AI Receptionist for Travel Agencies: Enquiries, Changes and Clients Abroad, Answered

A holiday enquiry can be a sale worth thousands, and a lot of them come in on the weekend, right after a barbecue where someone talked up Croatia. Steve asks what a good consultant would ask in the first five minutes, then books a planning appointment or a callback that suits the client. You sit down already knowing the dates, who’s travelling and the budget.

These ones need a light touch. Whether a date can move, and what it’ll cost, is up to the airline, cruise line or hotel. So Steve doesn’t guess. He records the booking reference, the lead traveller, what they want to change and any deadline, and sends it to the consultant who manages that booking. The client hears that the request is logged and when to expect a reply.

You agree the rules with us: what counts as urgent, who is on call, and what Steve may say. A typical setup looks like this.

• Danger or injury: contact local emergency services first. Steve then logs the call and alerts you.
• Disruption (cancelled flight, missed connection, transfer no-show): location, booking, airline and flight numbers, best contact, then an urgent SMS to your on-call consultant.
• Serious welfare matters such as an arrest, assault or lost passport: Steve can give Australia’s 24-hour consular line and still alerts you.
• Insured travellers: a reminder that their insurer has its own emergency assistance number.

The government’s Smartraveller service lists its Consular Emergency Centre as available 24 hours a day on 1300 555 135 from within Australia and +61 2 6261 3305 from overseas, for urgent matters only. Steve gives these numbers only when your rules say so, and never instead of alerting your consultant.

• New trips: destinations, dates and flexibility, number and ages of travellers, budget, trip style, departure airport, passport status, any accessibility needs.
• Existing bookings: booking reference, lead traveller, the change or request, deadline, consultant name.
• Travellers abroad: current location, the problem, airline or supplier involved, best contact (mobile, WhatsApp or hotel), safety status.

Within seconds of each call you get an SMS and an email summary, and the recording and transcript are stored in your portal. Steve works alongside agency tools such as Tramada and GDS platforms like Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport: we send the details to you, and direct integration is quoted on request.

Travel calls are longer than most because there is a lot to capture, so allow about 4 minutes each. A retail agency with four consultants might pass about 160 calls a month to Steve, roughly 640 minutes. That fits Growth at $499/mo (700 minutes).

A home-based agent who wants cover during appointments and overnight might see about 50 calls, or 200 minutes, which fits Business at $299/mo. Prices are ex GST and month to month; the pricing page has the detail.

Leanne owns a small independent travel agency in Burleigh Heads with two other consultants. Her clients are loyal, mostly retirees doing cruises and Europe trips. When she was with someone in the shop, the phone rang out. After hours it went to a voicemail nobody checked until morning.

The one that stung was a client stuck in Rome after a rail strike. She left three voicemails overnight. Leanne had it sorted by 8am, but her client had spent the night feeling like nobody cared.

With Steve, travellers abroad reach someone on the first ring and genuine disruptions reach Leanne’s mobile by SMS with the booking reference attached. New enquiries from the weekend are already booked into Monday appointments.

Illustrative example based on common patterns. Leanne and her agency are not real clients.

If you run your own tours rather than sell other people’s, see our page for tour operators. Holiday accommodation providers have their own page for B&Bs, rentals and hotels. For the product itself, start with our AI receptionist overview, or browse the industries hub.