At a glance
- The situation
- A leisure agency builds tailor-made trips; flights and hotels come from its platform quickly, the experiences do not.
- What goes wrong
- Each tour or class means separate websites, messages to small operators and a wait for confirmation, and the bookings that are made sit outside the itinerary, the invoice and the reports.
- What changes
- The platform's tours and activities inventory lets the agent search and book experiences on the same itinerary, with confirmations tracked in the supplier confirmation queue.
An illustrative scenario: a leisure agency builds custom trips and spends most of its time on tours and activities spread across many small operators. With tours and activities inventory in the platform, plus the supplier confirmation queue, experiences are searched, booked and confirmed alongside flights and hotels.
The scenario
Consider a leisure agency that builds tailor-made trips for couples and families. Flights and hotels come from its booking platform in minutes. Then come the experiences: a cooking class, a boat trip, a guided day in the old town, a table at a restaurant the client read about.
For each one the agent searches several websites, messages a small local operator on a chat app, waits a day for an answer about availability, and keeps a private list of who has confirmed and who has not. A single itinerary can mean a dozen conversations. It is the part of the job that takes the longest, and the part clients value most.
The bookings that do get made sit outside the agency's system. They are missing from the itinerary document unless the agent types them in, missing from the client invoice unless the agent remembers, and missing from the agency's reports entirely — so the owner has no idea how much experience revenue the agency actually handles.
When an operator changes a start time two days before the trip, the message arrives on the agent's personal phone. If that agent is off, nobody sees it.
Why it is hard to fix
Experiences are fragmented
Inventory is spread across many small operators with very different ways of selling.
Confirmations are slow and informal
Many operators confirm by message, not instantly, and changes arrive the same way.
Off-platform bookings get lost
Activities booked outside the system are missing from the itinerary, the invoice and the reports.
The knowledge sits with one agent
Operator contacts and confirmations live in personal chats, so cover and handover are hard.
What changes with the platform
The Innovate Solution platform includes tours and activities inventory, so the agent searches and books experiences in the same place as flights, hotels and transfers, and they appear on the same itinerary and the same client invoice.
Activities that are not confirmed instantly go into the same supplier confirmation queue as other services, with automatic reminders, so the agent no longer keeps a private list of who still has to reply. Operator conversations run through Inno Message and attach to the booking, so a changed start time is seen by whoever is on duty.
Because experiences are now part of the booking, they show up in live KPI dashboards and reporting, and the agent can bill planning time as a service fee where the research itself is the product.
How it works, step by step
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Build the trip
Flights, hotels and transfers are booked as usual on the platform.
-
Add experiences
The agent searches the platform's tours and activities inventory and adds them to the same itinerary.
-
Track confirmations
Activities awaiting confirmation sit in the supplier confirmation queue with automatic reminders.
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Keep operator messages on the booking
Conversations with operators run through the platform's messaging and attach to the booking.
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Invoice the whole trip
The activities are part of the booking, so they appear on the client invoice, with a planning fee if the agency charges one.
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Report on experiences
Dashboards and reports include the experiences sold, by client and by operator.
Before and after
| Before | With the platform |
|---|---|
| Experiences are researched across many websites and chats | Experiences are searched alongside flights and hotels |
| Confirmations are tracked in the agent's head | Confirmations are tracked in one queue with reminders |
| Operator messages arrive on a personal phone | Messages attach to the booking and are visible to the team |
| Activities are missing from the itinerary record and invoice | Activities are part of the booking and the invoice |
| Reporting shows only flights and hotels | Reporting includes the experiences sold |
What it does not do
- Not every small local operator is in any inventory; some experiences will still be arranged directly.
- Instant confirmation depends on the operator; others confirm through the queue.
- It does not set the agency's markup or fee on experiences; that remains a commercial decision.
Questions about this scenario
Why were activities the slowest part of the trip in this scenario?
Because each experience meant a separate search, a message to a small operator and a wait for confirmation, all outside the booking platform.
What happens with an operator that only confirms by message?
The activity waits in the supplier confirmation queue, with reminders, until the operator confirms; the conversation runs through the platform's messaging so it is on the booking, not on one phone.
Can the agency still add experiences it arranges directly?
The scenario assumes some will still be arranged directly; the aim is to bring as much as possible onto the same itinerary and invoice.
What changed for the agency owner?
Experience revenue became visible in reporting for the first time, because the activities were booked as part of the trip rather than outside the system.
Related
About this page. This is an illustrative scenario: the business is hypothetical and the story is drawn from problems that travellers and travel agents describe in public forum discussions. It contains no customer names and no performance figures. The problem itself is explained on Tours and activities booking; for measured results from named customers, see the case studies.
Recognise this situation? We will walk through it on the platform with your own bookings. The full explanation of the problem — causes, approach and limits — is on Tours and activities booking.
