Waivers, booking terms and supplier contracts, signed before departure
A tour operator's paperwork has two rhythms. Before the season, you sign contracts with hotels, coach companies and freelance guides. Before every departure, each traveler has to accept your booking conditions and sign a waiver, and the stragglers always turn up at the meeting point without one. SignMaster handles both from a laptop in the office and a phone in the guide's pocket.
Updated November 5, 2026 · 4 min read
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The paperwork behind one trip
- Booking conditionsYour terms on deposits, cancellations, itinerary changes and minimum group size, accepted by the lead traveler when the booking is confirmed.
- Participant waiverOne per traveler, for activities with real risk: hiking, rafting, cycling, diving. Start from the liability waiver and have your lawyer review it.
- Health and fitness declarationConditions, allergies and an emergency contact, filled in by each traveler before an active trip so the guide knows before day one.
- Group leader contractFor school, club and corporate groups: the price per head, the rooming list deadline and who pays for no-shows, signed by the organizer.
- Supplier agreementsNet rates, release dates and cancellation terms with each hotel, coach company and restaurant. See the tour operator agreement.
- Freelance guide agreementsDay rates, the tours they lead, insurance and conduct rules for the guides you hire per season.
A waiver for every name on the roster
Most operators already export the departure roster from their booking system. Turn your waiver into a template with labeled text boxes for the trip name and departure date, then bulk send it from the roster: one row per traveler, with their name and email. Each traveler gets their own envelope with the trip printed in the waiver, signs on their phone, and gets the signed PDF back by email.
- Deadline: set a sign-by date two days before departure and let automatic reminders chase the slow ones.
- Minors: put the parent or guardian on the row as the signer for a child. See how to get a parent's signature for a minor.
- Answers in one place: health notes and emergency contacts from every waiver show up in the template's Responses tab, ready to export for the guide. Responses is on every paid plan.
Rows from a booking system export
Save the export as CSV UTF-8, or copy the rows with their header and paste them in. At the Check rows step, a row with a missing email is skipped with the reason and stays on the batch to fix; the rest go out.
Walk-ups at the meeting point
Day tours always get a few people who booked through a reseller or turned up on the day. Turn the waiver into a public signing link and print its QR code on the sign at the meeting point. Each person scans it, signs on their own phone and gets their own envelope, which the guide can see in the list before boarding. You can set the link to stop at an end date or after a number of responses, and ask for an emailed code so the address is real.
No signal at the trailhead? Collect signatures at the office or hotel pickup instead. The device needs a connection while someone signs, whether on their phone or on the guide's iPad with Sign in person.
Supplier contracts before the season
Each hotel and coach company gets the same agreement with different rates and release dates. Put those in text boxes, list the suppliers in a spreadsheet and send the season's contracts in one batch, signing in order so your contracts manager countersigns each one after the supplier. Solo sends up to 250 rows at once, Crew 500.
Travelers and suppliers can read the signing page and emails in 6 languages, Spanish and French among them. Translate the waiver itself where you need to.
Pricing for a tour company
Crew is $49 a month for 5 people, so the office and your lead guides can all send. Solo is $15 a month for one person. Both have unlimited envelopes and bulk send; a public link response counts as an envelope too. New workspaces get 14 days of Crew free. See every plan.
What SignMaster doesn't do
- It isn't a booking system and doesn't take deposits or final payments.
- It doesn't work offline. Get waivers signed where there's a connection.
- It emails signing links. Copy a traveler's link if you want to text it yourself.
- It doesn't decide whether a waiver holds up where you operate. Rules differ by country and state, so ask a local lawyer.
Questions? Answers.
Can every traveler sign their own waiver?
Yes. Bulk send the waiver from your roster, one row per traveler, or share a public link so each person signs on their own phone. Either way each signature is its own envelope.
Are electronically signed waivers valid?
An electronic signature generally counts the same as ink under US federal and state e-signature laws. Whether a waiver holds up is a separate question that depends on its wording and local law. See how to sign a waiver online.
Can a parent sign for a child on the tour?
Yes. Make the parent or guardian the signer on the child's waiver, with a field for the child's name. Many places treat waivers for minors differently, so check yours.
Can guides see who hasn't signed yet?
Yes. The batch or the public link's response list shows who has signed, and a teammate with access can check it on their phone before departure.