Making wine tastings bookable online: a guide for wineries

A wine tasting becomes bookable online once you settle three things: the format with its duration and seats, the price per person with a payment rule, and the times at which you want to receive guests. Then you put the booking on your website, and guests pick the date and number of people themselves. This guide walks through the decisions in order.

Which formats work?

Most wineries manage with two or three formats. More choice slows the booking down and clutters your calendar.

How many seats and which times?

• Work out the seats from the room: seats in the tasting room, standing room in the cellar, glasses, and how many guests one person can look after properly.
• Plan buffers. After a 90-minute tasting you need time to clear, wash up and sell. Thirty minutes between two sessions is a sensible start.
• Set a lead time, for example booking until 6 pm the day before. That way you know in the evening whether you will be in the cellar or the vineyard tomorrow.
• Block the harvest and your holidays in the calendar early. Cancelling a booked session costs more trust than never offering it.
• If the tasting room and the cellar are needed for different formats, plan them as rooms so that two sessions cannot overlap.

Which price and which payment rule?

A price per person is the easiest for guests to understand. Say what is included: number of wines, duration, bread or a platter, the tour. Whether you credit the amount against a wine purchase is a business decision. Crediting encourages sales; a fixed price without credit makes the tasting an offer in its own right that pays for itself even without a purchase.

Prepayment at booking solves two problems at once: people who have paid turn up, and you do not have to take money on site. For private groups a deposit is often enough. You bear the fee for the online payment. For Austria, Stripe lists 1.5% + € 0.25 for standard EEA cards (as of 11 October 2026).

Worked example: two open tastings a week with ten seats each at € 25, eight seats filled on average. That is 16 guests and € 400 a week, around € 1,730 a month. If guests mostly book in pairs, that makes about 35 payments of € 50. The payment fee is then 35 × (€ 0.75 + € 0.25) = € 35 a month. Wine sales after the tasting come on top and are usually the larger part.

What applies to cancellation and withdrawal?

For most online purchases, consumers can withdraw within 14 days. That does not apply to leisure offers with a fixed date: in Austria, section 18(1)(10) of the Distance and Off-Premises Contracts Act (FAGG) excludes services related to leisure activities where the contract provides for a specific date or period. In Germany, the same exception is in section 312g(2) no. 9 of the Civil Code (BGB). By its wording, a tasting booked for a particular day falls under it.

So you set the cancellation deadline yourself, and you should state it clearly before booking. Free cancellation up to 24 or 48 hours ahead is common; after that you keep the amount paid. For groups with food that you have to buy in, longer deadlines are defensible. Also say what happens if you have to cancel: a new date or money back.

What should you bear in mind with vouchers?

Tasting vouchers sell mainly before Christmas and bring guests who do not know you yet. For Austria, the Economic Chamber notes (as of 15 October 2025): without a time limit, vouchers are valid for 30 years. Paid value vouchers with a limit of three years or less that appears only in standard terms or on the form have been held impermissible by the Supreme Court. If the limit is void, the long period applies again. Free vouchers, as a thank-you for instance, may carry short limits.

In practice: sell value vouchers for a euro amount and keep track of the remaining balance. If a voucher is for a specific service, such as a tasting for two, decide what applies after a price increase. Germany has different periods, which we did not check here.

What rules apply to serving wine?

There are no special rules for the online booking itself. What matters is the basis on which you pour. In Austria, the Buschenschank, the traditional wine tavern of a grower, is exempt from trade law under section 2(1)(5) of the Trade Act (Gewerbeordnung). Section 2(9) describes it as the serving of their own produce by owners of vineyards and orchards. Cold food is allowed as far as that is customary in the respective federal state; hot food is not allowed on this basis. Details such as registration and opening periods are set by the Buschenschank laws of the federal states.

Whether a paid tasting with food falls under the Buschenschank, farm-gate sales or a hospitality trade in your case depends on your business and your federal state. We could not verify a general statement on this. Ask your Chamber of Agriculture or Economic Chamber before you add hot food or bought-in products. The same goes for whether and how you have to record payments in a cash register.

The steps in order

1. Define the formats: name, duration, number of wines, seats, price per person.
2. Enter the times: fixed dates for open tastings, time windows for private ones, blocked days for harvest and holidays.
3. Choose the payment rule: prepayment for individual seats, a deposit for groups, plus the cancellation deadline.
4. Write the texts: what is included, meeting point, parking, whether children and dogs are welcome, a note for drivers.
5. Place the booking prominently on your website and put the link in your Google Business Profile and your social media profiles.
6. Set up vouchers and promote them in good time before Christmas.
7. Review after four weeks: which sessions stay empty, which are always full, and whether the group size fits.

How this works in EachVisit

In EachVisit you set up open tastings as sessions with a set number of seats and private tastings as single appointments with a maximum group size. Lead time, booking horizon, weekly schedules and blocked days are set per offer, and the tasting room and cellar can be planned as rooms. For each offer you choose payment on site, a deposit or prepayment, with a cancellation deadline. Guests buy vouchers online and redeem them when booking; the remaining balance is kept. Guest rooms and tables in the wine tavern run in the same system. Everything is included from the Klein plan at € 69 a month, with 0% commission. Stripe's fees apply. What is missing: an online shop for bottles, a till for farm-gate sales, a waiting list for fully booked sessions, and languages other than German and English.