Manual for bars, shops and services

Seis Caminos de Santiago is the guide pilgrims check to plan their stage: every hostel, bar and fountain at its exact kilometre, in all the languages of the guide. Your house may already be in it with the public information we have gathered. The panel is where you keep it up to date.

1. Being in the guide is free. Taking charge of your listing and correcting its basic details is free too: all you need is an account, no card.
2. With the free account you control the name, the type, the address, the phone, the months you are open, the services and, if you offer accommodation, the free beds each day.
3. The membership adds what makes the listing sell: description, photos, prices, opening hours, WhatsApp and social media, translated chat and video calls with pilgrims, bed requests, replying to reviews, the visits to your listing and the door stickers.
4. In the panel, whatever comes with the membership is marked “With the membership”. You always see it, even if you do not have one, so you know what there is.

Almost every house on the Camino is already in the guide: municipal, Xunta, parish and association hostels, nearly always with the beds, price, phone, months and services filled in, and many bars, shops and services with their address and phone. You do not have to write anything from scratch: just take charge of the listing and check that what it says is true.

1. Look for your house in the guide and open its listing. Or open the link we sent you directly, the one for the “Your place in the guide” page.
2. On that page you see what pilgrims see: which stages it appears in, address, phone, website, beds and season, and the listing in each language.
3. If it is your house, tap “This place is mine”. Claiming it is free and no card is needed.

Tip. If the listing already has an owner, the page says “This listing already has an owner”. If you think that is a mistake, tap “Write to us”.

One account per person, with an email and a password. The same account works for your house and, if you like, for using the guide as a pilgrim.

1. Tap “Sign in” at the top right and then “Create account”. Or go straight to the “Create account” screen.
2. Enter your email and a password of at least 10 characters, with letters and numbers.
3. You will get an email: tap “Confirm and go in”. The link is valid for 48 hours. If you cannot see it, check your spam folder or tap “Send it to me again”.
4. You go straight into your panel. You can change your name in “Profile”.

Tip. If you started by tapping “This place is mine”, confirming the email takes you back to that page: tap the button again and the claim is opened.

So that nobody takes over a house that is not theirs, the listing is confirmed with a six-digit code that we read out to you by phone, on the number already shown on the listing.

1. Signed in, tap “This place is mine” on your house’s page. You can also go to “My business”, “Find my hostel or business”, type the name and tap “This is mine”.
2. The “Listing claims” screen opens with the notice “Claim opened. Now the code has to be checked”.
3. We call the phone number on the listing and read you the code. Type it into the “The code” field and tap “Check”.
4. If it is correct you will see “Listing verified. It is yours now”. From then on the listing appears in “My business” and you can edit it.

Tip. The code is valid for 14 days and allows 5 attempts. If the listing has no phone, or the phone is no longer yours, write to us from the contact page and we will check it another way.

When you go in you see “Hello” and your name, and below it what you have pending. It is the screen you will come back to every day.

1. If you offer accommodation, “Beds tonight” is at the top: the most important thing every afternoon.
2. If you have unanswered bed requests, conversations or messages, they show up here with how many are pending.
3. “What your listing is missing” lists what pilgrims ask and your listing does not answer yet: beds, price, arrival time, months, phone, services, photo or description. Each line has a “Fill in” button that takes you to the exact spot.
4. When nothing is missing, you will see “Your listing has everything a pilgrim asks about”.

Tip. The menu on the left (or at the top, on a phone) has everything about your business under “Your business”, and your membership, invoices and profile under “Your account”. The colour of each entry tells you what is needed to use it.

They are changed in the listing. To open it: “My business”, then tap your house’s name. Everything in this section comes with the free account.

1. “Your hostel or business details” holds the name, the type of business, the town, the address and the phone.
2. Change whatever needs changing.
3. Scroll to the end and tap “Save changes” in the bar at the bottom. You will see “Listing updated. The changes are live”.

Tip. The phone is the one dialled with one tap from the listing and the one we use to check that the house is yours: make it one that somebody answers.

It is the “For the arriving pilgrim” section: the first thing anyone looking for somewhere to sleep asks about.

1. “Months you open” (free): tick the months you open. If you open all year, tick them all. If you tick none, the listing says it is not known, not that you are closed.
2. “Beds” and “From” (with the membership): how many beds you have and what the cheapest one costs.
3. “Pilgrim menu” (with the membership): the price of the menu, if you serve one.
4. “Opening hours in your own words” (with the membership): for example “We open at 12:00; we lock the door at 22:00”.
5. Tap “Save changes”.

Tip. In municipal hostels this information usually comes already filled in from public sources. Check it: an out-of-date number of beds or price is the most frequent pilgrim complaint.

