What Is a Trip Prep Form?
After a booking is confirmed, each guest in the party receives a unique link to their trip prep form. This form collects information you need before they arrive — gear sizing, fishing preferences, dietary needs — without requiring a back-and-forth email chain.
Guests access their form via a secure token link. No Hookset account or password is required.
What Guests Fill Out
The trip prep form collects responses to the built-in fields your lodge has enabled, plus any custom questions you've added. Common built-in fields include:
- Phone number
- Skill level — self-reported fishing experience
- Preferred fishing method — fly, spin, troll, or whatever methods your lodge offers
- Wader size and shoe size — for lodge-provided gear
- Dietary notes — relevant when packages include meals
Beyond these, you can add questions specific to your operation. See Custom Guest Form Questions for the types of questions available and how to set them up.
Configuring Which Fields Appear
The fields shown on the trip prep form are controlled in Settings > Guest Forms. Each built-in field can be set to Required, Optional, or Hidden. Custom questions can be toggled required or optional individually.
Hiding fields that aren't relevant to your lodge keeps the form short and improves guest completion rates.
Tip: For day-trip operations without lodging, hide wader size and dietary notes if those don't apply. For fully guided multi-night packages, requiring skill level and fishing method helps guides prepare before meeting the group.
Viewing Submissions
On the booking detail page, open the Guests tab to see each guest's prep form status:
- Pending — the guest has not yet submitted their form
- Submitted — the form has been completed; click to view their responses
Guest responses are shown in full, including both built-in field answers and custom question responses. You can view all party member responses from the same tab without switching between pages.
No Account Required
Guests access their form via a secure token link. The link is unique to each guest and valid until the trip date. There is no login screen, no password, and no Hookset account needed.
Sending Reminders
If a guest hasn't submitted their form as the trip date approaches, you can send them a reminder:
- Open the booking from Bookings.
- Click the Guests tab.
- Find the guest with a Pending status.
- Click Send Reminder.
Hookset re-sends their trip prep form link in a reminder email. You can send a reminder as many times as needed.
Note: Hookset can also send automatic reminders based on your configured reminder schedule. Set this up under Settings > Notifications.
Customizing the Form
The built-in fields and custom questions available on your guest form are configured in Settings > Guest Forms. For details on controlling which built-in fields appear and how to add your own questions, see:
Related Articles
- Inviting Party Members — Add guests to a booking and share their individual form links
- Guest Profiles and History — How guest data is stored and accessed across trips
- Custom Guest Form Questions — Add lodge-specific questions to the prep form