Week one: a checklist to take one route from entry to payment

The slowest launches we have seen all start with a plan to load every product first. By route ten you discover the attributes were modelled wrong, and then you rework ten routes. Prove one route first and keep the cost of mistakes to one.

Day 1: enter one itinerary. Pick the route you know best and sell most. Compose the multi-day itinerary and set up categories and attributes at the same time, at minimum adult, child with bed, child without bed and single supplement.

Day 2: departures and inventory. Configure one month of departure dates only, with inventory set to real seat or room capacity. Do not configure a year yet; you have not confirmed the attributes.

Day 3: the price calendar. Configure by departure date, with holidays separated from weekdays. Then switch to the date view and check whether any day is empty.

Day 4: build the page. Use the visual builder for the home page and this route landing content. Do Traditional Chinese only; add Simplified Chinese and English after this route is validated, or you will edit three times.

Day 5: connect payment and place a dummy order. Configure the payment channel and walk the full flow yourself: a holiday departure plus one child without bed plus one single supplement. Check the total, check that the order lands in the unified order list, then run a refund.

Day 6: the pre-publish check. Run it and fix missing images, missing rates and missing translations. Only then send the link out.

Day 7: replicate. With one route proven, the rest is copying, and much faster. Now consider switching on Simplified Chinese and English, and whether to load hotels and charters.

One caution: do not configure coupons and group buys in week one. Campaign tools are for when you have steady traffic. In week one there is no traffic, so you cannot read the result and you have only added things to maintain.