Setting up Yesoma for a travel agency or tour operator

Yesoma's travel agency and tour operator playbook pre-loads your workspace with services, policies, reply templates, and follow-up automations built for the realities of international travel sales — custom itineraries, group tours, visa assistance, honeymoon packages, and the deposit-heavy booking flow that every travel agent navigates. Whether you primarily sell packages to West Africa, handle Caribbean family reunions, or book European pilgrimages, the playbook gives you a working starting point on day one.

1. Applying the travel playbook during onboarding

When you select Travel agency / tour operator from the industry picker during onboarding, Yesoma loads:

• 8 pre-built services (custom trip planning, group tour booking, flight + hotel bundle, visa assistance, honeymoon package, corporate travel, travel insurance, and a custom scope service for complex trips)
• 7 policies covering deposits, cancellations, passport + visa responsibility, travel insurance, change fees, force majeure, and tipping
• 8 FAQs written for the most common traveler questions
• 8 reply templates from first inquiry through post-trip review request
• A 3-rule follow-up cadence (day 0, day 5 post-quote, day 7 post-return)
• A review request timed 7 days after the trip return date

Everything is editable. The playbook is a starting draft, not a locked configuration. After onboarding, go to Business Brain to update your actual destination specialties, pricing, and any policies that differ from the defaults.

2. The planning fee model

The custom trip planning service uses a two-part fee structure that is worth understanding before your first inquiry.

The planning fee ($200 by default, editable) is charged upfront when a new client asks you to research and build a custom itinerary. It covers your time on the discovery call, destination research, itinerary writing, and the flight and hotel sourcing work — before any booking is confirmed. Without it, you would spend 5–10 hours on planning work for trips that never convert.

The credit-back mechanic is what makes it palatable to clients: the planning fee is credited in full against the trip cost when they book through you. If they book, they pay nothing extra for the planning. If they do not book, you have been paid for your time.

To communicate this clearly in your first reply template (which the playbook pre-fills), the template explicitly says the fee is credited back on booking. You can adjust the amount or the credit-back terms in Business Brain → Services → Custom trip planning.

If your business model does not charge a planning fee — for example, you work on commission only from suppliers — set the planning fee service price to $0 and update the deposit notes accordingly. The playbook structure still applies; you are just removing that line item.

3. Deposit + payment schedule

Travel bookings require deposits because flights and hotels cannot be held indefinitely without payment. The playbook defaults to:

• 50% deposit at booking — this is what tickets the flights and secures the hotel. Until this is paid, the quoted price is not locked.
• Balance due 30–45 days before departure — enough time for the supplier to process the final payment before departure deadlines.

For group tours booked through partner operators, the operator's own deposit schedule governs — this varies by supplier and is disclosed in the Group Booking Quote before the client pays anything. The playbook policy states this explicitly to protect you from disputes.

For corporate and business travel clients on account, the playbook supports net-14 invoicing for approved accounts — edit the corporate travel service's deposit notes to reflect your actual terms once you have set up your payment methods in Settings.

One important note on flight pricing: fares are live rates that change constantly. The playbook templates include language reminding clients that the quoted fare is only locked once the deposit is paid and the ticket is issued. This is standard travel agent practice and protects you from having to honor a fare that has since changed.

4. Passport + visa responsibility

The visa + travel document policy in this playbook is deliberately specific, and you should read it before your first booking.

The core principle: travelers are responsible for their own passport validity and visa compliance. Your job is to inform, assist, and guide — not to guarantee. The policy states:

• Passport must be valid for 6+ months beyond the return date (some destinations require more)
• Visa requirements vary by nationality and destination and can change without notice
• You provide guidance and assistance; you do not guarantee visa approval
• Failure to obtain the correct document is the traveler's responsibility

This language exists because the most common travel agent dispute — by far — is a client who was denied boarding or entry because of a passport or visa issue they did not fix in time, and who then blames the travel agent. The playbook policy and the pre-departure brief template both reinforce this boundary clearly and professionally.

When you apply for visas on behalf of clients (the Visa + travel document assistance service), the policy again states explicitly that the $150 service fee covers assistance and document review, not the visa outcome. Keep this service priced and described accurately in your Business Brain.

5. In-trip support workflow

The pre-departure brief and in-trip check-in templates in this playbook represent a meaningful service differentiator against online booking sites — and they are worth setting up carefully.

Pre-departure brief (7 days out): The template covers passport and visa status, full flight details, entry requirements (including health and customs), a destination-specific packing note, and your 24/7 WhatsApp contact. It is sent 7 days before departure as part of the follow-up cadence. Clients consistently cite this as one of the most valuable things a travel agent does. It also reduces day-of panicked calls because clients already have the information.

To automate this template, go to Follow-ups and confirm the pre-departure brief trigger is active. Note that the trigger is time-before-departure rather than a standard post-booking timer — you may want to set this as a manual send or a date-based follow-up depending on how you track departure dates in Yesoma cases.

In-trip check-in (day 2–3 of the trip): A brief message asking how the trip is going and reminding the client you are available on WhatsApp. The goal is twofold: catching any in-trip issues while there is still time to fix them (a hotel complaint resolved on day 2 is a saved client; the same complaint raised after the trip is a review problem), and reinforcing the relationship before the post-trip review request.

24/7 WhatsApp availability is referenced in multiple templates and your response promise. Make sure this accurately reflects what you offer — if you are a solo agent, 24/7 may mean you set a WhatsApp status noting limited overnight hours. The key thing is that clients know how to reach you during their trip and are not trying to call an airline's hold queue at 11pm.

6. What your reply templates look like in action

Here is how a typical new inquiry flows through the playbook templates:

Day 0 — inquiry received. The First reply — travel inquiry template fires. It asks for destination, travel dates, budget, number of travelers, and any special occasion. No quote is given until these are known — the playbook does not attempt to quote without them.

Same day or next day — pricing reply. Once you have the details, you send the Pricing reply — rough range template. This gives a honest budget range based on current market rates and introduces the planning fee. It ends with an invitation for a discovery call.

Discovery call → itinerary. After the call, you build the itinerary and send the Formal itinerary sent template — a structured breakdown covering flights, accommodation, total cost, deposit amount, and balance due date. This is the document the client uses to make the booking decision.

Day 5 post-quote — follow-up. If the client has not responded, the Deposit reminder template fires. Travel decisions take longer than, say, booking a haircut — a week's silence is not unusual when someone is checking with a partner or waiting for payday. The reminder is gentle and informative rather than pushy.

7 days before departure — pre-departure brief. The most operationally useful template in the playbook. Send this manually or automate it based on the departure date. Fill in the actual flight numbers, entry requirements, and your WhatsApp number before sending.

Day 2–3 of the trip — in-trip check-in. A brief check-in sent while the client is traveling. Short and warm; catches problems early.

Day 7 post-return — post-trip review request. The Post-trip thank you + review request template fires as the final step in the follow-up cadence. TripAdvisor is the primary review destination for travel businesses; Google is the secondary. The review request link is inserted via the {{review_link}} placeholder, which Yesoma populates from your review request settings.

To update which platforms appear in the review link, go to Settings → Review requests and set your preferred destinations.