Winery visit bookings without the phone: places, slots and prices

The phone rings when you are in the vineyard, in the cellar or already pouring a tasting. Visitors, on the other hand, often plan their outing in the evening or at the weekend, when the tasting room is closed.

A booking page answers for you: it shows the free dates, takes the contact details, takes payment if you wish and sends the confirmation. For it to work on its own, you have to give it your rules. That is what the following sections are about.

Each experience you offer becomes a listing. Write it as you would explain it on the phone:

• What is included: vineyard walk, cellar, number of wines tasted, food served with them (cheese, chocolate, a meal).
• Duration: on the pages we looked at, 1 hour to 1 hour 30 for most visits with a tasting, 2 hours or more for a masterclass or a meal.
• The language of the visit, if you welcome foreign visitors.
• Access: stairs, paths through the vines, recommended shoes, access for people with reduced mobility.
• Children: they can visit, but the minimum age for being sold or served alcohol is set by each country, not by the EU. Offer a ticket « without tasting ».

A precise listing avoids most calls: the ones asking « how many wines? », « can we come with a pushchair? » or « can the children come? ».

The number of places in a slot is the smallest of these three numbers:

1. The space in the tasting room, standing or seated.
2. The group one person can guide while keeping contact: on the pages we looked at, a masterclass or premium workshop is often limited to 6 people, while a visit with a tasting most often takes 10 to 30 people.
3. The equipment: glasses, chairs, bottles opened for one slot.

Two settings complete the capacity:

• A maximum per booking (for example 10 people): beyond that, the visitor writes to you for a group visit (section 8).
• A capacity per date, which you can lower on a harvest day or raise when you have extra staff, without touching the other dates.

What wineries charge. Prices vary a lot by country and region, and we found no European study of tasting prices. In France, the average price of a wine tourism experience booked online was €18.80 including VAT per adult in 2024, according to Atout France's wine tourism barometer (based on the bookings of one booking platform, not representative of the whole French offer). On the French pages we looked at in October 2026 (prices per adult shown to consumers, so including VAT):

These ranges come from a small sample: look at what wineries in your own region offer.

The visit also sells wine. In the same French barometer, an adult visitor spends €74.80 including VAT on average, of which €18.80 on the ticket and €56 on wine (the wine figure comes from the sales of 150 wineries listed on that platform). On those figures, wine sales weigh about three times the ticket price.

Several tickets for one visit. Adult, child or teenager « without tasting », under-6 free, « adult without alcohol » for a meal: each ticket has its own price and counts for one place.

The price shown is the total price. Before a distance booking, the consumer must be told the total price of the service including taxes (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 6(1)(e)). If you add booking fees, they are part of that total.

• Fixed start times, rather than « come whenever you like »: for example 11:00 and 14:30, with time to clear and rinse the glasses between two groups.
• Slots that repeat every week, created once for the season, then dates added or removed by hand (market day, trade fair, harvest).
• A booking deadline: a tasting in the tasting room can be booked up to an hour before; a meal or a harvest day, two or three days before so you can plan the shopping. On the pages we looked at, some wineries ask visitors to book at least the day before.
• Full or past dates show « full » or « bookings closed » without you doing anything.

Three ways to do it, chosen for each visit:

We found no published study measuring no-shows at wineries. Count them over your own season, experience by experience, and move to online payment for the ones where they cost you most (meals, small-group workshops).

What EU law says about cancellation terms. We found no EU rule on deposits or advance payments for a visit like this: what happens to money paid in advance depends on your country's contract law and on your own terms. Write in your booking terms:

• until when the visitor can cancel, and whether they are refunded (on the pages we looked at: from 30 minutes to 72 hours before the visit);
• what you keep if someone cancels late or does not come;
• what happens if you are the one who cancels.

These rules go together. The EU list of terms that may be regarded as unfair includes a term letting the business keep sums paid by a consumer who decides not to go ahead, without giving the consumer compensation of an equivalent amount if the business is the one cancelling, and a term requiring a consumer who fails to perform to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation (Directive 93/13/EEC, annex, points 1(d) and 1(e)). Our advice: refund any visitor who cancels within your deadline, refund in full if you are the one cancelling, and after the deadline keep only a sum in proportion to what you have actually committed for a meal or a workshop.

No 14-day withdrawal period for a visit booked for a set date: EU countries may not give a right of withdrawal for « services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance » (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 16(l)); a visit or tasting very probably falls under it. Tell the visitor before the booking that they will not benefit from a right of withdrawal (article 6(1)(k)). The other duties of an online booking (order button, written confirmation) are set out in our guide to winery booking software.

The reminder the day before. An e-mail the day before, with the time, the address and the cancellation link, gives a visitor who will not come a simple way to free their place.

• On your website: a « Book a visit » button visible from the home page and on the visits page.
• On your Google Business Profile: in Google Search, open « Booking » (in Maps, « Edit profile », then the booking type), click « Add link » and paste the address of your booking page (up to 10 links per category). Google's help page does not say a booking partner is required for a plain link.
• At the tourist office and on your social media: give them the same link, so that every booking arrives in the same place and counts against the same capacity.

On the day: the day's list, with the number of people and what has been paid; a ticket with a QR code, or the name, is enough to check arrivals in. When you serve, check proof of age as your country's law requires, even if an age declaration was made online.

Groups and companies (works outings, seminars, coach parties) are handled separately: a form or an e-mail, then a written offer with the date, the number of people, the price, the payment and cancellation terms, and an invoice in the company's name if it asks for one.