An 11-person agency moved weekend tours from group chats to a booking page
3 weeks after launch: self-serve bookings 0 to 42%; overselling incidents 2-3 per month to 0; a date change went from 6 manual updates to 1.
Chengxin runs weekend day tours and two-day trips nearby, roughly 400 departures a year, with 80% of demand from repeat customers and referrals. Before launch: a product manager laid out next month departures in a spreadsheet, staff screenshotted it into seven customer chat groups, travellers signed up in the chat, staff tracked seats by hand, and payment went through a personal QR code.
Three concrete problems. First, two routes shared the same Saturday and two staff tracked seats separately; they oversold three times, once having to add a coach at the last minute. Second, room supplements and child rates lived in a spreadsheet notes column, and an extra-bed fee was repeatedly missed when copying quotes. Third, a weather-driven date change meant editing seven chats, one quote sheet and one poster.
Three things were implemented. Departures and inventory went into the system: one departure record per route per date, inventory set to coach capacity, deducted at booking and released on cancellation, so both staff see the same number. The price calendar was configured once by attribute: adult, child with bed, child without bed and single supplement are attribute combinations set per departure date, so the booking page calculates and staff stop transcribing. A booking page was built with the visual builder, replacing the chat screenshot with a page that takes orders and online payment; the chat now only carries a link.
By week three, self-serve bookings were 42% of that month total; the rest were still entered by staff, into the same order list. A date change is now one edit on the departure record, with the booking page and existing orders reflecting it, so notification work dropped from six places to one. The owner says the change he feels most is not self-serve booking, but no longer reconciling seven chat logs against payment screenshots at month end.
They are on the Basic plan today, with hotel and charter modules switched off. Next step: load room types from three partner hot-spring hotels and bundle a day tour plus one night.