Services are the tick boxes in the “Services” section and in “What else the house has”. They come with the free account.

1. Open the listing from “My business” and scroll down to “Services”: wifi, washing machine, dryer, kitchen, breakfast, pets allowed, accessible, stamps the credential, takes bookings, bike storage and private room.
2. To add a service, tick its box. To remove it, untick it.
3. Below, in “What else the house has”, are the details that make up many people’s minds: blanket or sleeping bag, sheets included, sunny clothesline, lockers, socket by the bed, heating, fridge, communal dinner, keeping the backpack after check-out and more.
4. Tap “Save changes”. The change appears in the guide straight away and in every language.

Tip. Tick only what is really there today. If the washing machine is broken this week, remove it and put it back when it works: a pilgrim who arrives counting on it and finds it missing writes a review.

Photos are uploaded from your computer, from your phone’s gallery or taken there and then with the camera. We shrink them so the listing opens quickly on mobile data.

1. In “Header image”, tap “Choose photo”. On a phone you can take it there and then or pick it from the gallery; on a computer, find it in your folders. You see it straight away in its slot.
2. To change it, tap “Choose photo” again; to take it out, “Remove”. If the photo is already on your website, “Or paste the address of a photo that is already online” works too.
3. With the membership, “Photos of the place” gives you five more slots, each with its own “Choose photo”.
4. Tap “Save changes”.

Tip. The first photo is the one that decides: the front of the house or the room in daylight, not the logo.

It is the “What you want to say” section, with the membership. Writing it in Spanish is enough: we translate it into the other languages of the guide.

1. “Description of your hostel or business”: what your house has that the others do not.
2. “Welcome message”: one short line for whoever arrives, for example “We open at six for the early starters”.
3. “WhatsApp” with the country code (+34…), your “Website” and your “Social media”.
4. “Languages you speak”: tick the ones you speak. Besides the translated chat, pilgrims see which languages they can use with you directly.
5. “Stamp here and…”: what you give to anyone who gets their stamp at your door, for example “Pilgrim menu for €10”.
6. Tap “Save changes”.

With the membership you get a full price list, like a menu, in the “Prices” tab of your listing.

1. In “My business”, under your house, tap “Edit the prices”.
2. The usual items for your type of business are already there: bunk bed, double room, sheets, breakfast, dinner, washing machine, backpack transfer… or pilgrim menu, coffee, sandwich, portion of tapas…
3. Fill in only what you charge for. Anything left blank is not published. You can add a note to each line.
4. For something that is not there, tap “Add a line” and type the item.
5. Tap “Save the prices”.

One line with an expiry date that appears in your stage’s list and on your listing. With the membership.

1. On your listing, scroll down to “Today’s offer”.
2. In “What are you announcing?” type the offer, for example “Pilgrim menu, €12, until 22:00”.
3. Choose “From” and “Until” (90 days at most) and tap “Publish”. To take it down earlier, “Withdraw”.

When you add a service, change your prices, publish today’s offer or reopen after the season, the guide announces it by itself for a week with the “New” label. All you have to do is save. It comes with the free account.

1. The pilgrim sees it on your listing, under the name.
2. In your stage’s list, next to your house.
3. On the “Today” screen of anyone walking your stage, or the one before it, that day.
4. In “The Camino today”, in the guide’s chat and on the map, with a yellow dot over your house.

Tip. Removing a service is not announced: that is correcting the listing. Nor is saving without changing anything: only what is really new shows up.

The pilgrim taps “Talk to the business” on your listing and writes, speaks or calls you in their language. You get it in yours, written and read aloud; you answer in yours and they get it in theirs. With the membership.

1. Conversations are in “Conversations”, in the “Your business” menu, and behind the round chat button at the bottom right of every screen.
2. Open one and type in the box, or tap “Speak” and say it out loud. Tap “Send”.
3. Every message comes translated. If you want to see exactly what the pilgrim wrote, open “Original”. With “Listen” it is read out loud.
4. To talk by voice, tap “Call”; to see each other, “Video call”. The other person has to have the conversation open; if not, write to them and we will alert them on their phone.
5. During the call, what each person says appears translated on the other’s screen. “Hang up” ends it.

Tip. It works in the phone’s browser, with nothing to install. The first time, the phone will ask permission for the microphone and the camera: tap “Allow”.

So that your phone rings when someone asks for a bed or a pilgrim writes to you.

1. From the phone where you want to receive them, go into your panel.
2. Open “Free-bed alerts”, in the “As a pilgrim” group of the menu.
3. In “Notify me on my phone”, tap “Notify me on this phone” and accept the browser’s permission request.

