Band trips have more moving parts than most: a big roster, several buses, instruments and uniforms, hotel rooms, and a lot of parents. Work through this list a few weeks before you leave. Most of it is quickest on the website; the count-off and bag scanning happen on the phone.
1. Pick the right kind of trip
One tour with nights away is one overnight trip. A season of competitions with the same students is one trip with several travel days: turn on This trip has several travel days when you create it, or use Make this a multi-date trip under Travel days later. Both need Pro to publish; separate same-day trips are free. See Create, edit and delete a trip.
2. Import the roster with genders
Use Roster, then Import roster. Include a gender column if you will have boys' and girls' rooms or buses, and a type column if adults travel with you (Student, Adult or Staff). Count-off numbers can come in from the spreadsheet too. See Import and manage your roster.
3. Invite your chaperones
In Staff & permissions, invite each chaperone and any co-directors. Every chaperone sees the health information of the travelers they can see; to limit one to their own group, use Restrict to group in step 4. See Who can see what.
4. Make chaperone groups
In Groups, put each section or cabin group with the adult who supervises it. Turn on Restrict to group if a chaperone should see and mark only their own students. See Chaperone groups.
5. Set up buses
In Buses, use Add bus, then assign travelers. Staff can ride buses too.
6. Number each bus for count-off
Set the Numbering order (for example, students first, by last name), then press Number 1–N on each bus. On the phone, run a practice Bus count-off in the parking lot before the trip so chaperones know the routine.
7. Set up hotels and room choices
Add your hotels under Rooms (a Pro feature). If students and parents should choose roommates or buses themselves, set it up under Room & bus choices and pick how rooms form. See Room and bus signups.
8. Print luggage tags
Open Luggage tags on the website, choose the layout and download a PDF. Every tag carries a QR code. Fill in If this bag is found so a stranger who scans a lost bag can reach you, without seeing whose bag it is. Chaperones scan tags with the phone at load-in and load-out. See Inventory, luggage and scanning.
9. Get parents linked
Share the trip code and the how-to-join handout from Roster, then Invite travelers. Parents choose I'm a parent or guardian. For a parent whose email you have, use Invite to the app on the student's page. See Parent invites.
10. Make sure everyone gets notifications
Ask students, chaperones and parents to install the app and allow notifications. When you post an announcement, turn on Also share with parents & guardians for anything families need: parents get it by email as well as in the app. See Announcements and Push notifications.
Before departure, open the trip on every chaperone's phone once while on Wi-Fi so it works with no signal. See Working offline.