How a solo travel agency runs sales, support, and operations with AI
One owner had reached the limit of what email and spreadsheets could carry. We built a system that captures every enquiry, drafts quotes from live data, and lets her run the day-to-day business from a chat.
Option 1 — China Eastern, Business via Auckland. Lie-flat 777-300ER across the Pacific. From $6,550 pp return, incl. taxes.
Option 2 — LATAM, Business via Santiago. Daily service, award-winning lounge. From $7,900 pp return.
Visa & passport. Australian passport holders enter Argentina visa-free for up to 90 days. Smartraveller advisory linked.
Illustrative UI · sample data, not real client records.
One person was carrying the whole operation
The agency sells high-touch trips: river cruises, long Mediterranean itineraries, and business-class flights to Europe. Every enquiry needed research, pricing, traveller context, and careful follow-up. One person did almost all of it by hand.
A single enquiry took more than 30 minutes
The work was not difficult because of one big task. It was difficult because the context lived across an inbox, PDFs, supplier sites, notes, and memory.
- 1Enquiry email lands in a shared inbox.
- 2Search Gmail for the customer's history.
- 3Open pricing PDFs and supplier policies.
- 4Write the quote by hand — 30+ minutes.
- 5Check passport and visa, case by case.
- 6Nothing is logged. No pipeline.
- 1Enquiry is captured on the right traveller automatically.
- 2Agent pulls history, pricing, live fares, and visa rules.
- 3Drafts the quote in under a minute.
- 4Owner reviews and sends from the branded domain.
- 5Passport and visa risks are flagged before they bite.
- 6Everything is logged on the enquiry.
The repetitive work moved into the system
The owner still makes the decisions. The system gathers the context, prepares the work, and keeps every enquiry moving.
Follow one enquiry
From the moment it arrives to the moment it is booked, the same context travels with it.
Every enquiry is captured
When someone fills in a form on the website, it becomes an enquiry in the CRM, on the right traveller, tagged with the trip they were looking at. Nothing is retyped, and nothing sits unseen in an inbox.
Every enquiry lands on a board, sorted by stage. Nothing gets lost in an inbox.
The agent drafts the reply
The agent reads the enquiry, looks up the traveller's history and your pricing, checks live fares and the visa rules, and writes a complete quote in your voice. It takes under a minute. The owner reads it, makes any change, and sends.
Option 1 — China Eastern, Business via Auckland. Lie-flat 777-300ER. From $6,550 pp return.
Option 2 — LATAM, Business via Santiago. Daily service. From $7,900 pp return.
Visa. Australian passports enter Argentina visa-free for 90 days. Smartraveller link added.
The agent pulls the traveller's profile, past quotes, live fares, and visa rules, then drafts the reply. The chips show what it checked.
Calls write themselves up
After a Zoom call with the client, the agent writes the summary, updates the traveller's profile, and creates the follow-up tasks. The record stays current without anyone typing notes.
- • Wants a balcony cabin on the Lyon & Provence cruise, departing May.
- • Comfortable up to $20k for two; decision by Friday.
- • Travelling with his wife; pescatarian dietary note added to profile.
After a Zoom call, the agent writes the summary, updates the traveller's profile, and creates the follow-up tasks.
Run the whole thing from a chat
The same system connects to Claude.ai through a secure connector. The owner can add a booking, brief herself before a call, or check who has a passport expiring, all from a chat on her phone. The agent uses the same data and the same rules.
The same data is available in Claude.ai through a secure connector, so the owner can run the business from a chat on her phone.
What the system gives back
The point is not the technology. It is less time spent assembling context and more time spent advising travellers.
| Task | Before | With the agent |
|---|---|---|
| Writing a quote | 30–45 min by hand | Under a minute to draft, then review |
| Logging an enquiry | Manual, often skipped | Automatic, with full context |
| Briefing before a call | Dig through Gmail and notes | One question to the assistant |
| Catching passport issues | Case by case, sometimes missed | Flagged before it's a problem |
| Onboarding a new hire | Weeks of shadowing | The knowledge is in the system |
The operating system underneath
These are the reusable parts. We selected the ones the agency needed and connected them to the tools already in use.
Lead capture from anywhere
Website forms, Facebook lead ads, or other sources flow straight into the CRM with full context attached.
A CRM shaped for your work
We adapt the CRM to your industry: your terms, your fields, your pipeline stages, with access control for a team.
AI reply drafting
The agent drafts replies using the customer's history, your pricing, live data, and visa rules. You review and send.
A searchable knowledge base
Templates, guides, supplier policies, and pricing in one place. The agent answers from it and links to the source.
Run it from Claude.ai
A secure connector (MCP) lets the owner brief, query, and act on the business from a normal chat, on any device.
Call notes, written for you
After a Zoom call, the agent writes the summary, updates the profile, and creates the follow-up tasks.
Branded email
Replies send from your own domain and are logged on the enquiry, so the history stays next to the customer.
Tasks on your phone
CRM tasks appear in your calendar with reminders, so nothing depends on remembering to check the system.
Your data, your control
Each business runs its own instance. The data and logins stay with you, and you own the system.
Industry integrations
Travel data like GDS, cruise lines, and Smartraveller, plus general tools like Stripe and Calendly.
Who this works for
This pattern fits any small business with high-value customers and a lot of repetitive admin: travel agencies, accounting and tax firms, real estate, recruitment, clinics, and professional services. You own the system, the data stays with you, and the agent does the work that used to go through one person.
07 · Client voice"I asked for a brief on a client five minutes before the call. It read everything in the CRM, looked up the cruise she'd enquired about, and suggested two questions. I felt prepared in a way I hadn't in years."
Want one for your business?
Book a short call and tell us where your time goes. We'll show you which agents would help and whether it's a fit.