Those channels brought visibility and new customers, but they kept a significant share of the value of every sale and forced the company to work across separate tools.
We built a new website with a direct booking system, connected it to the main travel portals, and centralised availability, communications and operational control into a single platform.
- One system
- to control bookings and availability
- More direct bookings
- through the proprietary channel
- Two automatic channels
- for email and WhatsApp
The problem
Bookings came mainly through the large portals dedicated to travel experiences.
Being present on multiple platforms reached many travellers, but created two problems.
The first was financial: a significant share of the revenue from every booking was absorbed by marketplace commissions.
The second was operational: every booking changed the experience’s availability and required keeping portals and calendar aligned. More tools meant more checks, more manual updates and a higher risk of losing control of availability.
On top of that came communicating with a mostly international clientele, before and after booking.
The system we built
We started from the company’s own channel: its website.
We designed a new site able not just to present the experiences, but to turn the visitor directly into a customer.
Visitors can choose an experience, check availability, book and complete payment without going through an external portal.
The site was then interconnected with the main travel platforms.
When availability is sold through the site, the system updates the other channels. In the same way, bookings coming from the portals flow into the central system.
The company no longer has to check every platform and manually close out slots that are already taken.
After the booking
The system keeps working after the sale.
The customer automatically receives the necessary communications by email and WhatsApp, mostly in English:
- booking confirmation;
- information about the experience;
- operational instructions;
- reminders;
- any follow-up communications.
This lets the company keep a consistent line of communication with customers without sending every message by hand.
One single dashboard
All the information flows into a central dashboard.
From here the company can track:
- direct bookings;
- bookings from the portals;
- availability;
- payments;
- communications sent;
- incoming and outgoing activity.
There’s no longer any need to piece the picture together by moving from one portal to another.
The change
The new website has become a genuine proprietary sales channel to direct the company’s communication toward.
Direct bookings have increased, reducing the weight of marketplace commissions.
The interconnection with the portals has cut down manual availability updates, while the email and WhatsApp automations have lightened the load of managing communications.
The company still uses the big portals to be found, but no longer depends on them completely to sell and run its business.
The result
- More bookings completed directly on the site.
- Lower impact of commissions on direct bookings.
- Availability synchronised between the site and the portals.
- Fewer manual checks and updates.
- Automatic communications in English.
- One single dashboard to control the whole business.