🧠How We Helped a Travel Agency Owner Automate Her Bookings, Reclaim 12 Hours a Week and Convert More Clients
Last month, I met a travel agency owner who was on the verge of burnout.
Her business was doing well on paper with lots of enquiries, a steady stream of interest, and plenty of demand.
But behind the scenes?
She was drowning in admin.
📩 Endless back-and-forth messages
📆 Clients who weren’t serious wasting her time
🧠 Constant context switching from task to task
She told me,
"I love what I do... I just don’t love how I’m doing it anymore."
So we built her a simple AI-powered funnel. Here are the steps we used to transform her business and gave her back her life :
🎯 Step 1: Qualify Leads Before They Reach Her
We started by creating a smart intake form using Tally but instead of a boring, generic form, we used AI to make it feel like a guided concierge.
✨ What it did:
– It asked potential clients where, when, and how they wanted to travel
– It captured budgets, preferences, and flexibility
– It filtered out vague or unrealistic enquiries automatically
We connected it to Zapier to score the leads instantly, tagging “hot,” “warm,” and “cold” prospects in a CRM (Zoho Zia in this case).
🧠 Step 2: AI-Powered Travel Suggestions
For the “hot” leads, we connected their form responses to ChatGPT via an automation flow.
✨ What it did:
– Generated a personalised travel itinerary suggestion
– Suggested add-ons like excursions, upgrades, and local experiences
– Provided a friendly explanation that felt like a real human crafted it
The draft was reviewed automatically by the owner before sending but the heavy lifting was gone!!
📅 Step 3: Book Meetings With One Click
We integrated Motion so qualified leads could instantly book a slot on her calendar without time consuming emails back and forth.
For cold or unclear leads, the system politely requested more information before offering a time.
📨 Step 4: Follow-Up Automations
Next, using MailerLite, we built a sequence:
– “Thanks for enquiring” for cold leads
– “Let’s finalise your trip!” for hot leads
– Check-in messages if a prospect hadn’t replied in 3 days
These emails were generated with AI but edited by the owner making them fast to produce, but still personal.
📊 The Result
Within 7 days of launching the new system:
✅ She cut her enquiry response time by 80%
✅ Doubled her conversion rate from lead to booking
✅ Gained back 10–12 hours per week
✅ And finally felt in control of her business again
And the best part?
She didn’t need to hire staff.
She didn’t spend thousands on custom tech.
She just needed the right tools, stitched together with strategy.
“I finally feel like I’m running my business again, not the other way around.”
📌 This isn’t about “replacing” people. It’s about reclaiming your time.
📲 Bonus: She’s now levelling up
After seeing the results, the client has since came back to expand the system with WhatsApp. We’re now helping her integrate automated follow-ups, travel reminders, and itinerary previews right inside her clients’ WhatsApp chats.
If you're a solo business owner doing everything yourself, this kind of system might just change the game for you too.
→ Book a free 30-minute strategy call and let’s map your AI funnel.
🛠️ Tools of the Day
Here are 3 tools that powered this travel funnel setup:
✈️ Tally – Create beautiful, logic-driven intake forms: tally.so
🤖 Zoho Zia CRM – Smart CRM that scores and tags leads: zoho.com/crm
📬 MailerLite – Lightweight email automation with AI assist: mailerlite.com
📰 Today’s AI News
🍕 Papa John's Is Using AI to Read Your Mind (Sort of)
Papa John's just expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to make ordering pizza smarter than ever.
Using AI, they’ll now personalise push notifications, loyalty deals, and email promos based on what you’ve ordered before.
But that’s just the start...
🧠 Soon, you’ll be able to order via chatbot or even your smart speaker.
🚗 They're exploring AI to optimise delivery routes and manage inventory too.
This is more than pizza, it’s a preview of how fast food and AI are merging to drive hyper-personal customer experiences.
🏭 AI Might Break You Before It Builds You — But It Works
A new ECB-backed study shows AI adoption in manufacturing can initially hit productivity and jobs, but if you survive that dip, you come out stronger.
Firms that weathered the storm saw higher sales, better productivity, and more jobs in the long run.
Translation: If AI doesn't kill your company, it might just level it up.
3 AI Stocks Analysts Think Will Win Big
If you’re looking to ride the next wave of AI growth, Wall Street analysts are betting on these three companies:
📈 Alphabet (GOOG)
Google’s parent company isn’t just dominating search and ads it's now pushing aggressively into AI infrastructure, chips (via TPU), and foundational models like Gemini. Analysts love its diversified AI bet.
🔬 ASML Holding (ASML)
The quiet power behind the AI chip boom. ASML makes the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines needed to manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors. No EUV = no AI chips.
🤖 UiPath (PATH)
Automation is AI’s backbone in business operations. UiPath helps companies automate repetitive workflows and its AI-powered platform is expanding fast.
🧠 Why it matters:
These aren’t just AI plays, they’re infrastructure, automation, and foundational tech providers. Analysts think all three could outperform over the next decade as AI adoption accelerates.
👉 Read the full Yahoo Finance article
💬 Prompt of the Day
“Act as a travel agency automation consultant. Build a 4-step funnel that uses AI to qualify leads, suggest trips, automate bookings, and follow up, without hiring staff. Include recommended tools and workflows.”
→ Try it in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and compare results!
👥 Work With Us
At TalkAI Global, we help small business owners:
✔ Automate the right parts of their work
✔ Choose tools that work together
✔ Design systems that scale with ease
→ Book a free 30-minute strategy call and let’s map your AI funnel.
That’s your Daily Dose of AI in 5.
See you tomorrow,
Michael A Ramsay
Founder, TalkAI Global