Tip. It only works for that phone and that browser. If you change phones, do it again from the new one. On an iPhone, first install the guide on the home screen (“Share” → “Add to Home Screen”).

The messages people leave you with “Write to this place” from your listing. If the listing has an email address, you also get them by email. With the membership.

1. Open “Inbox” in the “Your business” menu. New ones are marked “New”.
2. Tap “Reply to” to answer from your email.
3. Mark it “Read” or “Answered” to keep track.

Pilgrims with an account rate your house from one to five stars. Reviews are checked before they are published. Replying comes with the membership.

1. Open “Reviews” in the “Your business” menu.
2. Under each one, write in “Your reply” and tap “Save the reply”. On the listing it appears under the review as “The place replies”.
3. To remove a reply, delete the text and save again.

Tip. A complaint answered politely sells more than ten compliments: whoever reads it later sees that there is someone on the other side.

Any pilgrim with an account can correct a detail that is wrong — a phone number, opening hours — as in a wiki. You see every change.

1. Open “Corrections to your listings” in the “Your business” menu.
2. Each change is shown field by field: the old value crossed out and the new one.
3. If it is right, tap “This is right”. If not, tap “This is wrong”, say what is off and tap “Send”: we review it ourselves and leave it as it should be.

“Visits to your listing”, with the membership. The last 30 days, day by day.

1. How many people have opened your listing and what they tap: phone, WhatsApp or your website.
2. Where they come from: from the guide, by scanning your QR, from a search engine or from an outside link.
3. Which language they view you in. If you have not ticked one of those languages as spoken, it tells you.

Tip. It does not count your own visits or those of robots, and it does not store anything about anyone.

At the end of your listing is “Your QR code”. Print it and stick it on the door, on the counter or on the menu: whoever scans it opens your listing.

1. “Download for printing (PNG)” or “Download vector (SVG)”, which keeps its quality however large you print it.
2. “Download the venue sticker”: a 20 cm sheet for the glass at the entrance, with “Estamos en la guía del Camino” (it is printed in Spanish: “We are in the Camino guide”). Print it on A4 adhesive paper.
3. “Download the stamp sticker”: the shell pilgrims use to stamp their parchment with their phone. Put it on the door or show it inside to your customers.
4. And the A4 poster for the wall, which explains to pilgrims the translated chat, the guide in their language and the 112 button: download it from the user guide and print it on the office printer.

So that you are seen by those who are still a day away. With the membership and while there are places left in that stage.

1. On your listing, look for “Appear in the stage before”.
2. Tap “Appear here” in the stage you want. If it says “Full”, there are no places left.
3. To stop, “Stop appearing”.

The membership is annual. The price is on the membership page and on the payment screen, with VAT shown separately.

1. To take it out, tap “Membership” or “See the membership”, choose the one for businesses and tap “Subscribe”. You pay with PayPal or by card, and the invoice arrives straight away.
2. Before that, fill in your billing details in “Profile”: name or company name, tax ID and address.
3. Invoices are in “Invoices”: “View invoice” opens it so you can print it or save it as a PDF.
4. It does not renew by itself: we let you know before it expires and you renew if you want to. In “Membership” you see until when you have access.
5. If we have given you an invitation code, redeem it on the invitation page we point you to, with your listing already verified: it is a year of membership with no card.

Tip. If the membership expires you do not lose the listing: it stays in the guide with what comes with the free account, and the paid features switch off until you renew.

It works the same for a hostel as for a bar, a shop or a taxi. If you cannot find it with “Find my hostel or business”, you add it yourself. No code is needed: the listing is yours from the start and appears in the guide as soon as we have reviewed it.

1. In “My business”, tap “Add a hostel or business”.
2. Enter the name, choose what it is in “What it is” (accommodation at the top, shops and services below) and enter the town.
3. In “Where it is”, tap your door on the map and drag the pin to fine-tune it. If you are there, tap “I’m here”. That is what puts you at the exact kilometre of the stage.
4. Add the address, the phone and the website if you have one, and tap “Add a hostel or business”.
5. The listing is left “Awaiting review”: we check it so that no advertising slips in, and then it appears in the guide. Meanwhile you can already fill in the rest.

Tip. Search carefully first: if the house already exists and you add it again, it will appear twice, one of them with old information.

Write to us from the guide’s contact page, telling us your house’s name and which screen you were looking at. We answer ourselves, not a robot.

1. Not getting the email to confirm the account? Check your spam folder and tap “Send it to me again”.
2. We have not called you with the code? Write to us with a phone number where we can reach you.
3. Cannot see “My business” in the menu? It appears when you have a listing or an open claim.
4. Does a button take you to the membership page? That means that feature comes with the membership.