Tour Groups at Round Top: How Bus Tours Can Use Round Top Finder
Tour Groups at Round Top: How Bus Tours Can Use Round Top Finder
If you run tour buses to Round Top during show weeks, you already know the logistics: 40 excited shoppers, 4-5 venue stops, one driver, and a prayer that everyone makes it back to the bus on time.
What if there was a better way?
Round Top Finder just launched Tour Groups — a free set of tools built specifically for tour operators bringing groups to the Round Top Antique Show. Your guests get exclusive vendor deals, GPS bus tracking, and departure alerts. You get a smoother trip and happier customers.
Here's how it works.
Register Your Trip in 5 Minutes
Go to roundtopfinder.com/tour-register. No account needed. Fill in:
- Your name and contact info
- Group name and size
- Trip date
- Which venues you're visiting and what time you'll be at each one
That's it. You get a Trip Code and QR code that you'll share with your guests.
What Your Guests Get
When your guests scan the QR code (on the bus ride from Houston or Austin — that's 90 minutes of captive browsing time), they join your trip group in the Round Top Finder app. Here's what they see:
Exclusive Vendor Deals
This is the big one. When you register your trip, every vendor at your scheduled venues gets notified:
"Tour group of 38 shoppers arriving at The Arbors on March 28, 10am–2pm."
Vendors can then create exclusive deals — 10% off, gift with purchase, or custom offers — visible only to your tour group. Your guests browse these deals on the bus and build a shopping plan before they even arrive.
By the time they step off the bus, they know exactly which booths to visit and what deals are waiting.
Find My Bus
Every shopper's nightmare at Round Top: you've been walking fields for three hours and you can't find the bus. Bar W Field alone is acres of open ground with hundreds of vehicles.
Find My Bus shows a GPS pin of exactly where the bus is parked. One tap, walking directions. No more wandering.
If the driver has to move the bus, one tap notifies the entire group with the new location.
Departure Alerts
No more shouting across a field or sending someone to round up stragglers. The app automatically sends push notifications:
- 15 minutes before departure: "Bus leaves The Arbors in 15 minutes!"
- 5 minutes before departure: "Bus leaving The Arbors in 5 minutes!"
Everyone gets the alert on their phone. No one misses the bus.
Everything Else in Round Top Finder
Your guests also get the full Round Top Finder experience:
- Interactive map with GPS navigation to every venue
- Near Me — what's close to where they're standing right now
- Restroom finder — with walking directions (trust us, this matters in a field)
- AI search — "Where can I find a French farmhouse table?" and the app tells them which vendors have one
- Save favorites — bookmark vendors and deals to revisit
What Vendors Get
Vendors love this because they know exactly when high-intent shoppers are arriving. A tour bus isn't a maybe — those 40 people are coming, they're on a schedule, and they're ready to buy.
When a vendor creates a deal for your tour group, they're not guessing. They're putting their best offer in front of a guaranteed audience. And after the visit, they can see how many guests redeemed their deal.
What You Get as a Tour Operator
A Premium Experience
"We've arranged exclusive deals at 12 vendors across 4 venues for your group" — that's a selling point. Your trip just went from "bus ride to an antique show" to "curated shopping experience with VIP deals and concierge technology."
Fewer Logistics Headaches
- No printed schedules that get lost
- No shouting departure times
- No searching for lost guests
- No "where's the bus?" phone calls
- Everything is on their phone
Happy Repeat Customers
When guests have a smooth, deal-filled experience, they book again. And they tell their friends.
The 90-Minute Window
Here's the part most people don't think about: the bus ride.
Houston to Round Top is 90 minutes. Austin to Round Top is 90 minutes. That's 90 minutes of engaged, excited shoppers with nothing to do but look at their phones.
If they're browsing exclusive deals on Round Top Finder the entire ride — favoriting vendors, planning their route, getting excited about that 15% off at the French antiques booth — they arrive prepared, focused, and ready to spend.
That bus ride is your secret weapon. Give them something to do with it.
How to Get Started
- Visit roundtopfinder.com/tour-register
- Fill out your trip details (5 minutes)
- Get your Trip Code and QR code
- Share the QR with your guests before the trip
- Vendors get notified and create deals automatically
It's free for tour operators. No account needed. No strings attached.
We built this because we believe that when tour operators, vendors, and shoppers are all connected on the same platform, everyone wins. The vendor gets a sale, the shopper gets a deal, the operator gets a smooth trip, and Round Top gets exactly what it deserves — more people falling in love with the world's greatest antique show.
Round Top Finder is the definitive guide to Round Top, Texas — 48 venues, 1,500+ vendors, interactive maps, AI search, and now Tour Groups. Download the app or visit roundtopfinder.com.