trips, hotels and rooming lists need the Pro plan, which is $149.99 a year for the organizer — about $1.50 per student on a 100-student trip. Schools can pay by purchase order. Chaperones, travelers and families never pay.
- Do students and parents need an account?
- No. A trip works with only the organizer and chaperones signed in. Students can join with a trip code to see the schedule, announcements and chat. Parents can join with the same code to see their child's trip page and the announcements shared with families, and families can use a portal link that needs no account at all.
- Do chaperones have to pay or create a complicated account?
- No. Chaperones never pay. The organizer sends an email invite; you open the link, sign in with Google, Microsoft or an emailed code, and the trip appears.
- Does it work without cell service?
- Yes. The roster, schedule, attendance and count-offs are kept on the phone. Marks made offline are saved and sync automatically when the connection returns.
- Who sees medical information?
- The trip staff see the health information of the students they can see. A chaperone restricted to one group sees only that group. Parents see and update their own child's information, and it is deleted 30 days after the trip ends.
- Does the chaperone app work on Android and iPhone?
- Yes. The Trip Binder is a free download for iPhone and Android, and everything is also available in a web browser.
Still stuck?
Email contact@thetripbinder.com or use the contact page. A person reads every one.