A confirmed booking doesn't show how much work went into winning it. An adviser may have revised several proposals and entered the same details into different systems before the customer agreed to proceed. Looking at sales alone leaves that effort out of the picture. To reduce travel booking admin, start by making the work visible.

Cost pressures deserve attention outside the agency too. On 10 September 2026, ABTA submitted Budget recommendations that included support for high-street travel businesses and a more flexible skills and training system. Those were requests for action. Alongside that wider discussion, your team can examine the repeated tasks within its own booking process.

Build the record with the person doing the work

Choose an ordinary enquiry and ask the adviser to describe what happened at each stage. Let them show the screens and documents they actually used. Include informal notes where those help them do the job. Removing a spreadsheet before understanding its purpose can remove the workaround that was keeping the process dependable.

Keep the exercise separate from individual performance management. You're looking for places where information is missing or work has to be repeated. Ask what the adviser needed at each step and whether it was available. A useful finding might be that a colleague's booking note never reaches the person preparing the documents.

Record one unsuccessful enquiry as well as a confirmed booking. Both can consume research and quoting time, but they finish at different points. Keep the examples separate so that the review doesn't imply every enquiry follows the same path. The aim is to understand recurring work without pretending that all holidays are identical.

Give each step a visible output

Our accompanying process worksheet records an input, an action and an output for each stage. For example, an enquiry email might lead to a clarification call and then an agreed customer brief. The next row begins with that brief and records the supplier search. Writing the output forces the team to say what the next person actually receives.

Download the enquiry process worksheet

Add a column for the system holding the current information. A proposal may appear in several places, but the team needs to know which version it should trust. Record where the information is copied and why. Some duplication may be a necessary check, while other repetition may exist because nobody has connected two stages.

Try a fictional example: the customer changes a departure date after receiving a quote. The adviser updates the proposal but a separate handover note still carries the old date. That is a prompt to decide which record controls the handover and how the change reaches the next colleague. It is an illustration of a risk to investigate, not a report of a measured incident.

Distinguish advice from avoidable handling

Comparing options and explaining a recommendation are part of the service customers buy. Keep that work visible rather than labelling every minute before booking as wasted time. Copying an already agreed passenger name into another template deserves a different question. Ask whether the entry is needed and whether the software can carry the information forward accurately.

If you record time, separate active work from waiting. A customer taking two days to agree dates is different from an adviser spending twenty minutes rebuilding a document. Use actual observations and label estimates clearly. Don't convert a small sample into a universal saving for every booking.

Count corrections as well as repeated entries. A shorter process that creates more checking later may simply move the workload to another person. Ask the operations team what arrives after the sale and where they have to ask for clarification. Their answer belongs in the same review as the salesperson's experience.

Test the connection between quote and booking

Quick Quote supports proposals built using supplier material or Travelify search results, with agent review before sending. Its published checkout route applies when a quote contains one holiday saved from the agency's Travelify website. Other quotes prompt a request to book and are handled through the usual booking process. Make that distinction part of the workflow you test.

Ask the provider to demonstrate the specific source and type of quote your agency uses. Follow a revision through to the next action and note what still needs manual entry. A connection that helps one route may not cover another. Write the agreed scope beside the task you expect it to improve.

Travelify brings enquiries, supplier connections and bookings into one interface, alongside the agency's accounting process. During a demonstration, have a second colleague find the next action on the booking. Check what they can see without asking the original adviser to explain it again. Include any remaining finance handover in your process record.

Change one task and watch where the work goes

Choose a repeated task with a clear owner and an observable result. You might aim to remove a duplicate date entry while preserving the existing accuracy check. Record the starting process, then follow comparable work after the change. Include the time needed for setup and training when deciding whether it is useful.

Bring the worksheet to your next team meeting and ask each colleague to mark one handover they find difficult. Pick a single change to try, name the person responsible and agree when you'll review the result. The next conversation can then start with evidence from your own work.