Setting up your trip.

You're the organizer. That means you get the control panel — trip settings, guest list, features, venue details, daily challenges, and awards. This guide covers all of it.

Venue & location.

The venue section has two parts: the private details (address, check-in/out, house rules, equipment) and the public area name used in the app and the Bugle.

• Area name — set automatically by the app based on the address you enter. Shown to all guests and used in the Bugle, local intel, and wildlife. You can adjust it if the auto-detected name isn't right for the area.
• Street address — private, organizer only. Used for geocoding and local intel generation. Never shown to guests.
• Postal code — used for geocoding only. Not displayed anywhere.
• Check-in / check-out times — shown on the home screen for guests. Useful to set before anyone asks.
• House rules — displayed in the app. Keep them short. "No shoes inside. Quiet after midnight. Leave the kayaks where you found them."
• Equipment — what the property provides: kayaks, fire pit, BBQ, etc. Guests see this and it prevents the same questions every trip.
• Kitchen equipment — what's available to cook with. The AI recipe generator uses this when suggesting recipes. Cooks can also upload their own recipes to their meal slot to share with the group.

Trip personality & vibe.

The vibe settings are the most underused controls in the app. They change a lot more than most organizers realize.

Managing guests.

Registration is self-serve — guests tap the link and sign themselves up. But there are a few things that need your attention.

Turning features on & off.

Not every trip needs every feature. A weekend trip with six people making their own food doesn't need the meal planner. A group that already has a chat app doesn't need another one. You can disable any non-core feature in Settings → Features.

• Meal Planner — disable for short trips, solo-cook setups, or groups that handle food themselves.
• Carpool Coordinator — disable if everyone drives separately or the trip is walking distance.
• Packing List — disable if the group prefers to manage this outside the app.
• Itinerary — disable for unstructured "just hang out" trips. Some groups find it over-organizes things.
• Group Chat — disable if your group already uses a chat app and switching would be more friction than it's worth.
• Weather — disable for indoor events or if the location makes it irrelevant.

Daily challenges.

Daily challenges are group-wide and set by you. Everyone sees the same challenge for that day. They're different from side quests, which are personal and assigned by the app.

The Morning Bugle.

The Bugle generates automatically each morning. You don't need to do anything for it to run. But there are a few things that make it better.

• Pre-trip edition — the Bugle publishes a special pre-trip issue before the trip starts. It covers the upcoming trip, who's coming, the location, and builds anticipation. This runs automatically once your trip is set up — nothing extra required.
• Trip name matters — the Bugle uses it for the masthead. "The A-Shift Gazette" is in every issue. Set it in Trip Settings before the pre-trip edition runs.
• Activity the day before — quest completions, meal ratings, tips, callouts, and challenge results all feed into the next morning's Bugle. A quiet day produces a thin Bugle. A chaotic one produces a great one.
• Tips to the Bugle — any guest can submit a tip (a quick note or observation) that the Bugle editor may include. Tips go in through the Bugle tab. Encourage guests to submit them — it's one of the best ways to get specific inside jokes into the paper.
• Content rating — the Bugle respects the trip's content rating. Change it in Settings at any time. Issued Bugles keep their original tone; the next one picks up the change.
• Radio Report — Gord's broadcast runs from the same content as the Bugle. Hit play on the Bugle page to hear it.

Running trivia & team events.

Trivia is set up in Games → Create Event → Trivia. You pick the categories and question count. The AI generates the questions. The Challenge also holds a 33-card Party Games deck (cottage classics with full rules) and a full Beach Day / Beach Olympics block for a public beach — an age-balanced draft, water-game supervisors, and an always-on safety panel. Any guest can set up and run an event or keep score; only deleting a game stays organizer-only.

Quick tips.

• Share the trip link the moment you create the trip. Waiting until a week before means half the group registers the night before.
• Set the content rating before you share the link. It affects the quest pool and Bugle tone from day one.
• Save the venue location before the trip starts. Wildlife, local intel, and weather won't load without it.
• Pre-load daily challenges for the whole week. Day-of challenge creation is fine but you'll forget on the busy days.
• Encourage Bugle tip submissions the night before. The best Bugles come from groups who feed it material.
• Add at least one custom award. Trip-specific awards always get better reactions than the generic ones.
• Pin a chat message on arrival day: wifi password, check-in details, anything time-sensitive.
• Seed the group packing list early. Early registrants will claim items without being asked.
• Run trivia on night two or three. Not night one (too tired), not night four (too nostalgic).
• The Memories Reel is curated by upvotes. Remind the group to vote on photos — they won't do it without prompting.

Free vs. paid.

The free plan is a real plan, not a demo. It covers the coordination features. The paid plan adds the AI-powered content that makes the trip feel like an event.